Over at Time, Zeke Miller delved into the Romney Readiness Project:

In the months before the 2012 election, a group of high-powered consultants and political operatives prepared a secret report for candidate Mitt Romney, explaining how he should take over and restructure the federal government should he win the presidency.

“The White House staff is similar to a holding company” read one PowerPoint slide, which would have been presented to President-elect Romney as part of an expansive briefing on the morning after Election Day. It went on to list three main divisions of the metaphorical firm: “Care & Feeding Offices,” like speechwriting, “Policy Offices,” like the National Security Council, and “Packaging & Selling Offices,” like the office of the press secretary. This was the view of the Presidency Romney would have brought with him to Washington, a glimpse of the White House that never was — and plan that never saw the light of day.

Harvard’s Roger Porter

This will immediately sound familiar to alums of Professor Roger Porter’s popular Harvard class, Government 1540: The American Presidency. The description of the White House staff as a holding company, as well as the three divisions—Care and Feeding, Policy (in class, “Policy Formulation”), and Packaging and Selling—were explained in Gov 1540 lecture.

And a look at the actual Romney Readiness Project slides confirms it: the top of Appendix 11.1 reads, “Slides Prepared by Roger Porter.”

Connor Simpson, at The Atlantic Wire, is amused:

The slide show breaking down the White House in business terms Romney, the former financial executive, could understand gets even more hilarious: “The White House is a lot like a holding firm,” one slide says. Three times.

I would dispute the “hilarious” label applied to Porter’s description, given that Porter is a veteran of three administrations, a former Rhodes Scholar, and much more.

While taking Gov 1540 last fall, some students knew that Professor Porter was in touch with Romneyworld, but I’m surprised to learn that he was this involved.

Photo Credit: Harvard Kennedy School