Craig Romney addresses government students

In a shift away from the policy-centered discussion of the national media, students were given insight into the private life of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney from a man who perhaps knows him better than anyone else.

Craig Romney, the youngest son of Obama’s challenger, made a stop at Liberty Sept. 21 on his way to Florida, appearing before a crowd of government students to take questions about the presidential race and speak to the character of his father.

The Family Meeting

When a man runs for president, he does not run alone — the whole family runs. Craig described what it was like for the Romney family during the initial stages of his bid for the presidency. And yes, there was a family meeting that started it all.

“The first time was in 2006, when he was thinking about running in 2008. He sat us all down and asked us what we thought, kind of made a list of pros and cons,” Craig said.
“We had no idea what we were in for. We were very really enthusiastically supporting him making that decision.”

But Romney’s bid for the Republican nomination fell short as John McCain secured the top spot on the Republican ticket that year.

“We had a similar meeting again as a family in 2010 when he was thinking about doing it this time,” Craig said. “(We had) more restraint that time. We’d been through it once and learned from those experiences.”

The focus of that family meeting was very different in 2010. The political climate had changed, and so had the Romney family.

“Again we were unanimous in our support in saying that not only should you do this, you have to do this. Our country needs you. We need your leadership, we need your experience in the White House,” Craig said.

Speaking as his son, Craig highlighted many of Romney’s lesser-known character attributes that he said qualifies his father for perhaps the world’s highest office.

“Some of his greatest successes are the things that people know the least about,” Craig said. “It’s saving a young girl (who) was lost, in danger of dying from a drug overdose. It’s raising my brothers and myself to love this country, to love God and to love our neighbor. Those I consider to be his greatest achievements.”

Romney to the Rescue

The incident with the lost young girl occurred during Mitt’s time in Boston running Bain capital. One of his partners had a daughter who did not return from a trip to New York, and her father could not make contact with her. Mitt shut down his office and took all of his employees to New York City to search for the missing girl, Craig said.

Mitt’s team combed the streets, distributed fliers and set up a hot line for phone tips on her whereabouts.

Eventually, the girl was found through a phone trace on a call from a boy she was last seen with. When she was recovered, she was suffering from a severe drug overdose. The girl’s father said that without Mitt, his daughter may not have survived that trip to New York.

Group Lesson on Toilet-Papering

On a lighter note, Craig spoke about one time as a teenager that he and a friend decided to toilet paper their neighbors’ house. But his surprise attack did not go quite as he planned.

“We found all the toilet paper in the house and we spent 20-30 minutes TP-ing their yard and their trees and everything. And then the next morning, I woke up and it was all gone, all of it,” Craig said. “I was surprised because it’s kind of a pain to clean that stuff up. I didn’t know who had done it. I was kind of confused.”

A little investigative work revealed the culprit, or rather the person who cleaned up the mess.

“I went and looked in the garage and all the toilet paper was in our garbage can. It was my dad who had cleaned it all up,” Craig said. “I think he had gotten up early and seen what I had done. The crazy thing is, he never said a word.”

Romney’s parenting seems to have been effective — Craig abandoned his humorous pranks.
“By doing that, (he) taught me a much greater lesson,” Craig said. “I just felt so guilty knowing that he had worked to clean up my mess.”