Jimmy Carter on Jimmy Carter and Iran

Today, former president Jimmy Carter spoke out again and put his foot in his mouth not once, but two times. First, Carter tried to "clarify" his recent remarks about Obama opponents being "racists".

Carter said in an interview today with CNN that he was only talking about a "fringe element" when he referred to Obama's opponents in an NBC interview two weeks ago.

"I said those that had a personal attack on President Obama as a person, that was tinged with racism," Carter told CNN. "But I recognize that people that disagree with him on health care or the environment, that the vast majority of those are not tinged with racism."

He then went on to add: "I meant exactly what I said. What I actually said, if you look at the transcript, is just what I just repeated to you."

OK, let's do that. Here is what Carter told NBC (as subsequently reported by CNN):



"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 is African-American."

So which is it, Mr Carter, "overwhelming portion" or "fringe element"? It appears Carter did not make any distinction between opposition to Obama policies and opposition to Obama the person.

But, what the heck; let's move on. That's because Carter also said that the US and other nations should stop threatening Iran.

He also told CNN that the best thing the international community could do was to engage Iran and “stop making these idle threats.”

Like those idle threats you made against Iran when they were holding our diplomats hostage, Mr Carter?

Yes, folks, when it comes to Iran, Jimmy Carter knows what he is talking about. This is the man who greased the skids for the Shah and presided over the most humiliating chapter in the history of American foreign policy. So when Jimmy Carter speaks-people listen...and laugh.

And who is threatening who? Has not the leader of Iran threatened to wipe Israel off the face of the map-as they progress closer and closer to possessing nuclear weapons? You don't hear a lot about it, but even the Arab countries are nervous about Iran getting nuclear weapons as they rightly fear it will lead to Iranian hegemony in the region.

But we mustn't threaten Iran.

By Jimmy Carter's twisted logic, countries like Czechoslovakia and Poland should not have threatened poor little Nazi Germany. That bully Tibet shouldn't threaten China. Hungary shouldn't have threatened the Soviet Union. Nor should have the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania threatened the Soviet Union.

Jimmy Carter is the latter-day version of Neville Chamberlain, and if his world view were to prevail, we would ultimately find ourselves living under a foreign tyranny. Carter was a fool when he was president, and he is a fool today. There is no diplomatic way to put it.