Well-read or red-faced?

Politicians and books

Well-read or red-faced?

Dec 6th 2011, 10:41 by T.W. | MEXICO CITY

 

 

 

CAN you name three books that have left a mark on your life? It’s the sort of soft question you might ask an interviewee to put them at ease, before you get on to the difficult stuff. But for one unfortunate politician in Mexico, it proved a killer. Enrique Peña Nieto, the leading candidate in next year’s presidential election, was asked precisely this question at the Guadalajara International Book Fair at the weekend. Even if you don’t speak Spanish, the exchange is pretty internationally understandable in terms of excruciating embarrassment (the crowd finally breaks into giggles just after 1.30).

Poor Mr Peña Nieto first mentions the Bible, adding that he hasn’t actually read it all. The next title he mentions is La Silla del Águila (“The Eagle's Throne”), which he attributes to Enrique Krauze, a Mexican historian. It is actually a novel by Carlos Fuentes, perhaps Mexico’s best-known living writer. He then gropes for the name of another book by Krauze, but can’t quite put his finger on it. After more uncomfortable flapping around he alights on Jeffrey Archer, of all people, though some of the titles of his novels slip his mind too.

The clip has become a minor sensation on the web. Amateur Photoshoppers have already grafted various silly titles into Mr Peña Nieto’s hands. Though his current lead in the polls looks pretty unassailable, ridicule is a powerful weapon, and I wonder if this will make some voters think twice about him in the way that they did about Sarah Palin when she struggled to name a newspaper or magazine that she read.

So what would be your top three? And would you pick something higher- (or indeed lower-) brow if you were in front of a camera and running for election?

 

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2011/12/politicians-and-books