Maybe the N. Koreans will keep Carter. We'll trade him for a few of those cute little Korean chicks.

I hope they keep him as the next President of North Korea, no one knows screwing millions with foolish economic policy like Jimmy the America Hating Ass Carter.

Carter is probably all amped up because he found out that he's no longer historically America's worst president.

Recycled failure!

Can someone explain to me why people keep trying to cross into N. Korea?

I think we should just go for a one for one trade and let "Jimmah" stay in North Korea to monitor the next election.

This would be the funniest ever, if they kept him. I mean, who would try to get him back? I'd chip in some money for them to keep him. Ha ha.

Why dosen't he go to Iran and free the hikers being held there?

The old fool. He should be on the lecture circuit like bu$h, telling lies and bragging about destroying our economy in exchange for a fat paycheck. Remember, when asked what he would do after leaving office, bu$h said, "Time to replenish the old coffers." One more reason he's the worst president* in history.

(*And the only one never actually elected.)

If this guy that went over the border was Mexican would they have let him go?

its incredible how lame the comments are on this page. I thought this magazine had a readership that was, um, educated.

keep on with your ignorance people.

why would you post this article? if it takes a hush hush to get the guy home repect it!

As the feanut farmer abandoned the Iranian hostages- abandon the peanut farmer and bring Gomes home!

Jimmy Carter for an illegal immigrant to North Korea? Not only it a fair trade, it will raise the average IQ of both countries.

We can send him to Iran next to free the hikers. They like him there.

Perhaps the posters could stand to do a little research...that former president that you're so eager to get rid of, well he and his organization in Atlanta are poised to eradicate the first disease since small pox, are currently one of the leading champions of mental health care for veterans, have monitored over 78 elections, and have actually helped countries avert numerous conflicts (the last one Columbia-Ecuador-Venezuela). At 85 he still builds houses in the Gulf Coast and other disaster zones long after morons like you guys have forgotten these places exist after they stop showing up on Fox. Oh, and all the talk today about reducing our foreign dependency on oil and their repressive regimes, Carter reduced it by over 20% when he was president. Not to mention the article itself, which talked about what a success his intervention in N. Korea was for the Clintons. So yeah, since he's been so "ineffective" let's get rid of him. I mean the last thing you want is a bunch of ex-presidents making tons of cash on the speaker circuit while not giving back to their country...oh wait.

hi from Turkey dear readers of Foreignpolicymagazine's online edition . Former president of USA mr. jimmy Carter real a mission man. so many peoples in jis ages retire but he is still working. ? respect him. as a peace negatior he is visiting all around the world (Africa and Asia and Pasific reason). that is a very big event. in his presidecy(late 70's) i was a little child in my country(TURKEY). There was a one common enemy (BREJNEF's U.S.S.R) now time changed a lot .

@Bleynet 12:18 p,m, August 24:

They have monitored a bunch of elections and given a free pass to many brutal, thuggish dictators and Communist governments.

Carter reduced oil? No, he didn't. Oil usage went down because the price of oil jacked up tremendously--ever hear of the "oil shock?" What he did do was give us was stagflation with massive inflation running between 18% and 22 %..

Foreign policy? Jimmy let the Iranian revolutionaries kick him where his cojones should have been, and never made a peep. It was only near election time that he sent in an ill-fated military expedition to try and rescue the hostages--to hopefully bolster his image. It failed in the desert, and several military personel died as a result.

Interventin in N. Korea a success for Clinton? Remember that we gave them nuclear capacity in exchange for their promise not to develop nucleasr weapons. We all know how that turned out. Both Jimmy and Slick Willie were taken down the primrose path on that one.

Experience tells us that diseases don't get eradicated. Small pox is showing up again. Read the news.

Carter building houses is fine with me. That is pretty much the height of his ability. If he would content himself with buiiding houses and stay out of everything else, we would all be better off.

As far as this current trip to North Korea--I propose we exchange Jimmy for the current prisoner, and offer North Korea foreign aid if they will make the exchange.

Will Jimmy Carter, America's esteemed democrat champion, staunchly demand that North Korea MUST adopt an open door border policy identical to the one practiced by the Obama regime?

Full of himself, sticking his nose in all over, working against the interests of the U.S., that's Jimmy Carter. Remember, he is the president who destroyed our alliance with Iran and ushered in the era of the lunatic ayatollahs who have radicalized the Mideast. He is responsible for many deaths that have occurred as a result. He will likely gain the release of Mr. Gomes and bask in that glory, but what mischief will he do while he's there?

No worries. The liberal media will pin another garland on his wooden noggin.

I remember trying to buy our first house in the 80s and 18% mortgages. I remember the oil embargo and gas rationing. I remember the embassy take over and how you made America look impotent, opening the door to terrorism on our shores. I remember this guy who has spent the last 20 years trying to make us forget the disaster of his administration by doing good works. Yes. Mr. Carter, you are a much better person when you have a hammer in your hand. Please stick to that.

If only this were an exchange, the old fool would fit in so well in North Korea.

That is simply insane. Possibly right up to 2006 you could have argued that Carter helped out in NK for Clinton. Right up until NK detonated that nuke that Carter personally helped the NK get.

We have Carter to thank for Pakistani nuclear programme - and its bastard children in Iraq, Libya, NK and Iran - the decision to like the ISI run the mujahidin, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the millions dead at the hand of the Khemer Rouge, Taiwan and ROK nearly getting nukes because they didn't trust Carter and that is before he even left office. There after he would put in power the people who would later murder nearly a million people in Rwanda. He has regularly shown there is not a single genocidal dictator he is not willing to blow whilst "bravely" attacking and stabbing in the back the only countries who are unconditionally pro-US and so setting an example for son of Carter.

Last time Carter went he paved the way for NK to get nukes and starve to death millions of Koreans. Heaven help the people of North Korea now.

Bleynet: regarding your reply to my earlier post:

First, the Guinea Worms. They are not yet eradicated, and from what I read, the folks working toward eradication of of Guinea Work Disease tell us it is near eradication. Well, we shall see. They all have an interest in patting themselves on the back. According to what I read, clean drinking water will eradicate the Guinea Worm because drinking water containing water fleas spreads the disease to humans, and the Guinea Worm has to have a human host to complete its life cycle.

But, what if it adapts, and some other mammal becomes a substitute host? Who knows?

But I do thank you, because in looking at the information on this disease, I encountered a group that was most interesting. It is called the "Save The Guinea Worm Foundation." I am not making this up. You can check online for their website.

A quote from its website: "As you read this, a cartel of powerful organizations is conspiring to exterminate a living endangered species from the planet.....[T]he Guinea Worm struggles in silence (I didn't know they could talk; but anyway) against an organized worldwide effort of supposed 'health' experts who have little or no awareness of the damage they pose to worldwide biodiversity. Ironically, as a parasite the Guinea Work is dependent on humanity to complete its lifecycle. The species' very survival depends on us."

At another spot on the website, it says: "...because the Guinea Worm is unlucky enough to rely upon humanity for its self-preservation, it is branded a 'parasite' and targeted for destruction.....the Guinea Worm is not a disease microbe, but a living animal. It has a nervous system. Its heart pumps blood through its small body. It experiences pain...."

But, fear not. This group has a plan to save the Guinea Worm. Its website tells us of a number of things we can do, including the fact that we can "...join the Preservers. This brave group (sic) men and women volunteers to host Guinea Worms to preserve the species."

Noble thoughts and actions obviously come in many guises.

Bleynet, I do thank you for giving me an impetus to discover the "Save the Guinea Worm Foundation." Just when I think Jimmy and his group promote some nutty things, as well as do the whacko environmental groups, I discover yet another organization whose reason for being includes goals that seem to me to be waaaay out there on (the rock formerly known as the planet) Pluto.

But, the "Save The Guinea Worm Fourndation" and its members are obviously in opposition to what Jimmy is trying to do here, and apparently no admirers of his. One suspects these folks would fit very nicely on the political left, so it is not just us conservatives who do not care for Jimmy.

I won't get into a protracted discussion about oil policy during the Carter years. I lived through it, and I know what happened and what the results were.

I beg to differ that Jimmy has spent nearly every day since he left office trying to make America and the world better off. His primary concern has been promoting Jimmy Carter, and secondarily promoting his own whacky ideas. Has anyone ever seen someone campaign as hard for the Nobel Peace Prize as Jimmy did? I was relieved when they finally awarded to him, since we would finally be spared the embarassing spectacle of a former U.S. president working so hard to have himself awarded this "honor."

I did not say anything about bombing Iran. I said that Jimmy let the Iranian mob push him and the U.S. around, until the election was looming, and then his measures were pitiable and inadequate. At the same time U.S. Embassy employees were taken hostage, two of businessman Ross Perot's emplyees were taken hostage. Perot hired some mercenaries who went in and rescued these employees. Yet, Jimmy Carter, shilly-shallying around, couldn't even manage that with the entire U.S. military at his disposal. His "Rose Garden Strategy" was an admission of weakness and failure, it was perceived as that both here and abroad, and it was one of the major reason he was a one-term president.

You mean the Noble War Prize at NobleWarPrize.com? They don't give awards to terrorists, global warming hucksters or socially promoted presidents.

Blaynet--

I too feel our discussion has run its course.

I would only say this in closing: my definition of a conservative columnist and yours are very far apart. From my perspective, Mr. Brooks' writings seem like nothing more than those of a slightly left of center centrist, or perhaps he would fit well into the old Eastern Establishment wing of the Republican Party.

A centrist is by definition as middle-of-the-road person, and as the old saying goes, I have never seen anything in the middle of the road except yellow stripes and dead skunks.

A centrist tries to please everyone, and ends up getting whatever positions he or she holds smashed by the left and sometimes the right.

Anyway, this has been an interesting exchange. My best to you, though apparently we are far apart ideologically.