Ann Romney: ‘Unzip him and let the real Mitt Romney out’

GREEN BAY, Wis.—Mitt Romney has long been criticized for being awkward on the stump, but his wife, Ann, defended her husband in a radio interview today, rejecting a host's statement that Romney is "too stiff" on the campaign trail.

Per ABC News' Emily Friedman, Ann Romney told Baltimore WBAL radio that she's working to show another side of her husband. Asked about criticism that Romney is "too stiff," Ann Romney laughed and replied, "I guess we better unzip him and let the real Mitt Romney out because he is not!"

"It is so funny to me that that is the perception out there," Romney continued. "Because he is funny, he is engaging, he is witty. He is always playing jokes. When I met him as a teenager, he was the life of the party. And yet, he is also a very serious person and an accomplished person. And I think a lot of times, people see him in the debate setting."

Ann Romney explained that her role in the campaign is to "get people to see the other side of Mitt, and know us in a different reflection when you see the family and how funny he is with the boys and with the grandkids."

But she acknowledged that she also plays a role as her husband's "stabilizer" during the ups and downs of the 2012 campaign trail.

"Mitt can get very intense, and I can have the ability to kind of talk him off the rails sometimes and say, 'Hey let's look at what is really important and let's do that now,'" she explained, adding "he does the same for me."

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