Mitt Romney is an American politician who was the Republican candidate for president during the 2012 U.S. presidential election. Romney made a serious error at a fundraising dinner in Florida when he invoked right-wing talking points that were covertly filmed and broadcast on social media by event caterers. O’Neil asserts that Romney was speaking based on the “data” he had gathered about the audience he was speaking to at the event, which was largely attended by conservatives—but he’d failed to account for the outliers (the caterers) who would hear his speech as well.