STEVE INSKEEP, host: Next, let's take a moment to recall a man who played a role in America's Democratic story. Hamilton Jordan was a close aide to a former Georgia governor named Jimmy Carter. Jordan died yesterday evening after enduring multiple bouts of cancer. When he was only 31 years old, he was the architect of Jimmy Carter's successful presidential campaign. Carter was little known until he won the Iowa caucuses in 1976.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: Jordan went on to become Carter's chief of staff. But he did not have the same political luck as the man that he helped to guide to the White House. In 1986, Jordan ran for office, a seat in the U.S. Senate, and lost. At about the same time, he was diagnosed for the first time with cancer.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: In between fighting cancer over the last 22 years, he became involved in third-party politics. He decided to co-chair Ross Perot's first presidential bid in 1992. And he spoke MORNING EDITION that year about the campaign's shortcomings.</s>Mr. HAMILTON JORDAN: Most presidential campaign evolve over - and the one that I was involved in, in the Carter campaign, we ran for four years in advance. And you make your mistakes when nobody is watching. And you learn all of these nuances of a national campaign. And Ross Perot parachuted down center stage.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: In the years before he died, at the age of 63, Jordan flirted with third-party politics for years. He even launched Unity '08, with plans of putting an alternative candidate on this year's ballot. But shortly before his death, he seemed to have changed his mind, saying he was a fan of Barack Obama.
Hamilton Jordan helped Jimmy Carter win the presidency, then served as his White House chief of staff. Later, he dabbled in third-party politics, working on Ross Perot's presidential campaign. And for the last 20 years of his life, he battled cancer. He lost that fight Tuesday at 63.