Mitt Romney was fighting his first election in 1994, an uphill battle for a Senate seat Edward Kennedy had held for more than 30 years. Ms. Romney invited a reporter from The Boston Globe to their home to counter her family’s image of privilege, something that did not sit well with Massachusetts voters.
Instead, she chatted about dieting down to her college weight (117 pounds) and how the couple had struggled as students, living off inherited stock investments. Asked to describe herself in three words, Ms. Romney foundered: “Peaceful, loving and serene,” she managed. At one point, she compared a political campaign to pregnancy.
“The thing that’s nice about pregnancy is that in the end, you have a baby,” she told the reporter, who concluded that his encounter with Ms. Romney in her million-dollar mansion resembled something like a trip to the Twilight Zone.
As Mr. Romney forges to the front in the Republican primaries, his wife is being heralded as one of his greatest assets, a humanizing force that counters his rigidity. She is the most visible of the Republican candidates’ wives. » | Sonia Verma | Published: Tuesday, February 07, 2012; Updated: Wednesday, February 08, 2012
