TAMPA--Asked in a recent television interview about persistent polls that show Americans don’t find him very likable, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney sighed and quoted Popeye.
“I am what I am, and that’s all what I am,” he said.
If Romney has not yet convinced voters that he’s appealing, campaign aides believe his wife Ann, 63, who has known Mitt since the two were teenagers, might have a shot at persuading them
Where Mitt can be stiff in public, Ann is warm. She laughs easily and provides glimpses of a private down-to-earth Mitt who irons his own shirts and does his own laundry.
And she offers a compelling narrative about his devotion during her health struggles, recently describing how Mitt curled up in bed beside her to comfort her when she was wracked with depression after they learned she had multiple sclerosis.
She will have her best opportunity to try to define her husband that way in a prime-time convention address Tuesday evening, a speech that she promised earlier in the day would be “heartfelt.”
“I think a lot of you have been covering me long enough, and you know I’ve never gone off a written text,” she told reporters on a plane to Tampa on Tuesday morning. “So this is a unique experience for me to actually have something written because I’ve never used it. No one has ever written a speech for me — I’ve never given anything off a sheet.”
But there are pitfalls to Ann Romney’s easy flashes of emotion--her best asset compared to her occasionally awkward husband.
She has at times come across as peevish in interviews defending her husband, last month accusing the Obama campaign of trying to “kill” Mitt with negative campaign ads, and she has appeared befuddled as to why anyone would want to see more of the couple’s tax returns.
And despite a calculated effort to portray Ann Romney as an ordinary, Costco-loving budget hunter, she also is the more public consumer of the couple’s vast wealth than her husband.
Dressage — the expensive equestrian sport that has gotten the Romneys mocked for being out-of-touch with average voters — is Ann’s hobby, not Mitt’s. In May, she gave a television interview while wearing a $990 designer T-shirt.
“She has to show people that she is not aloof and that she isn’t so rich that she can’t identify with them,” said Tony Kimball, a friend of the couple’s from Belmont, Mass., who attended the same church as the Romneys.
Kimball said Ann Romney’s great strengthen is an empathy that’s obvious in her public speeches.
“Ann doesn’t come across as being terribly wealthy or haughty in person,” he said.
In response to e-mailed questions, Ann Romney said her quiet battle with MS — and later breast cancer — helps her understand the struggles of ordinary Americans.
“We all have our challenges in life, and for me, it has been my health,” she said. “I like to say that we all carry our own bag of rocks. It may not be visible to the rest of the world, but it is there.”
Polls show Ann Romney has a modestly positive public image, but many voters appear uncertain of her.
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll from July found that 32 percent of voters felt positively toward Romney, while 22 percent held a negative opinion of her. But the remaining 45 percent held either no or neutral opinions of her.
Those numbers significantly lag behind the high ratings that voters have given Michelle Obama.
But campaign advisers think that as the public comes to know more about Romney in the final weeks of the campaign, she can play a key role in appealing to women and closing a significant gender gap between her husband and President Obama.
In the lead-up to her moment on the national stage, Romney gave a series of increasingly personal interviews.
She and Mitt invited Fox News host Chris Wallace to watch the couple flip pancakes at the family’s New Hampshire lake home. To CBS News’ Scott Pelley this week, she recounted her heartbreak after suffering a miscarriage in her 40s.
Advisers believe voters don’t just like Ann, they like Mitt better when she is by his side.
Though her MS means she is easily tired and must take frequent breaks from campaigning, she has appeared at each of the lengthy race’s key moments, introducing her husband before important primary night speeches and sitting in his line of sight during debates.
“She is incredible because she is authentic,” said Anita McBride, who served as chief of staff to first lady Laura Bush. “She presents who she is, and she is not trying to be someone else.”
Washington Post staff writer Philip Rucker contributed to this report.
“I am what I am, and that’s all what I am,” he said.
If Romney has not yet convinced voters that he’s appealing, campaign aides believe his wife Ann, 63, who has known Mitt since the two were teenagers, might have a shot at persuading them
Where Mitt can be stiff in public, Ann is warm. She laughs easily and provides glimpses of a private down-to-earth Mitt who irons his own shirts and does his own laundry.
And she offers a compelling narrative about his devotion during her health struggles, recently describing how Mitt curled up in bed beside her to comfort her when she was wracked with depression after they learned she had multiple sclerosis.
She will have her best opportunity to try to define her husband that way in a prime-time convention address Tuesday evening, a speech that she promised earlier in the day would be “heartfelt.”
“I think a lot of you have been covering me long enough, and you know I’ve never gone off a written text,” she told reporters on a plane to Tampa on Tuesday morning. “So this is a unique experience for me to actually have something written because I’ve never used it. No one has ever written a speech for me — I’ve never given anything off a sheet.”
But there are pitfalls to Ann Romney’s easy flashes of emotion--her best asset compared to her occasionally awkward husband.
She has at times come across as peevish in interviews defending her husband, last month accusing the Obama campaign of trying to “kill” Mitt with negative campaign ads, and she has appeared befuddled as to why anyone would want to see more of the couple’s tax returns.
And despite a calculated effort to portray Ann Romney as an ordinary, Costco-loving budget hunter, she also is the more public consumer of the couple’s vast wealth than her husband.
Dressage — the expensive equestrian sport that has gotten the Romneys mocked for being out-of-touch with average voters — is Ann’s hobby, not Mitt’s. In May, she gave a television interview while wearing a $990 designer T-shirt.
“She has to show people that she is not aloof and that she isn’t so rich that she can’t identify with them,” said Tony Kimball, a friend of the couple’s from Belmont, Mass., who attended the same church as the Romneys.
Kimball said Ann Romney’s great strengthen is an empathy that’s obvious in her public speeches.
“Ann doesn’t come across as being terribly wealthy or haughty in person,” he said.
In response to e-mailed questions, Ann Romney said her quiet battle with MS — and later breast cancer — helps her understand the struggles of ordinary Americans.
“We all have our challenges in life, and for me, it has been my health,” she said. “I like to say that we all carry our own bag of rocks. It may not be visible to the rest of the world, but it is there.”
Polls show Ann Romney has a modestly positive public image, but many voters appear uncertain of her.
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll from July found that 32 percent of voters felt positively toward Romney, while 22 percent held a negative opinion of her. But the remaining 45 percent held either no or neutral opinions of her.
Those numbers significantly lag behind the high ratings that voters have given Michelle Obama.
But campaign advisers think that as the public comes to know more about Romney in the final weeks of the campaign, she can play a key role in appealing to women and closing a significant gender gap between her husband and President Obama.
In the lead-up to her moment on the national stage, Romney gave a series of increasingly personal interviews.
She and Mitt invited Fox News host Chris Wallace to watch the couple flip pancakes at the family’s New Hampshire lake home. To CBS News’ Scott Pelley this week, she recounted her heartbreak after suffering a miscarriage in her 40s.
Advisers believe voters don’t just like Ann, they like Mitt better when she is by his side.
Though her MS means she is easily tired and must take frequent breaks from campaigning, she has appeared at each of the lengthy race’s key moments, introducing her husband before important primary night speeches and sitting in his line of sight during debates.
“She is incredible because she is authentic,” said Anita McBride, who served as chief of staff to first lady Laura Bush. “She presents who she is, and she is not trying to be someone else.”
Washington Post staff writer Philip Rucker contributed to this report.