Opinion: John McCain blasts Jimmy Carter as ‘lousy president’
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Don’t you hate it when old Navy guys just can’t get along? John McCain took a swipe at Jimmy Carter the other day in an interview, with the transcript getting posted over at the Las Vegas Sun earlier today. As the folks at CNN’s Politicker point out, it’s not just a gratuitous political shot, since McCain has been trying to tie Obama to Carter, generally considered by the right (and quite a few centrists) to have been an ineffectual president.
But the comments are a bit jarring. McCain was asked by interviewer Jon Ralston, a Nevada political observer and blogger, about Yucca Mountain and nuclear waste and Carter’s decision to end reprocessing, which McCain held up as a possible solution to the nuke waste problem.
‘Q: You know why he did that then?’A: Yes, because Carter was a lousy president .... This is the same guy who kissed Brezhnev ....’
Ralston also asked McCain whether his call for a gas tax holiday for the summer amounted to pandering. ‘I don’t think so. When I meet a guy who owns two trucks that run on diesel, who says he’s going out of business, but may not have to if he is spared the 24-and-half-cent tax, which goes to things like a bridge to nowhere in Alaska.’ Ralston pointed out a Republican (actually it was two, Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young) proposed that bridge. ‘As you know,’ McCain replied, ‘I’ve taken on Republicans and Democrats. Some of them dislike me intensely and some of them still won’t endorse me.’
Look out, Dale Carnegie.
-- Scott Martelle
