In the Oval Office, Jimmy Carter was an embarrassment. After being suckered by Fidel Castro into importing Cuba’s criminals and mentally ill during the Mariel boatlift, Carter ended up doing fireside chats on TV in a cardigan, puzzling over a “national malaise.”
Now he just can’t seem to stop babbling. Last month he managed to overstate George Bush’s awfulness to the point of having to apologize for his “careless” remarks.
Now, when it seems impossible to make matters worse in the Palestinian mess, Carter strikes again by denouncing as “criminal” U.S. failure to work with the criminals in Hamas to help them destroy the more conciliatory Fatah faction.
Our choices in Palestine are terrible, but Carter’s self-righteous, simple-minded bumbling can only complicate them further. Former Presidents, particularly failed ones, are better seen and not heard.
I often enjoy reading your blog, but I question this entry. Whatever you might think about Carter as a president, he's done a lot of good things and probably knows more about the Middle East and its problems than most of us. We push democracy on other countries, but when we don't like its outcome, well, then it is okay to disregard and undermine the elected government?
ReplyDeleteI don't pretend to know the answers, but I think Carter has a valid, informed opinion and should be expressing it if he feels strongly about it. Here's another viewpoint on the situation that validates his:
http://tonykaron.com/2007/06/14/gaza-another-mess-made-in-washington/
When I think of an "embarassment in the oval office, its not Carter who comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteLet's consider someoof Carter's work:
1. Carter's energy poicy, the moral equivalent of war, was smart then, smart now. Too bad others found it "embarassing," or whatever.
2. The Egypt-Isreali peace deal. Seen anything that good happen in the Middle East lately?
3. Taking the U.S. out of the 1980 Moscow Olympics to protest the Soviet invasion of Afganistan. That had to hurt them financially and otherwise. With all the money on the line, can you imagine an American President doing that today?
4. The energy conservation efforts he inacted, e.g., the 55 mph speed limit led to an actual DECREASE in fuel consumption, not a decrease in the rate of increase.
5.Thousands of square miles of National Seashore and Lakeshore made accessible to the public.
6. No, he didn't launch a full scale invasion of Iran and some thought he was weak for it. But all the hostages were released and we didn't get into the kind of mess we're in now.
Sorry, Robert, maybe Cuomo would have been better. But we could have done much worse.