Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Bush-'Carter is Irrelevant'

An interesting thing has been developing over the weekend.

CNN and MSNBC is reporting that Former President Jimmy Carter was quoted in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette as saying, 'I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history.'

White House Spokesman Tony Fratto responded from Camp David, 'I think it's sad that President Carter's reckless personal criticism is out there," said Fratto. "I think it's unfortunate. And I think he is proving to be increasingly irrelevant with these kinds of comments.'

President Carter has actually become more relevant and influential in his later years, showing himself to be a more effective and compent leader.

Because of Carter's willingness to stand up not only against the current administration but on other Presidential issues such as the Middle East, Bush's response seems to be rather weak. Maybe Carter doesn't have the power of the Presidency to make better choices, but Bush's camp barely has power or room to disagree much with the assertions of Carter, because Carter is right. Carter couldn't be all that irrelevant if the Bush camp felt they had to respond to Carter's comments.

The only criticism I have of Carter is that he actually backpedaled this week, possibly to keep the peace-former Presidents don't historically travel much into Presidential matters after their tenure.

Carter's comments on Monday's 'Today' show: 'And I think Richard Nixon had a very good and productive foreign policy and my remarks were maybe careless or misinterpreted. But I wasn't comparing the overall administration and I was certainly not talking personally about any president,' Carter said.

If he was not talking personally about any President, he should've been. Many more people should be willing to take a stand.

Whether or not the remarks were possibly misinterpreted or careless, nevertheless the comments were definitely well placed.