Opinion: Would you buy a Republican book from this man? Obama promotes Karl Rove, Mitt Romney books
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In an obvious bid to bolster his flagged favorable ratings with American voters, Democrat President Obama interrupted an Iowa healthcare trip this week to generously boost sales of two already best-selling books by a pair of his harshest Republican critics, former Bush strategist and White House aide Karl Rove and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Obama, who knows a little something about promoting his own books, was in Iowa City for yet another town hall session to push the healthcare legislation he’s already signed and will sign again next week in slightly revised form.
Obama signed the original contentious bill on Tuesday and on Thursday CNN published a new poll showing the Democrat currently tied at 47% with Anybody in a hypothetical 2012 race, while one-in-five Democrats said they wanted another party nominee that year.
Wandering the aisles of the Prairie Lights bookstore, the president spotted Rove’s book -- ‘Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight’ -- and Romney’s tome -- ‘No Apology: The Case for American Greatness’ -- Obama picked them up to show to photographers. ‘What do you think, guys?’ he said.
Both GOP authors are currently on national book promotion tours. Romney, a likely presidential contender in 2012, spoke to several hundred fans in Orlando Friday.
Rove, now a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and a Fox News contributor, addressed a private evening gathering of some 1,200 guests at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. He drew several ovations for his criticisms of Obama spending, as well as strong support for the Democrat’s decisions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile back in Iowa, Obama soon put both books back on the display table, thus passing on yet another opportunity for bipartisanship.
Obama instead spent liberally on two children’s books and a $37 Star Wars pop-up volume for press aide Robert Gibbs. They contain shorter words.
-- Andrew Malcolm
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