What books are the GOP 2012 contenders reading?
When Democratic politicians brag about the books they read, they usually highlight big-name New-York-Times-bestseller-list kind of works. Think Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat," David McCullough's biographies, Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals" and anything by David Brooks.
Reading these books declares: "I'm an intellectual! I think big thoughts!" They're politically unimpeachable picks, sure, but also predictable and, in that sense, a little bit boring.
The top of the ticket proves the point. Although President Obama may occasionally bust out David Mitchell's "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet," he sticks to — in public at least — works such as Fareed Zakaria's "The Post-American World," which he was photographed carrying around during the 2008 campaign; Edmund Morris's "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt," which he read during the health-care reform debates; and Joseph O'Neill's "Netherland," which he read in the heat of the financial crisis in 2009. And Vice President Biden's list includes Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers," Peter Beinart's "The Icarus Syndrome," James Traub's "The Freedom Agenda" and, of course, Brooks's "The Social Animal."
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