History's Greatest Monster

AKA, as Will Collier writes, “More Mush From The Wimp”:

Having heard Jimmy Carter’s mush-mouthed accusations of “RRRRRACISM!” on the radio this morning, I think Mickey has it exactly right:

Instant reaction: Kiss of Death. Gift to the GOPs. Remember the Carter era of smug moralizing? Anyone want to go back to that? … P.S.: A good example of how, if the MSM wants to tilt against the Republicans, it’s often too wedded to its own conventions–e.g., the desire to ‘make news’ with an ex-Pres.–to be effective. … No sophisticated campaign propagandist would say, “OK, let’s throw Jimmy Carter at them. They’ll be reeling!”

For everybody old enough to remember what life was like under Jimmy’s stupefying mixture of sophomoric self-righteousness, boundless naivete and gobsmacking incompetence, shoving Mr. Peanut back under the spotlight in his bitter dotage does nothing to help Obama, who’s been looking like Carter II since a few hours after his inauguration.

And for those too young to remember history’s greatest monster (thanks, Glenn), Jimmah’s empty slander is just another sign of the unbecoming moral vanity at the heart of the modern Left, to say nothing of its overweening intolerance for any hint of dissent. People know good and well that being opposed to socialized medicine or trillion-dollar deficits doesn’t make them racist. Calling them ugly names isn’t going to make them cower away in fear–it’s going to make them more convinced than ever that they’re in the right.

Mickey Kaus’ take on Carter gets bipartisan support from Rush: “They’ve trotted out Jimmy Carter, ladies and gentlemen.  They’ve trotted out Jimmy Carter.  This means that it’s over:”

I mean who is more closely associated with economic malaise and failure than Jimmy Carter?  So they bring out Jimmy Carter to co-conspire with Barack Obama, they bring out Jimmy Carter who now says everything here is about race.  I tell you, this is disgusting, of all people to bring out.  It’s an axiom.  They bring Jimmy Carter out at the last moment to try to save the day.  We have the worst president in American history coming back to defend the man who will be an even worse president when it’s all said and done.  Now that economic misery is once again engulfing America, Jimmy Carter back in the news with the same kind of ignorance and stupidity that marred and marked his own presidency.

Carter and Obama deserve each other, folks. Carter and Obama deserve each other.  Misery loves company.

Maybe so, but as the rest of America already did in 1980, the Obama White House “throws Carter under the bus on race comments.”

Update: In the comments below, “Andrew X” mentions Christopher Hitchens’ 2007 screed against Carter. Here’s how it starts:

Almost always, when former President Jimmy Carter opens his big, smug mouth, he has already made the psychological mistake that is going to reduce his words to absurdity. When he told the press last week that the Bush administration had aroused antipathy around the world, he might have been uttering no more than a banality. But no, he had to try to invest it with a special signature flourish. So, he said instead:

I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history. The overt reversal of America’s basic values as expressed by previous administrations, including [those of] George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon and others, has been the most disturbing to me.

Leave aside the sophomoric slackness that begins a broken-backed sentence with the words “as far as” and then cannot complete itself. “Worst in history,” as the great statesman from Georgia has to know, has been the title for which he has himself been actively contending since 1976. I once had quite an argument with the late Sen. Eugene McCarthy, who maintained adamantly that it had been right for him to vote for Ronald Reagan in 1980 for no other reason. “Mr. Carter,” he said, “quite simply abdicated the whole responsibility of the presidency while in office. He left the nation at the mercy of its enemies at home and abroad. He was the worst president we ever had.”

The competition seems surprisingly fierce in 2009, however.