Mr. Peanut

High - Mah nayme is Jimmeh Cahtah.

If I knew back then what I know now, I would have run for the hills, hid in my treehouse, or otherwise have had the sense to recognize a charlatan when I saw one, simply because I was too young to vote at the time. I remember no harder time for our family and the nation than during the Carter administration. Stagflation, gas lines, energy crisis, and Iran hostage situation that was resolved only by the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan. Yes, they were the worst of times, and they were the worst of times.

But times pass, and the years impart a sort of burnished glow to some situations, and a person is able to remove themselves from controversy and redefine themselves more in step with current times. Such was the case with Mr. Carter during the 80s and 90s. At least to me. His charitable works with Habitat for Humanity, his kindness and collaboration with both leaders of this land and lands foreign, and his spiritual faith lent a sort of gentlemanly facade to a president I was highly ashamed of. I was not ashamed of the man.

How we are lulled into complacency. Never again will I be deceived. The New Carter sounds an awful like the old Carter. From his reverse-racist rhetoric (of course, everybody must be a racist but him) to his denouncement of any policy that does not meet his bleeding-heart liberal approval, he obviously believes that he holds all the answers. How does this man even think that anything he says now is relevant? It wasn't thirty years ago and it certainly isn't now. It seems the diarrhea-of-the-mouth disease that ran rampant three decades ago has suddenly come back to life, only now it seems more the ramblings of a pretender who can't accept that his time has passed. Some people apparently don't know when to quit, when to gracefully surrender the spotlight.

Move on, Mr. Carter. I have. The world has too.