How I learned to stop worrying and love the Rom?

"Actually, Mitt is a very funny guy," a warm and engaging Ann Romney told "E.T" host Nancy O'Dell the other night, explaining "He doesn't comb his hair when we're, you know, not going places. It's like all over the place … Maybe we need to take a picture of what he really looks like when he's not working." Mrs. Romney won our heart and mind three weeks back with her decisive victory in the Democrats' faux "War on Women." Like Sarah Palin, she "fights like a girl." Click here to watch full interview.

“The fact that he didn’t talk about his campaign I thought was very touching to me," newly promoted Greenland, NH Police Chief Tara Laurent told ABC News, describing her unexpectedly emotional response to Mitt Romney's "secret trip" — reporters had not been notified — to the town's police department yesterday. The Republican presidential candidate had come to offer his condolences for the loss of veteran Police Chief Michael Maloney, killed three weeks ago while serving an arrest warrant:

Everyone here is in the grieving process, and anyone who is willing to come in and acknowledge that and make the officers and everyone feel good is welcome …

It seemed genuine, he wasn’t here to tell us to vote for him.

"This is what exhausted looks like (pic of nate coming home other night)," twittered Romney son Matt the other day, doing his part in the family-wide effort to humanize Mitt Romney in the hearts and minds of a skeptical electorate.

"It seemed genuine." The chief's sentiment recalled another Granite Stater's words half a decade ago when then Senator Barack Obama visited neighboring Portsmouth, NH with pandering promises of hope and change:

“I don’t think he came here with a political speech. He came out to celebrate New Hampshire, and we Democrats have been waiting so long for this,” said Andrea Goldberg, a longtime activist and state human service worker.

“I think he was genuine, charismatic …"

As we commented at the time in our prescient post "Did Obama just call me a racist?":

There's no question Obama knows how to pour on the charm and make Democrats "feel good about themselves"…

Swept up in the locals' devotional hysteria, however, the media didn't seem to notice. Folks hear what they want to hear.

“Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order,” quipped candidate Romney yesterday in response to his opponent's craven attempt to "hog credit" — a disgusted Navy Seal's words — for last year's Osama bin Laden raid. Above, campaigning yesterday with running-mate longshot Sen. Kelly Ayotte in Portsmouth: "Campaigns enjoy generating 'veepstakes' speculation because it provides an extra dose of local and regional media coverage in battleground states such as NH," explains Seacost Online's Michael McCord. This small-government Tea Partier liked what Romney was saying: "Regulators are multiplying like 'proverbial rabbits' under Obama’s administration, and small business owners, such as commercial fishermen, are suffering from strict government regulations and rising fuel costs." (Rich Beauchesne photo)

Is that what's happening to us now? Among the walking wounded emerging from our Republican-primary foxhole to look around at what's still standing, are we hearing what we want to hear from the Romney campaign now that we've given up the ghost of our preferred candidate? As we twittered through the continuing fog of battle yesterday:

Slow to warm up, I'm appreciating @MittRomney more each day as he becomes the voice of sanity in the madness that is #Obamaworld.

Crossposted at Riehl World View.

Comments

[BR]

A pox on both their spouses.

[pam]

If obama has taught us anything, it's that becoming emotionally involved with a candidate is a losing proposition.

I admit to doing so with both Reagan and George W, not that it bit me on the nether regions... yet I don't want to do it again.

Admiration, respect... no emotions at all are required for me to vote for Romney. He's the candidate, fine. I'll vote for him. That's all.

'Genuine', 'charming'? Don't care. Obviously he's a human being and capable of both, but neither have anything to do with the job I believe he needs to perform.

Nah, not too bitter at all... ;)

[Mo]

We need and want someone who can right the ship of state, someone of competence, who understands what is at stake, with business knowledge and some common sense We also need someone with a sense of "leadership", whatever that elusive quality means.

However, it's part of the lore of who gets elected is the one that most people feel they would like to go have a beer with. Obama might have overcome that a bit, as Bush fatigue had been set in place, even among the Republicans. The financial "perfect storm" and McCain's mishandling of his responses to it, the way he screwed up by being "Mr. Nice" to Obama and constraining Palin from...being Palin (she was also naive, I believe, but a quick learner from her mistakes. But the Dems figured out how to destroy her and did it successfully, abetted by the McCain Clown Show) Mccain was seen as an old, angry and weird guy, not especially someone to have that beer with...people wanted to believe in Obama as a decent guy, the uniter..

So I don't think it's a bad thing to humanize the Mitt. He can't run on being a nice guy, but people ARE concerned if he really gives a damn. Add that to the idea of leadership and competence...especially as people start to see Obama as petty and mean-spirited (and some of us believe he is far worse and always was...Jeremiah Wright's church was ample evidence itself with nothing else needed, a place where hatred of whites and Jews and America and Israel were constants), and Romney can overcome the lies and the voter fraud and intimidation and the monies from the unions etc and the advantage of being an incumbent.

I was not warm to Romney myself, but it seems to me his speechmaking has improved, his messages are better and clearer, and he has a shot at being a decent leader. If he's a decent guy underneath the business suit...not enough, but can't hurt, either.

[Elisson]

Welcome back to the land of the living. I was about to leave an ave atque vale for you, but am happy instead to see you've taken a break from Tweeting.

[Sissy Willis]

The summer's gone and all the flowers are dying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jgma--0WYU

But come ye back ...

[Teresa]

We shall see how it all plays out. It may be that Romney (if he can pull off a win in November) could accomplish quite a bit while in office if he can pull in both sides to get his way. Will be interesting to see if he does get himself elected.

At the very least he will do far less damage than Obama simply because it always takes time for the new guy to get rolling.

Obama is already there. If he's re-elected, he doesn't have to take time to get things up and moving and he's a lame duck... two things that do not bode well for the future.

[Gayle Miller]

I do not give a rat's eardrum how "human" Mitt Romney is. Can he manage our economy? Will he defend, preserve and protect our nation? Will he honor and abide by our Constitution and Bill of Rights? Will he be less of a dweeb than the current occupant of the Oval Office?

If the answer to those question is yes, he has my vote.

Above all, we cannot afford another four years of His Imperial Majesty, Mr. Obama and his merry band of leftwing incompetents!