Mitt Romney, His Wife and His Frayed Jeans

Mitt Romney, “the future president of America,” as he is customarily called on the campaign trail, still has a few new tricks up his sleeve, which people were able to observe during a small meeting this Tuesday in Florence, South Carolina. The most obvious is his wife, Ann Romney, a fake blonde who is no doubt less glamorous than Callista Gingrich or (in an entirely different sense) Michelle Obama, but is also very engaged in her husband’s campaign. It was she who was charged this Tuesday, as with the majority of Romney’s meetings now, with introducing her husband and breaking the ice. “People are wondering why we’re doing all this,” she said from the small podium in the Florence hall. “And, well, all of this is my fault!” Ann explained that, after the last campaign for the primaries in 2008, she had said “Never again!” She suffers from multiple sclerosis, now in remission. And Mitt replied, “You said that after every pregnancy!” Out of all those “never agains,” the couple has gotten five children and a second electoral campaign, which Ann Romney is taking on heart and soul: “I feel the country is heading in the wrong direction. I am here to convince you that Mitt is the only one who can turn around this country.”

According to a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who has known the Romney family for over 30 years (but who still votes for Obama), Ann is very much a pillar for Mitt. It’s not a sham: “She is more important to him than the presidency,” assures the co-religionist, who worked with Mitt for a long time when he presided over the destinies of Mormons in the Boston region. In this campaign, Ann Romney has, above all, the great merit of bringing a touch of human warmth to her husband, who is otherwise seen as somewhat formal, more at ease among columns of numbers than among his fellow citizens.

Mitt Romney is not one to ignite the crowd, a fact that was again made obvious this Tuesday in Florence, where only a hundred or so voters made the trip. Although his speech lasted less than 20 minutes, he still managed to remind everyone three times that the worst that could happen is the United States becoming like . . . Europe. (It’s one of his leitmotivs, already invoked here and we’ll come back to it.) While his Republican adversaries are attacking him a great deal, not once has Romney even deigned to mention them. His defense is indirect: He assures all those who judge him as insufficiently conservative that he will indeed represent a “clear contrast” with Obama, who is steering the United States towards that ignoble “socialist” European model.

The surprise comes at the end, when the speech is over. Mitt Romney stays at the podium and takes the time to shake, one by one, all of the hands that are held out. For almost a half-hour, he greets and praises veterans, bends his knees to be at the right height in photos, signs his campaign posters and gives everyone a generous “How are you?” and “Happy to sign!” Everyone can come close and discover that the favorite in the race for the Republican nomination is wearing jeans that end in frayed, stringy edges over slightly worn shoes. Multimillionaire though he is, Mitt has always taken care not to overspend, as his friends and loved ones have already made clear. It’s a tactic of course, to break with his image as a wealthy person too high above the worries of the average American. But while he is making his way through all of the handshakes with a kind word for all, people begin to believe, as his entourage guarantees, that in his small circle Mitt Romney is not at all as cold and haughty as he appears.