On her blog, CBS anchor Katie Couric is once again offering her love and kisses to Jimmy Carter. In a "Katie Couric's Notebook" video (which airs on some CBS affiliates as an Evening News promo), Couric used the occasion of Carter being awarded an honorary doctorate of civil law from Oxford to demand of viewers that "you have to respect him for sticking to his principles." Tell that to President Bush. She began by citing another Carter cheerleader:
"Historian Douglas Brinkley says he used the White House as a stepping stone for greater things. He intervened in civil wars around the globe, monitored elections, and confronted dictators. And Carter’s work for Habitat for Humanity shows that even for someone who was once the most powerful man on Earth there’s no higher calling than helping your neighbor. To cap it all in 2002, he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Of course he’s been outspoken, criticizing President Bush and equating some Israeli policies with apartheid. And critics have accused of acting decidedly unpresidential. Agree with him or not, you have to respect him for sticking to his principles. At 82, Jimmy Carter is having an impact, still, perhaps even more than when he was president. That’s a page from my notebook."
This will attract viewers to watch your newscast? Telling them you're a big liberal fan of Jimmy Carter? Even Couric didn't attempt to defend Carter's presidency. It's a little hard to argue he was was "once the most powerful man on Earth" when he couldn't solve the Iranian hostage abduction and he couldn't solve rampant inflation and growing unemployment and he couldn't stop the Soviet Union from expanding its empire. That's why Couric had to employ the lame "agree with him or not, you have to respect him" defense. She certainly didn't note that Carter calls President Bush the worst president in our history, a title many would rather pin on him.
If CBS canned its "Free Speech" segment because CBS insiders couldn't handle Rush Limbaugh or other conservatives getting a rare shot on its airwaves, why is CBS still promoting Katie's unopposed liberal pom-pom jobs?
PS: For an alternative point of view to Carter-coddling Katie, see Steven F. Hayward's book The Real Jimmy Carter: How Our Worst Ex-President Undermines American Foreign Policy, Coddles Dictators,and Created the Party of Clinton and Kerry.
