[StevePerkins]

Well, he DID face a 1980 primary challenge from Edward Kennedy, and barely won his own party's re-nomination with 51.1% of the popular vote as a sitting President. He was pretty well eviscerated by both the left and right a decade or two back, when he published a book labeling Israel's policy toward Palestine as "apartheid".

Speaking as a left-leaning resident of Georgia, it seems obvious to me that Jimmy Carter is not all that well-loved by his own political party:

* Part of this is because he made the mistake of bringing his own people when he went to Washington, instead of populating his administration with more federal insiders.

* Part of it is because he lost, and no one likes a loser (I'd say that Carter's place in the Democratic Part is similar to that of George H.W. Bush, without the legacy of an heir going on to serve two terms).

* And I believe that part of it is because, on the heels of the Civil Rights Act and the re-alignment it ushered in, Democrats were never all that genuinely enthusiastic about having a white Southern leader. It took 12 years of futility for them to embrace Bill Clinton (see point above, about how people more fondly remember Presidents who win re-election). And even Clinton's legacy has picked up a lot of tarnish over the past decade.