Ann is the Romney campaign’s best asset. I wish her hubby had this much warmth and personality. I thought she did a good job.
Full 20 min speech
Transcript
I read comment that said Ann did a good job of making herself more likable. Mitt not so much,
Best part of the speech imho. Reminds voters that they share similar experiences with everyone else. They had their share of lean times.
Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten that he’s super rich now. 
But, he earned that money through years of hard work.
I hadn’t heard her speak before, and of the speeches I listened to (including the Governers of Ohio and North Carolina, Santorum and Christie), I thought she had by far the most compelling presentation. There was a bit of disconnect with her declaring the theme of ‘love’ in her presentation, followed iby Christie immediately throwing out ‘love’ in favor of ‘hard decisions’, or whatever he said.
In any event, I was fairly impressed with her delivery and feeling of sincerity. She certainly seemed to do a far better job of getting in a few actual plugs for the candidate than the various governers did. It’s too bad she is a) a Republican; b) not actually running for office; c: married to someone who comes off as rather less human than she is, but IS running for President, as for me it makes her speechifying an interesting side show but nothing would make me more inclined to vote for Romney.
Admitted hijack, while it’s on my mind: I will disagree with most of commentary I heard (NPR and MSNBC) that there was no unifying theme to the presentations; there was a pretty clear connection, in the Parade of Governers, at least, all hammering on the claim that Republican-led states are doing better economically than ones that aren’t (I’ll need to see an impartial cite for that, though). So, I guess the point was supposed to be “Vote for Romney because he’s an ex-gov and look how well we are doing”. Or something.
Likewise, there was the classic claim by everyone, including Ann R. herself, that they came up from nothing. I’ll leave the relative truth (or not) of that for others to comment on, and anyway, it’s not as though Democrats don’t do the same thing.
Yea, I’m a little sceptical that the son and daughter-in-law of a millionaire US Cabinet Secretary were reduced to eating Ramen and using jury rigged furniture. But as you say, they aren’t exactly the first political family to try and make it sound like they spent their first few years as humble hobos before triumphing through hard work and fair play. Anne at least sells it better then her husband.
But agree she’s a good spokesperson for the campaign. Much better then the weirdly creepy Cindy McCain.
Yeah, hasn’t Mitt mentioned that period in his life as being when he was forced to get by by selling off some of the stocks that his father had given him?
I’m sure Romney’s dad offered some financial support. But, didn’t Mitt Romney come from a large family? Mormons typically have lots of children.
Their dad had to pay for several college educations at once. That takes a bite out of anyones bank account. He couldn’t support all his kids young families. They had to make their own way in life.
I think that was Anne actually. It was back when Romney was running for Senate (so like, 90’s), she basically told the same story but then went off script and explained they got by by selling stocks and bonds Romney’s father had given them.
She apparently has learned to stop the story at the right point since then.
Well, I’m glad someone bought it.
Just wondering when I’m going to hear talk radio folks say that she’s obviously a lightweight, because she was using a teleprompter (like they do with Obama).
Hmm, all I could find was this.
+1 - Word has it that Mittens will also be using a teleprompter. I guess he didn’t want to write on his palms.
Ann’s speech sounded like strung together talking points where the words had been carefully picked. I among those who do not believe that they were ever surviving on tuna and noodles.
Couldn’t support all his kids’ families? You don’t have a clue how rich he was. He could support all his kids’ families, and all your kids’ families, and never miss a cent. Shit, I didn’t live that bad when I was in grad school, and I was really poor. But I hardly lived exclusively on ramen and tuna, and neither did Mitt.
I’d like to see a photo from their grad school days, btw. Wanna bet they were wearing pricey clothing? I was wearing shirts with holes in them (I wore the ones with holes you couldn’t see when I taught) and frayed cuffs. I probably bought three new shirts the five years I was getting my degree. If you found a photo of their kitchen, I’ll bet it DIDN’T have that saw-horse and door table in it–they might have had that arrangement for a few days while the table was being shipped from some hoity-toity store, but I don’t believe that they actually lived like that the whole time Mitt was in grad school.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. I won’t believe it until I see multiple photos (like the Halloween shot, the Christmas shot… etc, etc.
Mitt Romney- born on third base, thinks he hit a triple.
She misspoke- they had to share the housekeepers, not housekeeping. Now they each have their own, just like everyone else.
Cite for “Mormons typically have lots of children”?
At any rate, Mitt was the 4th & last child of his parents, being the youngest by 6 years. Cite.
Since Mitt was 6 years younger than his closest sibling, I doubt that his father was paying for any college education for anyone but Mitt by the time he was actually in college.
And considering that his wife went to a private girls’ school for high school, and that her father not only “was a self-made businessman who in 1946 co-founded Jered Industries, a maker of heavy machinery for marine use” but was also Mayor of affluent Bloomfield Hills, MI, I doubt that either of them actually had any kind of lifestyle that might be called “struggling”, unless one counts “struggling to make the country club fees” or some such.
Lest you doubt that my characterization of Bloomfield Hill is accurate:
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I believe Mrs. Romney is a better speaker than her husband is.
I also believe she was stretching things when she described their destitute state.
…
That is much nicer than calling her a deceiving manipulative pawn of the plutocracy, isn’t it?
Just about any Michigander can vouch for that. All someone has to do is mention they’re from Bloomfield Hills, and you know they’re loaded.
I think that she missed out on illustrating anything about Mitt. Although she said what a great husband and person he was, she barely gave any stories or examples that showed anything about him as a person, beyond the improvised furnishings in their first home. I didn’t come out of the speech knowing anything more about the candidate than I knew going in.
I was also a little put off by the section of the speech, obviously designed to appeal to women, in which she gushed about the special bit of something that mothers had in worrying about their children.
All in all, she seemed lovely, but a bit too Donna Reed (possibly Stepford Wife) for my taste. Other than the fact that spent the last 42 years wifeing to Mitt, who she thinks is just super-swell, I didn’t get much.