Rosie starts the second segment with the topic of Jimmy Carter. She apparently slept through the Seventies and thinks he is one of the world’s leading experts on dealing with the Middle East.

Carter stuck his foot in his mouth talking about the Bush Administration. He has spent the last day trying to figure out how to undig the hole he created. Rosie quotes Carter and she stands behind his statements, even if he doesn’t.

Carter said:

“We now have endorsed the concept of preemptive war, where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened, if we want to change the regime there or if we fear that sometime in the future our security might be endangered. That’s a radical departure from all previous administration policies.”

***

Rosie: So it was the first time that any president, living President, condemned the sitting President in such a tone and it got
Joy: He had done something like that before- Carter- He had criticized him before
BW: All candidates criticize the other candidates. I mean it is not as if my goodness there’s a criticism- then they all make up. Nancy Pelosi said the worst things about George Bush and now you know
Joy: Well she has to work with him now- that’s why

***

I just have to say that if Barbara does not understand the difference between political candidates criticizing the positions of their opponents and a former president undermining the current president- well I don’t know what to say. This is one of those times that demonstrate why I can not begin to fathom how this woman ever got to where she is in the industry.

Thankfully, Elisabeth brings the conversation back on track:

***

Elisabeth: Carter was all over Clinton when he pardoned Rich- I mean he’s been a very outspoken person as well as former President along history
BW: The White House went (she feigns slapping someone, repeatedly)
Rosie: The White House said he has becoming increasingly irrelevant
Elisabeth: Well that was after his comment saying that this was the worst administration in U.S. history
Rosie: Which I totally agree with
Elisabeth: Well he actually took that back. Interestingly enough he actually took that back
Rosie: Of course it’s a man booing
Elisabeth: I’m a woman- I’d boo too.
Joy: He took that back today. He said “That’s not what I’m- he said it was careless”
BW: Who took it back – Tony Snow or Carter
Elisabeth: Carter took back the fact that he said it was the worst administration
BW: this was the worst administration
Elisabeth: he said that today I think
Rosie: He didn’t really take it back
Elisabeth: Well he did- he said “it was careless and it’s not what I meant to say”
BW: What did he mean to say?
Elisabeth: He meant
Rosie (with wild facial expressions): It’s the totally worst without a doubt
Elisabeth: No- he said he was trying to compare him to Nixon
Joy: He said this administration’s foreign policy is worse than Nixon
Elisabeth: I love when people say things and then try to take them back?
BW: Nixon’s foreign policy was not terrible it was one of the good things Nixon’s foreign policy
Joy: He opened the door to China actually- it was his domestic surveillance that really did him in

***

Jimmy Carter trying to take his statement back is like Rosie trying to say she didn’t mean the American military is comparable to the terrorists last week.

He said what he said and he meant it. His comments had nothing to do with a comparison to Nixon. How gullible does he think the American people are? He is like a crook who is sorry he got caught but not sorry he stole something.

Carter aligns himself with socialist principles. He is like a pacifist who wants to pretend that if only everyone would agree to be non-violent we would all get along fine. This position doesn’t work because there is a segment of the world that will not be peaceful. There is a growing group of people who hate western thinking and want to destroy all that encourages individual freedom. We must stand up to these people. We must do all we can to preemptively protect the US and its interests around the world.

If Rosie and Jimmy Carter want to delude themselves with peacenik reasoning, they can go ahead. There is nothing they can say that will turn the hearts of these anti-western terrorists, who are nearly all connected to fundamentalist Islamic movements. (At least to date there have not been a whole lot of Christians blowing up coffee shops or Iraqi police officers.