Does Romney want voters to see Jimmy Carter in Obama?

Romney returned to
the familiar ground of talking about the economy on Wednesday after the
campaign trail was dominated for days by the first anniversary of the
killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, an issue that played more to
Obama's strengths.

Romney accused Obama
of being anti-business and compared him to Carter, seen by Republicans
as an example of a weak Democratic president. Carter served from 1977 to
1981.

"This is the most
anti-small business president that I've seen probably since Carter," he
said in a speech in the election battleground state of Virginia. It was
his second unflattering reference in two days to Carter.

Comparing Obama to
Carter could help Romney frame the economic debate against the
Democratic incumbent, who has presided over a slowly recovering economy
with 8.2 percent unemployment, $1 trillion annual budget deficits, high
gasoline prices and modest job creation.

Under Carter, U.S. economic growth was relatively slow, weighed down by
double-digit inflation and rising gasoline prices. He lost his 1980
re-election bid to Ronald Reagan.

At a small business in Chantilly, a northern Virginia suburb of
Washington, Romney said, "Who would've thought we'd look at the Carter
years as the good old days?"

Romney told the
Chantilly audience that people ask him how he would handle the economy
differently than Obama. "I say, 'Well, look at what the president has
done, and do the opposite,'" he said to applause.

He called Obama's
plans to raise the business tax rate from 35 percent to 40 percent a
"direct attack" on small business and said he would cut it to 28
percent. He said he would cut regulations and require that any major
regulations be approved by Congress instead of a government agency. He
said he also would pursue a more aggressive energy policy.

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