convention dispatch

Tagg Romney Recycles Interview Joke

Photo: Dan Amira/New York Magazine

As the oldest and least anonymous of the “Romney boys” — the name sometimes used to refer to the litter of Mitt Romney’s fully grown offspring — it fell to Tagg Romney to sit with Politico’s Mike Allen and Jonathan Martin at the Politico Hub this evening, in front of an audience largely composed of high-school members of Junior State of America. The very first question: Why is your name Tagg [which is the name of a children’s game, not a person]? 

I was born in 1970, so I was fortunate that my name was not River, or Moon Beam,” Tagg replied.

If that answer sounded familiar — and it shouldn’t, unless you Googled “Tagg Romney” five minutes before the interview while you were waiting for Tagg Romney to arrive, like I did — it’s because he used nearly the same line on Conan in June.

I was born in 1970, so I’m glad I wasn’t born Moon Beam or Sunshine or something,” he told Conan (who had a head “like a planetoid,” Tagg revealed). 

Recycled jokes notwithstanding, one of the high-school students in the audience announced that witnessing Tagg’s Politico appearance made today the third best day of his life.