Monday, August 27, 2012

Catch of the Day

...goes to Philip Klein for noticing that the RNC was giving out copies of Mitt Romney's book to the press at the convention...but it's the hardcover original, which says that he's going to give Romneycare to the whole nation. Oops!

I do believe that it was ace reporter and Romney watcher David S. Bernstein who made the initial catch of how the hardcover was re-edited for a less offending paperback edition. Not just on healthcare; the stimulus also got a lot worse between edition.s

At any rate...it's worth just stepping back for a minute at the opening of the Republican convention to marvel at the oddity of Mitt Romney -- who really have very little in the way of public accomplishments other than a widely-praised health care reform -- winning the nomination of a party which absolutely cannot stand that program, which therefore he must downplay or lie about at all times.

It doesn't mean he'll lose, and probably doesn't say much about how well-equipped he is to be president, although I do think it says something about the Republican Party and how poorly equipped it is to govern in general. But apart from that, it's just pretty amazing. I still don't really know what to think about whether Romney ran a brilliant nomination campaign (that was so successful that none of his serious challengers wound up seriously contesting the race) or if he was just really lucky (because none of his serious challengers wound up seriously contesting the race). Regular readers will know that I lean towards the former, but I can't really rule out the latter. Either way, it really is amazing.

10 comments:

  1. It is a great example of how cognitive dissonance works. I mean it really is like something out of "When Prophecy Fails."

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Prophecy_Fails

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    1. Wow... a book I think of often, but hadn't applied to this context. Thanks!

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  2. You have said for months now that the election is a tossup. With Sam Wang calculating Obama's odds of victory at 88% and Nate Silver placing them at 69%, do those projections influence your sense of how the election is going? Why do you think it is a tossup?

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    1. Anything less than 90% favored is still "toss-up".

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    2. Did I say it was a tossup? As I read the predictor stuff, the fundamentals seem to read as a tossup with Obama as perhaps a slight favorite, but no more than that. The big unknown IMO is whether Bartels is correct that voters factor in (inversely) the first year economy, in which case Obama would be a solid favorite -- or if they ignore it, in which case it's maybe a tossup/lean Romney.

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    3. You may not have used the word 'tossup,' but your reply here confirms that you do think it is close to a tossup.

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  3. For those who may not remember, this was the point Perry was making when Romney challenged him with the $10,000 bet. If Romney makes another $10,000 bet, you know it's a bluff.

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  4. What makes me laugh about the book thing is a book thing. Why did the Romney campaign give away hardback editions? Because they had a lot of them that went unsold, and giving them away saves on warehousing. Probably a tax deduction in there as well.

    The errant chapter is a whoops afterthought for folks who keep their eye on the bottom line.

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    1. Actually, what they usually do is buy a bunch of them - a PAC or other buys them - and then force people to buy them or hand them out later.

      By 'buying' them when they're released, they get counted as sales by the NYTimes, it doesn't matter when/if they're read. It's a common wingnut welfare pitch.

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    2. Right, that's true for new books, but these are the old hardbacks, not the newer paperbacks. I'm betting these are unsold copies that have been in storage for awhile.

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