Romney Uses Carter as Weapon

More than two decades after he left office, the GOP still won’t give Jimmy Carter a break. The former president has become a Romney campaign hobbyhorse as Mitt tries to make hay out of the idea that Barack Obama is feckless and a tad befuddled—you know, just like Carter. Asked in New Hampshire whether he would have ordered the strike that killed terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, Romney replied that “even Jimmy Carter would have given that order.” Veteran GOP campaigner Peter Wehrer summed up the strategy this way: “When you mention Jimmy Carter, that lightens up certain regions of the mind and brings to mind ineptness and incompetence.”