Campaigns & Elections' Politics - February 2008 - (Page 14) She’s Got Their Vote Ann Romney Stands Out on the Stump With a Winning Message of Her Own B y C h r i st i e F i n d lay M ichelle Obama flies overseas to host $1,000 per plate fundraisers. Elizabeth Edwards draws larger crowds than her husband. So it’s noteworthy that Ann Romney—the only GOP candidate’s wife with a strong campaign presence—has multiple sclerosis, a chronic disease that worsens when she’s tired. “It’s only hit me about three times when I’ve hit bottom,” Romney told Politics recently. “I can’t talk, I can hardly walk, it’s like someone pulled a plug and I’m a puddle, I can’t move.” The campaign staff first realized how serious it was early on in the campaign. Mitt and Ann had flown in to an evening event, then found themselves heading back to the airplane for a 7 a.m. breakfast in another state. “They literally saw me almost comatose,” Ann says. “I think that scared them. It was like, oh, it isn’t a joke, she literally does hit empty. I don’t want to do something so stupid it will precipitate another major attack.” When strategists talk about having a “wife problem,” they’re usually talking about cleaning up off-message moments (think Teresa Heinz Kerry). But no amount of spin was going to improve Ann’s health. So the staff sent her out on the trail alone, where she could set her own pace. That fix, forced of sheer necessity, proved fortuitous. Ann soon started drawing bipartisan crowds of women moved by her story of finding hope and joy through therapeutic horseback riding. Choose Your News ION I IMPLOS. 16 IU IAN THE GWeLkly Standard, Jan ee —Th st, Jan. 15 14 Politics February 2008 PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES GIULIAN I STILL VE — RY M —Was hington UCH IN IT Po “People were waiting in line to talk to her,” says Murray Stanton Neale, the executive director of Charleston Area Therapeutic Riding in South Carolina. Romney spoke at the group’s fundraiser last fall. “They told her that they were inspired to hear she went back to riding at such a late age—that hell, if she can do it and has MS, so can I.” Poised and polished, Ann has became a powerful surrogate. She’s launched her own blog and keeps a packed solo schedule of campaign events. Her role is unmatched by spouses on rival campaigns. Take Janet Huckabee. Voters get such brief glimpses of her that “she’s like a unicorn,” says Julie Mason, who covers the race for the Houston Chronicle. “I think they just haven’t decided yet whether she’s an asset or a liability.” Mason says Janet Huckabee just isn’t ready for prime time yet. “She seems like a funny, nice, good-hearted person—but you can’t be like that in the White House.Washington will just chew you up,” Mason says. Even Cindy McCain, who played a prominent role in her husband’s 2000 campaign, is taking a back seat this year. So is Jeri Thompson, who says she’s focusing on raising the couple’s two young children. Although there’s no real competition among the wives, Romney’s top staff tells Politics that their candidate is reaping the rewards of that decision to send Ann Romney out on her own. And she herself acknowledges that her disease helps diffuse at least one of her husband’s negatives: the fact that his picture-perfect family looks like it just stepped out of Central Casting. “A disease teaches you to realize that life is tough for everyone in one way or another. You can’t escape it because you’re wealthy or anything else,” she says. “Everyone does seem to be able to relate on a personal level with me because of the struggles I’ve had.” Indeed. At that fundraiser in South Carolina, the standing-room-only crowd came from all political backgrounds. But Romney wowed them anyway, at least according to the people who approached Neale afterward. “They said, ‘I’m not really sure about Mitt, but I certainly would vote for her for president.’”
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