A lot of politicians “do good things” just for a photo op. Stuff gets orchestrated to help them seem like awesome people.
But, as you explain, the rabbit incident was hardly an orchestrated photo op.
But, what if Jimmy Carter was an actual decent human being. Forget about photographers, and press pool and all of that. Jimmy The Decent Guy is out in a canoe. Some mean dogs chase a cute rabbit. The terrified rabbit swims into the river seeking safety. Jimmy The Decent Guy paddles to the rabbit and pulls it into his canoe. saving it’s life.
But, what President Carter really did was splash water on it to make it go away. He was never a decent guy at all. He’s an anti-Semite, a control freak and a fool.
I knew some dyed in the wool Democrats who met him at donor events who also said that in person he was an unpleasant control freak.