Romney Favors Hubbard Novel

The New York Times ^ | April 30, 2007 | Jim Rutenberg

[Labyrinthos]

When asked his favorite novel in an interview shown yesterday on the Fox News Channel, Mitt Romney pointed to “Battlefield Earth,” a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.

[HereInTheHeartland]

I hope he doesn’t express a preference for purple Koolaid to attract the Jim Jones demographic.

[Unmarked Package]

The important point to be made here is that Mitt Romney is a voracious reader of books and novels of all descriptions. There have been so many on his reading list, that whatever favorite he recalls first may pop out to answer an interviewer's question quickly. Romney has a guilty pleasure in reading some science fiction and some of his other favorites are Ann McCaffrey’s Dragon Flight, and Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game.

Romney has said his favorite novel of any genre is probably Huckleberry Finn and he has read all of Louis L’Amour’s westerns.

Mitt Romney is thought to be the best read among the candidates about the threat of the Jihadist. Romney’s reading list includes the following books among others on the topic:

The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright
American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us by Steven Emerson
Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies Against America by Walid Phares
America Alone by Mark Steyn
Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq by Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor
The Assassin’s Gate: America in Iraq by George Packer

Talk radio host Hugh Hewitt interviewed professor of military history and noted author Victor Davis Hanson who observed Mitt Romney's ability to discuss Middle East foreign policy at length with experts at the Hoover Institution:

Hugh Hewitt: What I like is that he’s a voracious reader, not only your books, but things like The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright, Mark Steyn’s America Alone. I think this is pretty rare these days, to find curiosity at that level, and at that sort of voracious appetite for information. What do you talk about with him?

Victor Davis Hanson: Well, we talk about history just like you and I talk about. We talk about foreign policy, he talked about the plan or the effort to democratize the Middle East, the shortfalls, the problems, the liabilities, and you know what? He came to the Hoover Institution and got in front of 40 senior fellows. And in that room there were Nobel Prize winners, a lot of egos, too. And he held court with them, and there were a lot of hostile questions, and he went for an hour and a half, head to head, with these people. When he walked out of that room, I think everybody was impressed with him. He didn’t pull any punches, and he could argue and was as logical as any Hoover fellow, and I was more impressed with him than I was with my colleagues.
^{(The Hugh Hewitt Show, March 13, 2007)}

[RobFromGa]

Are you saying the ideas were good? [in Atlas Shrugged]

It was a great book, and the fact that she was an atheist has nothing to do with it.

Atlas Shrugged (and The Fountainhead, and We the Living, and Anthem] is a book about individualism, and how all of Western society would crumble without individuals taking risk and building their enterprises for their own reasons.

And Atlas Shrugged is also a great cautionary tale of how such a country could slide into socialism by forgetting these basics of human nature.

Atlas Shrugged should be read by every American preferably before they start voting.

[RobFromGa]

I’d never rely on a stranger’s viewpoint

I'd agree, he certainly is strange.

[IslandJeff]

Atlas Shrugged should be read by every American preferably before they start voting

Good Day, Rob. The only problem with that is that no one would vote until they reach 30.

[RobFromGa]

Kindness and compassion are Christian tenets that separate us from lower life forms

Rand's problem was with cumpolsory charity and kindness extorted at the point of a gun, such as when the government takes part of our earnings and gives it to someone with what they consider a greater need for the money. Rand felt that charity and kindness were to be given for what they added to the life of the giver, not as some penance for success.

[RobFromGa]

Hey Jeff, Maybe they could do a comic book version? Hope you are doing great. Actually they are going to make the movie of Atlas soon, 9 to 12 hours, Angelina Jolie as Dagny. I hope they don’t kill it.

[Radix]

If you are going to diss him (which I do regularly) then you ought to ping him as well.

Just my opinion concerning good FReeper manners stuff.

Personally, my favorite book is Shogun, and if any candidate has not read it, then they will not deserve my vote, weather they get it or not.

[RichInOC]

Personally, I’ve long thought that all Scientologists should burn in hell just for their role in dragooning John Travolta into doing that movie.

[EternalVigilance]

Thanks.

[Diggity]

The book was great. Movie was awful. I left in the middle of it.

John

[elizabetty]

I don't even know how to ping. Besides, I am not sure I care if I use good manners with the uncivilized amongst us.

I will learn how to ping and take your suggestion under consideration. Thank you.

[Riverman94610]

And the voluntary aspect is the critical point.Otherwise it becomes confiscation of hard earned wealth.
And,if you really think about it,even in most socialist states,the redistributed wealth rarely goes to”the people”but to the State bureaucrats.

[Redleg Duke]

Oh, forHeaven’s sake. It is a really interesting novel. Can you lighten up a bit?

[cookcounty]

Please don’t tell me this. I’ve succeeded in accomodating to his Mornomism, please don’t start over with scientology.

[Radix]

Ha ha ha.

You made me laugh.

Thanks.

[FreeKeys]

The only problem with that is that no one would vote until they reach 30.

Actually, most people don't, anyway (and it's probably a good thing).

[no dems]

Oh geesh!!! How can a guy do so well in the debate and then do something so stupid on Fox News?

[FreeKeys]

Doesn’t bode well for his reasoning abilities. Or his capability of anticipating consequences for various actions.

Um, I hate to break this to you, but his entertainment choices are really insignificant in light of his TRULY BIZARRE and FRIGHTENING choices about PUBLIC POLICY, to whit: his cherished RomneyCare, which was -- and is -- based on the extreme kind of economic illiteracy usually found in the average DEMOCRAT -- as is his apparent ignorance of WHAT was the BIGGEST cause of the price explosion in health care last century. Cato@Liberty reminds us that WHAT this travesty does (among other things), it:

* Imposes an unprecedented individual mandate, requiring everyone in Massachusetts to purchase a government-designated insurance product or face thousands of dollars in tax penalties.

* Significantly increased Medicaid eligibility and provided taxpayer-funded subsidies for a family of four earning as much as $62,000 year, effectively extending welfare well into the middle class.

* Creates a Hillary Clinton managed-competition-style regulatory authority called the Massachusetts Health Care Connector. This new regulatory body has already mandated that every health care policy sold in the state must cover prescription drugs and has outlawed policies with deductibles of more than $2,000.

* Imposes a penalty on businesses that do not provide health insurance to their employees (although in fairness, this provision was enacted over Governor Romney’s veto.)

* Greatly expands the state’s health care bureaucracy, creating at least 10 new boards, commissions, and other institutions to study and regulate health care.

[FreeKeys]

Cool graphic. Is it yours? May I use it?