Here’s what Jimmy Carter actually said: “An overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African-American.”
By “intensely demonstrated animosity,” one can safely assume that Carter meant the Obama=Hitler/Stalin/Pol Pot/Devil signs, the loaded guns brought to presidential events, and the histerical lunatics screaming that he’s a Muslim African who wants to kill all the grandparents in this great home of the brave. Those would all qualify as acts of “intensely demonstrated animosity.”
Here’s what David Gregory claimed Carter had said: “This week you had a former President, Jimmy Carter, saying most — not just a little, but most — of this Republican opposition against you is motivated by racism. Do you agree with that?”
Republican opposition—unlike the Hitler signs and loaded guns—DOES NOT qualify as “intensely demonstrated animosity!”
My question: Is David Gregory (and the other mainstream media types who consider themselves to be “serious journalists”) too stupid to understand how much he’s distorting what Carter said, or does he actually believe that doing so somehow helps his country?
Gregory is just falling into line with all the right wing talking heads salivating over Jimmy Carter as a whipping boy for their deliberate mis-parsing of his statement. For which the phrase “intensely demonstrated animosity” conveniently morphs into “all”.
Eagerly applying a meme of reverse racism, sadder yet, is the compliant conservative that misinterprets the quote to mean anybody opposing President Obama’s healthcare proposal is a racist.
