Josh Romney is driving a motor home from Salt Lake City to Iowa to help with the campaign
Posted on 06/08/2007 12:49:56 PM PDT by Unmarked Package
It wasn't hard to spot which of the genteel homes in Salt Lake City's Harvard-Yale neighborhood belongs to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's son, Josh — there was the 30-foot motor home squeezed into the driveway earlier this week.
But the oversize vehicle dubbed the "Mitt Mobile" wasn't parked for long in the area known for brick Tudor houses, manicured lawns and quiet, tree-lined streets. With Josh, 31, behind the wheel, the motor home was headed to Iowa today.
There, the only one of Mitt Romney's five offspring living in Utah plans to spend much of the summer campaigning for his father, making stops in all of Iowa's 99 counties before that state's Republican straw poll on Aug. 11.
Once in Iowa, the motor home — a used Winnebago chosen because it was manufactured there as well as for its low price — will be transformed with a red, white and blue wrapping featuring the flag and the candidate's name in giant letters.
Meantime, Josh is getting some much-needed practice piloting what's still a plain beige box on wheels. His limited experience driving a motor home came after he purchased the two-year-old vehicle on eBay and had to get it to Salt Lake from Phoenix overnight.
After all, Josh said, accidentally cutting off another driver or committing just about any other traffic violation in a vehicle clearly identifiable with the campaign could cost his father votes. Especially if it's in the "Mitt Mobile."
"I have to be pretty careful now that I have a Mitt Romney bumper sticker on my car," Josh said during an interview in the motor home before leaving Salt Lake. "I can't imagine how bad it's going to be in this thing once it's wrapped."
As one of the "Five Brothers" campaigning for their father, Josh is used to the attention. Already, the real-estate developer said he is recognized in Iowa, where he's been making appearances on behalf of his father since the beginning of the year.
The family name is certainly well-known in Utah, where Mitt Romney is credited with taking the 2002 Winter Olympics from scandal to success. And so is the face — like his brothers, Josh looks a lot like his father.
The campaign is not shy about using all of the brothers to court voters. They all have their own MySpace pages and even their own blog at fivebrothers.mittromney.com, where they report from the campaign trail as well as on family activities.
"People can get to know more about the family and how important the family is to us. Hopefully it's a way for them to get insight into what kind of man my father is," Josh said of the brothers' participation in the campaign. "We're not perfect, but we all did pretty well."
All of the brothers attended Brigham Young University, like their father. Three, Josh, Tagg and Matt, also graduated from Harvard Business School; one, Ben, is in medical school; and the youngest, 25-year-old Craig, is a music producer in New York City.
Josh, though, is the only son living in Utah. He, his wife, Jen, and their three children — Grace, 4, Wyatt, 2, and Owen, 7 months — moved here two years ago and Josh went to work for his father's longtime friend, Utah developer Kem Gardner.
The young family considers Utah home and have tried to persuade some of the other brothers to join them without success — so far. They intend to stay put, Josh said, even if his father is elected in November 2008.
What would be different about his life if his father becomes president? "Probably nothing. If you know my dad, he's not going to give me a position," Josh said. "Mostly, it'd be great to watch. Hopefully I'd get some visits to the White House."
The election, though, is still more than a year away, and there are still a lot of miles to be traveled in Iowa. The state has long been seen as key to the campaign because of the straw poll and January's caucus vote, the kickoff to the presidential primary season.
Mitt Romney has been leading in the polls in Iowa and is expected to win the straw poll because the other top-tier candidates already in the race, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Sen. John McCain, have dropped out of the August event.
But that hasn't changed Josh's plans. He's already been to the state four times since his mother surprised him at a campaign event held there earlier this year by promising he'd fulfill the traditional presidential campaign goal in Iowa of visiting every county.
Josh has readied himself for repeated visits between now and the August straw poll by studying up on his father's positions on the issues as well as reviewing a book about Iowa's curiosities such as being home to the world's largest truck stop.
"People expect me to know everything my father thinks and know his position on everything," Josh said. "People feel passionately about issues." He recalled an Iowa man who became angry while discussing what constituted a fair tax on the wealthy.
One of the issues that Josh said he expects to be asked about is the family's membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "At some point, I'm sure I will," he said. "A lot of people think about it."
His answer about Mormonism sounds an awful lot like his father's, about how voters are looking for a president who shares their values, not necessarily their specific faith. "My dad says that a lot, but it's true," Josh said.
"The fact is we share values. The values our family has are as American as can be and mesh well with the values the rest of the country shares," Josh said. "The family is a big part of that. We're a normal family with normal values."
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Is that a picture of the McCain Mobile?
Didn’t have time to read the article but just wanted to mention that I saw Romney on CSPAN last night on the replay of Politics and Eggs Breakfast in New Hampshire. Boy Romney is good. He actually answers questions. He has good ideas about how to get things accomplished. He is very articulate. He is very smart. He is positive but he gets it on “global jihad”. He is definitely one of the people I’m eyeballing for 08.
They did their homework....showing up here in anything BUT a Winnebago would have been a hugh, series mistake...his campaign would shriek “Oh the huge manatee!!” :)
Reminds me of a Ben Franklin quote. It's from a letter that he wrote to his father in 1738:
"I think vital religion has always suffered when orthodoxy is more regarded than virtue. The scriptures assure me that at the last day we shall not be examined on what we thought, but what we did."
I think this would be more McNuts style.
I don't remember when the event is held. Maybe it's too late to do anything with it, but the Romney campaign needs to find some cyclists who will ride the event in Romney T-shirts. Another thought is that maybe Romney volunteers should sponsor one of the rest stations along the route.
Bill
It’s called RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa). It’s a big deal. There are probably about 15,000 cyclists from Iowa and all over the world that come to it. It’s a rolling huge party. http://www.ragbrai.org/
How nice Mitt’s 5 sons went to school and making money while other sons have put further schooling on hold or left jobs to fight the IslamOfascist.
It takes character and bravery to defend our country.
To bad those 5 sons don’t have any.
Mitt will be saying goodbye to the Mitt mobile, he'll be riding this soon.
It takes character and bravery to defend our country. To bad those 5 sons don’t have any.
There you go again with this bilge.
Either we have mandatory service or we have volunteer service. Implicit in 'volunteer' service is that there is a choice to be made. That choice is NOT between patriotism/courage/bravery and nothing. One can serve their country in any number of ways. Volunteering for military service is praiseworthy and very admirable, but not doing so doesn't mean you aren't patriotic or a good citizen.
This is chickenhawk talk.
Do you badmouth Cheney and others who didn't serve? Do you berate President Bush because his service wasn't as extensive as others?
At this time in history is like no other.
Also our country was attacked in NYC and outside DC
I have many relatives who chose to give their time to their country in this war including a Dr. and others.
Both men and women, serving in the Military now.
Duncan Hunter’s son quit a good job after 9/11 and joined the Marines, served 2 tours in Iraq and the other week left for Afghanistan.
I don't know, Keith; one man's "homework" is another man's "pandering."
When he goes to another state where they build motorhomes, will he be sure to show up in one of theirs instead?
At some point, this kind of homework has John F. Kerry appearing on an Iowa farm in a flannel shirt and bib overalls. ;^)
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