Carter's View on Dictatorships

According to today's WSJ (subscription may be required), Jimmy Carter shared his view of democracies and dictatorships with the following statement:

"In a democracy, I realize you don't need to talk to the top leader to know how the country feels," he said over the weekend, responding to a question from an Israeli journalist who noted that Mr. Carter had been snubbed by most of Israel's top leadership and reprimanded by its president, Shimon Peres. "When I go to a dictatorship, I only have to talk to one person and that's the dictator, because he speaks for all the people."

That's right - in the world according to Jimmy, Fidel Castro represents the feelings of all its people; in Venezuela, it's Chavez, in Zimbabwe, Mugabe, and so forth.