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May 3, 2007

Mitt Romney’s Favorite Book is ‘Battlefield Earth’?

Filed under: Uncategorized — Volt @ 3:42 pm

John Dickerson, Slate, May 2, 2007

If you plan to run for president, you have to get your reading list straight. Inevitably a reporter will ask you to name your favorite book or a book you’re currently reading, hoping to uncover a truth about your inner self. Candidates quickly learn to name either biographies of heroic ex-presidents or safe best sellers like Einstein. If a candidate is going to take a risk and go with fiction, it must be an affirming airport novel or a classic like Bleak House safe enough to be adapted by PBS. A candidate wants to show depth, but not so much depth that people hide their daughters. Even Barack Obama wouldn’t want to have to explain his love for Portnoy’s Complaint or Lolita to a gymnasium full of Iowa caucus-goers.

The modern media addiction to this trope appears to have started with John F. Kennedy, who said he liked reading Ian Fleming’s novels.* The dashing president who liked the ladies seemed to be mirrored in his choice of books, so journalists kept asking the question. Bill Clinton, a man of wide appetites, couldn’t name just one book and thereby reaffirmed the idea that by their books ye shall know them.

Answering this question correctly can be helpful to a would-be president. If you’re Rudy Giuliani and you want people to think you’re like Churchill, it’s a good idea to tell reporters you were reading a biography of the prime minister on the night of 9/11. (The only less subtle hint would be nicknaming yourself Winston.) But naming the wrong book can send dangerous signals. Last summer, President Bush reportedly read The Stranger. Having launched an unpopular pre-emptive war in the Middle East, it can’t possibly be helpful to announce that you’re reading a book where the main character is an unrepentant Arab-killer.

Recently, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney was asked to name his favorite books. Romney is a man who likes to prepare. In the months before announcing his presidential bid, his foundation donated to social conservative groups that he now hopes will support him. He once seemed to enjoy distancing himself from the NRA, but before running for the GOP nomination he joined the influential gun lobby. So, it was a pretty good bet that among the current crop of candidates, Romney would have the most calculated reading list. Or perhaps, in keeping with his other policy evolutions, he’d say in his youth Gore Vidal’s Myra Breckinridge was his favorite but now he reads only Edmund Burke.

What books did Romney claim as his favorites? The Bible is his favorite book. His favorite novel is Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard, the science-fiction writer and Scientology founder. The first we would have expected, but the second is so wacky, it breathes new life into the tired old reporter’s trope: There must be something we can learn about Romney by examining this answer.

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