[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/POLITICS/09/17/criticism.racism/art.obamarose.gi.jpg caption="President Obama during the 2008 campaign faced questions over race and politics"]

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Race and politics are a combustible combo that explodes into headlines when an ex-president lights the fuse, as Jimmy Carter did recently.

"When a radical fringe element of demonstrators and others begin to attack the president of the United States as an animal or as a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler or when they wave signs in the air that said we should have buried Obama with Kennedy, those kinds of things are beyond the bounds," the Democrat told students at Emory University on Wednesday.

"I think people who are guilty of that kind of personal attack against Obama have been influenced to a major degree by a belief that he should not be president because he happens to be African-American," he added.

The controversy erupted this week when Carter first raised the race issue to NBC.

"An overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man," he said.

Bill Cosby, a black comedian and actor, said Wednesday in a written statement that he agrees with Carter.

"During President Obama's speech on the status of health care reform, some members of Congress engaged in a public display of disrespect," he said.

CNN contributor David Gergen said that some of the allegations of race-baiting might have some weight among Democratic voters.

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[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/POLITICS/09/15/carter.obama/art.carter.nbc.jpg caption="Former President Carter tells NBC Nightly News that racism has surfaced in opposition to President Obama."](CNN) - Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that racial politics played a role in South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst during President Obama's speech to Congress last week and in some of the opposition the president has faced since taking office.

"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African-American," Carter told NBC News. "I live in the South, and I've seen the South come a long way, and I've seen the rest of the country that shares the South's attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African-Americans."

"That racism inclination still exists, and I think it's bubbled up to the surface because of belief among many white people - not just in the South but around the country - that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It's an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply," Carter said.

Carter made similar remarks at an event at his presidential center in Atlanta, Georgia, The Associated Press reported Tuesday, pointing to some protesters who have compared Obama to a Nazi.   "Those kind of things are not just casual outcomes of a sincere debate on whether we should have a national program on health care," the former president said at the Carter Center, according to AP. "It's deeper than that."

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