Romney gives hundreds of private e-mails, texts to Atlantic reporter/author

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has turned over hundreds and hundreds of private emails, text messages and diary entries to reporter McKay Coppins for a book coming in October — including real-time communications among many of the most powerful figures in American politics, Axios has learned. …

The book “will also show Romney himself reckoning with what he considers his party’s slide toward authoritarianism and what role he may have played in empowering the extreme forces within the GOP.”

[It matters a lot more to the people with whom Romney corresponded. Axios reports that Romney curated this release to Coppins, while claiming to have no editorial control over what Coppins does with them. But the curating itself is a significant form of editorial control, and will ensure that “Romney: A Reckoning” will tell the story Romney wants.

As for the role he played, Romney’s self-curated communications stash likely won’t tell the full story. Losing a winnable election in 2012 arguably changed the GOP. Endorsing state-run, top-down control of health care in Massachusetts certainly contributed to it. But mostly, Romney has been a non-entity in GOP development — a candidate of convenience in 2012, but otherwise a non-factor in policy or strategy. He led no intellectual or ideological movement and broke little ground in campaigning, as I recounted in my book Going Red. You don’t need Romney’s e-mails to understand how little impact he has had. — Ed]