Powerline - Jimmy Carter Revisited
We've been pretty tough on Jimmy Carter, but with hindsight, probably not tough enough. If you search our site for "Jimmy Carter," you'll find all of his disgraceful acts that we've commented upon. His history is a sorry one: he started out as a Midshipman and served honorably in the Navy. But at some point, his leftist politics took hold and he started aligning himself with America's enemies. The turning point, I think, came here:
Soviet diplomatic accounts and material from the archives show that in January 1984 former President Jimmy Carter dropped by Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin's residence for a private meeting.
Carter expressed his concern about and opposition to Reagan's defense buildup. He boldly told Dobrynin that Moscow would be better off with someone else in the White House. If Reagan won, he warned, "There would not be a single agreement on arms control, especially on nuclear arms, as long as Reagan remained in power."
Using the Russians to influence the presidential election was nothing new for Carter.
Schweizer reveals Russian documents that show that in the waning days of the 1980 campaign, the Carter White House dispatched businessman Armand Hammer to the Soviet Embassy.
Hammer was a longtime Soviet-phile, and he explained to the Soviet ambassador that Carter was "clearly alarmed" at the prospect of losing to Reagan.
Hammer pleaded with the Russians for help. He asked if the Kremlin could expand Jewish emigration to bolster Carter's standing in the polls.
"Carter won't forget that service if he is elected," Hammer told Dobrynin.
Conspiring with our chief enemy to try to influence an American Presidential election: We could have called that treason, but we didn't. You can form your own opinion.
In more recent years, Carter has never met an anti-American dictator he didn't like. Whether it was Castro, Ortega, Arafat...whoever. And he used the occasion of being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to attack the current American government...just as those who awarded the prize had expected. No class.
And most recently, of course, he invited the execrable Michael Moore to sit with him in the former President's box at the Democratic National Convention.
Jimmy Carter is a disgrace. We've said so before, and we'll continue saying so as long as he merits the criticism. If you want to learn more, read Steven Hayward's book The Real Jimmy Carter.
jc.jpg
Here is a brief excerpt from an interview with Mr. Hayward about the wretched former President:
Carter panted after the Nobe Peace Prize for years, seeing it as a means of gaining official redemption for his humiliation at the hands of the voters in 1980. He lobbied quietly behind the scenes for years to get the prize, and finally met with success in 2002 when the left-wing Nobel Prize committee saw an opportunity to use Carter as a way of attacking President Bush and embarrassing the United States. The head of the Nobel Prize committee openly admitted that this was their motivation in selecting Carter. Any other ex-president would have refused to be a part of such an obvious anti-American intrigue, but not Jimmy. Here we should observe that Carter conceives himself much more as a citizen of the world than as a citizen of the United States, and I think it is highly revealing that Carter is most popular overseas in those nations that hate America the most, such as Syria, where they lined the streets cheering for Carter when he visited.
Yes, I think we've been much too kind to Mr. Carter.
DEACON adds: Some folks think that Rocket Man owes President Carter an apology for saying that "Jimmy Carter isn't just misguided or ill-informed. He's on the other side." In my view, Carter owes the American people an apology for the actions cited above, and others. Carter, it seems to me, subscribes to the view that America is, and generally has been, more a force for evil in the world than a force for good. Accordingly, he believes, I think, that the world would be a better place if the U.S. were weaker militarily and less influential. Carter also holds our enemies in higher regard than he holds our friends, particularly in the Middle East. And, as Rocket Man notes above, he is particularly fond of anti-American dictators and, at times, has actively assisted such dictators to our detriment. I'm not sure whether all of this places Carter "on the other side," but it's difficult to understand in what sense he's on our side.
Those who admire Carter will say that he's really a patriot who is trying to set the country he loves back on its proper course. Perhaps. But to me, this means that Carter may rejoin our side if we reinvent ourselves by becoming as ineffectual as we were during the harrowing years of his administration. It does not mean that he's on our side now.
Posted by Hindrocket
powerlineblog.com |
