If Barack Obama and David Axelrod had their druthers, every American
voter would have a certain impression of Mitt Romney: An exceedingly
wealthy, secretive, greedy robber baron, using his substantial means to
identify and exploit small businesses -- sucking them dry of capital,
bankrupting them, and laying off all the hard-working employees, leaving
a trail of human misery and destruction in his wake. After
distributing those pink slips, he cackles and rubs his hands together
while depositing his obscene profits into his off-shore bank account
somewhere, then it's on to the next victim. This is the cartoon
liberals have painted of Romney, spending tens of millions of dollars on
negative ads. It's mean-spirited fantasy. Yes, Mitt Romney built an
exceptional private sector career. Americans tend to celebrate that sort of thing. But he's also a faithful, honorable, compassionate family man whose generosity and kindness
hasn't gotten nearly enough attention, at least until last night.
Three speeches during the closing session of the Republican National
Convention shed light on the private deeds and values of the party's
nominee for president. I'd bet that the Romney's weren't thrilled by
the prospect of airing their private (squeaky-clean) laundry for all the
world to see because bragging about doing the right thing feels
unseemly. But given the assault on Mitt Romney's character and the
consequential nature of the election, they relented and decided to allow
others to sketch out those elements of Mitt's life on his behalf. Kate
touched on one of these speeches earlier. I cannot possibly share these vignettes
any better than the speakers themselves. The hall was silent, and few
eyes remained dry during these extraordinary testimonials:
My eyes welled up again just posting these videos. I couldn't help by feel pangs of profound compassion for these families, and genuine gladness that a man as fine as Mitt Romney was active in their lives to comfort and help them during their struggles. Where is the monstrous, avaricious, uncaring money robot we're always warned about in these anecdotes? He's nowhere to be found because he doesn't exist. This truth transcends partisanship. Another speaker at the convention was Jane Edmonds -- a member of Governor Romney's Massachusetts cabinet and a lifelong liberal Democrat. She chose to speak out for her former boss because of his integrity, not his platform:“I didn’t come here to talk about our differences — I’m not going down that path,” Edmonds said in an interview. “I’m here to talk about my experiences working for him. My friends have asked me why. I adore the guy. I have seen him behind closed doors in Cabinet meetings. I have seen his compassion. I’m at a point in my life that the character of the human being we entrust to be president is important to me. He would make an excellent president.”
In an interview with Politico, Edmonds explained her decision to appear at the convention of a political party she doesn't support:
My eyes welled up again just posting these videos. I couldn't help by feel pangs of profound compassion for these families, and genuine gladness that a man as fine as Mitt Romney was active in their lives to comfort and help them during their struggles. Where is the monstrous, avaricious, uncaring money robot we're always warned about in these anecdotes? He's nowhere to be found because he doesn't exist. This truth transcends partisanship. Another speaker at the convention was Jane Edmonds -- a member of Governor Romney's Massachusetts cabinet and a lifelong liberal Democrat. She chose to speak out for her former boss because of his integrity, not his platform:“I didn’t come here to talk about our differences — I’m not going down that path,” Edmonds said in an interview. “I’m here to talk about my experiences working for him. My friends have asked me why. I adore the guy. I have seen him behind closed doors in Cabinet meetings. I have seen his compassion. I’m at a point in my life that the character of the human being we entrust to be president is important to me. He would make an excellent president.”
In an interview with Politico, Edmonds explained her decision to appear at the convention of a political party she doesn't support:
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