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Carter leaves N Korea with freed American

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Kim went to China, dang. < :-)

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"North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, meanwhile, turned up in China—a surprise trip for a man who rarely travels abroad and was anticipated to hold a high-profile photo op with the former U.S. president."

It's called DISSIN' DA MAN. Kim went to China just to show how much he does not care about the US, and then held a photo session to let everyone know how much he doesn't care. But Carter still gets so much more press. If Kim ever wants to get rid of his loneliness, he should be more of a nice guy.

And an interesting wrinkle: Clinton was successful last time. Why not send him again? Why not Al Gore? Hmm.

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if he went voluntarily, he don't need saving.

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Wasn't Jimmy Carter involved in the initial negotiations to end North Korea's nuclear weapons program during the early years of the Clinton administration? How'd that work out?

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Obviously Carter hasn't flashed that tremendous smile yet.

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News flash - Carter and Gomes are on their way home from Pyongyang right now.

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Awesome, totally!!!!

It`s a democratic poll, but are we in control?

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Outstanding. He must have shown that wonderful smile. < :-)

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Why is it that Carter was able to freed the American?

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skipbeat; Maybe a swap for some DVD`s and a few cases of hairspray.

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They should have left him there. He wanted to go to the north so that is his problem not the U.S. He is just an idiot that should have not gone there to begin with.

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stevepfc said 'hairspray' LMAO!!

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One more Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts (?!)

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No,I believe Dear Leader specifically requested him.

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skipbeat you actually sound disappointed. < :-)

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@alladin

"He is just an idiot that should have not gone there to begin with."

Yes. He should be thrown in jail for life and fined 10 million yen, shouldn't he? ;)

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What about Megumi Yokota?

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Indifferent.

What is N. Korea motive for freeing the American? Why is it that former presidents seems to get things done? Whereas, the current president can't? How does foreign policy play into freeing the American?

What does this say about America in general?

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I always had an image of Carter sprawled across a bed with a packet of peanuts on his head.

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Carter also ‘‘gave him the assurance that such cases will never happen again on behalf of the government and the ex-president of the U.S,’’ the report said. How is he going to guarantee that? The U.S. has more than enough nut jobs that will try to do the same thing this idiot did.

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@skipbeat

Why is it that former presidents seems to get things done? Whereas, the current president can't?

It's politics. You can't expect Obama to go to North Korea and basically beg for someone's release. Well done Jimmy Carter, though. Star man.

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I have memories of Carter with 18% inflation and interest rates, and Iranian hostages being held for 444 days, but I'm glad he was able to get Gomes back.

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What is N. Korea motive for freeing the American? Why is it that former presidents seems to get things done? Whereas, the current president can't? How does foreign policy play into freeing the American?

North Korea is like Russia, in that it demands public displays of respect.

Unfortunately for North Korea, there is nothing to respect about it.

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I have memories of Carter with 18% inflation and interest rates, and Iranian hostages being held for 444 days" you understood inflation during the carter years?

The guy went there to preach christianity. Should have left him there with certain humane requirements. That would send a message is that you don't ggo to other countries with a different set of laws, traditions, and religions and FORCE you own.

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I wonder if Aijalon was his original name. It was so weird, I had to look it up: The Biblical baby name Ajalon is Hebrew in origin and it's meaning is place of gazelles or deer field. Ajalon is also called Aijalon in the Bible. Ajalon is pronounced ah-jaw-lone' If it is his real given name, he must have some real whack-job religious nut parents to saddle their kid with that name. Sounds like a character in the new Star Wars movie...

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Please, N. Korea, take Carter instead.

I have memories of Carter with 18% inflation and interest rates, and Iranian hostages being held for 444 days, but I'm glad he was able to get Gomes back.

I unfortunately have memories of Carter drunk and speaking at my graduation ceremony, complaining during his speech about how Republicans were mean for arresting his daughter for possession of narcotics, and how thankfully the Kennedy family stepped in behind the scenes and got her out of jail as a personal favor.

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this is a patern - N.Korea arrests a US citizen for unlawfully entering the country and a former US president personally bails them out.

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Well done Carter, you did good. The biggest danger to diplomacy is nut-jobs like Aijalon Gomes who provide a bargaining chip to pariahs like NK.

Why is it that former presidents seems to get things done? Whereas, the current president can't?

Do you really expect the President of US to travel to a country it does not have diplomatic relations with?

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I have always liked Jimmy Carter as a person. He was and is too nice of a guy to be a successful US politician. Now if we could just pick up his message of "Peace, not Apartheid" the world would be a much better place.

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He was and is too nice of a guy to be a successful US politician.

Then you don't know him and have not read many of his speeches, comments, or writings. He is a bitter ideologue and possibly an anti-semite.

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"Carter drunk and speaking at my graduation ceremony, complaining during his speech about how Republicans were mean for"

Hey man, after his presidency, I would say he needed a drink. He served the Republic. I respect him. I am glad we have past presidents. I don't care who they are. The fact that they go about their business and don't get hounded by partisan crazies and vengeful types really says a lot.

They come in handy and they are generally good citizens.

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possibly an anti-semite

Right-wing way of describing any American politician who does not support a pro-Israel foreign policy.

Anyway, well done Jimmy Carter. This is exactly the kind of thing former heads of states should be doing (are you listening Mr. Koizumi).

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I still stand by Jimmy Carter. As a former president he has spoken out against injustices more than any other I can think of. In my opinion it is he, not Obama, who deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. His work for Habitat for Humanity is well known. He is continually being besmirched as...

"possibly an anti-semite, the right-wing way of describing any American politician who does not support a pro-Israel foreign policy."

...a charge which is ridiculous, as the real Semitic people are the Palestinians, the Separdhim Jews, and other desert peoples, such as Arabs. Remember, "Not supporting the State of 'Israel' does not make one, in any way, less of a friend of the Jewish people and most certainly does not label one an anti-semite." Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss.

In this instance, regarding the DPRK, rather than high-horse the whole affair, Jimmy Carter found a creative solution, defused tension, and most importantly, got positive results. A true statesman, if ever there was one, proving diplomacy is by far a better way to deal with problems than nuking people. As an aside: Could you just imagine if the US had sent (former unconfirmed US Ambassador to the UN) John Bolton to do this task? Perish the thought!

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@LIBERTAS

A true statesman, if ever there was one....

Indeed. Well said Sir / Ma'am. Can you imagine if they'd sent Palin? World War Three at the very least. :)

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Kudo's to President Carter, however they should have left him in jail for a year to teach him a lesson.

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Bebert61 said: Wasn't Jimmy Carter involved in the initial negotiations to end North Korea's nuclear weapons program during the early years of the Clinton administration? How'd that work out?

Very well, for nine years thank you. It even worked after Il-Sung died not long after making the agreement. Then George W. broke the part of the agreement about normalization and declared N.K. part of the Axis of Evil. Then we got renewed uranium purification and a nuke test several years later.

I agree with LIBERTAS, Carter is too nice to be a U.S. politician. Especially conservatives will only love you if you make backdoor backstabbing dirty deals with our enemies and give them weapons like RR. And yeah, he should have got the Nobel Prize instead of Obama, but then again, that price was established by the inventor of dynamite!

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Hey man, after his presidency, I would say he needed a drink. He served the Republic. I respect him. I am glad we have past presidents. I don't care who they are. The fact that they go about their business and don't get hounded by partisan crazies and vengeful types really says a lot.

They come in handy and they are generally good citizens

As a non-yank I like many other like to slag US presidents, but one thing is nice to see & thats what they do AFTER their terms in office, slag Carter all you want but the guy has always tried to do good & he did today, cheers for him.

So JAPAN you have TONS of ex PM`s(a massive surplus in fact!) how come none of your sorry a$$es make over to NK to do some good for Jpn?.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Guess we & the Japanese will be waiting for years to come..........pathetic!

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I wonder how much this DA Gomes cost the US taxpayer with all this.

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I still think Carter is the worst President we ever had, at least in my lifetime. Maybe he's trying to make up for it with his post-office deeds, who knows. But I admit that there is a use for such former ex-presidents in that he can do things "as an individual" that our govt can't touch officiaslly.

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I wonder how much this DA Gomes cost the US taxpayer with all this.

I would guess about 0.001 dollars per taxpayer.

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@OssanAmerica

"I still think Carter is the worst President we ever had, at least in my lifetime."

So you were dead, or in suspended animation during Dubya`s term? And Reagan's?

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OssanAmerica said: I still think Carter is the worst President we ever had, at least in my lifetime.

I can only imagine that is because of the hostage crisis, the oil shock, the bad economy, and maybe a few other things a president really can't do anything about and still have a soul. Some people believe America's problems are actually other people's problems that they have not been given yet. Naturally, those people dislike Carter.

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Yeh ! Look at ol JC just walkin' into the crazy curmudgeons den to get his football back ! How is it the Americans can send a couple of grey haired old farts into North Korea and walk out with hostages/abductees- call em what you want- in just a matter of days ??? Yet Japan continues to muddy the waters to the point of military threats from the NK's ! Once again- the Japanese have so much to learn if they would just pay attention ! Do you think Clinton or Carter really care about making public apologies ? Showing respect ? Begging for understanding and forgiveness ??? Hell No ! Their dealing with a loon and everyone knows it- say what you must- get your people out- and wait for Kim Jong Ill to Die ! Carter wasn't much of a president- seems he's found his niche.

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I just love how the republicans were just all over him when he went to NK. How much of a loser he is, and the continued whining.

Then in just a couple of days it's announced that Jimmy Carter had gotten the release of Gomes. What, Jimmy Carter got him released? So we have even more criticism. Fact remains that Jimmy Carter got Gome's release. It just burns the republicans up. < :-)

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kyushujoe at 09:50 PM JST - 27th August "I still think Carter is the worst President we ever had, at least in my >lifetime." So you were dead, or in suspended animation during Dubya`s term? And >Reagan's?

Were you during the Carter administration? Pergaps if you gew up dureing the cold war you'd appreciate the magnitude of what Reagan accomplished. As for Bush haters they can all move to Afghanistan as far as I'm concerned.

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MistWizard at 10:18 PM JST - 27th August OssanAmerica said: I still think Carter is the worst President we ever >had, at least in my lifetime. I can only imagine that is because of the hostage crisis, the oil shock, >the bad economy, and maybe a few other things a president really can't >do anything about and still have a soul.

You left out how we boldy boycotted the Moscow Olympics as a response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The problem with excusing any president's performance on that basis is that you can never measure ANY president's performance because you've excused them from every standard of measurement.

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Pergaps if you gew up dureing the cold war...

Well, I'm 43, so I pretty much grew up during the cold war.

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kyushujoe at 11:49 PM JST - 27th August Pergaps if you gew up dureing the cold war... Well, I'm 43, so I pretty much grew up during the cold war. But my >spelling didn't suffer quite as badly as yours, obviously.

You're over 10 years younger than me, wich means you probably never experienced the ridiculous "air raid drills" conducted in US public schools in the early 60s. But certainly old enough to know that criticising typing/spelling, rather than content on any internet board is widely considered crass and inappropriate.

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It's amazing how some people are going out of their way here to criticize the man despite what he's just done, the only thing not surprising being that they cannot touch on the issue at hand, only bring in unrelated baggage they carry around.

Look at Ossan for example: "Pergaps if you gew up dureing the cold war you'd appreciate the magnitude of what Reagan accomplished. As for Bush haters they can all move to Afghanistan as far as I'm concerned."

Atrocious spelling aside, he's bringing in completely unrelated issues to discredit the man and what he's accomplished.

Regardless of political affiliation, or beliefs in general, what this man did is a blessing; not only to Gomes and his family (and no not excusing Gomes for why he went there and got himself into that mess), but to the credit of Americans and their ability to resolve things democratically with even the worst of dictators (or at least among the worst). He did a good thing, and that's that. He should be thanked, not criticized.

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@smithinjapan

It's amazing how some people are going out of their way here to criticize the man despite what he's just done....

Ah, but he's a Democrat. Which makes him a Muslim and a Communist in the eyes of all decent folk.

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Love it, way to go Jimmy Carter.

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They should make this guy pay back the US taxpayer for the cost of this "rescue mission".. the guy was an idiot.

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The hostage seems to be not all there. These border incursion thrill-seekers are complicating matters in a dangerous world.

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Thank you Mr. Carter. Job well done, Sir.

Taka

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kyushujoe at 12:21 AM JST - 28th August @smithinjapan It's amazing how some people are going out of their way here to >criticize the man despite what he's just done.... Ah, but he's a Democrat. Which makes him a Muslim and a Communist in the >eyes of all decent folk.

A great many of us formed our opinions about Carter at a time when our country was still in love with JFK, a democrat. We didn't even have a Republican president until Nixon. While partisan views differed, they weren't quite as exaggerated (oe vicous)as they are today.

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Pergaps if you gew up dureing the cold war you'd appreciate the magnitude of what Reagan accomplished.

Yeah. Tripled the US debt from one trillion to three trillion within a decade.

Some accomplishment.

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I'll bet before Kim Jong Il is gone, another American will enter NK illegally and Clinton or Carter or Bush or Obama will go get him/her.

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Sarge at 02:50 AM JST - 28th August I'll bet before Kim Jong Il is gone, another American will enter NK >illegally and Clinton or Carter or Bush or Obama will go get him/her.

You're probably right. And I can't wait for Ex-President Obama.

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yabits at 04:26 AM JST - 28th August Well if the economy is more important than not living in fear of being >vaporized in a nuclear war, yes you have a point. Keep believing in myths and fairy tales, OssanAmerica. Anything to ease >those irrational fears.

Please explain how the fear of death is "irrational". Seems about as rational as you can get to me. The Cold war, the Berlin Wall, the Korean war, Vietnam, none these were myths or fairy tales. They were reality.

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I'll bet before Kim Jong Il is gone, another American will enter NK illegally and Clinton or Carter or bush or Obama will go get him/her.

No one is going to send bush on anything more important than a beer run.

Taka

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Please explain how the fear of death is "irrational". Seems about as rational as you can get to me. The Cold war, the Berlin Wall, the Korean war, Vietnam, none these were myths or fairy tales. They were reality.

Here are some points that will bring this back to North Korea and Carter:

The fear that the Soviet Union would have launched a nuclear war was completely irrational -- especially after Gorbachev took power.

The policy of containment, which kept the uneasy peace (but peace nonetheless) between the U.S. and Soviet Union, was instituted while Reagan was still playing with chimps in movies.

The fear of the end coming as a whimper (economic collapse) rather than as a "bang" (nuclear war) is to be equally feared, only the former is more rational because it's the more realistic possibility. (Tripling the national debt within a decade in a period of moderate economic growth is insanity.)

No communist nation has gone three complete generations from its original founder(s) without undergoing a significant transformation in its society. North Korea may yet prove to be the exception, but I'll believe that when I see it.

The Soviets were on their last legs before Reagan took office. Afghanistan pretty much sealed the deal on the invincibility of the Red Army, and the Carter administration made the right moves to sucker the Soviets into invading in the first place. It is a complete myth to believe that Reagan was dealing with a Soviet Union that wasn't already in very deep decline. The corpse was already embalmed and in the coffin. All Reagan did was pound in a few nails.

This makes the reasoning for tripling the national debt, in light of that, all the more ludicrous.

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Not sure why the talk in this thread is about comparing Carter to 'W'. Unless you're a loon, Carter was the worst President in the past 100 years. Certainly the most disastrous from a policy perspective, both foreign and domestic. Bush was a bad president, theres no question of that in my mind, but Carter was several orders of magnitude worse, and Obama is making a strong case to outdo him.

Back on topic now... I really think whenever a story like this comes up, there should always be an adjective added. Either dumbass, or moron would be appropriate. As in, Carter leaves N Korea with freed American dumbass. Perhaps, Moronic American freed after Carter intervention. You know, and accurate description of the idiocy involved in these people wandering into or anywhere near North Korea. Don't you think that would be appropriate.

Flaws in his term as president, and his stupidity in other areas aside, good job Carter. He finally managed to do something useful, apart from building a house. Have to applaud him for making the trip regardless.

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alphawolf said: They should make this guy pay back the US taxpayer for the cost of this "rescue mission".. the guy was an idiot.

So you did not think we should have attempted a rescue mission? Ummm...okay.

But at least you acknowledge that Carter is so immensely powerful that he can set off a sandstorm from half a world away. If only Carter's detractors were more interested in harnessing his almighty power instead of fearing it.

Ossan: The problem with excusing any president's performance on that basis is that you can never measure ANY president's performance because you've excused them from every standard of measurement.

No, you just have different standards. I hold a president accountable for what he did, not the situation he was presented with or the times he lived. In short, "getting lucky" is not something a credit a president with, and "being unlucky" is not their fault.

Boycotting the Olympics? That was Carter's choice and I don't agree with it. But, oh well. Its just the damned Olympics. Worse than that is reinstituting registration for the draft.

But to call him the worst? Over Bush? (and you know exactly WHICH Bush I am talking about!) People still say wild things about Clinton too, but we all know its all just childish pouting and utterly fake. We just entertain these accusations hoping the spoiled brats will pass the phase.

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sarge: "I'll bet before Kim Jong Il is gone, another American will enter NK illegally and Clinton or Carter or Bush or Obama will go get him/her."

Well, since no Republicans have the cajones to do it, and wouldn't be accepted anyway, they would have to. As for another American entering, there ARE a lot of stupid people out there in the world, so you never can tell.

alphawolf said: "They should make this guy pay back the US taxpayer for the cost of this "rescue mission".. the guy was an idiot."

My guess is you are talking about the guy Carter helped free, and not Carter himself. Rather vague, but hey. If the aforementioned is the case, then to an extent I agree -- the guy should have to do some community service at the very least, and apologize to the public, etc.

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Former President Jimmy Carter did it.

Damn nice job. < :-)

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Well, since no Republicans have the cajones to do it, and wouldn't be accepted anyway, they would have to. As for another American entering, there ARE a lot of stupid people out there in the world, so you never can tell.

Er, you do realize, that NK asked for Carter to come get him right? I know the article doesn't mention it, but NK informed the US that if Carter came, they would release him into his custody. Thats the way this was set up. Same thing with Clinton awhile back. The fact that Bush 1 and 2 haven't gone has less to do with the R next to their name, and more to do with them not being asked. As for why that is, you would have to ask the Dear Leader why.

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The fact that Bush 1 and 2 haven't gone has less to do with the R next to their name, and more to do with them not being asked. As for why that is, you would have to ask the Dear Leader why.

He told me it was because of the "R" next to their name.

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He told me it was because of the "R" next to their name.

Ah, good to know. Didn't realize you had such a close relationship with NKs Dear Leader.

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Another great propaganda victory for North Korea -- thanks Mr. Carter. The world´s homocidal dictators love gullible fools like you.

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If bush had gone the koreas would be at war now over missing weapons of mass destruction.

Fact is democrats get thing done, republicans whine and whine and do nothing at best but usually just screw things up. Forcing democrats to fix the mess when they take over. Like now with Obama cleaning up after 8 years of failure, massive debt and economic ruin.

Carter was the most moral president the USA has had in decades. He warned the country about the oil addiction decades ago. The republicans did not listen and we are still fighting wars for oil now.

Maybe Carter will another nobel prize, the best bush will get is the prize in a box of crackerjacks. Which he will break of course.

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