What Carter wasn't asked

New, this week, in the Phoenix...

Resume builder, my ass

3 Comments

• Media Watch said:

  But you've gotta give Carter credit for his line about Dershowitz, "I thought that Brandeis didn't need to hear from a Harvard professor". Love it! Go Judges!
  January 24, 2007 6:07 PM

• Passing On President Peanuts said:

  Why this Carter fellow gets any press at all is beyond me. He'll say anything these days to get a headline. As a High School graduate in 1976, I clearly remember what a twit he was after he was elected back then and he's no better now. I mean the guy gets a Nobel Peace Prize for getting Sharon and Arafat to sneer at each other and begrudgingly shake hands and now he hawks a book by comparing Israel to Apartheid? I have a suggestion for the title of Citizen Carter's autobiography: "Passing Wind" by Former President Gimme Peanuts Carter - Subtitle: How I Single-Handedly Emptied the White House, Senate and Congress of Democrats between the years 1980 thru 1992!"
  January 25, 2007 10:50 AM

• kate said:

  That line about Dershowitz was just shameless pandering, and the implications were condescending and depressing. First off, Brandeis' initial proposal was for a debate between the two men. Carter was the one who rejected a format that would have allowed people the best chance of forming their own educated opinions. This dismissal of the debate format is particularly galling from the former leader of the world's most prominent democracy. By rejecting that idea, Carter made it more likely that audience members would either "side" with him or with Dershowitz, according to their prior understanding of who was the more trustworthy source. And second, Carter was relying upon the sort of resentment and insecurity that's most unseemly in higher education. I imagine that most people were clapping just to be nice and to have a break from the tension, although I wasn't there. I'm guessing they knew it was bullshit. But especially when you consider that he'd just come from signing books at Harvard's coop, and not at the Brandeis bookstore, it's pretty galling.
  January 25, 2007 4:17 PM

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