Romney ♥ L. Ron Hubbard??
Recently, when asked what his “favorite novel” was, Mitt Romney came up with perhaps the most bizarre choice any candidate for president has ever given to that answer: L. Ron Hubbard’s “Battlefield Earth.”
Let’s just begin with a safe assertion: “Battlefield Earth” is not only not a great novel. It is in fact a terrible novel, at least in comparison to some others that Romney might plausibly have mentioned. Looking for a great American novel? How about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” or Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” (which apparently is on Romney’s MySpace page). Need something a bit more contemporary? Try Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple,” or maybe Jane Smiley’s “A Thousand Acres” (heavy), or “Moo” or “Horse Heaven” (lighter). Want to stay away from American authors all together, for fear of offending some obscure voter bloc? Go for a safe classic British choice, like Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” Deeply committed to fantasy and sci-fi? Why not J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” or “The Lord of the Rings,” or perhaps an Asimov classic, like “The End of Eternity,” or the “Foundation” trilogy?
But “Battlefield Earth”?? Good grief. Something really weird is going on there. Maybe he’s decided that, since there aren’t enough Mormons to hand him the nomination, he needs to reach out to the Scientologists as well. Except that he prefaced his endorsement of Hubbard’s book by saying that he’s “not in favor of his religion, by any means.” So I guess we can scratch that one.
By the way, if you’ve never read any of “Battlefield Earth,” Tucker Carlson did America the favor of reading the first few paragraphs on his show. That was plenty to dispel the notion that Hubbard was anything approaching a good writer. Carlson also notes, amusingly, that Romney’s flacks immediately started backing away from the notion that “Battlefield Earth” was in fact Romney’s favorite novel, insisting that it was just one of his favorites. Thereby showing that Romney will flip-flop on just about anything, however trivial.
The Colbert Report’s take on this whole thing is well worth seeing.
HT: Casey.
Republican hopeful Mitt Romney has bad taste in literature!
<
p>
In related news:
White bread: still white; cheese doods: contain cheese; tasty bread: still tasty!
actually contain cheese?
I read. A Lot. and on a given day, when asked such a question, my answer could vary from Pride and Prejudice to The Killer within Me by Jim Thompson, depending upon my mood.
<
p>
My ‘official’ favorite book is The Way We Live Now by Trollope. But Vanity Fair by Thackery! Brideshead Revisited by Waugh! Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers! Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis! The Rector of Justin by Louis Auchincloss! And on and on…
<
p>
Gov. Romney ALSO reads a lot. Fiction, non-fiction, history, everything. And yes, some Sci-fi. I didn’t like Battleship Earth very much, and might have said The Martian Chronicles instead.
<
p>
Of course, right now I’m reading The Big Over Easy and can’t get enough of punny Jasper Fforde. Or March, which I read last week.
<
p>
Does that make me a flip flopper, too?
every single one of your possible faves (though I personally preferred “The Nine Tailors”) would have been a non-insane answer to the question “what’s your favorite novel.”
<
p>
But not Romney’s answer. I know you like the guy, but you’ve got to agree that to be asked what your favorite novel is and to pop out a lousy book by the founder of Scientology was, well, peculiar.
You are being interviewed for national television, and you are asked about your favorite novel…I imagine you put some thought into your choice more than “last thing I read and liked”. ALL questions to presidential candidates are loaded. This is not someone sitting next to him at the bus stop…
None of this compares to Dukakis’ choice when he was running for President. Anyone remember his vacation choice of book?
<
p>
“Swedish Land-Use Planning.”
<
p>
BTW, wasn’t Battlefield Earth a movie? John Travolta?
It was….sort of. They used part of my campus for filiming, so we went. It wasn’t good good, so-bad-it’s-good-good, it’s-bad-but-at-least-it-has-a-hot-actor/actress-good. It was just horrible. So even the “I never actually read it, but remember enjoying the movie” excuse won’t work here.
<
p>
So here we have a Mormon who has declared his favorite book to be by the founder of Scientology. If we can find a way to work in Jehovah’s Witnesses, he’ll have completely finished weirding out the Republican base.
I can’t tell if you have or not from what little you have written.
Mitt was speaking at Pat Robertson’s Regent University graduation ceremony and came up with this beaut:
<
p>
“In France, for instance, I’m told that marriage is now frequently contracted in seven-year terms where either party may move on when their term is up. How shallow and how different from the Europe of the past.”
<
p>
More from The Plank.
<
p>
Willard must prove his whacko bona fides, so what better way to show that he has no interest in science or reality than to profess appreciation for Hubbard? His target “base” wants him to believe in the end times and that global warming does not exist. It’s a masterful political ploy to put himself in the whacko league! His new campaign slogan:
<
p>
Mitt Romney. Strong Believer of Fiction.
..then you will find fault with just about anything he says or does.
<
p>
Which is why I can pretty much disregard most of the above commentary.
that you see nothing odd about selecting “Battlefield Earth” as one’s favorite novel?
<
p>
Come on, geo — be honest. If Deval Patrick had said Battlefield Earth was his favorite novel during the campaign, it would have given me pause. It’s just a weird thing to say, and I don’t favor putting weirdos in positions of power.
If you took a glance at the wikipedia page for the book you will find that other people besides Romney enjoyed the book:
<
p>
<
p>
Have you read the book yourself?
<
p>
If Romney had said his favorite book was Dianetics then you’d have a point.
I’m sure no Christian Scientists would ever, ever think of adding positive reviews to spin that book. Heck, I can dig up four people who liked Gigli if you want.
<
p>
Let’s look at these reviewers through the eyes of someone who actually subscribes to Asimov’s and knows a lil’ bout science fiction:
<
p>
— Aside from the ridiculousness that Heinlein is listed as the author of Starship Troopers — akin to calling Shakespeare the author of Titus Andronicus — this is a decent figure to have on one’s side.
<
p>
— Neil Gaman. Who?
<
p>
— Frederick Pohl found it “fascinating”. I found the movie “fascinating”. Some people find car wrecks “fascinating”.
<
p>
— Kevin Anderson. Who? Oh, right, some guy who makes money extending out Frank Herbert’s series.
<
p>
So you have one review that means anything. Oooooh…
<
p>
PS: I read 1/3 of the book; that’s as far as I could push myself.
Please don’t confuse Christian Scientists with Scientologists. Very very different groups.