Romney’s life has been characterized by little-told stories of generosity and service
PHOTO: Charles Krupa/AP – h/t to the Daily
Mitt Romney, seen above visiting a Lutheran church in New Hampshire; a man who does not talk about his good deeds. As his wife Ann has said, “Mitt doesn’t like to talk about how he has helped others because he sees it as a privilege, not a political talking point.” and Greg Gutfeld co-host of the Five and host of Redeye observed, “Mitt Romney is an alpha-male in a religion that prizes humility… ”
Mitt Romney is a big hearted caring and decent guy whose main hobbies are his family and his faith, which includes helping others, and based on feedback from those who know him he is funny, generous with both his time and money, and has endless energy that he will use along with his business expertise to turn America and our sinking economy around. Mitt Romney has never failed at anything he has done, says his wife Ann, and “Mitt will not fail” as president of the United States if we give him the opportunity.
Ann and Mitt Romney with 16 of their 18 grandchildren… two more have been born since this photo was taken
Up until the Republican National Convention in Tampa most people paying attention to the election process seemed to feel that Romney (and his VP choice Paul Ryan) were capable of turning our Country around including: creating a climate that would create private sector jobs, reducing the debt, lowering the ever rising costs of everything from milk to gasoline, taking on government entitlement spending to make sure necessary programs would survive for future generations, and even restoring our AAA credit rating, etc. But some people still didn’t feel that they really knew Mitt Romney and in our present day 24-hour media cycle and touchy feely world that connection is more important than ever before.
Mitt is a private humble man but many believe the reluctance of highlighting his Mormonism has kept the tales of his generosity and service out of the political limelight, even more. But the words of Ann and Mitt Romney and Mormon speakers at the RNC, marking a sharp departure from Romney's reticence on faith, seem to have turned the tide and made a whole lot of people say… “I like that guy… I like those guys… I can see them in the White House and think they can do the job America needs!”.One cold December day in the early 1980s, Mitt Romney loaded up his Gran Torino with firewood and brought it to the home of a single mother whose heat had been shut off just days before Christmas. This is one story surrounded by considerable lore but unknown to most advisers — Romney seems to only have alluded to it once publicly, in 2007. Romney got a phone call from a Mormon bishop in Utah who said the adult daughter of one of his members — a single mother who did not belong to the church — needed help. The woman’s heating oil had been turned off in the dead of winter. He enlisted his young sons to help, loading up his Gran Torino with firewood, he drove the car from his family’s house in the Boston suburb of Belmont to the woman’s home in the Dorchester neighborhood downtown.
“I remember well loading it all up,” Tagg Romney recalled. “And we drove it to her house and made a fire for her and dropped off quite a bit of firewood so the family would be able to keep warm.”
Years after a business partner and close family friend, who worked with Mitt at Boston Consulting Group and later at the private equity firm Bain Capital, died unexpectedly of a heart attack, Romney helped the man’s surviving daughter, Ellen Hummel, who was only 5 when her dad died, with loans for tuition to help her pay tuition at Columbia Medical School; loans he forgave when she graduated.
“I went to him asking him for help and he freely gave it,” said Dr. Ellen K. Hummel, today a general practitioner at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Just before graduation, she received a note from Romney, forgiving the loan. “It was a Christmas letter,” she said. “It was something caring and it was something saying ‘This is a gift.’ ”
Then there’s Kim Clark, the president of Brigham Young University-Idaho… When an adverse reaction to medication landed his 16-year-old son Michael in the hospital in 1997, Clark turned to Romney.
“I called Mitt because I wanted to give Michael a blessing,” Clark told The Daily. “Whenever in our family we had situations arise we always called Mitt because we knew he would always come.” Even after it was clear the teenager would recover, Romney remained at the hospital with the family through the night.
Stories like these — of long hours spent with grieving families, financial assistance to those in need and timely help given to strangers whether asked for or not — abound in the adult life of the Republican presidential candidate. Many of them, but definitely not all, are connected to his work as a Mormon bishop.
And yet these stories have been largely absent on the campaign trail.
Some supporters believe Mitt isn’t touting them because it’s impossible to separate the good works he’s done from his Mormon faith, which might have been partially true, but as his wife says, “Mitt is a private person and considers it a privilege to help others… not something to take credit for on the campaign trail.
But taken together, the stories point to a central contradiction between Romney the candidate and Romney the person. In short, a man painted by the Obama administration as a heartless corporate raider who can’t relate to people actually has a history of doing remarkably kind things for those in need; many people close to Romney find the contradiction maddening.
“The people that know him — the picture the media paints is not the Mitt that I know,” Romney’s oldest son, Tagg, told The Daily. “And I wish I could do something about it. I can’t tell you how many people tell me that.”
Democrats scoff that whatever good Romney has done in his personal life doesn’t mean his policies would be any less destructive for those same struggling people.
“No one is questioning whether or not Mitt Romney has a nice family or has lived a life of success in which he’s tried to give something back,” said Jen Psaki, a Democratic strategist and former communications staffer in the Obama White House. “But that doesn’t matter to people who are still struggling, families that are trying to pay for college, people trying to pay for health insurance, middle class families who are trying to make ends meet. Romney hasn’t shown a plan to help them. That’s what voters are looking for, and he leaves a lot to be desired on that front.”
Romney actually has laid out a very detailed plan, and did so during the primaries. It is posted on his website. And now he and the partner as Romney and the campaign call vice presidential candidate, Paul Ryan, have a short 5-point plan they talk about on the stump. The Romney-Ryan plan will create 12 million jobs.
Rick Wilson, a Florida-based Republican strategist who is not affiliated with the Romney campaign said recently “I do think they should tell the personal stories because it rounds out who Mitt is… and he is a great guy! It also shows people that here’s a man who lives his personal values — he’s not just a politician. The fact that they never made a big deal out of this stuff says something itself.”
Romney and the Romney campaign needed to tell Mitt’s personal side tales and finally did as well as shining a light on his faith at the Republican National Convention and in at least two recent interviews with CNN as well as with Chris Wallace on Fox. (There have also been several brutal indictments on Mormonism showcased by the liberal media lately, so beware. Something that is pretty surprising for a party who put up the first Catholic, John F. Kennedy, for president, who generally promotes secularism (so why should anyone’s religion matter to them) and bristles at comments about President Obama’s connections to or at least his affinity for Islam and who consider themselves so welcoming… noted by evangelical and former Governor of Arkansas and 2008 GOP presidential primary candidate Mike Huckabee in his speech at the Republican Convention in Tampa.)
Mike Huckabee stated:
“Let me clear the air about whether guys like me would only support an evangelical … I care far less as to where Mitt Romney takes his family to church than I do about where he takes this country.”
Video: Pam Finlayson's Full RNC Speech 8/30/12
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A top Romney strategist said, the campaign has preferred not to engage in an argument over likability against a personally popular president at the expense of fostering Romney’s image as a fix-it man for the economy. But each day, President Obama is showing the American people that he really isn’t capable, isn’t up for the job and isn’t even such a nice guy. And just in the days running up to the Democrat National Convention the attacks on Romney, Ryan and the Republican National Convention coming from the left have been baseless, mean-spirited and in many cases down right lies… whereas, even agreed to by the media from both sides, the tone of the GOP Convention with few exceptions was overall positive.
There is no escaping the fact that Romney’s many kind acts, some of which were first reported in the recent book “The Real Romney” were sharply at odds with his persona on the campaign trail before the convention. But both Ann Romney and Mitt’s acceptance speech showed America a very different Mitt.
Stories like those highlighted above and many more are legion, like Romney gathering neighbors in a quick effort to clear out a burning house until firefighters arrived on the scene. Showing up unsolicited to clear a hornet’s nest near an injured church member’s house. Organizing a New York City search for a business partner’s missing daughter… a story actually told by Romney’s campaign in a 2008 ad reprised by a super PAC supporting him this year.
Religion aside, any politician who talks up his good deeds runs a risk of appearing a bit too fond of himself, something President Obama has been accused of more than once. But with Romney unable to shake off his buttoned-up corporate image, constantly pushed by Team Obama, sharing his personal experiences and inner self was crucial and it appears they hit the right note at the convention… although now the left is complaining that the RNC convention didn’t have enough meat, even though Romney and the RNC accomplished exactly what they needed to.
“People need to get to know a man who’s a potential president of the United States,” said GOP strategist Wilson . “The more you fill in the blanks the better for Romney. It makes him human and it mitigates the plutocrat attacks.” The personalization of Mitt Romney made a lot of Americans believe when he said: 'My Promise Is to Help You and Your Family'
17 Million Evangelical Voters… Who Did Not Vote in 2008, Can Lead to Obama's Defeat and from what the latest polls and buzz on twitter, facebook and the blogosphere are showing, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have now tapped into that vote. The GOP convention also made it very clear that there is no conservative or Romney war on women and that the Republican tent includes blacks, Latinos and people of all stripes.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are the right men for the times. They have the know how and ideas that President Obama and his team are lacking to turn around America’s economy, create jobs and take control of the run-away debt. Why would anyone believe that another 4-years of Obama-Biden will make anything better with his/their record…. Especially when you can have a successful businessman with the added experience as both a Governor and leading a project as large as turning around the Utah Olympics… plus having the Chairman of House Budget Committee on the team, in Romney-Ryan instead? The choice has never been clearer. Even Obama realizes that Romney and his advisors know what they are doing… He has now hired two former Bain guys to takeover the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). And the Obama’s are so sure that America will make the right choice that they have already bought a new house in Hawaii with a move-in date of January 2013.
Mitt Romney Convention Intro Video
CBS Airs Shocking, Must-See Positive Video About Mitt Romney
For anyone who missed Romney’s Convention Speech… See: Mitt Romney Gets Personal in Fiery and Poignant Speech – He Gave America a True Choice
Former Clinton strategist and advisor Dick Morris said, “Romney's speech last night at the GOP Convention hit the mark. ‘If Obama tries to be JFK eloquent but remote, Romney was Reagan last night. He was open, approachable, empathetic and idealistic. Tune in!’”
And Michael Reagan said: “Romney could not be better. When Dad died we lost AMERICAS cheerleader -- TONIGHT we have a new one. Bravo!”
The RNC played a Reagan Tribute early in the evening on the final night at the convention
Personal Romney Information:
· His full Name is: Willard Mitt Romney.
· He was Born: March 12, 1947 and is 65 years old.
· His Father: George W. Romney, former Governor of the State of Michigan.
· He was Raised in: Bloomfield Hills , Michigan.
· He is Married to: Ann Lois (Davies) Romney since 1969; they have five children. (Mitt says his kids and grandkids are his main hobby, not golf or tennis. They sent out Christmas cards of the ‘whole’ family, like above, as governor.)
· Education: (One year at Stanford) and then completed his B.A. from Brigham Young University, J.D. and M.B.A. from Harvard University.
· Religion: Mormon The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints. (Ann converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1966 on her own while Mitt was gone on his mission).
Working Background:
· After high school, he spent 30 months in France as a Mormon missionary. After going to both Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School simultaneously, he passed the Michigan bar, but never worked as an attorney.
· In 1984, he co-founded Bain Capital a private equity investment firm, one of the largest such firms in the United States.
· In 1994, he ran for Senator of Massachusetts and lost to Ted Kennedy.
· He was President and C.E.O. of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
· In 2002, he was elected Governor of the State of Massachusetts where he eliminated a 1.5 billion deficit (and their unemployment was around 4.5%).
Some Interesting and Noteworthy Facts about Romney:
· Bain Capital, starting with one small office supply store in Massachusetts , turned it into Staples; now over 2,000 stores employing 90,000 people.
· Bain Capital also worked to perform the same kinds of business miracles again and again, with companies like Domino’s, Sealy, Brookstone, Weather Channel, Burger King, Warner Music Group, Dollarama, Home Depot Supply, Bright Horizons, and many others.
· He was an unpaid volunteer campaign worker for his dad’s gubernatorial campaign 1 year.
· He accompanied and campaigned all over Michigan (unpaid) with his mother when she ran for Senator.
· He was an unpaid intern in his dad’s governor’s office for eight years.
· He was an unpaid bishop and stake president of his church for ten years.
· He was an unpaid President of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee for three years.
· He took no salary and was the unpaid Governor of Massachusetts for four years.
· He gave his entire inheritance from his parents to charity.
· Mitt Romney is one of the wealthiest self-made men in our country but has given more back to its citizens in terms of money, service and time than most men.
If you think you still need to know more about Mitt Romney here are a few reading suggestions: The Real Romney, No Apology, Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games, The Mormon Way of Doing Business: How Nine Western Boys Reached the Top of Corporate America And check out his detailed plan at: http://www.mittromney.com/
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