Former President Jimmy Carter continues on his misguided mission to insult his countrymen and harm his party, when he is not roaming the world cozying up to anti-American dictators:

"Hello, my good friend Moammar. Throw a party for any mass murderers of American air passengers lately?"

"Hugo, mi amigo, it's been such a long time. Have you finished silencing Venezuela's opposition press?"

"Fidel, you're not looking so good. Can I light you a cigar? Can I plump your pillow?"

A sorry old meddler, Old Mushmouth is a self-righteous moralizer whose words often work in opposition to his intent.

In his latest ramble, Old Mushmouth said the "overwhelming portion" of those loudly opposing President Obama are racists.

He hasn't created so many waves since he was in a waterborne battle with an enraged swamp rabbit.

His remark paralleled the equally hair-trigger opinion of the Philadelphians who hung the "racist" tag on anyone who objected to the Eagles' hiring of Michael Vick.

When you're wearing racial blinkers, you're blind to any other explanation. Did race explain the right's hatred of Bill Clinton or the left's of George W. Bush? We are living through a Season of Hate, and it's not "overwhelmingly" racist.

Carter said the "overwhelming portion" of disagreeing Americans just can't accept a black man in the White House. He reminded us, as if his drawl didn't, that he is a son of the South and he understands Southerners' DNA. It sounded a bit confessional to me.

I remember when he acknowledged having lust in his heart years ago. Are his current words another admission, this time of hate in his heart? Is he seeing racism in others because it is, or was, buried in his own heart? It all sounds more like what is going on in Carter's interior than in the nation's exterior.

Predictably, anyone disagreeing with Carter was immediately tarred as a racist. That's what MSNBC's semi-rational ranter Keith Olbermann bayed last Wednesday. If you diss Carter, he suggested, you are a racist and a right-wing nutjob.

Unfortunately, his show followed MSNBC's "Hardball," in which Politico's Roger Simon said Carter was "over the top," while host Chris Matthews and "Meet the Press" anchor David Gregory added that the race issue was a "circus" Obama did not need. Are they right-wing/racists?

The Rabid Right, naturally, howled in protest.

But . . . so did many fair-minded Democrats, starting with President Obama.

After Carter dealt the r-a-c-e c-a-r-d, media sharks swarmed at the next White House news conference, peppering spokesman Robert Gibbs with questions about Old Mushmouth's statement. His most direct response was this:

"The president does not believe that that criticism comes based on the color of his skin."

A more accurate statement might have been the criticism isn't "based solely on the color of his skin."

As a candidate, Obama didn't have me at "hello," but he did get me with his March 2008 Philadelphia speech on race.

I chose to believe him on his view of America. If he isn't telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth now, at least he's consistent. I'll stand with this president against Old Mushmouth.

In reality, there's a racial strain in most national discussions involving Obama, but it is irrational to think r-a-c-e is animating all, or even most, of the animosity.

Those voicing that race uber alles idea are ignorant of the profound fear millions of Americans feel about federal deficit climbing into the trillions and individual rights being usurped by a federal government growing like kudzu. Politicians should not blow off that fear as simple-minded race hate.

President Obama doesn't. On ABC's "This Week" yesterday morning, he called race a "backdrop," but that the "biggest driver" in the health-care debate was a concern about whether government could do anything right.

When Carter characterized racists as an "overwhelming portion," he was pulling that out of his rear end, but it does raise an interesting question: How much of America is racist? And what does it mean to be racist?

To me, being a "racist" doesn't mean harboring certain bad feelings about other ethnicities, or even latent feelings of your own ethnicity's superiority. Basically, secretly, many of us feel that.

Being a "racist" means letting those feelings dictate your actions - what you say and, more importantly, what you do.

As to the percentage of Americans who let "racist" feelings guide their actions, I'd guesstimate 30 percent. Why? Obama got a higher percentage of white voters than either Al Gore or John Kerry and because Obama's approval rate was 70 percent in January, before he started implementing his policies. What's your guess - and why?

E-mail stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977. For recent columns:

http://go.philly.com/byko.