It seems some people in the media have some difficulty with rhetorical devices - particularly analogies. I'm sure most of your know what an analogy is, but for those of you in the media it is defined as:
1.
a similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based: the analogy between the heart and a pump.
Why is this important? Because Mitt Romney made an analogy recently:
"I like being able to fire people who provide services to me," Romney said at a Monday breakfast in New Hampshire, when talking about health care. "You know, if someone doesn't give me a good service that I need, I want to say, 'I'm going to go get someone else to provide that service to me.'"
The candidate is already facing criticism from his Republican rivals about his record as CEO of Bain Capital LLC, a Boston venture capital group that invested in struggling companies in an effort to turn them around.
In the remarks, about his belief in providing people with options, Romney -- who in Massachusetts enacted an individual health care mandate while governor -- spoke about the need to incentivize insurance companies.
"I want individuals to have their own insurance. That means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. It also means if you don't like what they do, you can fire them," he said.
Did he make this statement within a broader discussion of being able to switch insurance companies? Yes, but he said "people" not insurance companies. Why? Because he was making an analogy between the pleasure he derives from being able to switch insurance companies to the pleasure he derives from firing people. He doesn't merely want the ability to fire people. He likes it. That is what an analogy is children. Now repeat after me: a·nal·o·gy. This is why he said "people" and not "insurance companies." Because everyone knows insurance companies aren't people. Oh wait...