In Dwindling Days of the Race, Romney Takes a Softer Tack

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/us/politics/romney-tones-down-campaign-rhetoric-as-vote-nears.html

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TAMPA, Fla. — Mitt Romney used to talk up the “crucial” importance of having two parents in the home, saying “a mom and dad together” have a big impact. But over the past week, he has been extolling the virtues of single mothers at every turn, holding them out as examples of Americans “living for something bigger than themselves.”

Mr. Romney once delivered partisan-tinged zingers about how President Obama takes inspiration from socialist Democrats in Europe.

There are no traces of such barbs in the dwindling days of the race, however, even as a devastating storm buffeted the campaign and much of the country. Instead, he promises to make frequent and personal outreach to the rival party a signature of a Romney presidency.

“Democrats,” he says, “love America, too.”

As elections near, candidates change in ways big and small.

Mr. Romney’s 20-minute stump speech in the final stretch is a case study in such modulation, offering a stark illustration of his long journey from the partisanship of the Republican nominating contest toward the measured and less controversial middle of American politics.

It is a speech, revised and refined over time, that offers sometimes vivid contrasts with the words, messages and style that Mr. Romney has employed at various stages of his two-year presidential campaign.

(Two words that nobody has heard over the past week: “severely” or “conservative.”)

There are plenty of carry-overs, of course: he dings President Obama’s health care law as cumbersome and bemoans the size of the federal debt as immoral, as he has since 2011, when he entered the race.

But even if the extent of the evolution is up for argument, there is little debate that Mr. Romney is finishing the presidential campaign as a milder candidate than when he started.

A third of likely voters in a New York Times/CBS News poll this week said Mr. Romney had become more moderate in his positions since he became the nominee, a shift that may be a political necessity but one that holds peril for Mr. Romney.

The tone and substance of his closing argument risks raising the questions about consistency and authenticity that have dogged him, tracking with his muddied stance on issues like amnesty for young illegal immigrants, Pell grants for college students and limits on abortions.

The man who once mocked Mr. Obama for “trying to transform America” is himself embracing “big change” as a mantra — using the phrase up to a dozen times in each speech.

On Wednesday, while campaigning at a rally here, Mr. Romney took it further, calling for “bold, aggressive change.”

Getting Personal

Crowds are riveted during Mr. Romney’s rhetorical finale, in growing numbers: 4,000 in Kissimmee, Fla.; 12,000 in Defiance, Ohio; 15,000 in Land O’ Lakes, Fla. They cheer for his conspicuous talk of bipartisanship, his praise for judicious regulation and his personal stories, which he used to studiously avoid but now tumble off his lips with ease.

Several times a day, Mr. Romney talks about his sister Lynn, a widow, and her 43-year-old son, Jeffrey, who has Down syndrome. “I think of Lynn as a hero of mine because she has given herself to that boy,” he says, as the audience becomes quiet. “Given him a full life, takes him to work, makes his life fulfilling.”

He pauses. “She lives for her son.”

The audience thunders, drowning him out.

Emily Bores of Avon, Ohio, sat in rapt attention on Monday. “That story is familiar to anyone who has ever been touched by tragedy,” Ms. Bores said. “He shares a piece of everyone’s heart by having that experience so close to his own.”

Loving the Opposition

Lately, Mr. Romney cannot stop talking about how much he wants to work with Democrats.

“I will meet regularly with Democrats in Washington, with their leaders, and my party’s leaders, and battle together to find ways to help the American people,” he said a few days ago.

Rewind to the primaries: Mr. Romney sounded much less centrist. He said then that Tea Party members, known for their uncompromising rigidity, would find him “the ideal candidate.” He also questioned his rival Rick Santorum’s conservative credentials, citing a vote to fund Planned Parenthood.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference in early 2012, Mr. Romney emphasized, “I fought against long odds in a deep blue state, but I was a severely conservative Republican governor. I have been on the front lines and I expect to be on the front lines again.”

These days, when Mr. Romney talks about his record in Massachusetts, it is not as a deeply conservative governor, but as a leader who welcomed communication and compromise.

“I knew from the very beginning, to get anything done I had to reach across the aisle,” Mr. Romney said on Monday.

Sitting in the audience, Carla Dickard, 61, said she was drawn to Mr. Romney’s put-down-the-pitchforks message. “It wasn’t always like this, everyone so divided like they are,” she said. Ms. Dickard views Mr. Obama as overly partisan, setting off the birth of the Tea Party. Mr. Romney, by contrast, she said, “seems to understand that we won’t get anything done unless we work together.”

The message does not always sink in. On Wednesday in Tampa, as Mr. Romney talked about bipartisanship, a man shouted from the audience: “Fire Obama!”

Measured Criticisms

Mr. Romney still builds a forceful case against the president. But he is noticeably gentler.

Gone are the accusations that Mr. Romney made during the primary race: that Mr. Obama does not understand what makes America “such a unique nation,” that he is trying to redistribute wealth or that he “takes his political inspiration from Europe, from the socialist-democrats in Europe.” Instead, Mr. Romney is attacking the president largely on substance and policy.

To college students: “Because the president has been spending about a $1 trillion more every year in this country than we are taking in, he is putting debt on you that you didn’t even know about. Each man, woman and child in this country has about $50,000 worth of government debt.”

To the elderly: “If you happen to get sick and you need to see a specialist, if Obamacare gets installed and you call,” Mr. Romney said in the last week, “the receptionist is likely to tell you that the doctor isn’t taking any more Medicare patients.”

(An audience member shouted, “That’s right!”)

Still, Mr. Romney gets in a few pointed jabs. His favorite centers on the president’s campaign slogan, “Forward!”

“The president says ‘Forward.’ I call it forewarned,” he says, with a wry smile.

Sometimes, he manages to squeeze two Forward-related digs into a single speech.

“Things don’t feel like they are going forward,” Mr. Romney said in Ames, Iowa, on Thursday. “It feels more like backward.”

An Inevitable Evolution

Presidential candidates’ messages inevitably evolve: the fight for the ideologically rigid in the primary yields to a contest for apolitical independents in the general election.

Mr. Romney, for instance, has talked about single mothers from time to time. Last year, he told them to “hold on” as he prepared to deliver economic help. Now, he generously praises single mothers for scrimping to put “a great meal at the table for her kids.”

Kevin Madden, a senior adviser to Mr. Romney, said the possibility of becoming president had influenced how he was talking.

“You probably never get acclimated to or comfortable with the rigors of campaigning, but the idea of actually getting to work governing has helped him elevate and crystallize his closing argument,” Mr. Madden said. “The closing argument that Governor Romney has been engaged in is an embrace of the notion of actually governing.”