When a first-term Democratic president struggles, people talk about Jimmy Carter

President Biden, like any second-year occupant in the Oval Office, does not much like the phrase "one-term president."

As a Democrat, he presumably does not enjoy the comparison some are making between him and Jimmy Carter, the only Democratic president since the 1800s that the voters sent packing after just four years.

But that comparison is, as they say, out there. And as the White House ponders staff moves in the months ahead, it knows it needs to address the dread "Carter model."

To be fair, Carter's ill-fated presidency occurred during extraordinarily difficult times, beset by numerous global crises and dogged by economic conditions he largely inherited from his predecessor. Biden's defenders might say the same.

We should also note that Carter, at 97, is the longest living president ever and has long since rewritten his legacy with decades of humanitarian work at home and abroad. Overwhelming majorities of Americans approve of his performance since leaving office and polls show the public's assessment of his years in office has risen as well. Presidential scholars generally rate him in the middle ranks of U.S. presidents.

Yet Carter remains a punchline in American politics, scarcely acknowledged at his party's national political