April 17, 2008

Jimmy Carter Is Like The Energizer Bunny’s Evil Twin

He just keeps going and going and going

He started out all right. Jimmy Carter always does. Whether as president or ex-. Remember when he was the country’s bright, shining hope after Richard Nixon’s reign of darkness and then the vague non-administration of Gerald Ford, the Great Pardoner?

But before long Americans were looking back to the nondescript Mr. Ford as if he’d been George Washington. Nothing made the bumbling, likeable Gerald Ford look better than having been succeeded by a walking, ever-talking disaster.

The Carter administration was that bad: stagflation, gas lines, appeasement, never-ending sanctimony . . . . You name a colossal mistake and Jimmy Carter probably made it a policy.

As a former president, Mr. Carter started off well, too, wielding hammer and nails with Habitat for Humanity. Good for him. When he was building houses, the worst he risked was a bruised thumb. But then he decided he was God’s gift to American foreign policy, and began making trouble for every chief executive and commander-in-chief who came after him.

That is so well put…

Was there any part of the globe, from the Caribbean to the Middle East, from Haiti to North Korea to the Balkans, where Jimmy Carter didn’t cozy up to dictators? Wherever he goes, tyrants smile. The long, dispiriting trail of former President Carter’s overseas travels has been marked by one diplomatic disaster after another.

As for Jimmy Carter’s role as a monitor of free-and-fair elections, the low point must have come when he gave his blessings to Robert Mugabe’s takeover in Zimbabwe. Naturally, utter disaster followed. It hasn’t ceased there since.

And now Mr. Carter is at it again, preparing to pay court to just about the bloodiest terrorist leader in the Middle East, which is no mean distinction in those violent parts. He’s about to lend his ex-presidential presence to terrorist chieftain Khaled Meshaal, who as head of Hamas hides out in Damascus under Syrian aegis. (Let others die for the cause in Gaza; its leader is quite comfortable, thank you.)

You go, Greenberg!

The only proper greeting for someone like Mr. Meshaal would be, “You’re under arrest.” Instead, we can expect to see Jimmy Carter pay his usual homage to those who champion violence. He calls this peace-seeking. Which raises the question, if this is promoting peace, what would encouraging violence be?

Jimmy Carter was elected President of the United States, and I have since had to rethink my previous belief that people who are elected President are elected because of a combination of common sense, patriotism, the ability to reason, an abundance of perspicacity and intelligence. Back in those days, I was a Democrat with some pretty liberal leanings. I had voted for Carter, in fact, I had never cast a vote for a Republican.

Beebeep! But then along came Jones Jimmuh… and my very first Republican vote was cast for Ronald Reagan, and I haven’t voted Democrat since for any post above San Francisco mayor or city supervisor, and that only because nobody but Democrats ever seem to make it onto the ballot out there. The key is to select the lesser of several wingnuts.

I really, really do try to keep the blockquotes to a minimum and leave most of the reading of a linked article or column to the reader, but this one is just so, so…

The Carter Center in Atlanta, a kind of think tank for failed thought, keeps producing bad ideas. This visit to the Mideast is only the latest. You have to wonder if Jimmy Carter will have his picture taken with a terrorist leader who by now has been responsible for the murders of scores of innocent men, women and children — about 250 at last bloody count.

Of course he will, he’s Jimmy Carter!

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7 Responses to “Jimmy Carter Is Like The Energizer Bunny’s Evil Twin”

  1. Gayle Says:

    “The energizer Bunny’s evil twin”! LOL! Well, it’s the truth. I wish he’d just go home to his peanut farm and leave world issues alone! He’s no longer president but he doesn’t seem to understand that and how he ever got to be president in the first place is one of the mysteries of life that I’ll never understand. Yes, I know the people voted him in but the question is “why?”

  2. Seth Says:

    Gayle –

    He gave the impression, to those of us who were still Democrats back then, of being a hell of a lot smarter and more patriotic than he proved to be once he was elected. :-(

    At the same time, Ford did not strike anyone as being the sharpest knife in the drawer, and the media (remember, there was no Internet –blogs, etc — or other alternative media back then to accurately convey the conservative point of view) had a field day portraying him as the inept, profoundly clumsy protege and pardoner of the “evil, sinister” Mr. Nixon.

    In short, unlike today, the MSM enjoyed a one way street where their political propagandizing was concerned. Lefty politicians resent this as much as the liberal media does, which is why, among other things, they are trying to “level the playing field” on AM talk radio.

    Luckily, Carter’s reign of stupidity was cut short after a single term as Americans had the opportunity to learn, during those four years, what a big mistake it had been to elect him to begin with.

    In many ways, the Carter Administration was good for me: It showed me what the liberalism and dubious patriotism of the Democrats looked like when left unchecked and transformed me, rather abruptly, into a Republican.

  3. Always On Watch Says:

    On today’s radio show, we spent a lot of time criticizing Jimmy Peanut. Our guest was Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs. She had absolutely nothing to say about him, of course.

    Anyway, you might be interested in this article about Peanut Carter. Excerpt:

    A U.S. lawmaker introduced legislation Wednesday to strip former President Jimmy Carter’s Georgia-based scholarly institution of taxpayer support because of Carter’s plans to meet with the top leaders of the Palestinian terror group Hamas.

    And a second lawmaker presented a non-binding resolution that would urge former presidents from “freelance diplomacy” in direct response to Carter’s visit….

    More at the above link.

    As I said on the air today, Peanut Jimmy should have to stay over there with the terrorists he so loves to consort with.

    Oh, and I, too, voted for Carter in 1976 and pulled the lever with gusto for Reagan in 1980. I’ve never again voted for a Dem since my stupidity of 1976. I got the message as to what the Dems are; pity that most of America hasn’t.

  4. Shoprat Says:

    If he wants to be a world hero we could set him up. A soccer game between North Korea and Zimbabwe (two countries that couldn’t get any worse) and the losing country gets him for a president. That would keep him busy until God calls him home.

  5. Seth Says:

    AOW –

    I completely agree that the government should cut off all taxpayer funding for Carter’s Institute of Idiocy. He is sabotaging U.S. foreign policy, totally against the will not only of the administration, but against the will of Congress — including a great many of his fellow Democrats.

    The idea that ex-Presidents should be prohibited from interfering in the policies of those administrations that follow is a good one.

    I have a feeling, though, that even if that policy were in place, Carter would do exactly as he’s doing, leaving the government with the awkward duty of having to revoke the passport of a former President.

    Bush, Congress and the State Department need to make a collective statement that Carter in no way speaks for nor represents the U.S. Government, any aspect of U.S. foreign policy or the will or opinion of the American people, and that nothing he says, no agreements he makes nor anything else he does will have any effect on any future decisions or policy changes made by the U.S. Government.

    Shoprat –

    I don’t think either country would want him on their side. They only like him because they think he’s on our side, on the principle of “Better them than us”. :-)

    I think it will be more likely that G-d will send him home rather than call him home.

  6. atheling Says:

    I like Sue Myrick’s (R-NC) proposal that we revoke Jimmuh’s passport.

    But I doubt that Condi has the guts to do it.

  7. Seth Says:

    Atheling –

    As I said in an above comment, it would be an awkward situation for “the powers that be”.

    I would have no problem with Jimmuh having his passport yanked forever, in fact I’d be right there in the cheering section when it happened, but: Such a thing would set a precedent, and those politicians and diplomatic mucky-mucks who are in the position to do such a thing would be worried that once such a precedent was set, they could be subject to the same thing, for other and possibly reasons of pure politics, should opposing political forces hold a majority in government.

    As usual, politics and personal career ambitions and personal well-being will trump the implementation of practical measures.

    A politician, whether Democrat or Republican, is still a politician. :-(