Here's Mitt Romney campaign spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom
explainingMitt's $10,000 bet:
"Mitt Romney knew that Rick Perry wouldn't take the bet because it's a phony attack. By backing down, Perry looked weak."
Here we have an example of Playground Politics. It's a game all boys, and many girls, will play while growing up. In many cases, they follow one all the way up through adult life, especially with men. Especially men in politics.
Among the many tactics used in Playground Politics, is what I call the "Unreasonable Bet." One uses this tactic in situations where one's position is in all actuality, weak, but one wishes to hide this fact. For example:
Jimmy:I remember when I did ten more pullups than you on the monkey bars!
Billy:Did not!
Jimmy: Did too!
Billy:Did not!
Jimmy:Did too!
Billy:I'll bet you all your marbles you can't do more pullups than me! Bet! Bet!
At this point, Jimmy has to evaluate his position. Billy has just challenged him to back up his words with all his marbles. If he loses the bet, he knows that he wont have any marbles at all. His father is likely to be quite upset when he tells him he's been gambling and needs a new set of marbles. Besides, Jimmy knows Billy and Billy will cheat. But losing face...that's gonna bite. The other boys will call him chicken, but he'll have his marbles in the end.
Jimmy: I'm not bettin.
Billy: See! Told ya! You're chicken!
Billy knew this would happen. See, Billy's got more marbles than all the boys on the playground put together. His dad owns the playground. He also knows Jimmy can't afford to lose all his marbles, especially since Jimmy's dad doesn't approve of gambling. In other words, Billy offered a bet that was intentionally unreasonable, because he knew Jimmy couldn't afford to take it. That allows him to declare victory without having to actually get up on those monkey bars and prove his mettle. He wanted to save face the easy way.
But this also indicates a certain weakness on Billy's part: Because if Billy was truly better on the monkey bars, he'd be willing to prove it at no charge at all rather than bully bet. Or, he could have offered a more sporting wager such as "Loser has to do 10 push ups and say UNCLE!" But Billy had no intention of getting on those bars because the truth is, Jimmy was correct. Billy was lying.
So, in the context of playground politics, Mitt Romney's bet and explanation makes perfect sense. He knows very well he removed the line from the book...that's an indisputable fact. But in order to save face the easy way, he decided to posit the unreasonable bet. The bully bet. To "make him look weak" as the Romney spokesman put it.
Rick Perry brought out the playground boy in Mitt Romney last night. And it was because Mitt Romney knew that Perry was telling the truth and resorted to the unreasonable bet to save face.