Are Obama's critics racist? Jimmy Carter thinks so

Former President Jimmy Carter, who has a habit of stirring controversy, said this morning that "an overwhelming portion" of those opposing President Obama's policies are racist.

In an interview with NBC's Brian Williams, Carter lobbed a bomb into Washington politics, already seething with passions over healthcare, federal spending and whether a congressman named Wilson should apologize to the House for screaming "You lie!' to a president.

Here's what Carter said:

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The charge is likely to ignite a firestorm of anger, and could provoke a backlash among those who would oppose Obama's healthcare reform whatever his racial identity. One site calls it evidence of a "failed ex-President making this ignorant, outlandish charge."

Carter, who has been an ex-president for almost 30 years, has done this sort of thing before. The 39th president angered the Clinton White House with his frequent diplomatic freelancing with various dictators around the world.

Of course Carter has been an equal-opportunity thorn to White Houses of both parties, making life difficult for Republican presidents as well as Democrats. Among other things, he called George W. Bush the worst president in history in international relations.

The current bombshell is likely to make life difficult for the Obama White House, which as MSNBC's Chuck Todd noted this morning, will now have to rebut the impression that it played the race card to win votes on healthcare.

Maybe it's not too late for Carter, who turns 85 on Oct. 1, to learn tact.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Comments

[imawasp]

I'm a racist! I don't like Jimmy Carter!

[Moon54]

Very little was heard about racism during the campaign. The mainstream media was focusing on Sexism against Sarah Palin. Now after the president has been in office for 9 months, all of a sudden race is an issue. If it is truly racism and not overspending tax dollars, big government, ACORN scandals, pork spending and the long list of other failed policies. Then I guess racism is still running rampant in America. Since we are not ready for an African American president, I think Obama should step down immediately, so our country can start the healing process.

[Clearsky54]

I am furious. Who says that the White House will have to "rebut the impression that it played the race card to win votes on healthcare"? Who said that? Who's impression is that? Joe Wilson is a horrible person with the manners of a three-lettered animal that starts with "a." President Obama is desperately trying to knock sense into the heads of stupid Americans. Chuck Todd said the White House will have to "rebut the impression"? What impression? Who has the impression? Racist monsters that are trying to bring President Obama down? Who are secretly thrilled that Joe Wilson screamed at our President with as much grace as a three-year-old with wet pants? The White House does not and should not rebut anything--unless it wants to "butt" Joe Wilson's head against a wall (not that that would help).

[Dirose]

I wish that poor old soul would stop trying to make himself important. He and Bush can both be considered the Two worst presidents in history of our country.

[Bruce]

Yeh, Mister Carter, Let's make Black People special. They should be treated differently, not like Asians and Whites.
If you don't agree with Black - You are Racist!

Thank you, Mister Carter for Downgrading USA!

[spinnikerca]

Actually, I think 'playing the race card' whenever people oppose a policy that might impact non-white races or is proposed by a person who happens to be both non-white and on the left, ideologically, is a pretty knee jerk reaction in some circles. This only suggests that Carter is one of those who uses that ploy. I don't know that that is worth a controversy.

(However, I do note with some irony that when people with a leftist bent don't like Clarence Thomas or our rescent Attorney General or either recent Secretary of State, that is never decried as racism. Only when people don't like someone who is both non-white and to the left of center does it become a matter of race.)

[Marylander 6]

But what if what he is saying is true? A lot of us believe that. It seems as if those who actually hold historic power, high salaries (who have paid insurance!) are saying in this debate to those, who are most likely of color, "you can't have any of our piece of the pie. It's just for us. You can die on the side of the road without healthcare for all we care. We immigrated in and no one stopped us, But there's no more room for you."

Not what our country was about when the Statue of Liberty was erected or when John Kennedy spoke.

My insurance went from $1,200/year 9 years ago to over $4,000 this year, my employer does not have money to pay either and many people are losing jobs, so they won't have it either. I pay it myself. And I have far from full coverage.

[jsp1229]

Jimmy Carter is once again telling it like it is... Thank God we have a man like that around.. You Go Pres. Carter!!!!

[Tom Whitaker]

For those of you who are to young to remember, and did not suffer through the Carter presidency now understand why this narrow minded man was a one term president.

[Uncle Bernie]

I find it amusing that Neuman is one of the 10 people who actually watch
MSNBC.

[JL]

I'm sorry, but he's absolutely right. I don't believe he is calling all critics of President Obama racist. He's calling out those who are likening our president to Hitler because of something so fundamentally critical as universal health care for all American citizens. He's calling out those who spread lies in order to scare their base into fearing health care reform, and calling out those who are themselves ignorant enough to shout out "YOU LIE" during a Presidential address.

No, the race card can't be pulled every time someone has a criticism of Obama, and perhaps former president Carter should have made it more clear that he isn't calling all critics racist; however, when the debate is no longer civilized or based on fact, but rather name-calling and screaming out of turn like children, you have to wonder how much of all this rabid dissent is really about not agreeing with his plans for health care, and rather about the color of his skin.

And don't think for a second that racism is dead. It's alive and well throughout this country. You'd be a fool to think we have overcome it.

[Robert G Cleveland]

The position of God is already taken, Pres. Carter doesn't have it, and he purports to know the minds of the "overwhelming portion" of those critical of Pres. Obama's actions. He's no better, right there, at several things, than he was at being president (for those too young to remember THAT time....).

[Johny Reb]

If I took my shoe off and threw it at him, would I be a racist????

I would hit him between the ears!!! :P

[HJ]

This is ridiculous. I'm a non-white American and as such as sensitive as anyone to (genuine) racism. However, the backlash against Obama is overwhelmingly driven by an opposition to his policymaking which is too far to the left of the center of gravity in American politics.

Are there are a handful of racists on the fringe? Sure, there are and likely always will be - but to suggest that an "overwhelming" portion of the opposition is race-driven is preposterous. When Obama had won a commanding electoral victory last November, possessed an 85% approval rating in January and had America fawning on his every move, where were all these racists? Did millions of white Americans just now over this summer realize that Obama is black? Obviously not.

There are enough times in this world where real racism exists -- I know, because I have experienced it firsthand. However, when a political movement callously exploits the race card as Obama's supporters have done, it cheapens the whole debate and serves only to cast doubt and discredit calls against genuine racism. As an American of color, this is perhaps the element of this whole row which grates me the most.

However, for the Democrats more broadly, this whole race debate has a real possibility of boomeranging back to them in a major way: the vast majority of white Americans are neither pathalogically racist nor weighed down by white guilt. They will not appreciate being tarred in such a way. The large, pragmatic independent swathe of the American electorate -- made up largely of white Americans in the middle of the country and coastal suburbs -- may end up distancing themselves from Obama just as quickly as they embraced him in the last two years.

[Chris]

The Elephant in the room. I think this was pretty obvious to everyone.

[J Cline]

LOL. Jimmy Carter is about as relevant to current politics as Walter Cronkite was to media before he died.

Besides, Obama just called Kanye West a "jackass." Seems civility and class are missing in both parties. Doesn't anyone remember Pres. Bush being booed by Democrats during his House address?

Um, kettle? The pot called. You're black.

[Herewegoagain]

We have seen so much improvement in race relations, we have a Black President! Why do democrats constantly feel the need to bring up hostility that creates racism on both sides for political gain. They take something that has nothing to do with race and make it about race just to fuel their agenda. If the democrats would stop doing this we would all get further past this issue and become one people like it should be.

[Del]

Carter has lived in the South all his life. If anyone would know. . .

[sms]

Carter is a moron. I suppose I'm a racist then since I didn't support ANY of his idiotic policies either. The left deserves a poltroon like Carter. I must be a racist since I support Clarence Thomas, Condi Rice and a plethora of other AMERICANS who happen to be black. These dip-shits don't deserve to be on the national stage--of course neither does Obama, the ever-more idiotic Biden, and the most stupid of all--Reid and Pelosi. The LA Times is right up there with the NYT and MSNBC for pathetic journalism too. At least Joanna did a decent job not spinning this one--but of course--she would look like the rest of the Obamorons if she had tried.

[Tyler]

False allegations of racism against the right don't work anymore. Jimmy may have missed that memo. This debate is not about race. It's about ideology and the direction of our public policy. This very paper reported recently the results of a poll showing the large numbers of white voters who disapprove of Obama's policies. What the Times did not show was that Obama's black disapproval numbers doubled (a growth rate of 100%) in the last five months where his white disapproval numbers only grew by 40$. So he is losing black support more than twice as fast as he is losing white support. Clearly this is not about race.

[Joe Ro]

I was on the home stretch and thought I was safe and in the clear, but at the very last moment, WHAM it hit me square in the nose. You just couldn't resist, could you? This is not an article about poker. Nor is it an article about pinochle, hearts, solitaire, or gin rummy. Card references are not necessary.

Next time you feel the urge to use another horrendously overused media catchphrase, don't.

[D_russ]

Coming from a Jew-hater like Carter, these kinds of comments are less than meaningless. The media would do everyone a favor by just ignoring this disgraceful old man, who as president supported genocide in Cambodia and the rise of Islamic tyranny in Iran.
He also helped legitimize the rise of Venezuela's Chavez, who is now seeking nuclear weapons.
Just because Carter grew up as a bigot in the racist south doesn't mean everyone else did. It's time for him to recognize he's an old man and the world has changed.

[Mike]

First of all, get the quote correct. President Carter said NOTHING about people being against Obama's policies. These people out there screaming, yelling and making outrageous statements clearly are emotionally unbalanced, and I also think there is a racial element. There is also a clearly concerted effort by the media to change a few words here and there which majorly change the meaning of what is said - and I believe this is to try to change the subject and keep health care reform from happening.

He said:

"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's African American," Carter said. "I live in the South, and I've seen the South come a long way, and I've seen the rest of the country that shared the South's attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African Americans"

Continued Carter, who is famously from Georgia: "And that racism inclination still exists. And I think it's bubbled up to the surface because of the belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It's an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply."

[J in NJ]

Tact ?

Yes, tact is carrying automatic weapons to a location where the President of the United States will be.

Yes, tact is calling the President of the United States a liar in the US Congress.

And Up is Down, apparently, for you Johanna. None of these things would have happened to a white President. The extremist reactions (from Teabaggers and their ilk) are coming from old white men who are angry about this President (who happens to be a young black man) acting, well, Presidential.

[Jim Hummel]

Is isn't just Jimmy Carter who believes this. I'm a 65 yo white retired military man who believes this too. I have to laugh at people like Joe Scarborough and his hanger-ons. They have their undies all up in knots because Jimmy Carter speaks the truth everyone else is trying to avoid. Most Americans are well aware of which "country" these sign toters want back. Anyone see Pat Buchanan's rant on The Rachel Maddow Show? He clearly stated that this is "our" country and went on to state that it was white men who fought for independence and created this country. I thought I was back on the kindergarten playground hearing, "Ihad it first." Get over white people. In years to come it will be black and brown people who get their turn at the wheel. And to the Joe Scarboroughs and Pat Buchanans of our country I would say you've had your time. Wilson & Buchanan are total racists. Pat's below the surface rage which was very apparent on Rachel's show is the more scary of the two. He likes to hide his racism. Wilson has worn it on his sleeve for years. Pitiful.