John Dickerson's got a piece in Slate entitled "Mitt Romney's Hidden Geek." His basic thesis is...okay, forget it. He doesn't have much of a thesis. He's just heckling Governor Romney. But I think he stumbles across a good point: that Governor Romney's, uh, interesting choice of a favorite novel is understandable given that he's, well--look at the the title. According to Dickerson, he's secretly a geek.

I think this is about two-thirds of the way there: The choice is understandable given that Governor Romney is a nerd, but there's nothing hidden about that. I mean, come on--the guy's got two postgraduate degrees from Harvard and has repeatedly made clear that he loves few things more than to be immersed in information and data. I say this admiringly, as a comrade-in-arms--look at what I did in high school if you don't believe me. He's a nerd. I'm fine with it, because so am I. (And may I say I'm also not alone on this site...you know who you are, people.)

On a more serious note, I also think this idea explains Governor Romney's rather high-level and information-laden abortion conversion story--which some have criticized and found unbelievable. Frankly, the guy is just so smart that I actually can picture him sitting there during a Harvard prof's lecture on the intricacies of biology with the light going on in his head.

NANCY adds: Charles, thanks for linking to that Slate article. I promise, I laughed out loud about five times during Dickerson's piece.

STEVE adds: I'll confess that I'm one of the other resident nerds at EFM. But honestly Charles, an academic quiz contest? Was I the only one doing this in high school?