According to CNN's Piers Morgan, former President Jimmy Carter was "right" for criticizing the "self-indulgence and consumption" of many Americans in his infamous 1979 "Malaise Speech."
Morgan might find himself with a minority of Americans who actually favored Carter pointing the finger at the country, but that didn't stop him from blaming the recent financial meltdown on a failure to listen to voices like Carter's. [Video below the break. Click here for audio.]
"But the reality is that Americans carried on consuming and many of them carried on being self-indulgent and we ended up $13 trillion in debt with a catastrophic financial meltdown," Morgan surmised, before kissing up to the former one-term Democratic president. "So, you know, the grassroots were there, which you picked up on, but nobody listened?"
He even asked Carter if he would want Obama to give a similar "Malaise Speech" for his upcoming State of the Union Address. Republicans could only hope that Obama would deliver such a speech.
"When President Obama makes his State of the Union speech next week, would you like to see him do that kind of speech, what they called the 'Malaise Speech,' but actually was a direct message to people," Morgan posed to Carter.
To read more, click here. A brief transcript of the segment, that aired on January 19 at 9:27 p.m. EST, is as follows:
(Video Clip)
JIMMY CARTER, former President of the United States: I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.
Too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption.
(End Video Clip)
PIERS MORGAN: That was President Jimmy Carter delivering his so-called "Malaise Speech" in 1979, which didn't go down very well with the American people. And President Carter is back with me now. I mean, you were right then and you would be right to say that today, wouldn't you?
CARTER: As a matter of fact, the immediate response of that was the most favorable that I ever had to a speech. But later, then-Governor Reagan and my Democratic opponent Ted Kennedy attacked the speech. I never called it "Malaise" speech. It was just a frank analysis of how America needed to change and that we still had resilient strength to overcome any difficulty if we worked together.
MORGAN: But the reality is that Americans carried on consuming and many of them carried on being self-indulgent and we ended up $13 trillion in debt with a catastrophic financial meltdown. So, you know, the grassroots were there, which you picked up on, but nobody listened?
