Jimmy Carter Needs to Shut Up.

The fact that Jimmy Carter is technically a Nobel laureate means absolutely nothing. His vapid Peace resume fails to equate him with true champions of peace, like the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa. He will forever be associated with rogue recipients like Yasser Arafat, and he will continue to represent the Nobel committee’s recent inability to award the Peace prize objectively.

Earlier this month, when former President Jimmy Carter accused President Bush of illegally allowing CIA to employ torture during interrogations, I sighed. For the past 8 years, I’ve sighed every time Jimmy Carter has opened his mouth. His desperate, immeasurable attempts to slander, diminish, and hinder the current administration of America have not only been unsuccessful at best, but also undeniably embarrassing. Essentially, my distaste for Jimmy Carter’s comments do not stem from the content of his views, but from the manner in which they are presented, the selfish intentions behind them, and the ironic nature of his opinions.

President Carter craves attention. His statements are structured with one purpose in mind: to maximize his presence in the lime-light. As a matter of fact, ever since the end of his one-term Presidency in 1981, Jimmy Carter has dedicated most of his time to self-promotion. The distressed President has written a total of twenty three books (can you name two?), subsequently contributing to his own Presidential library. In addition to this laughable fact, Carter has continued to serve as a permanent thorn-in-the-side to President Bush since early 2000. In May 2007, Carter summarized his views on the legacy of George W. Bush’s presidency by declaring, “I think as far as the adverse impact on the nations around the world, this administration has been the worst in history.” A day later (after he remembered the Vietnam War actually happened) Jimmy Carter realized the asinine nature of his statement and amended his criticism to something much less entertaining, controversial, and attention-grabbing. The most recent Carter criticism occurred earlier this month, after President Bush confirmed that CIA does not “torture” the subjects of interrogations. Bush came forth to clarify this controversial issue after the New York Times unearthed a 2005 legal opinion regarding CIA interrogation methods. Although the opinion suggested that the techniques were aggressive, there was ultimately no definite declaration that CIA was engaging in illegal activities that promoted the use of torture during interrogations. Jimmy Carter immediately came to the rescue, and asserted his opinion with surprising conviction. When asked if he thought CIA was using torture, Carter replied, “I don’t think it, I know it, certainly.” The White House must truly have a magical effect upon its residents; even when they’ve been outside for 26 years, they’ll still know absolutely everything that’s happening inside.

So what exactly drives President Carter to be (as one Time writer put it) the ‘anti-President’? Why does he always use any and every opportunity to deride the policies of President Bush and bolster his own image, especially when other Democrats stay clear of his path? The answer is this: Jimmy Carter does not have a legacy. Carter has always posed as the uber-humanitarian and the valiant warrior for world peace. The harsh reality is this: Jimmy Carter will never achieve this fantasy. Jimmy Carter will never be remembered as the man who made peace possible. After all, how can he? Carter conducted American foreign policy in the worst possible ways. His “greatest” accomplishment, the Camp David Accords (between Egypt and Israel), was ultimately a grotesque failure. After Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated as a result of his Accords participation, Egypt resorted to funding rogue terrorist groups to attack Israel instead of using conventional military means. Subsequently, the situation was exacerbated beyond belief. Lest we forget, at a time when American lives were directly at stake, President Carter failed to take any successful, organized, and resolute action to end the Iranian hostage crisis. If you add the energy crisis, the double digit inflation rate, the double digit unemployment rate, and the extremely high interest rates that characterized Carter’s dreadful term, only one conclusion remains clear: Jimmy Carter failed us. In the post-Watergate era, a time when Americans looked to restore their faith in the ability of the federal government, President Carter could not establish peace overseas or peace at home.

Even after his presidency, Jimmy Carter never fulfilled his desired legacy. In 1994, he convinced President Clinton to send him to North Korea as a negotiator. Carter aimed to convince the ruthless Kim Il-Sung to curb his nuclear ambitions in exchange for foreign aid. As Carter “closed” the deal and returned to the USA, the world would soon realize Carter’s inherent inability to become a peacemaker. In true ironic fashion, as Jimmy Carter accepted his Nobel Peace prize in 2002, Kim Jong-Il confirmed his nuclear ambitions with pride, admitted to cheating on the deal repeatedly, and developed a nuclear weapon four years later.

The fact that Jimmy Carter is technically a Nobel laureate means absolutely nothing. His vapid Peace resume fails to equate him with true champions of peace, like the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa. He will forever be associated with rogue recipients like Yasser Arafat, and he will continue to represent the Nobel committee’s recent inability to award the Peace prize objectively. His “prize”, much like his “legacy”, much like his list of “accomplishments” can be summarized in one word: fallacy.