[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.” ]
 |
Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
Mitt Romney on Monday at a rally in Avon, Ohio, where he spoke
again of his sister’s struggles.
|
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.”
