Sorry Jimmy; I Disagree

I love Jimmy Carter, and I think history will (eventually) be kinder to his performance as president than his contemporaries have typically been, but I think he's mistaken to feel "comfortable" with the idea of Mitt Romney as president, and I think he's dead wrong to use words like "moderate" and "progressive" to describe Romney.

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Romney may, arguably, have been moderate back when he was governor of Massachusetts (even then, I think progressive would've been a stretch), but the current Republican standard bearer is not that same guy... or if he is, he's been lying through his teeth to his own party throughout the campaign: He's gone out of his way to position himself as "severely conservative," and we should take him at his word. But even if Romney were moderate (or "competent," which I frankly don't believe either), it wouldn't matter, because a vote for him is really a vote for the Republican Party. Romney may or may not be "the most conservative Republican nominee since Barry Goldwater," but the party he heads (heads; not, as far as I can tell, leads) is so far to the right that it would make even Goldwater blush.