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Iraq-Jordan
Carter Dementia Resurgent
2004-12-16
Nobel Peace Prize winner and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has expressed strong misgivings about Iraqi elections next month and said there was not enough security in the country for a free and safe vote.
"Nope. Nope. Can't do it. Put Sammy back in, then start over. And get it right this time!"
Carter, whose nonpartisan Carter Centre has monitored more than 50 elections around the world, told Reuters on Wednesday he would not be involved in observing the January 30 vote and was not optimistic about the situation in Iraq. "I think the whole Iraqi situation has been a debacle, a very costly one.
"Not as much of a debacle as having our embassy in Teheran occupied, and the staff taken hostage, but still a debacle..."
I don't see how all the rudimentary requirements for a free and safe election can be achieved in another month. How can anyone campaign? How can anyone go and vote without fear?," he said in an interview.
"Best to just forget the whole idea. Maybe you can find a holy man to rule the country for a few years, until the natives are ready?"
"They might contrive some substitute for an orthodox election by having the vote take place over several weeks or in certain little spots scattered about Iraq and not in the troubled areas. But there is not enough security there in my opinion to have a legitimate election. I hope I am wrong and that they have some success," he added. ...
I take a certain amount of comfort in the fact that Jimmy's usually wrong.
Posted by:.com

#23  Think what you will about Lester Maddox... when asked about Jimmuah in 1972,

"when he's smiling he's lying"
Posted by: Shipman   2004-12-16 5:29:00 PM  

#22  Jimmy Carter...one of the great assholes of our time. He should fall and hit his head. Hard.
Posted by: Remoteman   2004-12-16 5:01:04 PM  

#21  BigEd, my mother was right about 'good intentions' as she was about many other things. Failure to understand this truth about people takes you straight down the road of explaining the world thru wacky conspiracies, evil capitalists, and the whole Leftist nine yards.
Posted by: phil_b   2004-12-16 2:57:36 PM  

#20  Carter, the only known case of senile dementia who started at conception.
Posted by: JFM   2004-12-16 2:39:29 PM  

#19  "Git a rabbit!"
Posted by: mojo   2004-12-16 2:26:18 PM  

#18  Steve, Any chance we can get the IDF to target key Hamas leaders while Jimmah is meeting with them?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis   2004-12-16 12:29:20 PM  

#17  My husband argues that because the man means well, therefore he cannot be evil. My husband should concentrate on his job, and stop worrying his pretty head about such things ;-)

Thanks for the chuckle, Trailing Wife.
Posted by: badanov   2004-12-16 12:24:55 PM  

#16  Funny you should mention that, tu3031:

Carter to be monitor for Palestinian vote
Former President Jimmy Carter, who received a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in the Middle East, said yesterday he would head an observer mission to monitor the Palestinian presidential elections next month.Carter, who helped broker the 1979 Camp David accord between Egypt and Israel, said his Carter Center had been invited by Palestinian leaders to monitor the Jan. 9 poll.
Carter said he was optimistic the elections to replace the late Yasser Arafat would be ''honest, fair, free, and safe."
''Ever since then the Palestinian leaders -- Arafat and his successors -- have told me that when and if they have another election they want the Carter Center to be observing it," Carter said. ''I will be going out there two or three days in advance and we will have a total of 80 or 90 observers all over the place." More than 600 foreign observers, including delegations from the European Union and Russia, are expected to monitor the vote.

With Jimmy as the hand-picked election counter, the Paleos will welcome him with open arms.
Posted by: Steve   2004-12-16 12:01:29 PM  

#15  If he's so concerned about the elections, tell him to get his peanut picking ass over there and observe them. If we're lucky, maybe he'll get blown up.
Posted by: tu3031   2004-12-16 11:39:19 AM  

#14  Guys, look, he's obviously even more demented than usual. November was a hard month for him (the election, his good buddy Yassir taking a dirt nap).
I'm happy that he won't be mucking things up in Iraq, though. Last thing they need is a visit from ol' Attack Bunny Bait......
Posted by: Desert Blondie   2004-12-16 11:30:01 AM  

#13  Phil B : Dementia makes the person immune to judgements of good and evil, though his actions are clearly evil. Jimmuh nees to be medicated. Then he will realize how much he looks like a fool for supporting all these evil nitwads (buddy Hugo Chavez of Venezuela), and keep his mouth shut, and leave the diplomacy to those who still have a full complement of functioning brain cells.
Posted by: BigEd   2004-12-16 11:08:00 AM  

#12  Now Venezuela, There's a country that knows how to provide security for an election.
Posted by: James E. Carter   2004-12-16 10:19:02 AM  

#11  "Jimmah!"
Posted by: BH   2004-12-16 10:14:34 AM  

#10  Once again, the punchline: "Isn't Jimmy Carter somewhere building low-cost igloos for the Eskimos or something?"
Posted by: Anonymoose   2004-12-16 9:26:38 AM  

#9  carterweb@emory.edu

Tell that meely-mouthed son-of-a-bitch what you think of him.
Posted by: Floting Granter5198   2004-12-16 9:15:52 AM  

#8  Easier to just strand him in some third world hole he adores.
Posted by: Tom   2004-12-16 8:29:26 AM  

#7  Isn't there a law against interference in US foreign policy?

Or, in this case, couldn't we at least TRY for a treason conviction?
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2004-12-16 8:17:05 AM  

#6  Trailing
How does your husband know that Carter means well? It seems to me that, at least on some level, Carter really, really despises America at least in part because America rejected him.
Posted by: mhw   2004-12-16 8:15:16 AM  

#5  Carter, showing the world how much lasting damage can ocurr from 4 years of poor leadership. He, an ex-president, shared a box with Michael Moore at the Dim Convention. I think that summs him up nicely.
Posted by: 2b   2004-12-16 8:08:25 AM  

#4  My husband argues that because the man means well, therefore he cannot be evil. As my mother used to say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Posted by: phil_b   2004-12-16 7:40:17 AM  

#3  I saw that Carter was on television last night (Tonight Show and PBS's Charlie Rose among others) pimping his latest book (#19, supposedly a best seller). My husband argues that because the man means well, therefore he cannot be evil. My husband should concentrate on his job, and stop worrying his pretty head about such things ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife   2004-12-16 7:30:42 AM  

#2  The State department should pull his passport. Ex presidents are supposed to be quiet. Maybe the current administration should start leaking information that will remind him of that.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom   2004-12-16 4:05:45 AM  

#1  I'm sure ex-president (God I love that word) Carter can do for the Iraqi elections what he did for Venezuela. Send him and his hammer to observe in Ramadi. And when is Jimmah going to Tehran to bless the Mullah's elections. After all he gave them their start (and much of the subsequent Middle East lunacy).
Posted by: ed   2004-12-16 1:55:43 AM  

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