Reality Check

The lessons people want to draw from Romney’s defeat:

1. He would have have won if he were more/less socially conservative.

2. He would have won if he were more/less economically conservative.

The lessons people should draw from Romney’s defeat:

1. He would have won if he were much more personally likeable.

2. He would have won if the economy tanked in the last three months before the election.

I say this even though I (a) strongly favor less socially conservative policies, (b) strongly favor more economically conservative policies, (c) dislike all politicians – especially the “likeable” ones, and (d) scrupulously avoid myopic retrospective evaluations.

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