Looks like Carter is still an embarrasment.
Even the Libs are kickin' him to th' curb.

The race from race: Dems rebut Carter
Alex Isenstadt – Wed Sep 16, 7:07 pm ET

Jimmy Carter is 84 years old and three decades removed from the White House, but he still has the power to make Democrats run.

Away from him, that is.

From the White House to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Democrats raced to distance themselves from the former president’s claim that racism was behind Rep. Joe Wilson’s “You lie” outburst and other attacks on President Barack Obama.

“Listen, he’s the former president, and he’s entitled to his point of view,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). “I personally believe President Obama and his administration are focused on the issues, and I agree with that.”

“I don’t see this as a racial issue,” added Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.). “There are a lot of people upset about how we on the Democratic side can engage like we have been, and there’s a lot of anger out there. So, I don’t see it as a racial issue.”

“I didn’t agree with it,” Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) said of Carter’s remarks.

Congressional Democrats have no interest in starting a racial argument that could turn off swing district voters whose support the party will need if it plans on keeping its grip on Congress in 2010. And the current occupants of the White House made it clear Wednesday that they have no interest in bringing race back to the fore of any discussion about Obama.

“The president does not believe that criticism comes based on the color of his skin,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters in his Wednesday briefing. “We understand that people have disagreements with some of the decisions that we’ve made and some of the extraordinary actions that had to be taken by both this administration and the previous administration.”

Carter said Tuesday that there’s “an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president,” and that that feeling drives some of the anti-Obama dissent.

He isn’t the first to suggest that race is driving some of the anti-Obama animus. Reps. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) and David Scott (D-Ga.), among others, have suggested that Wilson wouldn’t have interrupted a white president. And New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote that “fair or not,” she heard “an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!”

In the hours before Tuesday’s vote, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, predicted that if Wilson’s outburst were allowed to go unpunished, “We will have people with white hoods running through the countryside again.”

But by and large, congressional Democrats have tried to keep the race factor out of the Wilson debate.

With their resolution Tuesday night reprimanding Wilson, Democrats had sought to refocus their narrative toward their efforts to turn around the nation’s economy and pass a sweeping health care reform bill. Leaders had spent Tuesday trying to prevent anger among black lawmakers from boiling over in that evening’s floor debate about a resolution reprimanding Wilson.

During a caucus meeting just hours before the start of the debate, Democratic leadership aides said that Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, an African-American from Wilson’s South Carolina, pleaded with his fellow Democrats to keep the debate far from the racial issue.

But Carter’s comments brought them right back to it — even as they tried to get away.

“I just think 2010 will be about — as most midterm elections are — the whole economic well-being of America,” said Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who heads up the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “And that’s what the focus should be.”

“We should take our cue from President Obama,” Durbin told POLITICO. "As his personal friend for many years, I can tell you, he is the last person to raise this issue.”

Wilson brushed off Carter’s comments Wednesday, telling POLITICO that they were a “distraction” — a point with which some of Wilson’s critics agreed.

Democratic Rep. Chet Edwards, who has represented a conservative, heavily white Texas district for 18 years, said he didn’t believe there was any evidence to support Carter’s assertion that racial factors had motivated Wilson.

“I just don’t want a divisive dialogue on race to become a battering ram of division for our country,” he said.

Alabama Democratic Rep. Artur Davis agreed. “It’s not a productive or healthy conversation,” he said.

That doesn't seem like whole slew of Dems running to me...lol

Slight exaggeration?

I commend Obama for not bringing it up. He is too good for that but that doesn't mean those like me who see it shouldn't call it what it is. It is racism.

You,re the racist. After all you brought it up in the first place.

Not even. Nice try though.

It was not mentioned in this thread by a poster till you mentioned it. The accusation was objectively correct.

Not even.

At least come at me better than this if you are going to come at me with something.

What was Carter's message that caused two Dems to distance themselves?

That's right. Its been on the news for 3 days

Hey Mirror

It is even written in the OP if they read it.

Hello Dragoness

Yes, I noticed that too

An embarrassment to whom? I still believe in freedom of speech don't you? If we take his heart felt opinion to mean something more than the simple idea that he had, that's our doing, not his.

Some of us are aware of racism a bit more than others. I would invite some of you to visit my town. It will only take a day or so and you'll get it quickly. If you are not aware of it, maybe that's good. But many of us see it daily.

In the end, no it doesn't mean that everyone that dislikes this president is racist but there is enough of it, to make it silly to deny. What many don't like about the suggestion is that it diminishes and discounts the reasons they don't like him for other reasons, and they wish to focus on those instead of race. Makes perfect sense to me. You can't convince people of financial arguments if everyone is focused on race which just gets completely ugly.

And there will always be those that deny the obvious, and those that use the ugliness of race conversation to bump up the number count in opposition to Obama, makes it look good for their cause if they can team up with racists and inflate the crowds.

Lets get real we have all seen enough news to know what the games are and who's playing them on whatever side.

OK so now that we know race is a very lively part of the anxiety in our country, we can move on to the issues that might actually help us with our current mess? Individuals have to change the racism thing among themselves day by day. No government can help us with that, so it's a waste of time to focus on it now even if it would help the opposition to shut down the current debate.

Former President Carter was correct in his statements and what he believes. I have been to the "Heart of Dixie" and have seen first hand that what he says is true. It felt to me like the Civil War had just ended and the clock got stuck on 1865 for many people.