A lot of Northern Democrats were never very warm towards Carter because he was a Southern white male, and they are programmed to believe that Southern white males are racists (even when they have their Klan robes hidden away). They never showed the kind of idolatry towards Carter that they have towards Obama. Then John Anderson came along and they could vote for someone other than Carter who wasn’t Reagan. That won’t be the case with Obama.
I had no idea how much animus there was towards Carter among the NE Dem elites until I read Arthur Schlesinger, Jr’s Diaries. Apparently because Carter was a Southern white man who kept his own counsel and didn’t grovel endlessly before the Harvard-NYC liberal set. Clintoon, on the other hand, is beloved by AS Jr almost from the first time they cross paths. Why, he almost a Kennedy. I am no Carter fan but it seems that for the NE elites only openly support those who are morally or ethically challenged candidates. Clinton is a sexual predator and likely rapist who was disbarred for his lying to federal investigators. BHO is a man with so much hidden, drug use, social security numbers fraud, homosexual allegations and the violent deaths of putative homosexual partners, a mysterious ascent through academia and a more mysterious ascent through politics that he may be the most damaged and dysfunctional man to ever serve as President. This is what a large part of the national political and intellectual establishment have ome to. People who embrace the corrupt and floridly evil in the name of sophistication.