The Holy Cow! Candidate - © Copyright 2005 The Atlantic Monthly
In the spring I went to Boston’s Fleet Center, where Romney was attending a basketball game between the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers. He was sitting courtside next to the governor of Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell, who was there to pay off a gambling debt. (As a result of having lost a bet with Romney when the New England Patriots beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl in January, Rendell was required to belt out the national anthem with his wife before the game.) With Philadelphia leading Boston 38-12, I approached Romney, who, like Rendell, had donned a Patriots jersey for the occasion.He waved in greeting and said, “What brings you here today?” I am not by nature a toucher, especially of politicians I barely know, but when Romney extended his hand, something about his demeanor compelled me to complement the handshake with a pat of bonhomie to his side. “Good to see ya,” he said. “Not much of a quarter. Holy cow! This is the last time I’m going to invite the governor of Pennsylvania to Massachusetts. He’s bringing the bad vibes here.” Romney introduced me to Rendell. Slouched in his seat, the husky, balding Democrat said, “This will be the kiss of death, but if I had to choose the next Republican president, if there’s going to be one it would be Governor Romney.”
Of course, Romney can be as ruthless and determined as the next politician. One prominent Utah politician who is a fan of his told me that when the circumstances call for it, Romney is “extremely tough” and unafraid to engage in direct combat, even with his political allies. And more than one witness has described to me how he can “eviscerate” opponents who try to take him on in meetings without having their facts straight.
But this is a side of Romney that reporters seldom see behind the golly-gee-willikers boyishness. A few weeks before the Celtics game, when he took me on a tour of his office in the Massachusetts statehouse, he was like a kid showing off a new poster of Ken Griffey Jr. or Tom Brady. On his desk were pictures of his mother and father and wife, and of four of his five sons floating with their respective families in a lake on a sunny day. In a cabinet on one wall was a black-and-white photo of Mitt and his wife with his parents in the White House during his father’s tenure as Nixon’s secretary of housing and urban development. There were Romney for President postcards and buttons from his father’s presidential run. And there was the Bible on which his father had sworn his oath of office each of the three times he was inaugurated as governor of Michigan.
July 30th, 2005 at 6:52 pm
I read the article, Gurl, and I agree that it is very good. Questions like those about the garments WILL be asked, and geting them out of the way early, and in a manner which flatters the Governor, are a bonus.
I honestly think that the punditocracy is overestimating the hostility of evangelicals to Mormons. What they want is a moral PERSON, and Romney is that.
Don’t forget, Gore was the Baptist, and Bush is a Methodist. The person is bigger than the denomination.