Jimmy Carter Strikes Again

Pals: Jimmy Carter and Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez


I was sure I had caught a glimpse of Jimmy Carter wandering across the stage in Denver this week. The man who will never go away must have had a few days off from his duties in Gaza promoting the Palestinian cause and decided to haunt the convention for a day or two.

Not content to crash Obama..er, I mean the Clinton's party, Carter said in an interview with USA on Thursday in Denver that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been “milking every possible drop of advantage from his time served as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.” Throughout his campaign for president, McCain has been “able to weave in his experience in a Vietnam prison camp, no matter what the question was,” Carter added. He also took the opportunity to blast Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) for his decision to speak in favor of McCain at the Republican convention next week.

How classy from a former president. (Carter, a graduate of Annapolis, served in the Navy.) But that is exactly what we have come to expect from the hapless Carter, from the criticism of his successor, Ronald Reagan, to the blistering criticism of George W Bush, Carter has never been able to conduct himself in a manner befitting a former president. Had he been a better Commander-in-Chief, he might get away with it. However, Carter's time in the White House was a disaster. (Remember the Iranian hostage crisis?) Even Democrats can only describe it as a "failed presidency" as they then praise his post-president years (which, in my view, constitute a failed post-presidency).

In recent years, Carter has busied himself with furthering the Palestinian cause and condemning Israel to the point that many Israelis and American Jews have concluded that he is an anti-Semite (I have not).

To most Americans, at least those old enough to remember the bleak years of his presidency, Carter is a discredited bumbler, who has failed to this day to come to grips with his own shortcomings. Now he denigrates McCain's experience as a POW in a manner similar to that of retired General Wesley Clark not long ago.

So now, with the Republicans about to start their own convention (if Hurricane Gustav doesn't interfere), Carter has slipped back out of sight, possibly back to that "peace farm" of his in Georgia (which is lavishly funded by Arab sheiks and governments) to think of new schemes to undermine Israel and his own government. But fear ye not. He'll be back soon with some outrageous comment or another book telling us how wise he is.

If only we would listen and take him seriously. Actually, the scary thing is....some people do.