John_Schwada's Blog

Did you hear the one about the Democratic Party suicide bomber who walked into a bar to have a final drink with his fellow Democrats, got so drunk he forgot to turn off the timer?

Sounds like Jimmy Carter, our former president.

A lot of people see Carter as a ticking time bomb of incompetence and gullibility, masquerading as idealism. Kind of a Neville “Hitler’s Not-so-bad” Chamberlain, without the bowler hat and umbrella.

And that’s exactly why both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were trying Monday to keep their distance from Carter’s latest, awkward peace-making foray in the Middle East - this being his meetings with Hamas, the militant group that governs the Gaza strip, is allied with Iran and has pledged to destroy Israel.

Carter, who helped grease the skids for the rise of Aytollah Khomeni in Iran and oversaw the U.S. humiliation over the Iranian hostage crisis, returned from his meetings with Hamas full of optimism about the group’s reasonableness. Hamas, Carter asserted, was ready to accept a Palestinian state, with pre-1967 borders, if the deal were approved by Palestinian voters, in a referendum.

One problem: the same people who Carter found to be so reasonable, only hours later disavowed much of what they allegedly told the former president. Were they just humoring Carter, playing him for an old fool?

You’ve got to hand it to Carter – his timing is impeccable for reminding some key voting blocs why they are suspicious of Democrats, especially Obama-style Democrats.

Obama was quick to spot Carter as an unexploded bomb and told reporters Monday he did NOT approve of the ex-president’s talks with Hamas, saying instead he favored talks – like those now endorsed by the Bush administration – between Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate Palestinian president, and Israel.

For her part, Clinton feigned not to know anything about Carter’s trip.

It would not be surprising for Clinton to soon draw some cheap parallels between Carter and Obama, a comparison made easier because Obama once said he wanted to sit down and reason with the leaders of nations like Iran, Korea, Cuba, etc. about their differences with the U.S. Clinton has already condemned Obama’s ideas as soft-headed.

In her election night victory speech in Pennsylvania, one of Clinton’s biggest applause lines was that Americans aren’t quitters and they deserve a president who is not a quitter – but a fighter. Her final TV ad also hammered home the point that she had what it takes to deal with Osama bin Laden and other national security threats.

Obama Democrats continue to be surprised Clinton is still not only standing but also moving – forward.

But what they forget is that Clinton, in her pursuit of voters and superdelegates, is playing a strong card when she lets everyone know she’s not going to be a Democrat who can be pushed around by tough guys, whether they’re Republican presumptive nominee John McCain or Hamas.

Clinton is on to something when she distances herself from Michael “Milquetoast” Dukakis, John Kerry or Jimmy Carter. These three failed to bond with blue-collar, lunch-pail Democrats, the Reagan Democrats, who were – and are - looking for a candidate with spine.

It was just those voters that exit polls showed gave Clinton her double-digit victory Tuesday in Pennsylvania. Now the questions are: will these same voters continue to make their voices heard in the remaining half-dozen primaries and will the superdelegates be listening?