Posted on 04/30/2008 5:37:06 PM PDT by mdittmar
Former President Jimmy Carter has given Barack Obama a major boost by calling for the bitter Democratic nomination battle to end on June 3rd and speaking glowingly of his ability to “transform the image” of America.
Mr Carter did not formally endorse Mr Obama but in an interview with The Daily Telegraph made crystal clear where his sympathies lie. He even sketched out the kind of inaugural address the first black United States president could deliver.
Coming from the most distinguished of some 300 uncommitted "super-delegates” - the Democratic party leaders who will crown their party’s nominee - Mr Carter’s new public stance is a blow to Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the White House.
I don’t see any reason at all to continue after June 3rd when we know who got the most [pledged] delegates, who got the most popular votes, who won the most states and so forth,” said Mr Carter, 83.
June 3rd is when the final primaries will be held, in South Dakota and Montana Mrs Clinton, who has a virtually insurmountable deficit among the "pledged” delegates allocated according to votes and is highly unlikely to overcome Mr Obama’s popular vote lead, intends to fight for the Democratic nomination all the way to the party’s convention in August.
Her advisers believe her only hope of defeating Mr Obama would be to persuade the super-delegates that his “electability” against John McCain, the Republican nominee, is so questionable that they should put aside the results of the voting and anoint her instead.
Mr Carter emphasised that he and many other super-delegates would not countenance this. “It would be undemocratic if the super-delegates blatantly went against the decision of Democratic voters across the nation.
"And I think that many super-delegates who have not yet declared their preference have the same feeling that I do, including the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. She’s said over and over that whoever gets the most [pledged] delegates by June 3rd ought to be the nominee.”
It would be “too bad” and damaging to the party if the battle went to the nomination, he said. The role of super-delegates, he argued, was to swing behind the winner chosen by the voters and not to usurp them.
Mr Carter, who is promoting a new book called “A Remarkable Mother" about his mother Lillian, who died 25 years ago aged 85, indicated that he felt a close personal bond with Mr Obama.
Both had mothers who worked to overcome racial divisions and who moved abroad in the 1960s to help the disadvantaged - Mrs Carter as a Peace Corps volunteer in India and Mr Obama’s mother as an anthropologist in Indonesia.
"They were very similar in not being bound by previous custom and willing to break taboos and mores that society establishes that they considered to be inappropriate,” Mr Carter said.
His mother, whom he adored, would “be delighted I think at the prospect of a black man being elected president". In an aside that will give scant comfort to Mrs Clinton, he added: “And she would be pleased - I wouldn’t say delighted - at the prospect of a woman being president.”
The former president, who travels the globe dealing with the conflict resolution and human rights issues promoted by his Carter Centre, told this newspaper that “overseas there is an intense infatuation with Obama, perhaps more than there ever has been in previous history with any candidate".
A Nobel Peace Prize winner who abhors the policies of President George W. Bush, Mr Carter added: “A lot of them see Obama as kind of a diametrical opposite from George W. Bush and they think that he will bring to the presidency a brand new picture of what the White House and Washington and the United States ought to be.”
He mused openly about how Mr Obama might harness this feeling in an inaugural address.
"If the first statement he made was while I’m president of the United States we will never torture another prisoner and while I’m President of the United States we will never go to war unless our own security is directly threatened...it would transform the image of the United States in the minds of many people around the world.
Into that of a third world communist country...
Well sure he can. But the result would probably be similar to the way Jimmuh transformed it.
Torpedo #2?
The man has totally lost it. He is a nut case.He needs to meet with reverund wright.
Just like Jimmy boy did. Into a laughing stock wussy impotent paper tiger...........and then the Reagan Revolution changed that crap.
No doubt Obama can make America seem just as toothless and compliant as it did back in Carter’s day and age.
What did Mr. Peanut-brain do when the Islamic Nazis in Iran were torturing our hostages? He was an impotent President and he’s now an impotent old Jew-hating, America-bashing POS.
Oh don’t worry Jimmy, he will transform this country alright. Hope Rosalynn looks good with a berka.
Coming from the most distinguished of some 300 uncommitted “super-delegates” - the Democratic party leaders who will crown their party’s nominee - Mr Carter’s new public stance is a blow to Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the White House.
Is Jimmy Carter really considered to be so distinguished and influential? I know that as a former president he is a super delegate, but is this really big news that he thinks the leader as of June 4th should get super delegate support?
Nice try Peanut Man, we already knew you are in the tank for him, but what Obama needs now is a lot more than fervent support from socialist wankers around the world. He needs to get his mojo back.......
Obama is really hurting now - I don’t just mean the political problems, I mean he is torn asunder from the #1 relationship of his adult life (well maybe Michelle comes in for a close 2nd). Now Obama will be singing the blues, or else he’ll be singing this.......
The Love Song of B. Hussein Obama (I’m Missing Jeremiah Wright So Sooooo Bad)
I’m lying alone with my head on the phone
Thinking of you till it hurts
I know you hurt too but what else can we do
Tormented and torn apart
I wish I could carry your smile and my heart
For times when my life feels so low
It would make me believe what tomorrow could bring
When today doesn’t really know, doesn’t really know
Chorus:
I ‘m all out of love, I’m so lost without you
I know you were right believing for so long
I ‘m all out of love, what am I without you
I can’t be too late to say that I was so wrong
[with apologies to Air Supply]
Jimmah is a f***ing cretin. The man is delusional. Doesn’t he realize that the mess that is the present day Middle East is due primarily to his blundering term as president?
ala Henry II: Will no one rid us of this troublesome man?
But I have a feeling that obama’s transformation will be far from the Duke's love of Country, Knight's discipline, and Reagan's anti-communism philosophy.
As a matter of fact. I get fearful when I hear the likes of oboma talking about transforming America. If I heard Colin Powell say that, I would not be fearful. So please, this has nothing to do with race.
It does have everything to do with socialism. I think Obama and hillaryious are both socialist; and both of them scare me when they talk about transforming America.
Lost it like a fox. Jimmah doesn't want the title of "America's Worst President" any more,
Jimmy just wants Obama to become president so he can move from the worst president to second worst president!
An endorsement? Shit, that’s a death kiss!
Hee Hee
Bill Clinton, in twenty years.
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