Posted on 05/02/2006 12:52:31 AM PDT by MadIvan
WITH a grin that is instantly recognisable, the candidate strolls past flashing poker machines in a Las Vegas casino, sticks out his hand and introduces himself: “Hi, my name is Jack Carter. My father used to be President.”
Even the rows of chain-smoking gamblers, their eyes usually fixed to the whirring symbols before them, turn their jaded faces and look with astonishment at the spitting image of the Georgia peanut farmer who in 1976 came from nowhere to win the White House.
Mr Carter, the oldest son of Jimmy Carter, is seeking a US Senate seat for the Democrats in Nevada this November.
He was born in the tiny rural town of Plains, Georgia, but is plotting his first election campaign from his adopted home of Las Vegas, where the nightclubs and casinos of the strip contrast starkly with the red earth and lumber trucks of his childhood.
Mr Carter, 58, also started work 40 years ago as a peanut farmer but turned to investment banking, lived in Bermuda until three years ago and has spent years running his own hedge fund business.
He is borrowing heavily on the themes of his father’s 1976 presidential campaign — honesty and integrity after an era of Republican scandal — and is brazen about how he hopes that the 39th President will propel him to victory in his challenge to the Republican senator John Ensign.
People appear fascinated. They are also surprised: many remember Amy Carter, the President’s daughter who was a teenager when he lived in the White House, but few realise that he also had three grown-up sons.
“I’ve got an advantage my daddy didn’t have,” Mr Carter said over dinner at the Sun Coast casino, yards from a vast expanse of roulette wheels and blackjack tables. “Nobody knew who Jimmy Carter was. I’m going to use his name to raise money and get in the door. I have a certain celebrity status.” Next morning, in front of a group of care workers, he laments — with a Southern drawl just like his father’s — the incompetence of the Bush Administration, the Iraq war and soaring budget deficits.
He pitches himself as a small-town farmer — “my daddy was one of those guys” — and as a successful businessman who understands the importance of fiscal responsibility.
Analysts say that he has an uphill battle to unseat Ensign, a relatively popular senator. He also has a 1970 discharge from the US Navy for marijuana and LSD use to explain. But last week he received the welcome news that he will not face a Democrat primary opponent.
Mr Carter believes that he can win against a Bush loyalist at a time when the country is deeply dissatisfied with the President and the Republicans.
He might be right. One of his audience, John Jackson, 55, said: “I’m a Republican and I’m voting for Jack Carter. I’m sick of the way the Republicans are going. And, like his father, he’s a good guy.”
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
John Jackson is NOT a Republican. MO Republican would remember Carter as "a good guy."
Dracula's.
so he wants to become jimmah carter 2, except this time he used dope and LSD...
i was convicned his dad used LSD all the time...hence the rose tinted communist glasses he wore..
using your dad as a reference when he was the worst president in the history of mankind and contines to make an international fool of himself is hardy the best position to take when looking for a new job...
and now, ladies and gentlemn, appearing at democratic conventions everywhere, this winters comedy smash hit,
jimmah carrrrrter 2
'just when u thought things could not get worse'
"He might be right. One of his audience, John Jackson, 55, said: Im a Republican and Im voting for Jack Carter. Im sick of the way the Republicans are going. And, like his father, hes a good guy.
===
Sure.
The new 'Republicans vote on Wednesday' game
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1613957/posts?page=87#87
"The premise follows a scheme previously found most often on talk radio programs: a liberal activist calls a conservative radio host, such as Rush Limbaugh or Laura Ingraham, and delivers the line: Ive been voting Republican for 30 years, but Ive finally had it and Im not voting this year. Or my favorite: Im a Reagan Republican, but Im fed up and voting for John Kerry. (Because that is what Reagan Republicans would do, vote for John Kerry.) At this point, the host usually asks a couple of questions and it becomes painfully obvious that the supposed Reagan Republican has probably never voted for anyone right of Michael Dukakis. "
A FReeper?
Regards, Ivan
Hey, being a tax and spend liberal that's the son of a president worked for somebody else.
First of all, Jack's Daddy has NO "good name" to bet on, the entire legacy of Jimmy Carter is one of incompetence, malfeasance and treason. America and the West are now facing an Islamic jihad thanks to Jimmy Carter empowering the Assahollah Khomeini to return to Iran and seize power after the Shah was stabbed in the back, the Panama Canal is effectively in the hands of the ChiComs, Taiwan is an outsider thanks to Carter's unilateral decision to favor the ChiComs, and do we need to review the financial/economic equivalent of ebola that Carter unleashed on the U.S. economy?
I don't think so.
Here's a tip for Jack: go back to Georgia and seriously look into putting your dear demented Daddio into a rest home, preferably one with a rubber room.
The Press may be easy to fool, like they are in most elections, but the people know better.
"Good Name?"
Rotsa Ruck...
He will win a toilet seat..
Until a year ago, I thought Amy Carter was an only child.
Yup, the bottom of the cuspidor is where jimmuh belonged then and still belongs to this day.
Rats do that all the time. They say they they're Republican, but yada, yada, yada, they're voting for the rat.
It's because they have no credibility if they come out and say they're a rat. :)
If he's half as bright as his father he's a quarter fast
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.