Thursday, August 9, 2012

The Real Romney 4: Social?

In my latest reading of The Real Romney, Michael Kranish and Scott Helman talk about Mitt Romney's interactions with people.  The general picture that I got from yesterday's reading was this: that Romney is really loving and generous to his family and to people in his church (including the disadvantaged), but he does not particularly enjoy socializing with people outside of that.  He's not overly interested in getting to know people outside of his family or church, but his focus outside of that arena is on business. But Kranish and Helman do depict Romney as affable, even if he's a little distant.

At the same time, Kranish and Helman say things that appear to contradict that picture: Romney at Stanford loved to talk with people; Romney as a missionary in France was not shy but was quite gregarious; Romney at Harvard interacted with people and did not drink alcohol or coffee, yet did not express judgment towards those who did drink alcohol or coffee; etc.