Opinion: In today’s pages: Iran, Gitmo inmates, and brain imaging
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Kenneth S. Baer, founder and editor of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, says Mitt Romney should forget his JFK moment and pray to be Jimmy Carter:
Romney doesn’t need to do a JFK. He needs to do a Jimmy Carter. After all, Kennedy ran away from his religion. Carter ran on it, using his religious belief -- he was the first ‘born again’ president -- as a selling point. But as Carter’s experience demonstrates, trying to be the candidate of faith, without being tied by voters to a particular faith, is a very hard course to navigate and must be done carefully. The questions Romney is facing about his Mormonism pale in comparison to what Kennedy faced.
Contributing editor Ian Buruma says that even though Spain has passed the Law of Historical Memory, legislation is a blunt way to deal with the past. Neuropsychiatrist Daniel G. Amen suggests brain-scanning presidential candidates to make sure voters select the ‘brain healthiest’ person.
The editorial board names a winner in the Iran intelligence disclosure — the Russians. The board urges the Supreme Court to reaffirm habeas protection for Guantanamo inmates, and tells Los Angeles to look to Orange County for inspiration on what to do with wastewater.