Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s new attack line on President Barack Obama: He’s worse than Jimmy Carter.

Mr. Romney is attempting to equate Mr. Obama’s comments Thursday that Americans are “stressed out” to Mr. Carter’s famous description that the country faces a “crisis of confidence.” Friday, as the campaign notes, is the 32nd anniversary of the 39th president’s famous “malaise” speech, made during the midst of the energy crisis. The televised speech, widely considered important for his presidency, fell flat.

In the 1979 speech, Mr. Carter described what he saw around the country:

What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well-financed and powerful special interests. You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends.

Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift. You don’t like it, and neither do I.