Jared Diamond: Mitt Romney 'Misrepresented My Views'
Scientist and author Jared Diamond said that Mitt Romney mischaracterized his book, "Guns, Germs and Steel," to theorize why Israelis and Palestinians have such vastly different levels of economic development at a fundraiser in Jerusalem Sunday.
He said that Romney gives a false description of the book by stating that it "basically says the physical characteristics of the land account for the differences in the success of the people that live there. There is iron ore on the land and so forth."
"That is so different from what my book actually says that I have to doubt whether Mr. Romney read it," he wrote in The New York Times on Tuesday. He also said that he focused mostly on "biological features" and there was no mention about iron ore in the book.
He said that the other author Romney cited, Harvard economist David Landes, would find Romney's thesis that culture accounts for economic differences "dangerously out of date."
Romney, speaking to a crowd -- which included GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson -- of about 40 Sunday at the famed King David Hotel, talked about why the Palestinians and Israelis had such drastically different levels of economic development.
This isn't the first time Romney has seemingly mischaracterized a book he's read. Journalist Noam Scheiber said he wrongly used his book, "The Escape Artists," to accuse Obama of pushing the Affordable Care Act to intentionally slow down the economic recovery.
NO?!?!? Mitt-the-Twit got a book and instead of reading it, he ate the cover? Imagine my surprise...
Funny thing about using an author's book to prop up your moronic claims...If the author is still alive, there's a good chance s/he will call you on it.
I guess the Cliff's Notes versions of the sources he was citing weren't available yet. But if you're engrossed in what you like to do, ("Firing people") and looking for all those tax-loopholes for your off-shore accounts, I can see where you might just skim over the material.
Jared Diamond's ideas about culture contributing to economies have become politically incorrect so I can imagine he wants to make himself look good by trashing Mitt.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
Whatever it was, it really doesn't have ANYTHING to do with Mitt-the-Twit totally misrepresenting the views of the author...(much less understanding them)...does it.
rofllol 
