Jan Tyler, a former Jimmy Carter staffer has an incredible blog post up about her former boss. She leads in discussing about how much the “racist” charge stings and then relates the attack to the Democrats attempt to slur opponents:
I think about each of these racist charges, if only fleetingly. As Election Reform Examiner.com, I’m under siege by lefties who call me racist and stupid. Internet exchanges can be ugly and utterly removed from reality. It’s an alternate universe with no rules. Knowing this is no comfort when being smeared as racist for your beliefs. You are forced into vigilance and introspection.
Therefore, it was a special hurt when Jimmy Carter accused Barack Obama’s critics of being racially motivated. When you are an 84 year old former President, you can do just about anything you want. I’m sure President Carter is surrounded by really smart people who adore him. It was like that when I worked for him. Someone needs to gently nudge Carter to re-think profiling all Obama’s critics as racist. In fact, he should hire a no-man.
This flier was sent to barber and beauty shops, in envelopes addressed by me, when Jimmy Carter ran against Carl Sanders in the l970 Georgia gubernatorial campaign. It is racist. Hamilton Jordan, Carter’s friend and long time associate, created it . In my naivete (I was 20), I didn’t consider the racism, instead, it was a great way to score a win against the Republican candidate. Get that? Accusing the Republican candidate of cavorting with blacks. Reverse racism?
The flier is only a historic footnote. I do not know if Jimmy Carter was even aware we were doing those things. It shows the complexity of Jimmy Carter’s character. Hans von Spakovsky, posting on The National Review Online, comments on the same. In l956 Carter attempted to halt construction of a new black school, reacting to the segregationists who wanted to keep black and white children apart.
And check out Ben Johnson’s monumental take-down if you missed it.
