YouTube
Matt Miller, a radio host, Washington Post columnist, and former Clinton administration aide who's running to replace retiring California Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman, released a campaign ad on YouTube Saturday in which appears to boast of having written a huge stack of 13 books chock full of policy ideas.
"Here are my books on how to fix our economy, lift our schools, and boost wages," Miller declares as he shows off the impressive pile. "Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Paul Krugman, Bill Bradley, and others have said they're filled with the ideas we need."
However, there's a small problem with Miller's literary ad. While Miller is a published author whose work has indeed been praised by an impressive array of notables, he has only written two books, not the massive pile he displays in his ad.
The stack of books Miller showed off in the clip actually contains multiple copies of those two tomes; "The 2% Solution" and "The Tyranny of Dead Ideas." Miller spoke to Business Insider Monday and said he decided to use a large stack of books in the ad "for fun" and to make a more engaging image.
"It was for fun. It's clear in everything, in my bio, and everything else that I've written two books," Miller said. "It was an attempt to have some fun visually."
Along with his political and economic books, Miller is also apparently an author of children's poems. His website includes a selection of eight poems aimed at young audiences. The rhyming verses deal with a diverse array of topics including; bedtime, showering, digital clocks, and an extended musing on the word like.
In one of his poems, Miller adopts the persona of a dog upset their human owners boss them around:
"Take the other noontime, when I usually plan to poop
And you decide it's time to play 'go fetch' out on the stoop!
It really was quite shocking-I ask how you would feel
If you were not allowed to go right after your big meal?
It's rude for you to act as if my time was not my own
You people act like animals-and I don't like your tone!
Consider this a warning-I won't repeat it twice
I'm sick of playing slave-dog when my family isn't nice"
Miller told Business Insider he began writing the poems for his daughter and her friends when she was "younger."
"She's now almost seventeen," said Miller. "I think it would take a lot more sophisticated poetry to make her laugh now."
His daughter may have outgrown his earlier work, but Miller said he wouldn't rule out a return to poetry in the future.
"I love doing that," he said of his children's poems. "It's hard to imagine having much time during a campaign to write poetry, but you never know."
Miller, who is a Democrat, is one of at least eighteen hopefuls who have taken steps to run for Waxman's seat, which represents parts of Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, and Los Angeles. Along with Miller, the crowded field includes; former Los Angeles City Controller and mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel, state Sen. Ted Lieu, and "spiritual teacher" Marianne Williamson.
Watch Miller's video below.