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"FacebookPinterest\n\nThere are homemade posters depicting Ann Romney as first lady in glittered frames and bubble letters. There are the buttons with her name written in looping script worn on the lapels of Mitt\u2019s female supporters. There are the approving nods when Mitt mentions her, and the cheers of hardcore fans when she takes the stage. At the victory party in Vegas on Saturday night, Ann was first up to the podium, wearing a black pantsuit and pink blouse, looking a bit like Leslie Knope.\n\nAnn also shares this with the Parks and Recreation heroine: she is easier, funnier and realer on the stump than her companion\u2014a natural politician. There\u2019s none of the Stepford-like quality that some of his critics use to describe Mitt. &amp;quot;Being a grandmother is all about revenge,&amp;quot; she says on the trail to the delight of mothers and grandmothers. &amp;quot;When these little ones are naughty I look at my sons and say \u2019Oh, you guys deserve it.\u2019&amp;quot; She tells them: &amp;quot;After the last time we ran I said we would never do this again. And I pretty much convinced Mitt of that\u2014but then he reminded me that I said that after every pregnancy.&amp;quot;\n\nLike Leslie and Ben on Parks and Rec, Mitt benefits most from his relationship with Ann; he seems visibly more at ease when she\u2019s by his side. &amp;quot;Mitt does better when she\u2019s there,&amp;quot; says Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, an early endorser who has been traveling with the group. &amp;quot;He\u2019s more relad. He enjoys her being around.&amp;quot; Says New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte, another of Romney\u2019s endorsers: &amp;quot;She is unbelievable in terms of her warmth and her ability to tell the personal side of their relationship.&amp;quot; Adds a campaign embed covering the Romneys: &amp;quot;It never seems forced with her, the way it does with him and with the kids.&amp;quot;\n\nAt a rally in New Hampshire, when Occupy protesters started heckling, Ann, barely missing a beat, started leading chants of &amp;quot;Mitt, Mitt&amp;quot; to drown them out. This was the event where Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey leaned forward and told one of the women protesting, &amp;quot;You know, something may be going down tonight, but it ain\u2019t going to be jobs, sweetheart.&amp;quot; After it turned contentious, Christie instinctively kicked the microphone back to Ann, &amp;quot;To send you off with the right type of inspiration, to get you going on Tuesday.&amp;quot;\n\nAnd she did. The crowd laughed when she laughed. Ann explained that she knew there would be challenges in this run. &amp;quot;I asked him one question, and this is why we decided to run. I said \u2019Mitt, can you save America?\u2019 and his answer was \u2019Yes.\u2019&amp;quot; It was evidence that even as Romney continues to bring out his rotating cast of high profile endorsers like Christie, John McCain and Tim Pawlenty, Ann is still his best surrogate.\n\nThere\u2019s a very real way in which this matters: in Florida, Romney beat Gingrich among women voters by 24 percentage points. In Nevada, entrance polls indicate he won an even bigger share of women voters, 56 percent to Gingrich\u2019s 20 percent. As Maureen Dowd noted in a Sunday column, voters see in Callista Gingrich &amp;quot;the embodiment of the divide between Gingrich\u2019s public piety and private immorality.&amp;quot; That was true of many women voters I met in Florida, who hated that Gingrich had left his ex-wives, and often made Callista the target of their derision. Brenda Copley, a self-described &amp;quot;conservative family Republican&amp;quot; who volunteers for the Romney campaign in Florida and came to an Orlando rally with a homemade Ann sign, said she thought society was in decline in part because traditional marriage bonds were weakening. Of the Gingriches, Copely said: &amp;quot;Even with redemption, and I believe in redemption, I don\u2019t believe he deserves to be president of the United States because what he would bring to that position would not set a good example for society. It is quite a contrast, and I\u2019d have a real hard time referring to his wife as a first lady, because she broke up his home and she was a mistress with him while he was married.&amp;quot;\n\n In Ann, voters see the opposite. She survived breast cancer; she lives with multiple sclerosis; she\u2019s been his high school sweetheart and wife of 42 years. Ann\u2019s the embodiment of Mitt Romney\u2019s family values to GOP voters. &amp;quot;She and he would emplify those wonderful characteristics and serve as tremendous role models in our society,&amp;quot; Copely told me. Voters repeat the line Ann credits to him about when she was sick and worried about caring for her family, &amp;quot;I like cold cereal and peanut butter sandwiches. We can do fine with that as long as we have each other,&amp;quot; as evidence of the man\u2019s good moral character. They look at her stumping for Mitt with gold framed aviators in hand and a grandson attached to her waist.\n\n&amp;quot;She\u2019s an excellent speaker,&amp;quot; said Michael Turo, a 19-year-old Quinnipiac University student and Romney supporter at one of their rallies. &amp;quot;And she\u2019s a great looking lady. She\u2019s the perfect first lady.&amp;quot;\n\nRead more from Death Race 2012\n\n&amp;quot;If the 2012 Election is The Matrix, That Makes Ron Paul Morpheus&amp;quot;\n\n[_&amp;quot;The GQ&amp;amp;A with Jay Smooth, The Rapper Behind the Mitt Romney Remix&amp;quot;\n\n _\n\n](http://www.gq.com/news-politics/blogs/death-race/2012/02/the-gqa-jay-smooth.html)\n\n&amp;quot;How Crazy is Ron Paul? Sweater Edition&amp;quot;\n\n&amp;quot;President Santorum? For Real? GOP Staffers React to Tuesday\u2019s Sweep&amp;quot;\n\nFollow Marin on Twitter for more updates from the campaign trail."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/how-mitt-locks-up-the-female-vote-and-maybe-the-male-vote-too>