The Obama Watch
Welcome Back, Carter
How soon before President Obama joins Jimmy Carter as a winner of the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize?
The Norwegian Parliament can’t build a “spite fence” between themselves and the United States. But they have a more effective way of showing their contempt for some of our elected leaders. They give out Nobel Peace Prizes.
Leftist Scandinavian lawmakers are not like members of the College of Cardinals. Roman Catholic prelates are sworn to secrecy about who they voted for in the election of a Pope and why they voted that way. The Norwegians were happy to say that they gave Carter the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 as a way to poke then-President George W. Bush in the eye.
Among the many honors that have gone to the ex-President from Plains, Georgia, is this curious one: The Indira Gandhi Peace Prize of 1997. Indira Gandhi led one of the most corrupt governments in the history of India — or of any country. Her coercive population control methods singled out teenage boys for vasectomies. These boys, many of them poor and illiterate, were pressured by corrupt village chieftains into getting operations that would forever render them incapable of fathering children. Apparently, Jimmy Carter’s vaunted concern for human rights did not extend to refusing to accept such a prize from such a tainted source.
Perhaps the most famous quote attributed to Jimmy Carter — not the one from his Playboy interview — was this one: Americans, he said in a 1977 commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, should get over their “inordinate fear of communism.”
Yale University scholar Eugene Rostow — the famous son of a strongly Democratic family — was appalled. U.S. foreign policy was not based on what Carter called our inordinate fear, but on “legitimate concern for…Soviet expansion and aggression.”
The communist bosses then ruling the Kremlin took Carter at his word: That speech was a starter’s pistol shot for them as they raced to exploit their clueless opponent’s weaknesses. Carter was shocked to find Soviets backing violent insurgencies in Africa and Latin America.
More Africans lost their freedom during Jimmy Carter’s four years than at any other time in history. Latin Americans and Asians fared no better. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan late in 1979, Carter deplored the USSR’s move as the action of an “atheistic government” against an Islamic people. Carter, who campaigned as a born-again Christian, never showed similar concern for the persecution of Christians.
Fast forward to 2009. President Obama recently gave an interview to Ed Henry, CNN’s senior White House correspondent. The President reacted to the firestorm of criticism of his administration for the decision to bring Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his fellow 9/11 conspirators into a federal court in Manhattan. Mr. Obama scoffed at the inordinate fears of today:
I think this notion that somehow we have to be fearful, that these terrorists are — possess some special powers that prevent us from presenting evidence against them, locking then — them up and, you know, exacting swift justice, I think that has been a fundamental mistake.
This is a week that saw the execution in Virginia of John Allen Muhammed, the convicted Beltway Sniper. President Obama also recently visited Fort Hood for a memorial service to the 14 victims of a terrorist shooter.
We know already that the Fort Hood shooter was in contact with a jihadist imam in Yemen. The Internet — which did not exist in Jimmy Carter’s heyday — now provides instant communication through the World Wide Web between terrorists there and terrorists here.
What if we had one hundred John Allen Muhammeds driving one hundred cheap junker cars with one hundred teen shooters hiding in the trunks of those vehicles? It does not take a great deal of imagination to see how the country could be paralyzed by a small number of terrorists. They could all be activated by Al Qaeda operatives based in Pakistan, Afghanistan, or Texas.
Yassir Arafat — for whose political heirs Jimmy Carter is forever pleading — learned how to do airline hijacking for terror by watching CNN. That’s the down side of living in a global village.
It is not some inordinate fear of “special powers” that should give us all pause today.
A wise administration would carefully gauge the threats to our country and act accordingly. A serious administration would never put known terrorists on trial in Manhattan, the media capital of the world. David Beamer is father of the late Todd Beamer, the hero of United Flight 93. David Beamer said it best: “The decision [to put the terrorists on trial] is not thoughtless, because a lot of thought went into it. But it is mindless.”
What we see today is the same mindless naïveté in the Obama administration that we saw in the invertebrate leadership of Jimmy Carter. We should pray daily for the safety of the country we love.
About the Author
Ken Blackwell, the former mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio is Vice Chairman of the Republican National Committee’s Platform Committee. He also serves on the boards of the Club For Growth and the National Taxpayers Union.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (63) | Leave a comment
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Pingback| 11.24.09 @ 6:25AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : Welcome Back, Carter [spectator.org] links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
ed,ond menard| 11.24.09 @ 6:48AM
One has to presume that the ones making the decisions today actually love our country, as it was constituted in 1789. So many different decisions have been made in the last 100 years as to call into doubt whether todays "leaders" are acting out of love, misplaced affection, or downright hatred for what American Exceptionalism stands for, has accomplished and has the potential to accomplish. All I can say is that I am quite glad I was born in 1957 and not 1907. The prospects of those born fifty years after I make she shudder in so many ways . May God have mercy on the souls of those who inherit todays political and economic thinking. It will not be America as we know it that they inherit.
Alan Brooks| 11.24.09 @ 2:41PM
Difference between Dubya and Carter is under Dubya there was stagnation, but it can bounce back eventually.
And perhaps the horrors of this decade were none of Bush's doing-- like his father, Bush was merely clueless.
while Carter was downright destructive.
drudge ette obama| 11.24.09 @ 6:49AM
What is so amusing is that Carter and Obama (and Gore, too, for that matter) actually believe they deserved the prize. There was no mood dampening in these camps from knowing the true basis of each person's selection.
The recipe for future prize winners is to buck George Bush - you''ll get one for sure. Don't forget to nominate yourself in advance, though.
Alan Brooks| 11.24.09 @ 2:43PM
Clinton and Gore are 1000 times better than Carter.
10,000 times better than LBJ.
Melvin| 11.24.09 @ 8:52AM
I was fortunate enough to grow up in a time that the United States was the greatest thing next to slice cheese.
John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, and many others were the on-screen idols of Americans being outnumbered and the situation bleak, came roaring back to win the day.
Our nation's military was second to none. We stood proudly up in the classroom to say the Pledge of Allegiance, and every kid looked forward to seeing the giant Nativity Scene at Christmas in the court house lawn.
Then something happened to us. Our Nation's leaders became afraid, and placating to the world's enemies. The Pledge of Allegiance if recited at all is recited with venom and disdain. John Wayne has been replaced by Adam Lambert debasing himself on TV with simulated sex acts with other males.
Our Nation's military cannot even defend itself on our own home soil, were terrorists attack at will.
A nation united has been turned into a bunch of caterwauling ethnic groups whose only exceptionalism is getting disability for an in-
grown toe nail on the first try.
People, from this point on, I'm not giving up another God damn inch to those who wish to denigrate this Country. I'm proud of my heritage, I'm proud of my skin color, I'm sure as hell proud of this Country and it's people.
I'm going to greet people with Happy Thanksgiving, and Merry Christmas, I'm going to put a plastic Nativity Scene in my front yard, and last but not least, I'm going to string non LED Christmas lights on my house and shrubs.
And if the naysayers take issue with my American proclamation, "Well then just bugger off, because I'm of your incessant whining."
Adam Smith| 11.24.09 @ 3:41PM
Well spoken Melvin.
Pingback| 11.24.09 @ 8:57AM
Jimmy Carter Returneth « The Underground Conservative links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
TURK| 11.24.09 @ 9:03AM
As an Ohioan who enthusiastically supported Ken Blackwell for Gov(imagine a man like Ken in the Gov's mansion after years of rinos like Taft) I applaud his piece on Carter. I have a special rememberance of the Soviets invasion of Afghanistan and a Carter reaction thereto: I was TDY @ Maxwell A.F.B., home of the Air War College. I was in attendance for the multi-week Combined Air Warfare Course and in the O Club for after duty 'recreation and the eve news was covering the just happened invasion. Carters reaction (and I must paraphrase) was an almost hysterical exclamation of 'BREZHNEV LIED TO ME!! The somewhat crowded club roared in derision of such a limp response.
It cannot be doubted that this occupier of the White House will make Carter look like a lion by comparison. The problem is where Carter was simply weak, this fellow traveler endangers us because it's in his leftist plan.
Louis Jenkins| 11.24.09 @ 9:13AM
At a high school graduation last spring I saw some lads wearing their colors, pants waists down to their knees, remain seated during the Pledge of Alligence, and the National Anthem. I half out loud said "some got no respect" and got a look from one of them afterwards. I guess those boyz have received awards all their lives for just showing up. Maybe they expected a diploma and suddenly realized that it takes effort to get one. Carter received his recognition just to get him to shut his corn pone hole, and The Community Organizer and Chief got his for alot of plavering, just the opposite. Much like giving your dog a bone to get him out from under your feet. It is meaningless merit and not one thing has been changed.
Larryk| 11.24.09 @ 9:42AM
That just cheapens the prize.
Ken (Old Texican)| 11.24.09 @ 9:44AM
Merry Christmas, Melvin, and a thankful Thanksgiving as well.
You know, the ironic thing is that Obama policies have already lost more Americans their health insurance than his bill is supposed to cover. Hmmmmm!
I honestly believe the man is trying to break the spirit of Americans, in order to bend them to his will.
It is going to be a dark cold winter for many Americans THIS winter...and the numbers I see...portend an even worse one the following winter.
The only...ONLY...immediate "bootstrap" effect I can see working properly is to put millions of Americans to work in America...producing and refining oil and gas...and ..."manufacturing" modular nuclear plants.
At one and the same time, we could put trillions of $ into circulation...and pay for it out of the balance of international trade profits.
Sarah Palin understands and advocates same.
Well, it ain't gonna' happen on a Democrat congress' watch, and we will have to have a revolution at the ballot box in 2010 for it to happen on Obama's watch.
What's worse, it may not even happen if the Republicans take over...unless we put a cattle prod to their arses every day of their terms.
Turk,
On another thread had it right!
We may have to witness a total collapse before we can build our country back to the "engine of the world" we have always known.
There are simply no other engines across the world that could even imagine becoming that engine. Their elites "have theirs" and could care less about anyone else.
OK Patriots,
Time to get our heads out and go to work!
Al Adab| 11.24.09 @ 11:34AM
The visible indecisivness of President Al Naqis results directly from the Left's abhorance of military force. The mindset is so oppositional to military action that even when it is mandatory they are unable to order action. The thought process paralizes them. As a result the nation is endangered by seeming weakness and indecision. The enemy, which they cannot admit exist as such, (misunderstood you know) watch this display and take great comfort in it. It makes for dangerous times.
The concept of providing a forum in the way of criminal trials for the terrorists simply feeds this perception of American weakness. Churchill said, "In defeat defiance, in victory magnanimity". We would do well to remember "There is no substitute for victory".
Tim| 11.24.09 @ 11:48AM
Why, you couldn't be more wrong about Obama;
"What if we had one hundred John Allen Muhammeds driving one hundred cheap junker cars with one hundred teen shooters hiding in the trunks of those vehicles? "
We won't, because Obama bought up all those cheap junker cars. No, Mr Blackwell, if the snipers come back, this time they'll have to take the bus...
Ken (Old Texican)| 11.24.09 @ 12:04PM
Hi Tim (smart alek) (smile).
Where in the country do you make your home?
We posted on twitter yesterday: "Send the Jihadists to Texas, Mr. Obama. We can play "cowboys and Jihadists" with them.
Fort Hood is a "gubmint reservation" (no private firearms allowed).
People from all over the country come here to do business with us, and always remark about how friendly everyone is on the freeways. Only half joking I tell them it is because nearly everyone is armed...mostly with "long guns" (shotguns and rifles), and everyone knows it.
Robert Heinlein: "An armed society is a polite society."
Heh.
Tim| 11.24.09 @ 2:03PM
Ken I hail from behind the Liberal Curtain: if my activities here were revealed it would land me in re-education summer camp.
Northern Rebel| 11.24.09 @ 12:46PM
Carter, Obama, and Gore share an award given to Yasser Arafat.
That's good enough for me.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 11.24.09 @ 2:33PM
I long ago came to realize that Jimmy Carter is living vomit and just wish his evil persona would go away.
Tim| 11.24.09 @ 2:38PM
I fear that in the Obama years ahead we will wish for a tower of strength and leadership like Jimmuh.
Alan Brooks| 11.24.09 @ 3:03PM
I always wondered how someone as naive as Carter could have been elected potus.
Nixon's legacy was part of it, as you know;
but Carter is as smart as Hoover was, so there is no excuse for him.
And just when race relations become merely bad rather than horrendous, the jerkowitz from Plains has to shoot his mouth off that Joe Wilson is a "racist".
Worst thing is, he means well. He just suffers from diarrhea of the mouth.
Marc Jeric| 11.24.09 @ 4:04PM
There is an increasing crescendo to the line of Democrat presidents and contenders:
1) Carter - a primitive bloviating gasbag;
2) Clinton - a grasping small-town crook;
3) Dean - a multimillionaire owner of a string of abortion mills;
4) Kerry - a phony self-proclaimed hero with 8 weeks of "military" service; "reporting or duty" indeed;
5) Gore - a functional moron;
...etc... I have to puke now...
Then we have now the Community Organizer-in-Chief, Abu Hussein from Kenya, a revolutionary marxist par execellence.
Alan Brooks| 11.24.09 @ 4:50PM
Couldn't disagree with you more on Clinton-- he was as good as Reagan.
Crook? well, Lincoln broke the law when he didn't have to (though I think the South got what it deserved for its disingenuousness in saying it was Christian). Clinton ended up doing the opposite of what he intended, he became conservative; Bush eventually became a bigger spender than Carter
Mark, you can deconstruct Washington if you want to. Believe whatever you want
hunter| 11.24.09 @ 5:03PM
Well said everyone. I voted for Carter in'76, it was the last Democratic presidential canidate I voted for and most likely ever will. This Obomba jerk has already blown past Carter so fast he is already out of sight of Carter. Just wait till all the stupid crap he has instigated begin to bear fruit. Has anyone figured out why Oprah has decided to quit in 2011? Ans. the shit is really gonna hit the fan big time by that time and Oprah wants to get the hell out of Dodge, she wants to get as far away as possible. Worse yet this dumb ........... (use your own descriptive wording) Hasn't stopped digging yet. Just like President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, this ingorant............. Is blaming everything on the previous adminstration, congress,the republicans, the weather, next it will be the american people. one cannot belive the similaraties between Zimbabwe and the USA at this time. The only diffrence is they have a 3 year head start. Look up Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe see for yourselves. Cathy Buckle has a wweekly newsletter thats very interesting.
Alan Brooks| 11.24.09 @ 7:12PM
Nah, you are underestimating Obama.
As with Clinton; you tossed the same 'pinkocommiefagTOFUSAVEthe HOLLYWOODWHALES' raspberries in his direction, and his wife is now Secstate.
But it is best you find out the hard way, in '12, that YOU guys are the chumps-- not Obama.
2011, a Gingrich is sworn in.
2013, Obama is re-sworn in.
Ken (Old Texican)| 11.24.09 @ 6:07PM
hunter,
Political correctness be damned! I'm gonna' say it!
There is an old Texas saying that has nothing to do with race:
"He's acting N___r-rich!"
I just defined our President and all his ilk.
It means burning money when one doesn't have any, and partying instead of feeding the kids.
Alan Brooks| 11.24.09 @ 7:16PM
or Gingrich selling tickets to Mars.
it's all in the his book, 'Building A New American Civilization'.
$29.99
Introduction by David Gergen
fallen earth chips | 11.24.09 @ 8:53PM
What is so amusing is that Carter and Obama (and Gore, too, for that matter) actually believe they deserved the prize. There was no mood dampening in these camps from knowing the true basis of each person's selection.
DatsunMark| 11.24.09 @ 9:34PM
Just wait until we get the inflation of our currency and the gas lines during our next crisis...back to the 70's. It would almost be funny except some of us will pay the price of this weak POTUS with our skins.
Alan Brooks| 11.24.09 @ 10:39PM
c'mon, they said that about Clinton.
Alan Brooks| 11.24.09 @ 10:40PM
YOU are naive, not Obama.
Pingback| 11.25.09 @ 2:16AM
The Inevitable Pests From Daycare – Bringing Back Home The Nasty Germs… by Mickmurp links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 11.25.09 @ 9:42AM
Watcher of Weasels » Watcher’s Council Nominations – Pre-Thanksgiving Edition links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 11.25.09 @ 11:26AM
Bookworm Room » On the road again links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Richard Baker| 11.25.09 @ 12:36PM
Hey Brooks! Since space tourism is a nascent industry, what's wrong with futurist thinking? Eventually, we'll get to Mars and Gingrich is just thinking ahead as did von Braun, Rutan, Goddard, and Branson. Or is future thinking too much for you? Rx: Lay down and take two aspirin until the thinking pain subsides.
Donald Niedospial| 11.25.09 @ 1:40PM
As much as I would like to put most of the blame on Obama, I think it is appropriate to put most of the blame on the stupidity of the Americans that voted for him. Didn't they bother to look at his record or the people he associated with?
Pingback| 11.26.09 @ 11:55AM
Webloggin » Watcher’s Council Nominations..Pre-Thanksgiving Edition links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 11.27.09 @ 2:03PM
Watcher of Weasels » The Council Has Spoken! links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Mandarin Chinese Online | 11.28.09 @ 5:07AM
nothing is impossible to a willing heart!
Pingback| 11.29.09 @ 10:53PM
Bookworm Room » Results from the Thanksgiving edition of the Watcher’s Council links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
electronic | 11.30.09 @ 4:18AM
nothing is impossible to a willing heart!
Pingback| 1.5.10 @ 1:20PM
» The Left Goes to War Against Science, Surrenders on Terror - Big Government links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
ReCon USMC| 1.5.10 @ 6:54PM
Winter Could Be Worst in 25 Years for USA...
CHILL MAP...
Britain braced for heaviest snowfall in 50-years...
GAS SUPPLIES RUNNING OUT IN UK...
Elderly burn books for warmth?
Vermont sets 'all-time record for one snowstorm'...
The population of Polar Bears is growing in the Arctic
Colorado had 64 inches of Snow last Sept.
Iowa temps 'a solid 30 degrees below normal'...
Chicago Coldest summer and winter in 37 years
Seoul buried in heaviest snowfall in 70 years...
3 die in fire at Detroit home; power was cut...
Midwest Sees Near-Record Lows, Snow By The Foot...
NJ. Electric plant freeze .
Houston had 5 inches of Snow .
Miami shivers from coldest weather in decade...
*****enough said ********
Pingback| 1.5.10 @ 11:45PM
IFC News The Left Goes to War Against Science, Surrenders on Terror links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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