CNBC has an exclusive interview with Birthday Boy President Jimmy Carter tonight
Here is the transcript
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102049678?__source=yahoo|finance|headline|headline|story&par=yahoo&doc=102049678
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TB: Even your wife Rosalyn was encouraging you to take action, was it hard to not take everyone's advice around you, even your wife's?
PJC: Yes. Um, well I could've been re-elected if I'd taken military action against Iran, shown that I was strong and resolute and, um, manly and so forth. But, er, I think if I, I could have wiped Iran off the map with the weapons that we had, but in the process a lot of innocent people would have been killed, probably including the hostages and so I stood up against all that, er, all that advice, and then eventually my prayers were answered and every hostage came home safe and free. And so I think I made the right decision in retrospect, but it was not easy at the time (laughs).
Sir Richard Branson: I think he was incredibly unfairly judged. I mean he was ahead of his time when he was in the White House….I think if it hadn't been for the Iran Hostage situation he would have had a second term and I think most likely would've been as well-respected for his time in office as for his time outside the office.
TB: Do you feel the American people have accepted that now, that it was the right decision?
PJC: I think increasingly they have as more facts are known and as people look back on those times. Er, but there's still a strong inclination in our country to take military action when I think it's not necessary.
TB: You left office sir, as you have said, involuntarily, if you had been re-elected what would you have liked to accomplish?
PJC: I don't have any doubt that if I'd had another term in office I could have implemented very firmly the peace agreement that I negotiated with Israel and its neighbours., Er, that was never fully implemented. So now 35, 40 years later we still have Israel not at peace with its neighbours…But my successors were not very interested in the Mid East peace process, not as deeply as I was, and that's one of the things I could have done differently.
