On Criticizing the Late President Carter

When former President Jimmy Carter passed away late last year, I made a point of writing the following:

There are a number of things over which I have profound disagreements with former President Carter namely around Israel. But those disagreements are for another day. 

Of course, there were many who were all too eager not to wait another day. Case in point is Philip Klein of National Review Online who wrote a scathing article mere hours after it had been announced that Carter had passed away. Now I should say that I agree with Klein on his criticisms of Carter's approach towards Israel where it concerned his characterizations of it as an apartheid state while legitimizing Hamas in his 2007 book Peace, Not Apartheid. However, he made no mention of any of his humanitarian work where it concerned Habitat for Humanity and his efforts to end malaria. Of course, it is quite possible that Klein opposes such efforts and thus saw no need to praise them. It is also equally possible that Klein is acting in bad faith.

Not surprisingly, Klein is not apologetic for how he "eulogized" Carter. In a subsequent post, Klein wrote:

It’s unclear to me why I should feel the need to wait days, or weeks, to deliver an accurate assessment of his disastrous legacy that corrects this prevailing narrative.

I have always striven to write the truth, and there is no way I could have written about Carter without reminding people, in detail, that he was a terrible president and an even worse former president.

There was a time when conservatives had a sense of propriety and prudence. Why couldn't Klein have waited 24 hours? Why couldn't he have buried Carter after he had been laid to rest? Because this propriety and prudence has been shattered in the age of Trump. When Trump leaves this mortal coil, I have no doubt that many on the Left will rush to write accounts of Trump as scathing as Klein has written about Carter. I also have no doubt that Klein will be the first to pillory them for denigrating Trump's memory.

Jimmy Carter's tenure in public life both inside and outside of the White House is subject to criticism as it should be for all Presidents. When I saw the 2007 documentary film Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains, I was appalled how Jews were characterized as shadowy figures as well as Carter's praise for the Assad family. But I felt no need to say so in the hours after his passing. There is a time and place for such things. Unfortunately, Philip Klein neither knows neither the time nor the place. Nor does he care to know.