Romney Family Christmas Photo

We started MIttTheMan.com to counter the negative images that have popped up in the press time and again over the past few months. We have already highlighted here a piece from a couple of weeks ago by none other than David Gergen that appeared in Parade Magazineand that provides some excellent insights into the Romney family and the kind of people they are.

Now comes a heart-warming article by people who know Mitt and Ann well and who tell a current, intimate, and touching story about the man that we know from so many years ago and his family. Having first met Mitt when he was basically a teenager and having watched him grow through some rather difficult moments when we were missionaries (Check out this recent Reuters piece that once again describes how Mitt was driving the car when our mission president’s wife was killed.), I have to say that I am not surprised to read about the kind of parent and grandparent he is today.

Anyone who has known Mitt knows that he is a good person. Sure, he has been successful in business, but we can tell story after story that go back many years, some of which we lived and some that have come to us from other sources. The point of it all is that Mitt is just like what he seems to be, which it seems has prompted people to label him “too good to be true.”

As an aside, go ahead and Google it! These search terms (“too good to be true” mitt romney) yield almost 700,000 hits. So, our point is to answer the question posed by so many people with an adamant, “NO! He is not too good to be true!” Okay, he is human like the rest of us and he gets irritated (See Fox News interview with Bret Baier!). And he places what some would say was a silly bet on a nationally televised debate. (Our view here is that this a pretty effective way to call out an assertion that has been shown to be false by more than one fact-check operation: Washington Post and PolitFact.com, which today is calling Perry’s claims a “scratched record” because he keeps repeating the falsehood!)

Back to what I was saying: Mitt’s success in all domains is no surprise to those of us who have known him these many years. Now Linda & Richard Eyre, columnists at the Deseret News in Salt Lake City have known Mitt and Ann Romney family for years and describe in their article moments they have spent in the Romney home. Here is my favorite excerpt:

We were at Mitt and Ann’s home not long ago when some of their kids and grandkids were visiting. There came a point in the evening when Mitt went missing, and I went upstairs to look for him. As I walked down the hall I heard what sounded like a baby and an older child laughing. I followed the sound and opened a bedroom door to find Mitt baby-talking to a grandbaby and changing a messy diaper.

While messy diapers are not a lot of fun for anyone, I find it comforting to think that someone who could be president of the most powerful nation on the planet does not find such an activity beneath him. This is the Mitt Romney we know and respect immensely for the person he is and the example that he sets for us all!