Romney's family open new campaign to 'Let Mitt Be Mitt'


3 photos
Save Story
Leer en espaƱol

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

There's a new approach for the Romney 2012 presidential campaign. "Let Mitt Be Mitt." It appears to have greatly helped him in last week's key debate.

His family was frustrated with the direction of the campaign and pushed for the change. At last week's debate, Americans saw a side of Mitt Romney most had never seen: a softer, more moderate, more at ease candidate.

The website Politico, citing campaign sources, reports, before the debate, Romney's family stepped in to "shake things up" a new "let Mitt be Mitt" approach to show the "looser, approachable man they knew."

"Behind the scenes, for months, his family, specifically Mrs. Romney, the oldest son Tagg have been saying the same thing. They said 'voters are not seeing the same Mitt Romney we're seeing,'" said Mike Allen, a reporter for the Politico.

Romney's five sons have been fixtures on the campaign trail. Tagg Romney was seen last week in Wisconsin serving as a key surrogates for their father.

Related Stories

"We're going to win here," Tagg Romney said. "We feel very good about it. We think our message is resonating."

Former Utah governor Olene Walker, who is starting a new political institute at Weber State, says in general there's often a tension between family and campaign professionals, who push for a more negative, attacking style.

"Now perhaps most candidates feel like 'we don't like it, but we better be part of it,'" Walker said.

Just a week ago Romney looked like he could be in deep trouble, now it's a whole new ballgame.

"Now they feel like they're back in the game," Allen said. "The biggest thing they're excited about in polls is the fact that republicans are more enthusiastic, which is big."


Ultimately, the candidate has to be him or herself. I think in the debate people saw that with Mitt and if he keeps that up, according to the polls, he should do very well.

–Kirk Jower


Romney supporter, Kirk Jower also feels that the new campaign is a good move for Romney.

"Ultimately, the candidate has to be him or herself," he said. "I think in the debate people saw that with Mitt and if he keeps that up, according to the polls, he should do very well."

The change in strategy comes at a critical time for both campaigns. Within the next week, there will be two debates- a vice presidential debate on Thursday in Kentucky, and the second presidential debate on Tuesday in New York.

The final presidential debate, on foreign policy, happens in two weeks in Boca Raton, Florida.

Photos

Related stories

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

UtahPolitics
John Daley

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast