Sunday, November 25, 2007

Carter -- again!

According to www.newsmax.com/ "former President Jimmy Carter’s attempts to mend fences with the Jewish community have been rebuffed by leading Jewish organizations and Jewish legislators in Congress." Sounds about right to me. And I don't expect things to change.
A year ago I expressed my views on Carter in an op-ed column for the Philadelphia Daily News. Here's my take on Carter:

JIMMY CARTER: A FOOLISH MISTAKE
By Daniel A. Cirucci
When it comes to voting for President I think I have a pretty good record.
I never voted for Nixon and I never voted for Clinton.
Are you surprised that I put those two together? You shouldn’t be. Richard Nixon, the unindicted Watergate co-conspirator was forced to leave office in disgrace and was only saved by the pardon of his successor, Gerald Ford. Bill Clinton committed perjury to hide a myriad of lies and became the only elected President ever to be impeached.
I count them both as scoundrels. And I’m confident that history will confirm my judgment.
Still, there’s one vote I cast that has already failed the test of time. I voted once for Jimmy Carter. Not long after Carter took office I knew I made a grievous error. I didn’t repeat the mistake when Carter sought re-election in 1980 but the damage was done.
Carter’s four years were a disaster for America. He failed on every level.
I remember it vividly because as a young man I lived through it.
Carter was was unable to reduce soaring interest rates and inflation rates, or to lower unemployment. During his term, the combined unemployment/inflation rate (then known as the “misery index”) rose by 50 percent. It was nearly impossible to find a job or buy a car, let alone a house. Carter’s energy policies were equally lame as oil prices soared. His audacious plan for energy-idependence included wearing cardigan sweaters and lowering thermostats.
On the international front détente effectively ended with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Carter’s response included a boycott of the Moscow Olympics thus denying our young athletes a chance to show the world America at its best. And then the Iranian hostage crisis dealt a devastating blow to our national prestige.
In one of the earliest tests of our resolve against radical Islam Carter remained virtually paralyzed for 444 days while innocent Americans were held hostage.
For a man who preached accessibility and even carried his own garment bag while traveling Carter proved to be surprisingly aloof and self-righteous. When everything was going badly, he retreated to Camp David and returned to tell the American people that it was all our fault. We were suffering from a “malaise.”
It’s tempting to think that when a President leaves office, that’s the end of it.
But we have continued to be ill-served by Jimmy Carter’s words and deeds.
Not long ago Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, a woman appointed to the federal bench in 1979 by President Carter ruled against the Bush Administration’s Terrorist Surveillance Program which is used only to monitor the calls of people in our country who are in phone contact with suspected al-Qaeda terrorists or supporters abroad. Fortunately a higher court has stayed the judge’s ruling pending the outcome of an appeal. But much damage has already been done. In response to the judge’s ruling President Bush rightly said: "Those who herald this decision simply do not understand the nature of the world in which we live." The President could have been talking about Jimmy Carter.
Because just a few days before Judge Taylor’s ruling Carter slammed Israel’s war against terrorists as “unjustified” claiming that Israel had no “legal or moral justification” for its move into Lebanon.
In other words, according to Carter Israel has no right to defend itself against its enemies. And according to Carter’s judge the United State’s has no right to discover information about our enemies that might lead us to prevent an attack on our nation like the one that was planned for August 16.
Which now makes me wonder: What right does Jimmy Carter have to pass moral judgments on whole nations? Who does he think he is, anyway?
In a recent ranking of our Presidents by 78 noteworthy scholars Jimmy Carter ranked near the bottom, barely edging out Herbert Hoover. Has Carter really forgotten his own abysmal record?
And where the heck was my mind when I voted for him way back in 1976?

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