REBECCA MEAD: Questioner asks what is the biggest misperception each candidate labors under.
"The biggest misperception about China is that it's a dynamic market economy — it isn't," he says.
The biggest misperception of people in Montana, he said, is that everyone is a rube just off the hay truck.
The biggest misperception — fed by decades of growth with relatively shallow recessions — is that a college diploma virtually guarantees a good job.
The bigger misperception was among those who actually were overweight and obese, 39% of whom thought they were the right weight.
At the end of the debate, Ms. Einhorn asked the candidates to list the biggest misperception they had heard about themselves.
If you could ask only one or two questions to get a sense of a person, what would they be? A. "If you had to name something, what would you say is the biggest misperception that people have of you?" Then the follow-up question I usually ask is, "What's the difference between misperception and perception?" After all, perception is perception.
Here's another question that Hsieh asks in interviews: 'If you had to name something, what would you say is the biggest misperception that people have of you?' Then the follow-up question I usually ask is, 'What's the difference between misperception and perception?' After all, perception is perception.
Asked about specifics on tax deductions, Romney said he would not increase taxes on the middle class; asked how he would deal with productive citizens lacking green cards, he said he wanted to stop illegal immigration; asked to correct the biggest misperception about him, he said he believed in God, gave to charity, ran the Olympics.
But perhaps most depressing of all was what Mr. Obama said in the last two minutes of the debate, when, prompted by an audience member, he tried to debunk "the biggest misperception that the American people have" about him "as a man and a candidate".
