Former President Jimmy Carter lauded his successor’s speech today as “very progressive” and confidence-inspiring.
“I don’t have any doubt that now he’ll be much more attentive to those things than he could be during the first four years,” Carter said on MSNBC.
He acknowledged that there wasn’t the excitement of President Obama’s inauguration four years ago, “but I think an element of anticipation of a more stable and progressive and I think more productive administration during these next four years.”
“And I believe there is going to be some immediate movement, for instance on a long-overdue bill to deal with immigration, and maybe also some elements of gun control, not very much,” Carter added.
The former president admitted he didn’t talk to Obama much during his first term, but did communicate a lot with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“When I left the White House, there was peace between Israel and Egypt. There was a pledge of peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and that issue has not gone into the back drawer. And my hope is it will be resurrected and we can move and have peace for Israel, which has been one of my prayers for more than 30 years, and peace for their neighbors as well,” Carter said of his second-term hopes for Obama.
“I just got back from China, and my concern is there’s an element of antagonism that is building between the United States and China, which could degenerate into a very serious confrontation. I hope that will change, because when I left office, we had just normalized diplomatic relations with China. That’s another concern.”
He was also heartened by Obama’s mention of climate change.
“I think there is going to be now a movement on immigration, which I just pointed out. I noticed he mentioned global warming and environment,” Carter said. “That’s another thing we need to move forward to attend to. So he has a big agenda ahead of him.”
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