Romney, Buoyed by Debate's Success, Shows Off His Softer Side - New York Times #Romney2012 #GOP
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Political Memo: Mitt Romney, After Debate Success, Shows Softer Side http://t.co/aBMX4UAh
Romney, Buoyed by Debate, Shows Off His Softer Side
Josh Haner/The New York Times
Mitt Romney made an unscheduled stop in Tampa, Fla., on Friday night.
By ASHLEY PARKER
Published: October 6, 2012 Comment
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Mitt Romney walked off the debate stage on Wednesday night to find that his staff had already lined the hall backstage, greeting him with applause.The Election 2012 App
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Facing off against President Obama in Denver, Mr. Romney had been the candidate they had longed to see all year: funny (joking about the “romantic” evening he and Mr. Obama were spending on the president’s 20th wedding anniversary), commanding (challenging Mr. Obama on taxes and government spending) and even warm (placing his right hand over his heart at the end of the debate, in an homage to his supporters in the crowd).
On Friday night, at a rally here, his campaign seemed determined not to let that more emotive, three-dimensional Mitt Romney slip away. Before the crowd of several thousand, Mr. Romney shared stories of friends who had died.
Perhaps his most moving anecdote — about David Oparowski, a 14-year-old boy with leukemia to whom Mr. Romney had ministered — had first made an appearance at theRepublican National Convention in Tampa, when David’s parents talked about how Mr. Romney had tended to their son, a member of his church ward in Belmont, Mass. But Mr. Romney had never before mentioned the experience on the stump.
