The Hill News

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Friday compared President Obama to former Democratic president Jimmy Carter.

Romney, who has stayed relatively quiet in the debt-ceiling debate, weighed in on Obama's Friday press conference, in which the president addressed the status of the deficit negotiations.

Romney tweeted:

@BarackObama says Americans are “stressed out.” Sounds a lot like Carter’s “Malaise” speech from exactly 32 years ago

In July 1979, Carter gave a speech dubbed "the malaise speech," which addressed the energy crisis and high unemployment in the U.S. at the time. Carter said the country faced "a crisis of confidence."

Romney likely didn't intend the comparison between Obama and one-term president Carter to be flattering.
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Romney has faced comparison to Carter in the past as well, from fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), over his foreign policy.