Mitt Romney's $10,000 bet

Quote: Wizard

Jan 3: Gingrich wins Iowa.
Jan 10: Romney wins NH.
Jan 21: Gingrich wins SC.
Jan 31: Florida primary.

I may be biased but you have to give Ron Paul a great shot at Iowa. Not only are his numbers looking solid but, as Mr. Romney pointed out Saturday, his supporters are far more enthusiastic about him than those who support gingrich or Romney and more likely to brave a cold January night to spend an hour caucusing. He is a lock to win Iowa if it is snowing at caucus time.

Honest question: Why would a party that want the richest 1% of the population to not pay a lot of taxes be upset that one of those rich people has $10,000 to bet?

Quote: FinsRule

Honest question: Why would a party that want the richest 1% of the population to not pay a lot of taxes be upset that one of those rich people has $10,000 to bet?

Because you can't win an election by just worrying about what 1% of the population thinks. You have to worry more about what the larger, voting population thinks. It makes you look like you don't understand how valuable $10K is to most people when you are willing to place a bet of that amount because you think somebody has made a mistake about what you wrote.

You can read my opinion about this at The Daily Beast.

Quote: EnvyBonus

It makes you look like you don't understand how valuable $10K is to most people when you are willing to place a bet of that amount because you think somebody has made a mistake about what you wrote.

Since the whole point of making such a bet in a public televised debate is to underscore how confident you are that you are right, I hardly think any smaller amount would be appropriate.
While at that, just the minute of TV time they spent proposing and refusing the bet probably cost more than $10,000.

I don't have anywhere near their wealth, but even I wouldn't hesitate to plonk $10k on an even money bet with EV of +0.99. It's not a coin flip, but a winning proposition.

So the amount was very appropriate, being, in fact, even within the means of a comfortably off middle-class citizen. Same way as no one seems to consider $10,000 challenges for beating slots or winning with a betting system to be in bad taste. Your word should be worth at least as much.

Quote: Wizard

You can read my opinion about this at The Daily Beast.

This bet is for Romney what John Kerry was on the wind surfer. It shows
how out of touch he is with America. Plus its childish. The info Perry was
quoting was in Romney's first book, he can't deny it. So to shut Perry up,
he makes a stupid bet. This isn't going away, nor should it. A Mormon
betting an Evangelical, how embarrassing can you get..

Quote: EvenBob

The info Perry was quoting was in Romney's first book, he can't deny it.

Can you prove it? If it is so simple, why didn't Perry show up to the debate with the book in hand?

Quote: Wizard

Can you prove it?

"We can accomplish the same thing for everyone in the country."

Thats what the quote was that was removed from the paperback
version. Perry said it means one thing, Romney said it means
something else. If its as innocent as Romney says, its curious as
to why it was removed.

Quote: EvenBob

"We can accomplish the same thing for everyone in the country."

Romney would probably say that he meant the other 49 states could do the same thing Mass did, individually. Perry is saying it implies Romney favors a mandate on the national level, which I don't see. Romney probably removed it from the paperback to avoid reader misinterpretations of it.

If I had been asked to determine the winner of the bet I would have said Romney.

Quote: Wizard

If I had been asked to determine the winner of the bet I would have said Romney.

The actual winner is Perry and Gingrich. Romney put his foot
in it bigtime, like Dukakis wearing the helmet. This whole thing
is not going over well for Romney. Even his wife didn't like it.