Obama and WH Team Turn Deaf Ear to Carter's Racism Allegations, Deny 'National Conversation' on Race 'Going on Right Now'

The presidency, as the cliché goes, is a fraternity. It's a bipartisan one, if most presidential historians are to be trusted, in which the sacred, unspoken code is that former presidents do not intentionally complicate politics or policy for current presidents.

Jimmy Carter broke a lot of political codes to win the White House (the first born-again Christian, the first to have granted an interview to Playboy, the first to have been born in a hospital, and first to turn a no-chance campaign into a juggernaut by sleeping in other people's bedrooms -- in Iowa). More on the code of conduct of former presidents in a minute.

Carter knows a thing or two racial politics, the evolution of the South on questions of race, and how one page of history does not always foretell what the next pages will tell.

Consider Carter's history on race and politics. When he ran for governor in 1970, Carter positioned himself as the conservative Democrat in a primary against former Gov. Carl Sanders. Carter opposed busing to improve racial balance and invited segregationist Gov. George Wallace of Alabama into Georgia to campaign for him. After winning, Carter proclaimed "the time for racial discrimination is over" and equalized funding among rich and poor school districts and set historic highs in the number of blacks he appointed to state boards and agencies.

The point?

Racial politics a part of a undulating continuum and positions adopted in, say, a primary campaign, do not necessarily predict future actions. Declarations of certitude about race or racial motivations in public life, Carter's own politics tells us, are risky propositions. They seem far riskier when it comes to analyzing or deciding what Americans believe in their private hearts.

And yet, Carter now says he's sure: "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he is an African American," Carter told NBC Nightly News on Tuesday.

As a son of the South, Carter said he spoke with particular insight and clarity.

"That racism in connection (to the South) still exists and I think its bubbled up to the surface because of a belief among many white people not just in the south but around the country that African Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. Its an abominable circumstance and grieves me and concerns me very deeply."

This from a president who won 50.1 percent of the vote and 297 electoral votes about a country that elected President Obama with 52.9 percent of the vote and 365 electoral votes.

Back to Carter's conduct.

The White House studiously avoided any criticism of Carter, other than to have Press Secretary Robert Gibbs say repeatedly that Obama did not agree with him. Gibbs waved off the idea of Carter's analysis or GOP Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina's "You Lie" out-burst during Obama's address to a joint session were "teachable moments."

Obama, in the Oval Office with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday, ignored a question about whether he agreed with Carter's take on racism.

"I'm not sure I see this, this large national conversation going on right now," Gibbs demurred during the Wednesday daily briefing. "It adds to our dialogue. I'm just simply saying I don't think the president agrees with that."

Privately, other Obama aides are more blunt. "There is no percentage for us to get involved in this debate," said one. "Not on politics, not on policy, not even on the issue of race. The president doesn't agree with Carter and that's it."

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele wants Obama to jump into the fray.

"I think he has to deal with it," Steele said. "(I'm) asking the president of the United States to address the nation, not in a formal speech, but just tell us: Do you agree with President Carter? Do you think that what you heard in that hall (Wilson) came from a place of racism and ugliness or do you think President Carter's call is out of place and inappropriate?"

From the White House point of view, Steele's playing his own brand of politics, trying to coax Obama into debate about race just as he's wrestling with health care, Afghanistan, Iraq and the dim prospects of Middle East peace progress at next week's United Nations General Assembly.

Still, Steele sees himself and Obama as visible answers to the question of how deeply race influences politics and dissent.

"You have two African-American men sitting atop the political structure of this country. Who would've thunk that four years ago, 40 years ago that we would be at this very similar moment in our history? It is a powerful symbol, it's a powerful moment. I go back to the point that the level of discussion that's been invoked by President Carter is disingenuous at best. It is ignorant, certainly, and I think it's just wrong in terms of where I think the president is. I agree with the president. We should be moving in a positive direction here."

Some African-American House Democrats see racism in Wilson's "You Lie" shout, pointing to its uniqueness as proof.

"No I don't think it ever would have happened," said Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., when asked if Wilson would have shouted at a white president. "That's why it has not happened before . It only happened when this country elected a president of color. "

One of Johnson's colleagues, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., is not so sure. Cleaver was the first black mayor of Kansas City and started the city's first chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

"Many of us have thought since the civil rights movement that actually African-Americans did not have to play a major role in dealing with the race question in this country," Cleaver told me. "That it's always going to be better if whites dealt with the issue with whites. Having said that, I think the issue that we're dealing with is the fact that Joe Wilson made a poor choice. He allowed himself to get caught in a mouth trap. And thats more of an issue for the House of Representatives than an issue of race."

What does Cleaver make of Carter's comments?

"I think President Carter's comments are helpful only if it sparks an intellectual and honest debate. I don't think that's whats going to happen. I think there's going to be denial and more accusations."

For this and other reasons, Cleaver advises Obama to stay away from the race debate, no matter how much Carter tries to stoke it.

"We have to be careful that we don't inject race on everything that goes on," Cleaver said. "If we do, it's certainly going to negatively impact the Obama administration and their ability to get things done. I think the president will make a terrible mistake by getting involved in it, I don't think (he) should become bogged down discussing race."

Carter repeated the attack tonight at a town hall in Atlanta, wrapping Wilson and many opponents of the White House together.

“I think people that are guilty of that kind of personal attack against Obama have been influenced to a major degree by a belief that he should not be president because he happens to be African American," Carter said. "It's a racist attitude. And my hope is, my expectation is, in the future both Democratic leaders and Republican leaders will take the initiative in condemning that kind of unprecedented attack on the president of the United States.”

Carter did not play a prominent role in the Obama campaign either nationally or in Georgia. When Obama's camp was touting Georgia as a potential swing state it did not deploy Carter to sway undecideds or mobilize party loyalists.

"Carter is noble in his intention, yet has a propensity to forget that the voice of a former president carries weight," said a Democratic strategist who has run several campaigns in the South. "This is not the first time he's done it and I doubt the White House communications folks see this as business as usual from this guy. He wasn't front-and-center in Georgia in the campaign and that state was supposedly in play. He gets a convention speech and a Secret Service detail."

But Carter doesn't get much else.

Except attention just now for breaking one of the codes of former presidents -- don't complicate matters in a time of political and policy stress. Carter's done just that.

"Unhelpful," another White House aide said.

That's putting it mildly. Coincidentally, that is precisely how Obama wants to deal with race from now on.