{"id":1731,"date":"2011-12-12T17:28:31","date_gmt":"2011-12-12T21:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/?p=1731"},"modified":"2011-12-12T17:31:27","modified_gmt":"2011-12-12T21:31:27","slug":"conservatives-believe-romney-should-have-passed-up-chance-to-make-10000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2011\/12\/12\/conservatives-believe-romney-should-have-passed-up-chance-to-make-10000\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservatives Believe Romney Should Have Passed Up Chance to Make $10,000"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

There are many options for the worst bet this primary season. \u00a0\u201cRick Perry\u2019s no flash in the pan.\u201d \u00a0\u201cHerman Cain will never give up.\u201d \u00a0\u201cNewt Gingrich will stop offering at least 50 unrealistic ideas per speech.\u201d \u00a0But some are making the case that Romney\u2019s $10,000 bet (offered with an extended hand to Rick Perry in the recent ABC debate) is the worst bet of Romney\u2019s career. \u00a0Not only that, but it\u2019s a horrible, rotten, no-good thing to do. \u00a0It shows how tone-deaf Romney is, they say, to the suffering of the average man. \u00a0It\u2019s amazing how quickly the crowd that supported Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich became raging populists when they thought it would help them defeat Mitt.<\/p>\n

You might call it twisting the knife, but many are hoping this is the proverbial \u201cfork,\u201d the long-awaited sign that Mitt Romney is finally done, over, cooked. \u00a0So you have the likes of Erick Erickson and Ben Domenech saying that Romney should have been more sensitive to the fact that $10,000 is, you know, a lot of money for most people.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s ridiculous. \u00a0Next thing you know, these Guardians of Conservatism are going to start telling Mitt Romney that he needs to finish his dinner plate because of those starving children in Ethiopia.<\/p>\n

So, while I don\u2019t usually respond to the little backs-and-forths of the new cycle, I want to respond to this.<\/p>\n

Perry was claiming that Romney wrote, in the first edition of his 2010 book, No Apology<\/em>, and then cut from the paperback version, that his Massachusetts health-care program should be a \u201cmodel\u201d for the federal plan. \u00a0Romney offered to bet Perry $10,000 that Perry was wrong. \u00a0Perry demurred, saying that he was \u201cnot a betting man.\u201d \u00a0Romney clearly believed that he had won the point. \u00a0One debate post-mortem<\/a> gave Perry credit for having \u201csuccessfully goaded Mitt Romney into one of the worst moments he\u2019s had in a debate so far.\u201d \u00a0Apparently one gets credit for telling a lie long enough that the opponent gets frustrated and asks you to put your money where your mouth is.<\/p>\n

What are the facts? \u00a0As usual, Perry is confused on the details. \u00a0In his hardcover version of the book, Romney wrote: \u201cWe can accomplish the same thing for everyone in the country<\/em>, and it can be done without letting government take over health care.\u201d \u00a0In the paperback version, the portion written in italics above is deleted. \u00a0Romney has the facts on his side. \u00a0He did not delete from the second version a claim that the Massachusetts plan should be a model for the nation. \u00a0In fact, his statement explicitly opposed a government takeover.<\/p>\n

This is part of what makes the faux anxiety over Romney\u2019s bet silly. It\u2019s not a gamble when you know the answer<\/em>. \u00a0I would never be willing to make a $10,000 bet on a coin toss, because I don\u2019t know the outcome of the toss and I\u2019m not that wealthy. \u00a0But I would be completely willing to bet $10,000 that I just drank a Venti Chai-Creme Frappuccino. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Because I\u2019m a wealthy man, born to wealth, who has no ken for the suffering of the proletariat? \u00a0No. \u00a0Because I want to make $10,000 and I know it will only cost me a handshake<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"So, paradoxically, people who are chiding Romney for being too wealthy \u2014 Republicans, mind you, believers in the free market, who want everyone to be rich \u2014 are saying that he should never have tried to make $10,000. \u00a0He would show his understanding for how badly most Americans need to make money by\u2026well, by refusing to make money. \u00a0That makes sense!<\/em><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be fooled by the criticism. \u00a0Romney\u2019s support was never predicated on an experiential understanding of the plight of those who live on $30,000 a year. \u00a0And you know what? \u00a0I don\u2019t think people who make $30K a year really care. \u00a0They just want a guy who can turn around the economy. \u00a0They don\u2019t want someone who knows what it\u2019s like to be jobless; they want someone who can create jobs. \u00a0And Romney is a consummate turnaround artist. \u00a0That\u2019s a large part of why I support him. \u00a0His competency and skills are off the charts.<\/p>\n

Now, there was<\/em> a change between the hard-cover and the soft-cover versions of the book. \u00a0That\u2019s true. \u00a0Romney has, in speeches and interviews, used the phrase \u201cmodel for the nation.\u201d \u00a0That\u2019s true, too. \u00a0But the question at issue in the bet was whether Romney had removed a line from the book about his state solution serving as a national model. \u00a0It\u2019s demonstrably false. \u00a0All you have to do is look at the two books.<\/p>\n

Furthermore,\u00a0when you look at Romney\u2019s comments on this in context, his point is that\u00a0the way in which Massachusetts <\/em>solved the problem can be a model for other states. \u00a0Other states, too, should look thoughtfully and creatively at the problems and resources within their states and craft the solutions that work best for them. \u00a0That\u2019s why we call the fifty states \u201claboratories of democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

I understand why he removed the phrase he did. \u00a0It was easily misinterpreted. \u00a0When you talk about \u201cthe country,\u201d are you referring to the states or to the federal government? \u00a0He\u2019s been clear on the reasons why his state solution does not make sense for the country. \u00a0But when you\u2019re running for office, you have to consider how your opponents are going to twist your words. \u00a0That\u2019s why he removed the phrase, wisely or not.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m biased. \u00a0I\u2019ve been public about the fact that\u00a0I am a supporter<\/a> of Mitt Romney. \u00a0But this is silly. \u00a0I don\u2019t think that Romney is perfect, and I sure don\u2019t think that the Romney campaign has been perfect. \u00a0But we should be focusing on who has the experience and the expertise to turn this country around economically, and who will represent our social and political values well. \u00a0For reasons I\u2019ll explain more in the coming weeks, I think that guy is Mitt Romney. \u00a0What we should not be wasting our time fighting over is whether a $10K bet, when you absolutely know you have the facts on your side, is insensitive to the plight of the poor.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are many options for the worst bet this primary season. \u00a0\u201cRick Perry\u2019s no flash in the pan.\u201d \u00a0\u201cHerman Cain will never give up.\u201d \u00a0\u201cNewt Gingrich will stop offering at least 50 unrealistic ideas per speech.\u201d \u00a0But some are making the case that Romney\u2019s $10,000 bet (offered with an extended hand to Rick Perry in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[289],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mitt-romney"],"yoast_head":"\nConservatives Believe Romney Should Have Passed Up Chance to Make $10,000 - Philosophical Fragments<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are many options for the worst bet this primary season. \u00a0"Rick Perry's no flash in the pan." \u00a0"Herman Cain will never give up." \u00a0"Newt Gingrich will\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2011\/12\/12\/conservatives-believe-romney-should-have-passed-up-chance-to-make-10000\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conservatives Believe Romney Should Have Passed Up Chance to Make $10,000 - 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