Former President Jimmy Carter, who said his role as a former president “is probably superior to that of other presidents” when in fact he is really more like Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto – Phil lobbied to be in the Hall of Fame and Jimmy lobbied for the Nobel Peace Prize.  Both got what they wanted, but both felt the honor was long overdue.

In case you didn’t notice in the above photo he is the one standing off to the side of the other living presidents.

The former peanut farmer is making the talk show rounds promoting his new book, White House Diary which was released today.

Brian Williams of NBC asked Carter, 85, about the photo and whether there was a possible metaphor in it.  “What is it – about you, you think, the way you’ve . . . decided to conduct your life and post-presidency?  Do you feel listened to? Do you feel – that you receive your due? Or do you feel, in fact, apart from the crowd?

Carter humbly said, “No. I – feel that my role as a former president is probably superior to that of other presidents.  Primarily because of the activism and the – injection of working at the Carter Center and in international affairs, and to some degree, domestic affairs, on energy conservation, on – environment, and things of that kind.  We’re right in the midst of the – of the constant daily debate.”

He even thought he was a Tea Party president when asked about the movement.  He told the Associated Press that he rode a wave of voter discontent to the presidency on the heels of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal that felled President Richard Nixon, much like tea party conservatives are now earning support by voicing anger at the nation’s economic woes.

“I was a candidate that was in some ways like the tea party candidate,” Carter said.  “I was a complete outsider.  I capitalized legitimately on the dissatisfaction that was permeating our society.”

But he predicted that the Tea Party will fade.  He said it would be a factor in November, but will be absorbed by the Republican Party and be much less of a factor in 2012 and in future years.”

He said that if he didn’t have the hostage crisis and Ted Kennedy “sapping away a portion of the Democratic wing, I would have been re-elected.”  He lost to President Ronald Reagan.

Carter modestly says his center goes where the United States government does not, “to fill the vacuums in the world.”

When appearing on ABC’s The View he was asked why he writes so many books – this is his 27th – he said because it, may be my last chance to offer an assessment of my time in the White House,”  and added “to make money.”

Let’s hope President Obama, who has yet to live up to his Nobel Peace Prize, is less like Phil Rizzuto and more like Jimmy Carter, and also turns out to be a humble one-term past president.