Sometimes you feel like a peanut

Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that protests and outbursts directed against President Obama are rooted in fears of a black president.

"I think it's based on racism," Carter said in response to an audience question at a town hall held at his presidential center in Atlanta. "There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president. Or win the ‘Best Female Video Award’ at the Video Music Awards."

“My presidency and President Obama's are quite similar. Skyrocketing unemployment, economy in the toilet, weak on foreign policy,” Carter explained. “But you didn’t have thousands of Americans driving across the country to Washington to march against my administration. So it must be a racial thing. Or it might have been that whole ‘gas rationing’ thing when I was President.”

The Georgia Democrat offered some words of encouragement for the current President. "If they would let me talk to him I would tell him that no matter how inept, misguided or out of touch with reality his presidency may be people still have to respect the office of President. And, hey, I won’t live forever, so when he is voted out in 2012, after failing miserably, he can always take over my ‘Habitat for Humanity’ gig.”