( CNN ) -- Former President Jimmy Carter predicted that Republicans ' obstructionist ways should change and President Obama 's re-election prospects could improve after next week 's midterm elections . Speaking Wednesday on HLN 's `` The Joy Behar Show , '' Carter said the Republican party has been `` completely irresponsible '' in the past 18 months by opposing most legislative initiatives backed by Obama and his fellow Democrats . But the nation 's 39th president said that approach might not work as well , if Republicans go from the minority to the majority in either the Senate or House of Representatives . He said it could also end up leading to less of a logjam on Capitol Hill . `` If they , maybe , gain control , ... they 'll have to show some responsibility , so that Obama will will have an opponent with whom he can debate with some degree of rationality , '' Carter said . Carter praised Obama for doing `` an extraordinary job '' despite numerous challenges , including an environment in which most every move he made , even if it had once been championed by Republicans , faced immediate opposition . If and when Republicans engage the White House after voters hit the polls on November 2 , Obama may be more able to engage them as well as voters in drawing a clear distinction between himself and his opponents , Carter said . `` They 've been able to snipe away at what he does , and ( Obama ) has n't had a target to debate , '' he said . `` But that 's going to change over the next two years . So I think he 'll have a better chance to be re-elected than I think he ( may seem to have ) now . '' A devout Christian and longtime Sunday school teacher , Carter also addressed recent comments from Republican senatorial candidates Sharron Angle of Nevada and Christine O'Donnell of Delaware talking openly about religion on the campaign trail . He said that it 's very different from when he was president in the 1970s , because `` there 's sort of a marriage between religious groups and one political party '' -- the Republicans . Carter said the growing role of money in politics had poisoned the process , not only in funding relentless rounds of negative advertising , but also when the candidates set up shop in Washington . `` That 's been the main cause of the change in the political environment -- the enormous influence of vast amounts of money , ( sometimes ) secretly without identifying donors . A lot of that money is used in negative advertising to destroy the reputations of opponents , '' said Carter . `` That animosity , that hatred , carries over . ''
Former President Jimmy Carter says Obama 's re-election prospects could improve . He blasts Republicans for obstructionism , saying they will need to change after November . Carter blames `` vast amounts of money '' for fueling animosity in Washington .