Much has been made recently of President Carter being a controversial figure. Most of this stems from Carter's 2006 book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, and his meeting earlier this year with leaders of Hamas.
Because of this, the conventional wisdom has been that no Democrat should touch Carter with a ten-foot pole.
But is Jimmy Carter really that unpopular? Do most Democrats think of him as a controversial figure who is a cancer to the Democratic party?
A recent Rasmussen Poll of Democratic voters which tracks favorability ratings of Democratic leaders strongly suggests otherwise.
Jimmy Carter recieved the HIGHEST favorable ratings. He is viewed Very Favorably by 53% of Democratic voters, and favorably overall by 61% of voters. He has a Very Unfavorable rating of only 7%.
According to the poll, President Carter is viewed more favorably than such widely loved and respected leaders as Al Gore and Ted Kennedy (who will both be featured very prominently at the convention). Who would have thought that?
Opinions were taken of the following Democratic Leaders: Kennedy, Lieberman, Carter, Richardson, Pelosi, Edwards, Reid, Kerry, Gore, Warner, Kaine, Bayh, Seblius, Hillary Clinton, and Michelle Obama.
The mainstream media, prodded on by right-wing nutcases and even some liberals (mostly the type who consider anything less than blind, unconditional support of all of Israel's policies as Anti-Semitism), has spread the meme that Jimmy Carter is widely viewed as a controversial, unpopular figure. This poll shows that a vast majority of Democratic voters don't equate a nuanced view of the Middle East with bigotry. It shows that Democrats reject the demonization of a great man just because he differs from the "mainstream" view on one issue (I use quotes because I'm convinced that its status as the mainstream, common sense view is a media creation). It shows that a majority of the Democratic base has a great amount of respect for President Carter and his honesty, integrity, principles, vision, and decency.
Just thought I'd share this, and I hope it destroys the media-created myth of Jimmy Carter's unpopularity.