For most of us it has been all too clear that one of the principal tools that the GOP has been using to stir up opposition against Obama is making an appeal to racism. Since most of those objecting to it have been activists, the GOP has gotten away with using ad hominem arguments in opposition. That has changed.
Former president Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that he believes race is at the core of much of the opposition to President Obama.
"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African American," Carter told NBC in an interview. "I live in the South, and I've seen the South come a long way, and I've seen the rest of the country that shared the South's attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African Americans"
Continued Carter: "And that racism inclination still exists. . . . It's an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply." …
Inserted from <Washington Post>
They may question his effectiveness as a president, but nobody can assail his reputation fore integrity. Here’s video of what he said.
Mr. Peanut (affectionately said) did not stop with racism. He also offered a scathing report on his observations as an election monitor in Afghanistan.
Former President Jimmy Carter, who has monitored elections in countries across the globe, called the elections in Afghanistan "despicable" Tuesday.
"Hamid Karzai has stolen the election," the former president told a small group of donors to his Carter Center in Atlanta. "Now the question is whether he gets away with it."
Official counts have given the Afghan president, who was installed after a U.S.-lead coalition toppled the Taliban in 2001, 54 percent of the vote. His main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, alleged fraud and a recount is currently underway.
Carter said that the election reminded him of past fraudulent elections he had seen, where only 20 percent of people in a particular precinct were recorded as voting -- with 100 percent of the vote in that precinct going to a particular candidate.
"This is something which President Obama is struggling with," Carter said.
Carter's comments came as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, said the U.S. military would need to send more troops to Afghanistan to battle the Taliban and Al-Qaeda…
Inserted from <Common Dreams>
I’m sure that this is the last thing Obama wanted Carter to state publicly, but our support of such a man only strengthens the Afghan people’s growing belief that the US is just another foreign invader like the USSR. I think we need to start talking to the opposition there. The Taliban is a loose confederation of separate groups that range from relatively moderate to crazy as Cheney. Some of the more moderate groups actually oppose Al Qaeda, and we need to be working with those groups and not limiting ourselves to military support for puppet government left by the Bush/GOP regime.
11 comments:
I love Pres. Carter.. He is such a great man and I think was very under valued and under rated as a president. He was so maligned by Reagan and the GOPers and the media..
He has done so many great things since he has left office. He is spot on with his analysis of the race issue and I am so glad he is stepping up to say something.. No one has said it is ALL about race.. but there are some elements of racism involved and they (talk radio and fox noise) are pushing it and feeding it and it will only create more hate and foster violence.
Yes, I was discussing this with Trophy Wife last night. Carter has given voice to our unspoken fears of the unspeakable in this gun culture of ours.
Jimmy Carter has always been a "nice guy", albeit a very ineffective leader, and should continue to do humanitarian things, as that is what he is capable of doing.
His comments on racism being the basis for hatred of Obama is so far off it nearly misses planet Earth for goodness sake. Who do you think elected Barrack Obama? It was the white vote that pushed him over, because the black vote would never have the numbers to do it. The reason people are upset, to the total confusion of liberals, artsy fartsies, and the media types, is the continued direction of more government. It represents "same old" not the change that was promised. Jimmy Carter is a true believer in more government apparently, because he fails to see the real basis for not believing in President Obama.
I don't see Carter missing the boat on his racist claims at all. In fact, I think he NAILED it!
We have never before seen a President portrayed as a monkey, Hitler, a communist, or a devil after having served only 8 months in office! One would think he had completely destroyed our political and economic structure if one were to believe all the rants about him that we have seen. It is Cool who has missed the point, and badly, not Carter, Obama, liberals, or anybody else. Teabaggers are fools to think that an absence of government will cure all evils. With huge corporations stealing us blind, manipulating the market, exporting jobs overseas, rolling back wages and benefits here, and funneling wealth up to the very top reaches of the economic ladder where further wealth is unneeded and undeserved, the ONLY recourse the majority of people have is for the government to be strong and regulate those criminals of concentrated capital who are screwing every average citizen.
People like Cool and the teabaggers are foolishly aiding and abetting those who wish to slit our throats and take our wallets and are NOT helping advance the cause of freedom!
Jimmy Carter was not the best political administrator, to be sure. But his wisdom and analyses of world and domestic events are sound. He was right on Israelis exploiting Palestinians; he was right on Afghanistan; and he is right again on this charge of underlying racism.
Hi Annette. While not the goal of all Republicans, I think that violence is the goal of the extremists that you mentioned.
Welcome Cool, despite your blank ID. I certainly agree that it was white people who elected Obama, as there were not enough black people to do it on their own. But those are not the white people about whom Carter was speaking. I'm white and I support Obama. The racists are the small minority that constitute the followers of such loons (apologies to Canadian friends)as Beck, Limbaugh, etc., and who also constitute the bulk of the GOP base.
Hi Jack. Great comment. You nailed it!
OOPS! Sorry I missed you Vig!! Very well said.
Spot on, Tom!
Carter's integrity remains intact.
Agree with HILLBLOGGER.
Carter is a man of integrity...If only Reagan's people hadn't sandbagged him at the very point where he actually (Carter) got the Iran hostages out. Reagan took the credit and won the election.
As usual the opponents of any kind of restriction on the illegal immigration, is playing the race card? It's a forgone conclusion that the benefactors of promoting a mass invasion of our shores, such as religious groups, unions, ACLU, radical ethnic caucuses and even our own US Chamber of Commerce, will mouth epithets that doesn't benefit big business, that doesn't advocate a continuous force of illegal cheap labor. Now they are really livid because their objection to E-Verify was thrown out of court. Now all federal contractors and subcontractors must adhere to the law. They have conspired against the American worker and people for too long, and now we are fighting back ourselves against corrupt politicians and other elected officials nationwide,
Rep.Joe Wilson was actually telling the truth at the time, and now Democrats have placed restrictive language in the Health care reform package as a reluctant afterthought by public demand. This was nothing to do about bigotry or racism, but the American workers and family survival. None of the business community who hire them wants their labor, but forces the taxpayer to carry the financial load. The US labor force should not have to be in competition, with people from other countries. Businesses have already offshore American jobs, because it's cheaper? So every illegal foreign national and family member should be exempt from government run health care, jobs and all the billions of taxpayer dollars secretly allocated to pay for their support. Twenty million plus illegal people compromised themselves, when they entered a sovereign nation without permission. Find out the truth at NUMBERSUSA, JUDICIAL WATCH and contact your politician at 202-224-3121 demanding no weakening conditions to E-Verify or any other law authored by Congress.
I do believe the WH is following the right course in not entering the racial question but should allow the senior statesmen of the party to engage in the race debate that is always an underpinning of everything we think about in this polarized nation.
Carter may have been hamstrung in his own administration by the emerging radical right but it did not decrease his intellectual prowess one bit. He was far and away the deepest thinker of any administration in the last half of the 20th century.
Thanks, HB. :-)
Ivan, Reagan won the election, and the hostages were released as Reagan was being innagurated. Apparantly, the GOP made an under the table deal with Iran to delay the release until then.
Ah Britannicus... another right winger with a blank profile and innacutare data. Very few on the left had a problem with e-verify. We only wanted it delayed until the bugs in the system were fixed. And there were no last minute changes in the bill. That is a GOP lie. What Wilson wants is for critically ill and injured people to get no emergency room care unless they can prove their citizenship. How would you suggest it, a mark on the hand or forehead? This happened because Joe Wilson is a liar.
Mark, that is an excellent point, and I agree.
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