Jimmy Carter On Women's Rights - Charlie Rose says NO

On March 25th, Charlie Rose supposedly had Jimmy Carter on to talk about Carter's new book, "A Call to Action." Instead, Rose quizzed Carter on which presidents sought his advice while in office, and which ones he didn't get along with. The gossipy tone continued even when Carter softly, politely mentioned he wanted to "talk about women," glancing at the copy of his book in front of Mr. Rose.

Instead, Rose drove the conversation all over the globe, from the 40 years of turbulence in Israel to the dictatorships in South America to Africa and, even after Carter explained he was no expert on the subject, the current conflict in Ukraine. After some 20 minutes, Carter again mentioned that he had a new book about women...and Rose ignored him, changing the subject yet again.

The strangest thing about all of this, is that Carter's previous appearance on a talk show was with David Letterman...who allowed and encouraged Carter to give some appalling statistics on the rate of female circumcision in Egypt, and other points that were in his book. David Letterman is more of a feminist than Charlie Rose? Over 50 percent of the country is female, and Rose is more concerned over whether Obama asks Carter for advice now and then?

"A Call to Action" is an important book, moreso because of who has written it...an ex-president, not Rachel Maddow or some other provocateur. Carter and his wife Rosalyn took the bold step of leaving the Southern Baptist Convention in 2009 over women's rights issues and denials, and he's spent many years researching the status of women around the world...uncovering backward, ignorant and downright vicious abuses everywhere. Genocide of baby girls, genital mutilation, the apathy to rape victims (including date rape and abuses in our own military system)...Mr. Carter covers it all, including of course the hot-button issues of abortion, contraception and "a woman's right." He certainly doesn't spare religious groups who perpetrate atrocities in the name of God.

Jimmy Carter, mild mannered as he is, has become a figure of some controversy over the years, due to his seeming support of some cruel, antisemitic and anti-American regimes around the world (he defends this as trying to work with these people to change their minds). It's possible that some are viewing this latest book as just another topic for a man who seems to knock off a book every other year, in between his world travels. This one doesn't have Carter smiling on the cover. The cover is to the point...nothing but a few choice words. "A Call to Action" is exactly that. David Letterman understood this, and Charlie Rose apparently didn't.