Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Calling His Bluff

Jummy for Prez

The Carter problem was anticipated by Alexander Hamilton, who wrote in Federalist No. 72:

    Would it promote the peace of the community, or the stability of the government to have half a dozen men who had had credit enough to be raised to the seat of the supreme magistracy, wandering among the people like discontented ghosts, and sighing for a place which they were destined never more to possess?

Hamilton was actually arguing against term limits for the president--the idea being that bitter exes, barred by law from seeking the office again, would, well, go around acting like Jimmy Carter.

But what's Carter's excuse? He served only one term, so there is no constitutional bar to his being elected again. Why doesn't Carter put his money where his mouth is and seek the Democratic presidential nomination? After all, he's only a few years older than Mike Gravel, and he may be the only guy who can beat Hillary Clinton. He's been against the Iraq war since at least 1991, when Barack Obama was in diapers and Al Gore was a neocon war monger.

As Hamilton noted, "There is no nation which has not, at one period or another, experienced an absolute necessity of the services of particular men in particular situations; perhaps it would not be too strong to say, to the preservation of its political existence." Jimmy Carter, your country needs you! - James Taranto

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

and seek the Democratic presidential nomination?

We could only hope . . . . Oh hell, then we would be stuck w/ McCain as President.

We're screwed either way.

Anonymous said...

Carter.."After all,he's only a few years older than...Gravel..".....Geez,he looks like he's running neck in neck with as old as dirt.

Anonymous said...

carter was putting peanuts in his RC Cola,back when God was a little boy.

Anonymous said...

RUN JIMMY RUN
(off a cliff...)

Anonymous said...

The ballot box is the ultimate term limit.

Anonymous said...

"Jimmy Carter, your country needs you..."
to STFU, you Jew-hating, meddling little socialist!

Anonymous said...

I just figured out what's been bothering me about that photograph -- isn't Carter's expression mighty similar to Bill Clinton's lip-biting expression?

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