April 23, 2012. Copyright 2012, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Can Romney seal the Republican deal?
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, April 23, Graphic News:  If U.S. voters could pick their presidents from a catalogue, Mitt Romney would surely be a popular choice. But the Republican frontrunner with the strong jaw and dazzling smile must now persuade Americans that he more than looks the part if he is to stand a chance of beating Barack Obama in November elections.

That Romney has so far seen off all-comers has been attributed to factors ranging from the weakness and even weirdness of his main rivals including Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich (the first backed out and the second is struggling to stay in) and to the estimated $50m that the Mormon businessman has thrown at his campaign. Few credit his policies or - even more worrying for the party - his personality. If he adds significant wins in primaries in the remaining states, he will seal the GOP deal.

But the success of the man who began with one failed bid under his belt (he was defeated by John McCain in 2008) and whose campaign this time was considered irreparably tainted after questions were raised about the low rate of tax he paid proves that in politics a lot can happen in a few short months. Conservatives who want Obama out of the White House at any cost are finally starting to rally behind the former one-term governor of Massachusetts.

Romney likes to say that he is an outsider who can transform U.S. politics, but not much is unusual about his privileged background. Born in 1947 in Michigan, he attended private school before studying law and business at Harvard. His father George once ran American Motors and served on President Nixon's cabinet.

Mitt Romney joined Bain and Company as a management consultant and later founded Bain Capital, a venture capital firm. Romney has been married to Ann for 44 years and they have five sons. He was credited with turning the troubled 2002 Salt City Winter Olympics into a success, which helped him to secure the governorship of Massachusetts.

One aspect that does jar with mainstream America is his Mormon faith (Romney once spent two years as a Mormon missionary in France) and it is unclear just how this will go down with the evangelical wing of his party. If he wins the nomination, Romney will find it harder to dodge the topic of religion and questions about the polygamous practices of his ancestors.

Nevertheless, the deepest distrust is reserved for his policies and ideology: Romney is seen as hypocritical for his attacks on Obama's controversial healthcare package after introducing a similar one in Massachusetts. Similarly, he has "flipflopped" on conservatives' cherished social issues including gay rights and abortion, prompting suspicions among right-wingers that he is really a moderate centrist.

Romney has tried hard to be all things to all men but faces particular resistance from Hispanics and women. He has neither the folksy personal touch of George Bush nor the ease and self-confidence of Obama. It remains to be seen how well he convinces Americans that he alone has the economic savvy to put the country back on track.
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