by Maisie Allison
Thanks to the many readers who've pointed out that Romney's electoral average is actually above the Mendoza line. Aaron Goldstein has more:
Last characterizes Romney as being "far below the Mendoza Line" when, in
fact, Romney is slightly above it. If we take Romney's 5-18 record as a batting statistic, it means Romney has gone 5 for 23 which translates into a batting average of .217. Even if Romney isn't actually below the Mendoza Line, he is far too close to it. A .217 batting average would only be acceptable if a) you are a National League pitcher or b) are a prodigious homerun hitter like Dave Kingman. In 1982, while with the New York Mets, Kingman batted only .204 but slammed 37 homeruns and posted 99 RBI…I think it would be fair to say that Last thinks of Romney as neither a National League pitcher nor a power hitter. Suffice it to say, Mendoza hit only four homeruns during his entire big league career.
Chait, vigilant proprietor of Romney Death Watch, comes to Romney's defense:
Running as a Republican in Massachusetts is hard. Rick Perry couldn't win statewide office there if he were running against Lee Harvey Oswald…Romney is a below-average presidential nominee, but that this has been obscured by the competition, which he towers above. Rick Perry would be a really bad nominee, and Michelle Bachmann a horrible one. In 2008, I considered Romney the weakest possible nominee of the Republican field. Now he's the strongest, and not because he's done anything better.
Larison disagrees with Scott Galupo's analysis, arguing that Romney can successfully attack Perry both from the left on entitlements and from the right on immigration:
Positioning himself as the defender of entitlements and borders isn’t that strange of a combination. This is a fairly logical combination for someone running to be the nominee of a party with large blocs of elderly voters and opponents of liberalized immigration laws. It is certainly unimaginative, and no one is ever going to say Romney shows political courage, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t work. Besides, how better to describe Romney than as a “highly unusual creature”?
(Image: Mario Mendoza, via The Derrick Coleman Awards.)
The Dish 