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Jimmy Carter: Without Class

by

Just about two months ago, I wondered whether former president Jimmy Carter resented Republicans more than he loves America. It doesn’t seem that this onetime peanut farmer has gotten over his 1980 landslide loss to the Gipper. In a column today, George Will writes that the Georgia Democrat who, in his concession speech that year, noted that, as president, he never “lied to the American people,” has lately been telling whoppers about that conservative columnist. Will well describes Mr. Carter’s lack of class:

The role of ex-president requires a grace and restraint notably absent from Carter. See, for example, his criticism of the United States when he is abroad, as in England two weeks ago. Having made such disappointing history as president, Carter as ex-president should at least refrain from disseminating a historical falsehood.

(Hat tip: Polipundit and Powerline.)

Comments

  1. It used to bother me that Jimmy Carter plays politics on foreign soil, occasions when ex-presidents, of all people, should watch what they say. But Carter has meddled so much in foreign affairs that he’s a joke with little credibility. (Even Bill Clinton didn’t seem disturbed when Carter was left out of the delegation to Pope John Paul II’s funeral.)

    Hats off to Bernard Goldberg for giving Carter a high ranking in his excellent best-seller on 100 people who are screwing up America.

  2. I never thought in a million years that Clinton would acquit himself more favorably as an ex-president, but it is entirely so. Although give ol’ Willie a few more years to stew in his impeachment bitterness …

  4. He really *hasn’t* gotten over it. And that is so sad! Gerald Ford got over it; Geo. Bush Sr. got over it. It’s got to be a tough experience, but really! I hate to quote him, but, President Clinton said, in his second inaugural: “no one ever did a great thing by being small.”

  5. Wow, I’m glad that George took a full ten months to get this off his chest. Correspondence in 1992, a statement by Carter last OCTOBER and a jaunty response ten months later. If that doesn’t scream alternate adgenda, I don’t know what does. But if it serves your unthinking bashing mentality, so be it. Enjoy, and his brother Billy is such an oaf and his mother, well she made Nancy Reagan look down right Mother Theresa-ish.

  6. I believe this was the more immediate issue, Chandler:

    Recently in a Plains, Ga., church, he illustrated his aptitude for the virtue of forgiveness by saying that once, after columnist Will read a report of his telling his briefing book tale, Will wrote to him “asking for forgiveness.”

  7. NDXXX,
    Thanks for the clarification and please provide the link to the story that quotes Carter as such. Otherwise, forgiveness is a thing that is given irrespective of the recipient’s opinion. I can forgive glisteny;whether or not she finds it repellent is another thing totally. And quite beyond my controll.

    =

  8. Malcontent, I don’t entirely agree with you about how Bill Clinton has acquitted himself since he left the White House, but I do share your surprise that in general he has carried himself quite well.

    He just shouldn’t have attacked President Bush in his speech to the British Labor Party.

  9. The worse fool is the one who doesn’t know he’s a fool. Carter continues to embarass himself (and occasionally this country) by his frequently irrelevant and erroneous pontifications.

  10. Given the Democrats’ record of success in the past few decades, GPW, I just didn’t have much to compare Carter against. It goes without saying that recent Republican ex-presidents (including that rat Nixon) have performed pretty nobly and have largely refrained from partisanship. Clinton has taken digs a couple of times but mostly takes a much higher road than Carter, who seems to be content living in the mud.

  11. Thanks for the clarification and please provide the link to the story that quotes Carter as such.

    GPW’s post contains a link to the George Will column from which the quotation comes.

  12. GPW’s post contains a link to the George Will column from which the quotation comes.

    Comment by Butch
    ================
    But like so many quotes, when you follow up there is no article. Who said that Carter said this? A George Will statement about someone’s recollection of something Carter is supposed to have said some recent Sunday is pretty lame stuff to get indignant about.
    =

  13. Maybe George Will is indignant because he knows what he’s talking about. There’s Carter’s statement on NPR last October accusing Will of having stolen his briefing book; there’s the odd 1993 letter; and there are Carter’s recent public comments in a church, which seem to have prompted the column. If you want to know which church, you can write George Will; I’m sure he’ll provide details.

    If a former president (or anyone else, for that matter) lied about me, I wouldn’t be happy either. It’s hardly lame for Will to call a liar a liar, especially one who’s lied about him repeatedly in public.

  15. On topic: At best, Carter is an embarassment to the United States. At worst, he’s a danger. Is it possible to try a former President for treason?

    Off-topic:
    WeHoBoi, Part I: “Thanks for the clarification and please provide the link to the story that quotes Carter as such. Otherwise, forgiveness is a thing that is given irrespective of the recipient’s opinion. I can forgive glisteny;whether or not she finds it repellent is another thing totally. And quite beyond my controll.”

    Gee, I’m touched by your charity, Boi. I mean, what would I have done had you not graciously granted me your forgiveness??? BTW, spelling is something else that’s apparently quite beyond your “controll”.

    WeHoBoi, Part II: “You fixed the bottom posting thing, but could you left margin things. Center justification makes this look like a high school yearbook.”

    LOL! Have you seen your own website lately? Pot, meet kettle.

  17. How sad that Carter didn’t retire in quiet dignity after the American people spoke so clearly to him 25 years ago. How sad that he is still unable to be moderate in the public expression of his views, as have been all other former presidents.