Jimmy Carter is singing the blues, again – this time in an interview with Andrew Mitchell of NBC News.
First, he says, he thinks the U.S. government is spying on him. Don’t you love these politicians, like Sen Dianne Feinstein and Carter, who get outraged when government is spying on them? They preside over major expansions of eavesdropping on average citizens, but then they get bent out of shape when the blowback comes home to haunt the very people who approved of expansion of the police state.
“You know, I have felt that my own communications are probably monitored,” he said. “And when I want to communicate with a foreign leader privately, I type or write a letter myself, put it in the post office and mail it. I believe if I send an email, it will be monitored.”
Of course it will be monitored. They are all monitored!
But this comment also raised some interesting questions about Carter’s own communications with foreign leaders. He’s been a private citizen for 34 years, despite his rich stipend and benefits he receives from taxpayers. It makes one wonder what kind of communications he has with foreign leaders – and why.
Actually, if you know anything about the character and history of Jimmy Carter, those communications are pretty predictable.
He’s been on the take of Saudi royalty since he left the White House. That’s when he became a paid unofficial, unregistered lobbyist for the House of Saud and the “Arab cause.” In the process, he has morphed into something of an Israel-basher and unregenerate anti-Semite to boot.
He shows no signs of repentance at 89.
Despite his concern over domestic spying, he says he doesn’t blame Barack Obama.
“I don’t have any criticism of him,” Carter said.
No criticism?
Doesn’t Obama have the power to correct the espionage abuses that have him so concerned? Whom does he fault, if not Obama and his predecessors? He doesn’t say. It is as if the building of America’s growing police state was an organic process of evolution, with no one to blame except the spy agencies themselves. Mitchell didn’t pursue this line of questioning.
She did ask Carter if Obama ever asks him for advice.
“Unfortunately, the answer is no,” Carter said. “President Obama doesn’t. But previous presidents have called on me and the Carter Center to take action.”
Why not Obama?
“That’s a hard question for me to answer, you know, with complete candor,” he said. “I think the problem was that in dealing with the issue of peace between Israel and Egypt, the Carter Center [took] a very strong and public position of equal treatment between the Palestinians and the Israelis. And I think this was a sensitive area in which the president didn’t want to be involved.”
Is that answer credible?
I don’t think so.
In fact, Obama is following Carter’s harsh anti-Israel, pro-Arab narrative more than any other U.S. president. So there must be another reason.
Would you like my opinion on what that it?
I think it’s two-fold:
- Carter is perceived as a loser. He was a one-term president. He lost in a landslide to Ronald Reagan, the arch-enemy of all “progressives” like Obama. And he lost because his policies, much like Obama’s, failed miserably. It was self-evident to almost all Americans. Put yourself in Obama’s place: Would you want it “out there” that you were consulting with Jimmy Carter – a president to whom you have been compared more than any other?
- The second reason is this: Obama knows he won the presidency twice. He also knows he’s not all that knowledgeable. Don’t get me wrong. He’s a formidable politician. He’s got strong opinions. But aside from campaigning and raising money, what is he really good at? What are his areas of real expertise and wisdom? He is not the first modern president to find himself in the White House and be more than a little surprised by it all. With that situation comes the recognition that at least some of his predecessors were in the same boat – good politicians without any real wisdom or expertise. If you want advice, you tend to go to people with wisdom and expertise.
Simple question: Would you go to Jimmy Carter if you had a question about how to run the country?
Media wishing to interview Joseph Farah, please contact [email protected].
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