In Defense of Jimmy Carter

I have to side with Jimmy Carter over the recent comment he had about the role of racism in the criticism of President Obama. Again, the right of the blogosphere has been all over this. Here is Carter's original comment, starting at about 43 seconds in

I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity towards President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man

This was interpreted by critics of Carter as a statement that the majority of opposition to President Obama is based on racism.

That is not how I interpreted his statement when it first broke into the news. Here is what I thought he meant. There is a lot of opposition to President Obama. Out of all of that opposition, some of it may be characterized as "intensely demonstrated animosity." Carter is saying that within that subset of "intensely demonstrated animosity," an overwhelming portion is based on racism. This is very different from saying a majority of opposition to Obama is based on racism. Indeed, I don't think you can characterize a significant portion of the opposition to Obama as "intensely demonstrated animosity."

I don't doubt that some portion of the "intensely demonstrated animosity" is based on racism. I am not sure if I would say "a majority." Certainly some people have a strong animosity to members of opposite political parties, regardless of race.

Carter has since addressed the criticism, clarifying his position:



This of course resulted in more blog attacks, with writers saying that Carter was changing his story. Sorry, but I have to side with Carter on this one. His clarification just makes it clear to me that my initial interpretation of his original statement was correct.

It doesn't give me any pleasure to agree with Carter, but I think if you are going to have a blog, you should try to be up front and honest.