The Real Romney

by Kranish, Michael

  In 1994 Romney launched an improbable bid to oust Edward M. Kennedy from the U.S. Senate. It was the strongest challenge Kennedy had ever faced. But in the end, Romney, after failing to articulate a clear campaign message, came up short, losing by a wide margin to the Democratic stalwart.

  (Boston Globe/Mark Wilson)

  Romney took over the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City at a time of crisis, with the Olympic community and much of Utah reeling from an influence-peddling scandal. Many credit Romney for turning things around and leading a solemn, successful games just months after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

  (AFP/George Frey)

  Eight years after his bruising loss to Edward Kennedy, Romney returned to Massachusetts and fulfilled his lifelong dream of winning public office like his father. Romney, shown here with his lieutenant governor, Kerry Healey, won the 2002 election at fifty-five, the same age his father was when he was first elected governor of Michigan.

  (Boston Globe/Jim Davis)

  Massachusetts’s groundbreaking universal health care law, which Romney signed in an elaborate ceremony at Boston’s Faneuil Hall in April 2006, was his biggest achievement as governor. Though the law has succeeded in covering nearly everyone in the state, its controversial requirement that residents purchase insurance has become a political burden for Romney.

  (Boston Globe/David L. Ryan)

  In his first bid for president, Romney tried to win early contests in Iowa and New Hampshire by showering local political leaders with campaign contributions and shaking hands at countless events like this, the September 2007 Labor Day parade in Milford, New Hampshire.

  (Boston Globe/Dina Rudick)

  Mitt and Ann kicked off his 2012 presidential campaign by serving her homemade chicken-and-bean chili to supporters on a farm in Stratham, New Hampshire. The June 2011 announcement, in keeping with Romney’s new approach, was far more low-key than his presidential launch four years earlier.

  (Boston Globe/Jonathan Wiggs)

  About the Authors

  MICHAEL KRANISH, deputy chief of the Washington Bureau of The Boston Globe, has been a congressional reporter, a White House correspondent, and a national political reporter. Kranish coauthored, with other Globe reporters, John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography. He is also the author of Flight from Monticello: Thomas Jefferson at War.

  SCOTT HELMAN is a staff writer at The Boston Globe, where he has worked as a reporter and an editor for more than a decade. He was previously the paper’s political editor and a national political reporter, serving as a lead writer on the 2008 presidential campaign.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

  Credits

  Cover photograph © Ben Baker/Redux

  Cover design by Archie Ferguson

  Copyright

  THE REAL ROMNEY. Copyright © 2012 by The Boston Globe. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Kranish, Michael.

  The real Romney / by Michael Kranish and Scott Helman.—FIRST EDITION.

  pages cm

  Includes bibliographical references.

  ISBN 978-0-06-212327-5

  1. Romney, Mitt. 2. Governors—Biography. 3. Presidential candidates—United States—Biography. I. Helman, Scott. II. Title.

  E901.1.R66K73 2012

  974.4'044092—dc23

  [B]

  2011045483

  EPub Edition © JANUARY 2012 ISBN: 9780062123299

  12 13 14 15 16 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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