From Reuters

Obama disagrees with Jimmy Carter on race issue

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/200.....DMQ–

By Steve Holland Steve Holland – Wed Sep 16, 3:43 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s spokesman publicly disagreed with former President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday over Carter’s contention that some conservative opposition to Obama is based on race.

“The president does not think it is based on the color of his skin,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

Carter injected race into Obama’s struggle for a healthcare overhaul after South Carolina Republican Representative Joe Wilson shouted “You lie” at Obama during a healthcare speech in Congress last week and thousands of conservatives rallied opposition to Obama at demonstrations in Washington.

“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,” Carter told NBC News.

He said this “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.”

Carter’s remark drew the condemnation of Michael Steele, the first African-American to become chairman of the Republican National Committee.

“President Carter is flat out wrong. This isn’t about race. It is about policy,” he said in a statement. “This is a pathetic distraction by Democrats to shift attention away from the president’s wildly unpopular government-run healthcare plan that the American people simply oppose.”

—–I find this oddly strange. And strangely odd.

I guess that technically, the Moron is the president although he doesn’t seem to think the title is fitting to his stature.

But as I reflect on your comment, I realize I have a hard time acknowledging him to be the leader of my country. Yes he has the title, but it’s more like he is leading some other country.

Not the country I was born and raised in where people were proud to be Americans. We thought we were the best, the hardest workers, the smartest people, the bravest people, the most creative people. We thought the Constitution was amazing and felt like our leaders were working for the common good. I was proud of our history. I reveled in our accomplishments. I never feared for the future, not for a moment, not even during the 70′s, and not during the 90′s either. I thought the future was boundless. I thought we could do anything. I had confidence in everybody. I spent a lot of time in other countries while growing up and I used feel like people were envious of my family because we were Americans.

That country is gone.

Now I live in a country that is apparently evil to the bone. I’m told I’m greedy because I think I should get to keep what I spent a lifetime earning. I’m a racist because I have different views from a black man. I’m an empirialist because I was proud of what the country had done. I’m distrustful of almost everybody. I expect to get screwed. I KNOW I will. I can’t really say what I think out loud in public because if I do, I could get thrown in jail. I have little confidence in the future. I expect we will all descend into poverty. I expect that we will be attacked by other countries, not frontally, but on the flanks. I expect to be shouted down if I speak up. I expect to struggle to live. I expect to die before I should.

As for racism, I was an army brat. My family always lived in desegregated communities. We were surrounded by minorities. The living conditions were equal. We went to the same schools. There were black officers as well as white officers. I didn’t encounter even the thought of racism until I was 18 and went to college. My best friend in my 20′s was Black. At that time, I lived in a major southern city. I never heard or observed a hint of a slur against that man.

But somehow, decades later that city is a hotbed of racism. I don’t just live in a different city today, I live in a different country. Today, I’m a racist. Every breath I take is racist.

I travelled from the country where I grew up to the country where I now live between Sept 8 and Nov 4, 2008, and I never left the town where I live.

His brother could have done better.

Carter: Rep. Wilson comments ‘based on racism’

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....ing_carter

By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer Greg Bluestein, Associated Press Writer – 22 mins ago

ATLANTA – Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst to President Barack Obama during a speech to Congress last week was an act “based on racism” and rooted in fears of a black president.

“I think it’s based on racism,” Carter said at a town hall held at his presidential center in Atlanta. “There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president.”

The Georgia Democrat said the outburst was a part of a disturbing trend directed at the president that has included demonstrators equating Obama to Nazi leaders.

“Those kind of things are not just casual outcomes of a sincere debate on whether we should have a national program on health care,” he said. “It’s deeper than that.”

Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, was formally rebuked Tuesday in a House vote for shouting “You lie!” during Obama’s speech to Congress last Wednesday.

The shout came after the president commented that illegal aliens would be ineligible for federal subsidies to buy health insurance. Republicans expressed their disbelief with sounds of disapproval, punctuated by Wilson’s outburst.

Tuesday’s rebuke was a rare resolution of disapproval pushed through by Democrats who insisted that Wilson had violated basic rules of decorum and civility. Republicans characterized the measure as a witch hunt and Wilson, who had already apologized to Obama, insisted he owed the House no apology.

Wilson’s spokesman was not immediately available for comment, but his eldest son defended his father.

“There is not a racist bone in my dad’s body,” said Alan Wilson, an Iraq veteran who is running for state attorney general. “He doesn’t even laugh at distasteful jokes. I won’t comment on former President Carter, because I don’t know President Carter. But I know my dad, and it’s just not in him.”

“It’s unfortunate people make that jump. People can disagree — and inappropriately disagree — on issues of substance, but when they make the jump to race it’s absolutely ludicrous. My brothers and I were raised by our parents to respect everyone regardless of background or race.”

South Carolina’s former Democratic Party chairman said that he doesn’t believe Wilson was motivated by racism, but said the outburst encouraged racist views.

——But who should know better than Jimmah? His multi-degreed behavioral science career has been booming. And, for me, if Jimmah says it, then it’s a true fact as far as I’m concerned. (Sarcasm. Deep, dripping sarcasm) And because he, himself is from the South, he surely knows exactly what must have been going through Wilson’s mind. ‘Cuz all white folks be racists. Just ax Newsweek……it happens by the time we’re 6 months old.