Voters Like Venting at Mitt Romney
New Hampshire voters don't seem to like being asked to settle for Mitt Romney, asking him slightly-hostile questions at town halls that can be summed up as, What makes you think you're so awesome? "I've heard the talk. I would like to see the walk," Von Baltzer told Romney at a Berlin, New Hampshire town hall Thursday, Reuters' Ros Krasny reports. "What can you say to me and to other voters that are sitting here, that the promises that you're making, that you can walk the talk?" But at a Conway town hall, it wasn't authenticity but relatability that was on the mind of another skeptical voter. "Relatability has been a large issue for you on this campaign trail, and as a college student many people in my generation find it especially hard to relate to you as a candidate," Kallie Durkit asked the candidate , according to ABC News' Emily Friedman. "Why should we mobilize for you as a candidate instead of Obama, which we did in 2008?" Romney answered with a pretty big promise: "What I can promise you is this -- when you get out of college, if I’m president you’ll have a job. If President Obama is reelected, you will not be able to get a job."
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Even the voters trying to be nice have a hidden not-so-pro-Romney agenda. Friedman reports that one voter presented Romney with a bottle of chocolate milk, which his wife said was his favorite vice in an interview recently. "I wondered if I gave you a bribe, if you would tell us if your vice presidential running mate would be from Florida, Illinois or New Jersey? he asked. If I act slightly nice, will you at least pick someone I like better for your No. 2? The New Hampshire Union Leader, in an editorial trying to goad Romney into debating the paper's chosen candidate, Newt Gingrich, says Romney's no good with unscripted answers -- like when a gay veteran confronted him -- and his town halls are "often a careful, arms-length kind of campaigning."
"You’re not going to see people running through the streets naked with Mitt Romney signs," New Hampshire Republican strategist Mike Dennehy told The Dallas Morning News' Todd J. Gillman, saying that Romney's patience in waiting for voters to come around will be rewarded. Romney's own answer to the college student question -- date Obama, marry Romney (for money) -- seems to endorse this creepy dating metaphor frequently used both by voters and reporters who seem unaware they're implying not very nice things about their marriages. But by the tone of the questions in the town halls, it seems like voters resent being asked to settle down. Another Romney supporter, project development consultant New Hampshire voter Ernie Bridge that Republicans want a savior. "They fell in love and they fell out of love. People are coming back to the sensible choice."
