Another Fascinating (to me at least) Anecdote From Novak’s Memoirs
[Posted by WLS]
The 1976 election of Jimmy Carter was just before I came of age politically, and I have no recollection of the issues of the day or the politics of the season.
But, Novak in his memoirs goes back to some of the earliest columns he wrote about Carter, one in the December 1975 before Carter shocked the Dem. establishment by winning in Iowa — and recalls how he pointed out with stark clarity the fact that the future President was a LIAR. His column pointed out 9 specific lies told by Carter in a couple of different forums, all of which he was able to fact check before reporting them.
Novak recalls one of Carter’s first appearances on Face the Nation in December, 1975. Carter was asked about the pending campaign finance legislation that would, for the first time, limit contributions to candidates. Carter responded by saying he was in favor of the legislation, and as a long-time member of Common Cause he had played a role in the formulation of the ideas behind the legislation. Novak had reported on campaign finance issues for several years, and had never before heard Carter’s name — he didn’t even know who Carter was until he announced his presidential bid.
He checked with Common Cause and found that Rossalyn Carter had joined the organization, but not Jimmy Carter. Further, no one connected to the pending legislation could remember Jimmy Carter being involved in any fashion.
Next, Carter was asked about his decision to challenge Henry Scoop Jackson for the nomination only 4 years after Carter had given the nominating speech on Jackson’ behalf at the 1972 Convention. Carter made reference to his “long-standing” friendship with Jackson going back to the time Carter worked under Adm. Hyman Rickover on the nuclear submarine program and Jackson was a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
When Novak checked with Jackson’s staff, they said Jackson had never met Carter before he was elected Governor of Georgia, and that its unlikely that Carter, as a mere Lt. in the Navy would have had any high level involvement with Rickover or Congress on the development of the nuclear submarine program, though he certainly went through the training on the military side. He spent only 2 years in the nuclear program, attached to two different subs before his father died and he resigned his commission to return home to run the family business. http://www.military.com/Content/MoreContent?file=ML_jcarter_bkp
At another forum with some newspaper editors, Carter was asked again about his relationship with Jackson, and in giving his answer he made reference to his many breakfasts with the then late Sen. Richard Russell of Georgia over the years. Novak contacted Russell’s former staffers, and they said Carter was “greatly exaggerating” the extent of his relationship with the Georgia political legend Russell.
Carter also made mention during this session with editors about his involvment in reaching a compromise on the Atlanta voluntary school busing in the early 1970s. But, people who participated in the negotiations from start to finish could recall Carter only attending one session, and his only contribution being that he opposed forced busing. An unnamed member of the NAACP called Carter’s claim regarding having helped the sides to reach a settlement “a damn lie.”
Carter also told the editors that two policy experts giving advice to his campaign were the former Secretary of the Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare Wilbur Cohen, and the former Undersecretary of State, George Ball. Novak knew both and asked them about the claim.
Cohen told Novak that he spent one day with Carter in Georgia when he was Governor — in 1973 — two years before Carter made the claim.
Ball told Novak that he had breakfast with Carter one time, several months before Carter made the claim.
Novak’s column recounted all these episodes and the responses from Novak’s sources, and included comments from political “enemies” in Georgia that Carter was well known as a liar in the state’s political circles.
Novak then goes on to relate another Carter appearance some weeks later on Face the Nation. The format at the time had two CBS television journalists joined by one non-CBS print journalist to do the questioning. From the mid-60’s to the mid-70’s, Novak was the print journalist most frequently requested by CBS to participate. But he came to the Carter appearance with loaded questions.
First, he asked Carter about a favorite applause line he used in his stump speeches when he claimed that US Ambassadors in the Ford Administration were really fat, bloated, ignorant Nixon contributors who didn’t even speak the language of the countries where they were posted. Novak asked Carter if he was willing to identify any such Ambassador by name. Carter hemmed and hawed over how often he really made such a claim during his stump speeches, but Novak pressed him. When Carter still refused to answer, Novak pointed out that only 4 US Ambassadors in the Ford Administration had contributed to Nixon, three of them spoke the language of the country where they were posted, and the fourth was enrolled in language school at the time. He asked Carter if his criticism was inaccurate and unfair. Carter had no response.
Novak’s last question of the really set Carter’s teeth on edge. Referring to a Carter campaign pledge to cut the defense budget by $7-8 billion (not sure what that would be in today’s dollars), and his frequent complaint that the military was bloated with too many post-Vietnam Generals and Admirals, Novak asked if Carter knew how much of the defense budget went to paying the salaries and benefits of Generals and Admirals. Carter again fixed an unsmiling stare at Novak, and stated that he did not have those numbers in front of him. Novak told him that .04% of the defense budget went to such expenses — approximately $41 million — and asked if Carter didn’t owe the public more specific and accurate information about his plan to cut the defense budget.
Again, Carter had no answer.
Novak goes on to state that notwithstanding the fact that he was the most-often invited guest as a print journalist on Face the Nation, his appearance that Sunday questioning Carter in 1975 was his last. He was never again called by CBS. He only learned later that Carter’s staff complained that Novak was biased against Carter, and stated that Carter would never again appear on the show if CBS continued to use Novak as a questioner.
Again, I’m not Bob Novak’s agent, but if you like politics and political history that you might not have been old enough to understand or appreciate, Novak’s memoirs are fascinating.
I wish we could get tough questions like these at the presidential debates. If the candidate hemmed and hawed, or deftly sidestepped the question, the moderator should point that out and tell the candidate, “You didn’t answer the question; I’m going to give you a second chance to answer the question.”
aunursa (334437) — 9/4/2007 @ 3:51 pmShame on Carter and CBS. Apparently even then CBS cared more about access than truth.
DRJ (bfe07e) — 9/4/2007 @ 3:59 pmThat was the first presidential election I voted in. This aspect of the Carter campaign is totally new to me, though in hindsight is not terribly surprising. I was not a Sunday morning news program viewer then (or now), and I don’t remember any questioning of Carter’s honesty or integrity.
What I do remember is he was protrayed as a moderate democrat, his Navy experience was highlighted (“a democrat knowledgeable about defense issues”- and smart too, nuclear subs) as was his religious faith as a “Born Again” Baptist (bumper stickers said, “Like Jimmy, I’m Born Again”).
It’s amazing and ironic looking back-
The ironic/interesting:
-Dem navy officer trying to capitalize ala the original JFK
-smart (nuclear engineer on a sub) vs dumb (former Michigan football player with too many concussions)
Tha amazing/ironic:
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 9/4/2007 @ 4:07 pm-A democrat presidential candidate courting the evangelical vote on the basis of “integrity” post-Nixon.
[This was back in the day when we were “told” to “not be a one issue voter” concerning abortion, and Carter’s “I’m personally opposed to abortion but I’m not going to enforce my morality on others was the majority opinion. Of course, at the time, the majority of Americans thought that abortion was some rare event that happened on occasion to no one they knew and so it didn’t matter much anyway.]
I’m with aunursa. I have yet to hear a reporter take an interviewee to task, saying “Your answer is not responsive to the question. Please give me a responsive answer.”
dchamil (e5b5f0) — 9/4/2007 @ 4:56 pm$7 billion in 1975 is about $27 billion in 2006 dollars. National Defense budget for 1975 was about $86 billion, so he claimed he wanted to cut 8-9%. National defense budget for 2003 was about $405 billion; 2001 was $305 billion, so the inflated $27 would be about the same cut for non-wartime defense budget.
Pat Oliphant had a cartoon during the campaign. Text went something like … I had this horrible nightmare last night – I was hanging from a cliff by my fingernails, when along came these two turkeys … and the drawing showed large adult male turkeys, one with Carter’s head, one with Ford’s.
Don’t agree much with Pat these days, but he nailed that one.
JohnS (e28e82) — 9/4/2007 @ 5:01 pm“I am Jimmy Carter, and I am running for President. I will never lie to you.”
Those were his opening lines in virtually every campaign appearance. It was, of course, a purely cynical political claim — and a fairly obvious one to run on, given that he was running against Richard Nixon’s hand-picked successor and doing his best to smear Ford with Nixon’s stains.
1976 was my first opportunity to vote in a presidential election, too. As I recall, my near-campus precinct in Austin went for Carter by something like 85%, but I was proudly in the minority, and I’ve certainly never had cause to regret that vote.
Beldar (bdd5c6) — 9/4/2007 @ 5:13 pmI was in Chicago by then and I am proud that even the Daley Machine could not deliver the vote for Carter. Four years later, Mayor Byrne would not let him march in the St. Patrick’s Day parade but invited Ted Kennedy instead. I also remember a gaggle of network TV reporters regretting out loud the slack they cut Carter during the campaign and the beginning of his presidency.
nk (a6ecc6) — 9/4/2007 @ 5:26 pmBeldar — I neglected to mention that Novak juxtaposed his reporting on Carter against the very line that you attribute to him. “I’ll never lie to you” — but in Novak’s view, Carter was the most carelessly dishonest President and Candidate of all the dozens he has reported on. I get the feeling from the Memoirs that Novak believed that Carter never saw any problem with his habit of taking liberties with the truth — like he was oblivious to the very fact of what he was doing.
WLS (077d0d) — 9/4/2007 @ 5:26 pmJimmy Carter: “I will never lie to you.”…
WLS, guest-posting on Patterico’s Pontifications, noted Chicago Tribune reporter Bob Novak’s recollections about Mr Carter’s first presidential campaign — and those recollections don’t speak well for Mr “I will never lie to you’s” trut…
Common Sense Political Thought (819604) — 9/4/2007 @ 5:49 pmGahkkk! My trackback above had Mr Novak as a Chicago Tribune reporter, when he is actually a columnist with the Chicago Sun-Times.
Dana (c36902) — 9/4/2007 @ 5:53 pmI remember seeing that Face the Nation program. I guess I must be older than you are, I also had the distinct pleasure of voting _against_ James Earl Carter; alas, he won.
John Costello (9ba089) — 9/4/2007 @ 6:20 pmI too was in my first election….and unfortunately for me, I was much too immature to be my own man, and voted the way my parents, staunch Demos that they were…as I began to pay more attention, even before the Iran hostage situation, I learned how wrong I was….
My other thought here is that it is so sad that the MSN has fallen so far….and how far down they were even then, to completely ignore the “twisted truths” of Jimmy Carter….
reff (4e3fcd) — 9/4/2007 @ 6:41 pm“I am Jimmy Carter, and I am running for President. I will never lie to you.”
I remember Carter spouting that line over and over – delivered with his special condescending smugness he still exhibits when he comes down from the mountain and lectures to his lessors. His lessors being just about everybody.
Perfect Sense (b6ec8c) — 9/4/2007 @ 6:54 pmIt sounds as though Carter was always a liar.
Pat Williams (56a0a8) — 9/4/2007 @ 7:29 pmWorse, Pat, he was and is a man self-deluded by his own self-righteousness. Far more dangerous than a mere liar.
Robin Roberts (6c18fd) — 9/4/2007 @ 7:34 pmI voted for Ford, and it’s one of the votes I’ve never regretted. Should have voted twice.
Post-Watergate, Cambodia a nightmare, and people drowning trying to leave Vietnam. Inflation on the rise at maybe 5-6% due to the Johnson-Nixon policy of guns AND butter. And Carter’s WHOLE campaign was “Trust Me.”
Thank God for Reagan.
Kevin Murphy (0b2493) — 9/4/2007 @ 7:37 pm1976 Campaign: Jimmah was the proverbial “Yellow Dog”; was not someone who (reportedly) could not walk and chew gum at the same time; and though he made a few gaffs of his own, didn’t say that Poland was not under Soviet domination.
When the media does all it can to push you to the front, all you have to do is be able to stand up when your opponent keeps bumping his head.
But, when you have the arrogance of AlGore, and drip with the condescension of Kerry, even the full-court press of the media (and Evan Thomas’ 15%) may not be enough.
Another Drew (8018ee) — 9/4/2007 @ 7:59 pmI didn’t have the opportunity to vote against History’s Greatest Monster until 1980. How often I wished during the four years preceding that, that I’d been born four years earlier.
But then my brother and I would have been twins, and there’s no telling what would have happened.
McGehee (25adee) — 9/4/2007 @ 7:59 pmI too, have never regretted my vote for Ford. Carter is certainly earning his stripes as our worst ex-President to go along with his dismal performance in office.
daleyrocks (906622) — 9/4/2007 @ 8:05 pmWorst ex-president ever, daley?
Worse than John Tyler even?
Who knew building houses for the poor and writing bestselling books was worse than treason?
alphie (99bc18) — 9/4/2007 @ 8:19 pmWho knew that alphie was so ignorant of Carter’s many embarrassments both in and out of office.
Oh, that’s right. We all knew.
Robin Roberts (6c18fd) — 9/4/2007 @ 8:22 pmAlphie – His fiction sucks and his unauthorized diplomacy is even worse. His homebuilding is ok, but he has others helping him with that so it’s tougher to screw up.
daleyrocks (906622) — 9/4/2007 @ 8:25 pmWOW — In looking back at Novak’s book on this subject, I realized I left out the best part of the whole episode involving the “Carter Lies” column.
A couple weeks after the column ran, Carter was on the ground in Iowa, and six journalists from national publications were invited to meet with him one-on-one between campaign stops, 20 minutes each. Novak was one of the six, and Jody Powell, the Campaign Press Secretary said the meetings would take place in order of seniority, but it was up to the journalists to determine that order.
The consensus was that Novak would go first.
So he gets in the car with Carter, and Carter starts off by saying words to the effect of “Bob, I’m really disappointed in the column you wrote about me. No so much about the damage you did to my campaign, but I’m more disappointed more so about how you feel about me.”
Novak responded, “Governor, I’m sorry you feel that way.”
So, Novak then goes on for 20 minutes getting non-responsive answers to his questions, and then exits the car.
Each of the other six journalists go in order. When the last one was done (Novak names him but I don’t have the book in front of me), he gets out of the car and goes straight to Novak and askes “Why did you apologize for your column?” Novak looks at the reporter and says “I didn’t.” The reporter then says “I started off by asking Governor Carter a question concerning an allegation made in your column, and Carter waived me off saying that you had just apolozied for the column and said you wished you hadn’t written it.”
That pretty much tells you what you need to know about Carter.
Tomorrow I’m going to put up a post on the subject of Ford’s debate comment about Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. Believe it or not, Novak was responsible for that.
He’s like Forrest Gump.
wls (fb8809) — 9/4/2007 @ 8:29 pmHaha, Robin, compared to what?
I never voted for Carter, be he seems like a decent man.
Which is probably why y’all hate him so much.
alphie (99bc18) — 9/4/2007 @ 8:34 pmRun, Bob, run.
DRJ (bfe07e) — 9/4/2007 @ 8:35 pmOne of the interesting things in his book about carter was the war strategy that was leaked to Novak. In short Carter was ok with ceding one third of west germany in the event of a war. Novak wrote about it and the plan was changed. According to Novak it was a top secret document.
Kind of interesting in light of the NY times leaking the government monitoring that has been occurring.
voiceofreason (d28ed4) — 9/4/2007 @ 8:40 pmWLS, another good example I think of how self-delusion and self-righteous are expressed by Carter. I think that his lies are as often his warped perception of the world as circumnavigating his ego.
Alphie, it always amuses me how much your opinons of the world and current events depend upon your complete ignorance of both.
Robin Roberts (6c18fd) — 9/4/2007 @ 8:52 pmJust because ol’ Jimmuh steps on a few special interest groups’ toes doesn’t make him a bad man, Robin.
In fact, it kinda makes him a great man.
alphie (99bc18) — 9/4/2007 @ 9:01 pmAlphie, we know that you would think that someone who praises terrorists a great man. That is consistent with your other pro-terrorist pronouncements.
Robin Roberts (6c18fd) — 9/4/2007 @ 9:09 pmOne of the quirks I remember about Carter was his pronunciation of the word nuclear: he pronounced it the same way GW Bush does, as nuke-you-lar, but didn’t get the same amount of grief about it; it was written off as a quirk, whereas with Bush it’s cited as evidence of stupidity. It’s probably an example of regional pronunciation with both men.
Robert (8542ed) — 9/4/2007 @ 9:17 pmWe’re arming and allying ourselves with Sunni terrorists in Iraq now, Robin.
Jimmuh was just a little ahead of the rest of y’all is all.
alphie (99bc18) — 9/4/2007 @ 9:19 pmAlphie, given that you think that we could have reached Bin Laden and Al Queda in Afghanistan without fighting the Taliban, I find your analyses of the war on terror to be just more ignorant prattle.
Robin Roberts (6c18fd) — 9/4/2007 @ 9:24 pmTwo of the ten U.S. Army divisions in existence at the time we invaded Afghanistan were airborne, Robin.
Even Bush coulda figured it out.
alphie (99bc18) — 9/4/2007 @ 9:42 pmMugabe fan, huh, Alphie, just like Jimmah.
daleyrocks (906622) — 9/4/2007 @ 10:15 pm“The reporter then says “I started off by asking Governor Carter a question concerning an allegation made in your column, and Carter waived me off saying that you had just apolozied for the column and said you wished you hadn’t written it.””
Lots of talk about ‘lies’ somewhat lacking in substantiation, other than third-party hearsay.
Is it CDS?
Semanticleo (4741c2) — 9/5/2007 @ 3:19 amMiss Cleo – Seeing as though the person directly involved, Novak, is telling this story from his perspective, and given his reputation, I am inclined to believe him. If you are contending that Novak is lying, please provide your evidence.
JD (0b8ce0) — 9/5/2007 @ 4:30 amRobin Roberts nails it in #15. Well said!
That was also my first opportunity to vote. God help me, I voted for Carter. Learned my lesson, though. It’s also the last time I voted for a Democrat.
The fact that we never heard of all these reporters being lied to by Carter as reported in #23 says much about how long the press has been partisan. Grrr.
Note that alphie’s website is alphaVICTIM@blogspot.com. Now, go read what Dennis Prager has to say about “victimhood” being a source of evil. Hmmm….
Ranten N. Raven (e5e6e1) — 9/5/2007 @ 4:37 amAlphie…
The US has only one Airborne Division, the 82d. The 101st Airborne is not actually airborne, it is Air Assault.
So, although Bush could figure it out, apparently you can not.
How does that make you feel?
headhunt23 (9e1243) — 9/5/2007 @ 4:42 amAlphie wrote:
Some of us think that Mr Carter’s actions after he left the White House are tantamount to treason. He undermined American policy in North LKorea during the Clinton Administration, as well as doing so under the Bush Administration. If he had stuck to building houses, no one would complain about him.
Try reading Joshua Muravchik’s Our Worst Ex-President.
Dana (3e4784) — 9/5/2007 @ 5:01 amIf you Google up “Worst””Ex-President””Carter”, you get 10,300 hite!
Dana (3e4784) — 9/5/2007 @ 5:03 amMark Russell is an entertainer in Washington who does topical humor. When Carter was president, Russell had a song he played that went; “My name is Jimmy Carter and I always tell the truth; ‘Cause every time I tell a lie, I grow another tooth.” Russell then flashed a big Carter smile. His lying was pretty well known.
Ford’s loss was a tragedy because he was vetoing spending bills and William Simon, who was his Secretary of the Treasury, was one of the best Sec Treas of modern times. Had Ford won, we might have avoided the hyperinflation that devastated housing.
I was watching the debate the night Ford made his gaffe and and was shouting at the TV. The worst part of it was that Ford refused to admit the mistake and move on. It cost him the presidency. After Carter was elected, I remember thinking he couldn’t be that bad because he had run a business. I was wrong; he was that bad.
Mike K (86bddb) — 9/5/2007 @ 5:58 amTwo of the ten U.S. Army divisions in existence at the time we invaded Afghanistan were airborne, Robin.
Even Bush coulda figured it out.
headhunt23, excellent observation. Alphie, it would really enrich your military knowledge to read Tommy Franks’ book that details exactly why we didn’t use two divisions to invade Afghanistan. Tommy Franks actually did “figure it out” and even in retrospect, Franks was correct and Shinseki was wrong on this one. Had we invaded Afghanistan in the same manner as the Russians had a few decades earlier (here’s where a knowledge of history is sometimes useful), and as Gen Shinseki recommended, we might well have ended up with a very hostile population that we had driven into the willing arms of the Taliban. And, permit me to opine that if we’re comparing your wealth of military knowledge with that of Tommy Franks, or even a lowly retired Army officer as myself, somehow I don’t think you’re quite in the same ballpark.
Tommy Franks guessed that if we used SOF and CIA operatives teamed with indigenous forces that the Afghan people would generally perceive that as liberation vice occupation. Though we still have problems with the Taliban, one problem we don’t have with the general population is being viewed as occupiers as were the Russians.
But then trying to understand the “nuance” doesn’t quite fit with your tendency toward flipant responces I suppose …
Harry Arthur (5af33b) — 9/5/2007 @ 6:19 amAlphie, Harry Arthur does a good job of explaining some of the operational considerations. And beyond that, we had no way to supply the enormous logistics that even our airborne and air assault divisions require. In Iraq, we only dropped a small unit of the 173rd Airborne Regiment but directly onto an airport. But even if Franks had airdropped the 82nd Airborne into the mountains of Afghanistan, the Taliban would still have fought them.
Your ignorance is truly astonishing for the vehemence of the opinion you base upon it.
Robin Roberts (6c18fd) — 9/5/2007 @ 7:35 amIt borders on humor, but a little hard to laugh about the Carter Bashing here when we are verged on the precipice of History’s next nominee for ‘Worst Freakin’ Presidunce, ever’. Don’t you smell the
Semanticleo (4741c2) — 9/5/2007 @ 8:01 amcoffee brewing?
SemenCleo – Every time I see your name pop up in the Recent Comments section, I just know that a nugget of drivel is forthcoming.
JD (0b8ce0) — 9/5/2007 @ 8:03 amDon’t you need to head back to Oliver Willis’ place? I heard his village is missing one of its many idiots/sycophants.
JD (0b8ce0) — 9/5/2007 @ 8:04 amI also was too young to remember anything of the 1976 presidential race. It is not a surprise to me that even back then, the Dem’s expected the ‘media’ to carry their water , to the point of using threats to get their way.
The other point I find interesting is his “I will never lie to you”, just like the Clinton’s who came to Washington stating they were going to clean up the cesspool. A Democrat always claims/believes they are morally superior to any other stripe of politician. A sad joke that is replayed ad naseum.
doubled (6497b1) — 9/5/2007 @ 8:33 am“just like the Clinton’s who came to Washington stating they were going to clean up the cesspool.”
See #44-strike Carter-insert-Clinton.
Please remit via PayPal the cost of one broken irony meter.
Semanticleo (4741c2) — 9/5/2007 @ 8:40 amIrony meter broken? Sorry , i’m a stupid schmuk, what the hell does that mean? Please wake me up!!!!
doubled (6497b1) — 9/5/2007 @ 8:55 amBut at least now I understand better why leftists always think Bush is lying, their politco’s do it all the time as a tool.
doubled (6497b1) — 9/5/2007 @ 8:58 am“now I understand better why leftists always think Bush is lying”
You’re too young to be so cynical.
Semanticleo (4741c2) — 9/5/2007 @ 9:01 amIt borders on humor, but a little hard to laugh about the Carter Bashing here when we are verged on the precipice of History’s next nominee for ‘Worst Freakin’ Presidunce, ever’. Don’t you smell the coffee brewing?
The KKK has already given that title to Abraham Lincoln. That the Soros left wants to give that title to Bush is what makes me like Bush more.
nk (a6ecc6) — 9/5/2007 @ 9:02 amI’m not so young (43), and I’ve been cynical ever since I stopped being a anarchist in the 8th grade. Then the Reagan bashing was a favorite sport of mine until I realized it was the media who built up the image of him as a warmongering holocost maker. Then Clinton’s came to town on their high horse and converted me away from ‘progressive’ thought for good. I am however , a true liberal ( i believe in power to the individual , NOT the state) in the old style sense, if you care to know this much about me.
doubled (6497b1) — 9/5/2007 @ 9:10 am“That the Soros left wants to give that title to Bush is what makes me like Bush more.”
What made me a Bush fan was when he called the reporter a major league asshole. A spot in my heart for him forever.
doubled (6497b1) — 9/5/2007 @ 9:12 am“The KKK has already given that title to Abraham Lincoln.”
So you think Bush should be likened to Abraham Lincoln?
Semanticleo (4741c2) — 9/5/2007 @ 9:12 am“The KKK has already given that title to Abraham Lincoln.”
So you think Bush should be likened to Abraham Lincoln?
No, that the today’s left should be likened to the KKK.
nk (a6ecc6) — 9/5/2007 @ 9:18 amSo you think Bush should be likened to Abraham Lincoln?
No,
Just askin’. But it would be consistent to deduce “Bush is Abe” from your remarks.
Semanticleo (4741c2) — 9/5/2007 @ 9:24 amI told my Dad I thought that Carter fellow seemed nice enough and that he should vote for him. My Dad stopped, turned to me and laughed out loud. He’d never done that before and apologized for it later.
He said, “Son, I’m sorry I laughed, but that huckleberry is the biggest POS to roll out of Georgia ever, and that is saying something. There’s a reason we don’t let kids vote, and shouldn’t women, and that jackass is it.”
spongeworthy (45b30e) — 9/5/2007 @ 9:25 am“There’s a reason we don’t let kids vote, and shouldn’t women, and that jackass is it.”
Like Father, like Son.
Semanticleo (4741c2) — 9/5/2007 @ 9:32 amAlphie and Semi:
When Carter ran for Governor he pandered to the racists:
“At a time when white backlash was mounting against court-ordered school integration and outgoing Gov. Maddox was immensely popular. Carter played the “race card.” As Sanders biographer James Cook noted. Carter “made a point of visiting a segregated academy, cozying up to George Wallace and Lester Maddox and injecting profanity into his speeches.” Such tactics won Carter the support of such rabid segregationists as former Gov. ( 1954-58 ) Marvin Griffin and political operative Roy Harris of Augusta, who had run Wallace’s winning campaign in Georgia in the 1968 presidential election. (Of that campaign, Harris said: “When you get down to it, there’s only one issue … and you spell il ‘n—-r.'”)”.
davod (5bdbd3) — 9/5/2007 @ 11:28 am“Like Father, like Son.”
Wow, it’s some sort of super-Ad Hominem. He’s not content with attacking the poster instead of the argument, he’s actually attacking the poster’s _family_ instead of the argument.
Maybe Semanticleo is in some sort of “Troll of the Week” competition with alphie?
Dave (6001a6) — 9/5/2007 @ 11:38 am“some sort of super-Ad Hominem.”
Ad Hominem? His dad said it, and he apparently concurs.
“There’s a reason we don’t let kids vote, and shouldn’t women,”
It’s better to let the story tell itself, and you apparently understood the original point. So why are you attacking me? That story also tells itself.
Semanticleo (4741c2) — 9/5/2007 @ 12:09 pmI think my Dad would agree that prohibiting women from voting would be unthinkable. But hucksters like Clinton and Jimmy Carter are the price we pay. Of course, there were at least a few men that voted for those clowns too, taken in by the winning smile, the pearly teeth.
spongeworthy (45b30e) — 9/5/2007 @ 12:21 pm[…] his memoir, lays out some surprising investigations that call into question Carter’s honesty. Patterico summarizes Novak’s claims. One example: Novak recalls one of Carter’s first appearances on Face the Nation in December, […]
nospeedbumps.com » Blog Archive » Jimmy Carter, Perhaps Not So Honest After All (f522ce) — 9/5/2007 @ 6:50 pm[…] at Patterico’s place, contributor WLS relays some anecdotes about former President Jimmy Carter contained in longtime journalist Robert Novak’s latest […]
Hoystory » Blog Archive » I’d love to see the tape (f2fa8b) — 9/7/2007 @ 2:29 am