Donald McClarey pwns Jimmy Carter

On Saturday over at the American Catholic blog, Donald McClarey skillfully disassembled what he rightly calls Jimmy Carter's "latest mind droppings". Mainly he is reacting to the recent bilious remarks that Carter made about Blessed Pope John Paul II along the standard liberal lines, referring to the late Holy Father as a "fundamentalist". I encourage you to read the entire thing, but here is an excerpt:

Jimmy, here is a clue for you. No one cares a rat’s nether regions about what you think about anything. You were a completely incompetent president and the American people have tried their best to forget you. You were such a wretched president that even in your own party you are a non-person, and it difficult to embarrass Democrats over anything. Pope John Paul II was a magnificent pope. Here is a list of just a few of his accomplishments, although it will take centuries for historians to fully assess his almost 27 year-long papacy, but here are some of the factors that I think they will note.

Then Donald goes on to discuss some of JPII's accomplishments, like ending communism, keeping the church from descending into Anglican-like irrelevance, etc. Next to these, Carter looks pretty much like a sorex longirostris fisheri¹ in comparison. So he merely concludes thus:

This list only touches some of the main features of the papacy of John Paul II, a papacy that will be discussed endlessly as the centuries pass. In the far future Jimmy, if historians will recall you at all, it will probably be because you were president at the start of the pontificate of John Paul the Great.

There are a lot of comments there worth reading as well, notably this one from Martial Artist/Keith Töpfer:

Professor Esolen,

Thank you for responding to C-Veg with the facts. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi went into exile on 16th January 1979, in the middle of the following a series of militantly anti-Shah demonstrations the first of which occurred in October 1977, in the middle of the Carter administration. He did not come to the United States until late October 1979, and was allowed into the country to undergo surgical treatment.

On a related note, as a former enlisted submariner in the U.S. Navy, subsequently commissioned, I would have to rate Mr. McClarey’s assessment of Mr. Carter as a bit on the generous side. Carter repeatedly demonstrated an inability to think beyond a limited set of fixed policies and procedures.

Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer, LCDR, USN [ret]

Also, just today, Donald reports that he received awesome "fan mail" for his efforts. I'm totally jealous. Good job, Donald.

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1 - Dismal Swamp Southestern Shrew.