Superior at what? Demonizing Israel? Coddling terrorists?

(MSNBC) — In an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams, former President Jimmy Carter, who has been a target of the right through the years, lauded his own post-presidency, telling Williams, “I feel that my role as a former president is probably superior to that of other presidents.”

Carter, who is out with a new book defending his legacy, backed up his assertion by saying the Carter Center goes where the United States government does not, “to fill the vacuums in the world.”

“The Carter Center has decided, under my leadership, to fill the vacuums in the world,” Carter said. “When the United States won’t deal with troubled areas, we go there and we meet their leaders who can bring an end to a conflict, or an end to human rights abuse, and so forth. So I feel that [I] have an advantage over many other former presidents in being involved in daily affairs that have shaped the policies of our nation and the world.”

Before Barack Obama was sworn in as president in January 2009, the living presidents (and then-President-elect Obama), gathered for an Oval Office photo shoot — with Carter notably standing off to the side, apart from the group.

Asked if he feels he is treated differently because of the active role he has taken as a former president, like going to North Korea, for example, Carter said, “Yeah, sometimes. And I can understand that. … I can see how it makes sometimes the incumbent president uncomfortable to have me doing things of this kind, when political niceties don’t let– him or his administration do them.”