Jimmy Carter bemoans money in politics on Super Tuesday
(CNN) – Jimmy Carter, peanut farmer turned 39th president, said he was casually following Republican politics on Super Tuesday, as he does sometimes for amusement.
Watching from the sideline has given Carter some perspective he said. He is not thrilled about how things are playing out.
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As he sat in his Plains, Georgia home, he bemoaned the influx of money into politics, and with it –vitriol.
"A lot of that money is used to destroy the character of your opponent in an election and that animosity and character destruction carries on when members of Congress get to Washington," Carter told CNN by phone.
"I hope the Supreme Court will reverse its stupid decision to let the corporations contribute massive amounts of money, and also rich people," he said of the high court's ruling on the Citizen's United case which paved the way for the creation of super PACs and with them unlimited donations to political action committees and the onslaught of negative advertisements.
He said when ran for president, "I always referred to incumbent President Gerald Ford as, 'my distinguished opponent' and that's the way he referred to me. When I later ran against Governor [Ronald] Reagan, it was the same thing, 'my distinguished opponent.' "
No matter the issue he said it seems, "everything is vitriolic now."
As for the outcome on Tuesday at the polls, he surmised his neighbors in Georgia would give former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich a win in his home state, but that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney would be on the top of the Republican ticket in the end.
Not surprisingly, ether way Carter said he will support fellow Democrat President Barack Obama in his reelection bid in November. And the former president said he hoped the current president would be able to stay above the fray and away from the vitriol.
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