Jimmy Carter Says Racism Fuels Animosity Towards Obama

[TrackDaddy]

Article Excerpts (link follows):

In remarks decried by Republicans, former president Jimmy Carter told NBC's Brian Williams in an interview Tuesday that he believes race is at the core of much of the opposition to President Obama.

"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"

Carter spoke directly to the Wilson matter and the 9/12 anti-government protests during a forum at the Carter Center in Atlanta, also on Tuesday.

"I think it's based on racism," Carter said of the tone of the opposition, in response to an audience question. "There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/200 ... natio.html

[Zat0pek]

Jimmy's clearly gone senile. Bubba hit the same wall when he tried to socialize medicine. So did Truman and Teddy Roosevelt.

[TrackDaddy]

Senile?

So you believe his opinion is absurd and that racism no longer exists? That is, you don't believe anyone has a problem with the president being black?

To your point, I believe Carter was referring to more than the responses to Obama's healthcare proposal. BTW...didnt FDR also try to socialize medicine?

[odelltrclan]

I believe Carter is close to being Senile. The comments were ludicrous. Now, if people don't agree with the president, they are considered racists. How many times now have we heard from liberals that those who don't agree with Obama's policies are racist. There has been a number of them.

On the flip side, how many people who disagreed with or voiced complaints about George W. Bush were labeled racists? Whether there is racism or not in the USA, which there is (and it goes both ways by the way) has very little to do with people being in disagreement with the Obama administration's policies.

Jimmy Carter needs to go away and stay away.

[Zat0pek]

Senile?

So you believe his opinion is absurd and that racism no longer exists? That is, you don't believe anyone has a problem with the president being black?

Hmmm. I went back and looked at what I wrote. Pretty sure I didn't say or even imply anything remotely close to what you're inferring. Do I believe his opinion is absurd? Yes. Do I believe that some people have a problem with a black president? Well, duh, of course.

But you could take a lot of Obama's policies, interchange them with white president, and the polling data would probably not be statistically different.

Every president who has ever tried to socialize medicine has hit a brick wall and flown into a real shitstorm.

Obama is no different.

[TrackDaddy]

I dont think Carter was discussing whether people disagree with Obama's policies at all.

I think he was discussing HOW people are disagreeing (Joe Wilson, "we want our country back", et al.).

Six months in and Obama seems to be "hated" more than Clinton.

[Conor Dary]

Every president who has ever tried to socialize medicine has hit a brick wall and flown into a real shitstorm.

LBJ socialized medicine, Medicare. Popular then, and extremely popular now.

[SQUACKEE]

Some said that electing our first black president would so abbsolutely nothin to change Black peoples distrust of white people- they were unfortnatley correct. Nothin has changed, very sad.

[Zat0pek]

I dont think Carter was discussing whether people disagree with Obama's policies at all.

I think he was discussing HOW people are disagreeing (Joe Wilson, "we want our country back", et al.).

Six months in and Obama seems to be "hated" more than Clinton.

"Seems?" That's not what the numbers say; while Obama has the fastest declining approval rating in modern history, his plunge probably won't pass the rate at which Clinton got below 50% when he tried to socialize medicine. This is a good analysis of the various presidents' fall from grace: http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerindex?id=8469612

I see nothing in the polls that says race is playing a statistically significant role and the it's overwhelmingly driven by the bailouts, socialized medicine, etc.

As for Wilson's "we want our country back", I heard the same chant about Bush on many occasions.

[TrackDaddy]

Do I believe that some people have a problem with a black president? Well, duh, of course.

[email protected] "have a problem with a black president"

What kind of problem? lol

Anyway, I think that was also Carter's point which you now seem to agree with. That would mean at best he's only marginally senile, unless of course, you (and I ) are too.

Since you acknowledge to theres some truth to it, I guess determing to what extent its true is what will validate or marginalize Carter's opinion. That is, is it significant enough that it warrants mention or consideration.

[Zat0pek]

Every president who has ever tried to socialize medicine has hit a brick wall and flown into a real shitstorm.

LBJ socialized medicine, Medicare. Popular then, and extremely popular now.

But only for a small segment of the population. Limited socialization as a social safety net has usually not been a problem; socialization of an entires system has always been a lightening rod.

As for "extremely popular," don't tell that to all the elderly who have to shell out Medicare supplemental insurance to get the coverage they really want, including my mom.

[SQUACKEE]

Yep, we are just one big racist country, thats why we elected a black man has our president.

[TrackDaddy]

Some said that electing our first black president would so abbsolutely nothin to change Black peoples distrust of white people- they were unfortnatley correct. Nothin has changed, very sad.

Jimmy Carter aint black and these are his quotes.

Are you saying he doesnt trust white people?

[lexvid]

Yep, we are just one big racist country, thats why we elected a black man has our president.

Just cause he was elected doesn't mean he is being treated fairly.

[Conor Dary]

Every president who has ever tried to socialize medicine has hit a brick wall and flown into a real shitstorm.

LBJ socialized medicine, Medicare. Popular then, and extremely popular now.

But only for a small segment of the population. Limited socialization as a social safety net has usually not been a problem; socialization of an entires system has always been a lightening rod.

As for "extremely popular," don't tell that to all the elderly who have to shell out Medicare supplemental insurance to get the coverage they really want, including my mom.

Medicare is very popular. As for the supplement insurance program, you can blame the Republicans for that.