Public image of Mitt Romney

The public image of Mitt Romney refers to how Americans view Mitt Romney. Following his 2008 presidential campaign, Romney's personal and political appearance increased. Romney's values and affiliation with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) are significant factors in his public image and "Faith in America" speech.Mormon Mitt Romney not 'Christian,' says Fox News Host
by Elizabeth Tenety, ''The Washington Post'', July 18, 2011

Images of persona

Throughout his career, Romney's instinct has been to apply the "Bain way" toward problems.Hewitt, ''A Mormon in the White House?'', pp. 56–58. Romney has said, "There were two key things I learned at Bain. One was a series of concepts for approaching tough problems and a problem-solving methodology; the other was an enormous respect for data, analysis, and debate." He has written, "There are answers in numbers – gold in numbers. Pile the budgets on my desk and let me wallow." Romney believes the Bain approach is not only effective in the business realm but also in running for office and, once there, in solving political problems such as proper Pentagon spending levels and the future of Social Security. Former Bain and Olympics colleague Fraser Bullock has said of Romney, "He's not an ideologue. He makes decisions based on researching data more deeply than anyone I know."

Romney's technocratic instincts have thus always been with him; in his public appearances during the 2002 gubernatorial campaign, he sometimes gave PowerPoint presentations rather than conventional speeches.
Upon taking office he became, in the words of ''The Boston Globe'', "the state's first self-styled CEO governor". Als
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''Deseret Morning News'', July 6, 2007. During his 2008 presidential campaign, he constantly asked for data, analysis, and opposing arguments, and has been described by ''Slate'' magazine as a potential "CEO president".

During 2011, ''The New York Times'' described Romney's persona as facts-driven, cautious, formal, socially stiff, and "spare with his emotions." In an interview with ''Parade'' in August 2012, Romney said: "There is a, I don't know, a societal norm that if you're running for office, you can't be emotional, and perhaps I bow to that too often."

Romney's choice of words and manner of speaking has also drawn attention. His use of words such as "guffaw," "brickbats," "dickens," "smitten," and "the big house," exclamations like "gosh," "golly," "darn," "heck," and the qualifier "if you will" led to ''The New York Times'' saying that he "can sometimes seem like an editor in chief, employing a language all his own. It is polite, formal and at times anachronistic, linguistically setting apart a man who frequently struggles to sell himself to the American electorate." Friends and advisers have called his verbal quirks "Mittisms" and described his language as "old-timey", "1950s" and "the Gomer Pyle routine", while Democratic strategist David Axelrod once remarked that Romney "must watch ''Mad Men'' and think it's the evening news." Romney's Mormonism means that he abstains from swearing, instead using words like "good grief", "flippin'", "good heavens" and "for Pete's sake"; former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Thomas Finneran recalled that when annoyed, Romney would "let loose" with phrases like "go to H-E-double hockey sticks."

''People'' magazine included Romney in its 50 Most Beautiful People list for 2002.

A narrative has held Romney to be an out-of-touch multi-millionaire who cannot relate to middle-class America. For example, during the 2012 presidential election campaign, when Romney proposed a $10,000 wager with one of his opponents in a televised Republican primary debate, political rivals and others were quick to call the bet an example of what they argued was Romney's lack of understanding of the concerns of average Americans, who would never treat such a large sum of money so casually. Often in response to gaffes Romney had made on the campaign trail, political satirists based jokes on an image of Romney as a wealthy, pampered elitist. As comedian John Oliver on ''The Daily Show'' put it, "Everything about Romney tells the tale of a man who just fired your dad."

Images of political philosophy

For much of his business career, Romney did not take public political stances.Hersh, ''The Shadow President'', p. 139. His early philosophical influences were often non-political, as during his missionary days when he read Napoleon Hill's pioneering self-help tome ''Think and Grow Rich'', and encouraged his colleagues to do the same. Als
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''Deseret Morning News'', July 2, 2007. Until 1993, he was registered as an Independent Als
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''Deseret Morning News'', July 4, 2007. who in the 1992 Democratic Party presidential primaries had voted for the Democratic former senator from Massachusetts, Paul Tsongas.

In the 1994 Senate race, Romney aligned himself with Republican Massachusetts Governor William Weld, saying "I think Bill Weld's fiscal conservatism, his focus on creating jobs and employment and his efforts to fight discrimination and assure civil rights for all is a model that I identify with and aspire to."

As a gubernatorial candidate in 2002, and then initially as Governor of Massachusetts, he generally operated in the mold established by Weld and followed by Weld's two other Republican successors, Paul Cellucci and Jane Swift: restrain spending and taxing, be tolerant or permissive on social issues, protect the environment, be tough on crime, try to appear post-partisan.

Late in his term as governor, he shifted positions and emphases to better align with traditional conservatives on social issues.Balz and Johnson, ''The Battle for America 2008'', p. 238.Heilemann and Halperin, ''Game Change'', pp. 293–294. This increased alignment with traditional conservatives on social issues coincided with Romney's becoming a candidate for the 2008 Republican nomination for president. He said that learning from experience and changing views accordingly is a virtue, and that, "If you're looking for someone who's never changed any positions on any policies, then I'm not your guy." Romney responded to criticisms of ideological pandering with the explanation that "The older I get, the smarter Ronald Reagan gets."

Journalist Daniel Gross sees Romney as approaching politics in the same terms as a business competing in markets, in that successful executives do not hold firm to public stances over long periods of time, but rather constantly devise new strategies and plans to deal with new geographical regions and ever-changing market conditions. Political profiler Ryan Lizza notes the same question regarding whether Romney's business skills can be adapted to politics, saying that "while giving customers exactly what they want may be normal in the corporate world, it can be costly in politics". Writer Robert Draper holds a somewhat similar perspective: "The Romney curse was this: His strength lay in his adaptability. In governance, this was a virtue; in a political race, it was an invitation to be called a phony." Writer Benjamin Wallace-Wells sees Romney as a detached problem solver rather than one who approaches political issues from a humanistic or philosophical perspective. Journalist Neil Swidey views Romney as a political and cultural enigma, "the product of two of the most mysterious and least understood subcultures in the country: the Mormon Church and private-equity finance," and believes that has led to the continued interest in the "dog on the roof" story. Political writer Joe Klein views Romney as actually more conservative on social issues than he portrayed himself during his Massachusetts campaigns and less conservative on other issues than his presidential campaigns have represented, and concludes that Romney "has always campaigned as something he probably is not."

Religion

Romney's religious background has been extensively covered by the mainstream media, especially in connection with his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. Romney is a member of the LDS Church, members of which are commonly known as Mormons or Latter-day Saints

In addition to missionary work in France in the 1960s, under the tutelage of Wesley L. Pipes, Romney has served as a bishop and a stake president in his church. In accordance with LDS practice, bishops and stake presidents are lay positions in the LDS Church, so Romney was not compensated for his years of service in those positions. Also in accordance to his religious beliefs, Romney abstains from alcohol and smoking.

Romney's great-great-grandfather, Parley P. Pratt, was among the first leaders of the Latter Day Saint movement in the early 19th century. Marion G. Romney, his first cousin, once removed, was one of the church's twelve apostles. Romney's paternal great-grandparents practiced plural marriage, and went to Mexico in 1884 after the 1878 U.S. Supreme Court decision in '' Reynolds v. United States'' that upheld laws banning polygamy.Jennifer Dobner and Glen Johnson.

Romney's second great-grandmother, Elnora Lucretia Warner was one of five wives of Simon Cooker Dalton
Romney's family tree has polygamy branch
Associated Press via ''The Boston Globe''. February 24, 2007. Subsequent generations of Romney's paternal lineage have been monogamous, and none of his mother's Mormon ancestors were polygamists. Romney's father, George W. Romney, was a patriarch in the LDS Church. Romney's wife, Ann, converted to Mormonism before they were married in 1969.

Romney has expressed his faith in Jesus Christ as his "Lord and Savior" openly to evangelical Christian groups. He has received support from evangelical Christians.

"Faith in America" speech

Romney delivered his "Faith in America" speech on December 6, 2007, at the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library, with an introduction by George H. W. Bush. The speech, which was widely regarded as evoking that of Senator John F. Kennedy'
September 1960 pledge not to allow Catholic doctrine to inform policy
discussed the role of religion in American society and politics.

While the speech was perceived as a response to Huckabee's mercurial rise in the polls in late November within first caucusing Iowa, soon to cast ballots on January 3 (in which likely caucus-goers were deemed to be over 40-percent evangelical), with commentators opining that Romney hoped it would effectively answer the media's longtime preoccupation with the hurdle manifested by Romney's faith, Romney's campaign billed the speech as extolling American freedom of worship while helping to satisfy public curiosity about how Romney's strain of religious devotion would inform presidential governance. After the speech was delivered, Romney's advisors told reporters, off the record, that Romney had said that through this speech he wanted to address his "comma problem": the common practice to put next to his name in media reports, "''(comma)'' who is a Mormon ''(comma)''."

Romney's speech gave primacy to the American Constitutional right of religious liberty, which produces cultural diversity and vibrancy of dialog. He called for public acknowledgments of God such as within Holidays religious displays. Romney said, "Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom.". He cited a religious nature to historic abolitionists' campaigns, the campaign for American Civil Rights, and the contemporary campaign for the Right to Life. Romney advocated the maintenance of a separation of Church and State, stating that he, as president, would decline directives from churches' hierarchies, including that of the LDS church.

Romney said while there are those who would prefer he indicated he holds his LDS faith merely as a tradition, actually he believes in his faith and tries to live according to its teachings, and while sacraments and confession of Romney's "church's beliefs about Christ may not all be the same as those of other faiths," he still holds Christ "the Son of God and Savior of mankind." Romney declined to address further the specifics of his Mormonism, implying that any compulsion to do so would counter the Constitutional prohibition of a religious test for political office. Romney wrote the speech himself.

In the speech, Romney said, "I saw my father march with Martin Luther King." Some weeks later, the Romney campaign, when asked for the specifics, indicated this to have been an NAACP-sponsored procession in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, led by George W. Romney. However, there are conflicting accounts as to whether King was present at this march.

In an interview with ''Newsweek,'' Romney said, "I don't think I defined religious liberty ... it includes all, all forms of personal conviction. ... The people who don't have a particular faith have a personal conviction. I said all forms of personal conviction. And personal conviction includes a sense of right and wrong and any host of beliefs someone might have. Obviously in this nation, our religious liberty includes the ability to believe or not believe."

Media coverage

Contrasting media coverage, Mormonism was not an issue in his father's presidential campaign in 1968. Possible reasons include: he dropped out before it could become one, the candidacy of John F. Kennedy (a Catholic) had neutralized the religion issue, and religion generally was not a major stump issue.Linda Feldmann
"Romney moves to allay Mormon concerns directly"
''Christian Science Monitor'', December 11, 2007.
During the Boca Raton debate of January 24, 2008'', NBC Nightly News '' anchor Brian Williams asked Romney: "Governor, we've got poll ...in the morning that says ... 44 percent of respondents say a Mormon president would have a difficult time uniting the country. ... "
... to which Romney replied:

Romney's "Faith in America" speech, delivered in December 2007, addressed the matter. In it, Romney said he should neither be elected nor rejected based upon his religion, and echoed Senator John F. Kennedy's famous speech during his 1960 presidential campaign in saying "I will put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office and the sovereign authority of the law." Instead of discussing the specific tenets of his faith, he said that he would be informed by it and that, "Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone."

One academic study, based upon research conducted throughout the 2008 primaries, showed a widespread lack of knowledge among voters about Mormonism that tended to be resistant to factual information that would correct mistaken notions about the religion. The authors reasoned that for Romney religion has become an item of interest for voters. Another study, analyzing a survey conducted during January 2008 found that voters had selectively internalized the notion of religious equality, and in particular not extended it to Mormons, thus making Romney's run more difficult. Those authors concluded that, "for a Mormon candidate, the road to the presidency remains very rough ... The bias against a Mormon candidate is substantial."

The June 13, 2011, issue of ''Newsweek'' magazine featured a Romney-themed cover based on the popular ''Book of Mormon'' Broadway musical, and dubbed the summer of 2011 "The Mormon Moment".

Impact on political philosophy

Romney's foreign policy views are rooted in the belief in American exceptionalism

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