That's how a Republican friend of a friend of mine responded to an email I sent out using Obama's "Take a stand on civil liberties" tool:
Sean, which would be worst, the third term of GWB, or the second term of Jimmy Carter?
This isn't the first time I've heard that, but it is the first time anyone I know personally has said it and it drove me to write an incredulous and somewhat scornful reply. My response on the flip.
ABSOLUTELY a third Bush term would be worse. For all his faults, at least Jimmy Carter didn't needlessly get the US into a war with no end in sight by lying. Nor did he take every opportunity he could to systematically gut the federal government and replace longtime employees with less qualified and far higher paid contractors (wasting tons of money). Carter didn't go through the justice department and replace attorneys who disagreed with him with lackeys. Nor did Carter use the threat of terrorism to suspend habeas corpus or illegally wiretap American citizens without a warrant. Carter didn't just stand by and do nothing while a great American city lay drowning. Nor did he do everything he could to stifle scientific research on a broad range of topics in the name of "faith" even though he was a devout Christian. Carter didn't just sit by and say "Oh, there's nothing we can do" about the energy crisis and actively block congressional efforts to find a solution. Carter didn't use the presidency as an opportunity to goad our enemies, saying things like "Bring it on". Nor did he fail to find the man who killed three thousand Americans even after SEVEN YEARS!! of searching! I could really go on ALL DAY.
So, yes, I'll HAPPILY take another four years of Carter over another four years of Bush.
John McCain has said multiple times, on television and elsewhere, that he agreed with Bush on nearly all of his major policies. John McCain has voted time and time again in the Senate to support the Bush administration's policies. Add to that his legendary temper and you have a man who may well be worse for the country that Bush is. Anyone who'd vote for more of the last eight years would have to be either willfully ignorant or morally bankrupt.