Jimmy Carter, The Left's Top Dingbat

The left and right in America has always been a bit more pronounced than here in the UK. A right leaning American would probably follow the same track as a right winger here but there they have guns and God thrown into the mix, two things that are of no consequence here but seem to spark off all the biggest bun fights there.
The two ideological opposites do seem to go at it with an amazing, and sometimes frightening, amount of gusto as we have seen with the reactions to George W Bush and now Obama. The added ingredient now though is that Obama happens to be black so race is also thrown into the bubbling cauldron.
Maybe i missed something but when Republican Joe Wilson shouted out that Obama was a liar, it was because he strongly disagreed with what Obama was saying about Health Care. Unprofessional and rude certainly, but racist?
It seems that this is the way the left are going to play this game, a game that involves branding as a racist anyone who criticizes Obama in much the same way the pro-Israel brigade throw out the anti-Semite barb at anyone who doesn't toe their line.
Now ex-President Jimmy Carter has stepped into the fray and kicked the whole thing up a notch, saying that the outburst by Wilson was an act 'based on racism' and rooted in fears of a black president.
I can only watch on in disbelief that a subject such as Health care can stir the emotions so much that the right turn out with posters depicting Obama as Hitler and a Communist while the left turn the whole thing into a race row.
Debate is good and its okay to disagree but this doesn't bode well for the rest of Obama's administration which will get bogged down in this nonsense with every decision it tries to make, to the detriment of America.
It was the American right that was widely thought to be full of dingbats but it seems that the left also have more than their fair share as well with Mr Carter, who really should know better, the top dingbat.