Tears and Loathing on the Campaign Trail

You’ll recall that Mitt Romney was a socially liberal governor who realized that he was socially conservative just about the time he decided to run for president. He then campaigned as a movement conservative, until he lost the Iowa caucus. Looking around, Romney noticed that Barack Obama, who won the Democratic race in Iowa, had campaigned on a theme of “change,” Romney altered his campaign and ran as the “change” candidate in New Hampshire.

After losing New Hampshire, Romney noticed that Hillary Clinton had won the Democratic primary there because, many observers concluded ( incorrectly ), she had cried in public and declared that the issues in this race were “personal” to her.

Here’s Mitt Romney now, out on the hustings in Michigan :

We’re going to make sure this state gets on the move again,” Mr. Romney said. “I care about Michigan. For me, it’s personal. It’s personal for me because it’s where I was born and raised.”

Earlier in the day, after hearing from a voter who recalled his father, Mr. Romney choked up momentarily, according to a pool reporter who was present.