Romney speaks of massacre, reveals a private self

By Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Politics Writer

Posted: July 22, 2012

BOW, N.H. - The campaign signs had been taken down, and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney stepped up to a bare podium in front of an American flag, politics put aside.

"Our hearts break with the sadness of this unspeakable tragedy," Romney said, referring to the attack of a gunman on a movie multiplex in Aurora, Colo., that killed 12 and wounded dozens more.

"I stand before you today not as a man running for office, but as a father, a grandfather, and an American," he said Friday to a subdued crowd of several hundred at a lumberyard here. "This is a time for us to look into our hearts to remember the love we have for each other and the love we share for this great nation. . . . There is so much goodness at the heart of America."

The slaughter brings feelings of helplessness, Romney said, "but there is something we can do. We can offer comfort to someone near us who is suffering or heavy-laden."

He said that "grieving and worried families in Aurora are surrounded by love today, and not just by those that are with them and holding them in their arms. They can also know they're being lifted up in prayer by people in every part of our great nation. Now and in the hard days to come, may every one of them feel the sympathy of our whole nation and the comfort of a loving God."

Romney spoke for four minutes and suggested that the horror would lead people to hug their children tighter, spend more time with a friend in need, and reach out in compassion to those who are hurting.

Afterward, the crowd filed out of the arena silently, until a man at the head of the column spotted Romney heading for his motorcade. "Well done, governor," he said, and the people gave Romney a muted round of applause.

Romney stopped and then greeted people one by one, like a pastor in a reception line after a funeral service. This was a side of Romney rarely seen, that of the man who, as a Mormon bishop, had counseled and prayed with thousands of parishioners. He does not talk much about that experience; it is private.

Contact Thomas Fitzgerald

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