Romney Takes Stage to Kiss Wife Ann at Convention
Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney took to the stage Tuesday and kissed wife Ann after she delivered a well-pitched convention speech that aimed to humanize her more awkward husband.
The moment was reminiscent of Al Gore's similar move after wife Tipper's convention speech in 2000 and was part of a carefully choreographed attempt to reintroduce Romney at this year's jamboree as a family guy with a heart.
Ann Romney delivered her side of the bargain, blending a direct pitch to women voters with a personal narrative about Mitt that dwelt largely on their all-American love story, their wholesome family and his winning attitude.
"This man will not fail," Ann Romney said, staring in determined fashion right at the lens in an address beamed live into American living rooms just 10 weeks before voters go to the polls to choose between him and President Barack Obama.
"This man will not let us down. This man will lift up America!"
After a series of wealth-related gaffes during the campaign, she repeatedly invoked their love story as college sweethearts as she sought to portray the Romneys as an everyday couple who shared hardships just like other Americans.
"It has been 47 years since that tall, kind of charming young man brought me home from our first dance. Not every day since has been easy. But he still makes me laugh. And never once did I have a single reason to doubt that I was the luckiest woman in the world.
"You can trust Mitt," she said. "He loves America. He will take us to a better place, just as he took me home safely from that dance."
Romney lies neck-and-neck with Obama in national polls in an election that should be his for the taking, given the sour economy and an unemployment rate that is lingering stubbornly above eight percent.
The Romney campaign has been eager to promote the gregarious, 63-year-old Ann as a conveyer of the family story, a mission intended to humanize a candidate who trails Obama badly in terms of likability and can come across as stiff and aloof.
Source: Agence France Presse
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