The Real Romney [Kindle Edition]

Michael Kranish (Author), Scott Helman (Author)

Book Description

“Absorbing and fair-minded.”
—New York Times

“Romney’s story in full and clear detail…fascinating in-depth stuff.”
—Los Angeles Times

“A fascinating story [that] sheds next light on an elusive subject.”
—Boston Globe

Despite his political prominence, Mitt Romney remains an enigma to many in America. Who is the man behind that sweep of dark hair and the high-wattage smile? A savvy politician or someone who will simply say anything to win? A business visionary or a ruthless dealmaker? In this definitive, unflinching, and widely-acclaimed biography by Boston Globe investigative reporters Michael Kranish and Scott Helman, readers will finally discover the real Mitt Romney. Based on hundreds of interviews and more than five years of reporting, The Real Romney offers for the very first time a full understanding of this complex political figure.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The Real Romney pulls together lots of details into a narrative that’s absorbing and fair-minded.” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times )

“Balanced and rigorous reporting on Romney’s life and career. . . . The authors are especially good on his close relationship with his father, a three-term Michigan governor who unsuccessfully ran for president in 1968.” (USA Today )

“The Real Romney lays out Romney’s story in full and clear detail, including fascinating in-depth stuff about his family’s history, showing us a Romney for whom family and faith remain unshakable pillars and who knows that his ‘power-ally is money.’” (The Los Angeles Times )

“A timely, balanced new biography. . . . An impressively researched and thought-provoking portrait of a man many Americans may want to know more about in the coming weeks and months.” (The Boston Globe )

“Kranish and Helman are veteran and well-regarded reporters. . . . They give a comprehensive account of the Bain years -- the greatest contribution of their book.” (Michael Tomasky, The New York Review of Books )

“The writers have thoroughly trawled through the would-be-president’s history. The book charts the various stages of Romney’s polymorphic life in impressive detail. . . . All this is well done. The analysis of Romney’s time at Bain is balanced and fair.” (The Economist )

“Kranish and Helman have assembled a genuinely compelling story and a more thorough record of Romney’s life than has yet appeared.” (The Washington Post )

“A fascinating story [that] sheds new light on an elusive subject. . . . It illustrates well how in his private life and in business, he has relied on a tight, protective circle all his life.” (The Financial Times )

“A comprehensive and eminently fair-minded biography of the GOP’s fitful frontrunner.” (The New Republic )

“An excellent biography.” (David Frum, The Daily Beast )

“Balanced and informative. . . A well-written and useful resource for Romneyana great and small.” (Louis Menand, The New Yorker )

“The great service of this new biography is that it humanizes Romney. The authors sniff over their subject with bloodhound thoroughness, dredging up old report cards, housing deeds, and family records and videos. They interview seemingly everyone who had contact with Romney in every phase of his life.” (The New York Times Book Review )

“Who is the real Mitt Romney? This well-researched biography by two Boston Globe reporters offers useful clues.” (Katha Pollitt, The Guardian )

From the Back Cover

Mitt Romney has masterfully positioned himself as the front-runner for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Even though he’s become a household name, the former Massachusetts governor remains an enigma to many in America, his character and core convictions elusive, his record little known. Who is the man behind that sweep of dark hair, distinguished white sideburns, and high-wattage smile? He often seems to be two people at once: a savvy politician, and someone who will simply say anything to win. A business visionary, and a calculating dealmaker. A man comfortable in his faith and with family, and one who can have trouble connecting with average voters.

In this definitive, unflinching biography by Boston Globe investigative reporters Michael Kranish and Scott Helman, readers will finally discover the real Romney. The book explores Romney’s personal life, his bond with his wife and how they handled her diagnosis with multiple sclerosis, and his difficult years as a Mormon missionary in France, where a fatal car crash had a profound effect on his path. It also illuminates Romney’s privileged upbringing in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; his rejection of the 1960s protest culture; and his close but complicated relationship with his father.

Based on more than five years of reporting and hundreds of interviews, The Real Romney includes a probing analysis of Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, one of the world’s leading private investment firms, where staggering profits were won through leveraged buyouts that helped create jobs but also destroyed them. This penetrating portrait offers important new details, too, on Romney’s failed Senate race against Ted Kennedy, his role leading the troubled 2002 Winter Olympics, and his championing of universal health care in Massachusetts. Drawing on previously undisclosed campaign memos, e-mails, and interviews with key players, Kranish and Helman reveal the infighting and disagreement that sunk Romney’s 2008 White House bid—and his conscious decision to switch tactics for his 2012 run.

In The Real Romney, Kranish and Helman delve searchingly into the psyche of a complex man now at his most critical juncture—the private Romney whom few people see. They show the remarkable lengths to which Romney has gone in order to succeed in politics and business, shrewdly shifting identities as needed, bringing tough-minded strategy to every decision, and always carefully safeguarding his public image. For the first time, readers will gain a full understanding of the kind of man Romney is—the kind of man who may be running their country.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 974 KB
• Print Length: 429 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0062123270
• Publisher: Harper (January 10, 2012)
• Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005UCVW7S
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #182,931 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

103 of 122 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Would The Real Mitt Romney Please Step Forward? January 26, 2012

By Frederick S. Goethel VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

The authors, two reporters for a large New England newspaper, have written the most definitive biography of Mitt Romney that I have seen to date. Several book were written about Romney prior to the 2008 election, but none were nearly as complete nor did any have a true history of his life.

Beginning with Romney's ancestors, and proceeding to this day, the authors cover almost every aspect of Romney's life. He has, by all measures, led a pretty good life without the challenges that most people face as they go through life. He was in a severe automobile wreck when he was serving on his Mormon mission, but short of that, his life has been good to Mitt.

While reading the biography, it struck me that there are really three distinct Mitt Romney's. One side is the Mitt Romney that his wife, kids and friends know at home, one is the distinct "work" Mitt that is known to fellow workers and colleagues and then there is the "Mormon Church" Mitt that fellow members of his faith see when he is in leadership positions within the church. Each is different and distinct from the others, and makes figuring out the real Mitt a challenge.

When Romney is at home, he is a loving father who is devoted to his wife and children. He also appears to have fun, leaves his work at the office and is a prankster. He has no problem going on vacation and relaxing when it is appropriate. The fact that he is still strongly in love with his wife after over 40 years speaks volumes about him as a family man and he deserves credit for that. In addition, he is giving and regularly helped neighbors who had problems, without seeking any attention or credit for his actions.

The work Romney is a different creature: he is driven, focused like a laser light on success and surrounds himself with talented people. He is extremely data driven and only makes decisions after completely crunching and mulling over the numbers. He is somewhat risk averse and is not a person to act on the spur of the moment. He also enjoys the roll of making the final decision. Tellingly, he didn't undertake the usual politics when he was governor of Massachusetts. Almost all politicians know that to survive and be successful in such a position, you need to know the other side and work towards compromise. That wasn't Romney. He didn't want to know the other side, and he acted as though he were the CEO of the State. He seemed to forget that there was a legislature that he had to work with, and by many accounts, he got little accomplished in his time in the State House for that very reason. In addition, he had a history of being one sided that was beginning to catch up with him near the end of his term. This is also the Romney that many people saw in Salt Lake City when he worked to get the Olympic Games back on track.

Finally, there is the Romney people see when he is in a leadership position in his church, which was the case for a number of years. He is considered to have strong faith and worked hard in his "spare" time for the church. Most disturbing about his church time appears to be his lack of questioning or thought about the tenants of the church. There is some leeway with church doctrine in certain cases, but Romney appears to have taken the strongest, simplest line with the doctrine and not varied, although he had that power. For instance, the church allows for abortion in several narrowly defined areas, including rape, incest, when the life of the mother is in jeopardy or when it is believed the baby will not survive the birth. Yet, when a member of the church need guidance on an abortion issue, where her life was threatened, Romney stuck to the strict side of the doctrine and warned her she could be excommunicated. There didn't appear to be any thought or human emotion put into the decision. He read the book, and followed it to the letter.

As a result, we have three fairly distinct personalities and one must wonder which one we will get if he is elected president. Or, will is be an amalgamation of all three depending on the circumstances? I guess that is up to the reader and voter to decide.

I highly recommend this book to all voters. It is always important to be informed when voting, and this is the least biased and most honest biography one could hope for. It will allow the voter to decide if Romney is presidential material or not and allow the reader to judge any statements Romney makes against his past record.

65 of 79 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Romney Like You've Never Seen Him Before January 19, 2012

By Hank Peace

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I think an evaluation of The Real Romney turns on whether it provides new information to the reader, information that would help a swing voter make up his or her mind. I think Kranish & Helman succeed on that metric. We learn that Romney's family history is deeply intertwined with the history of Mormonism and that he served an important role as a lay leader in the church. We learn that as a lay leader Romney counseled a woman facing a difficult birth against having an abortion. We learn that Romney keeps most acquaintances distant, but can be silly (or more, dorky) with his family and close friends. We learn that Romney assiduously courted gay voters during his run for the U.S. Senate. We learn that Romney ran the first post-9/11 Olympics (ok, I probably already should have known this one). We learn that Romney's advisors counseled against his ill-fated decision to focus on social issues during his 2008 presidential run.

Most of the book is devoted to the history of Romney's patriline post-Mormonism conversion sparked immigration, his work for his church, his career at Bain, his U.S. Senate run, his tenure as head of the Winter Olympics, and his tenure as governor of Massachusetts. His 2008 and 2012 presidential runs are given pretty cursory review. An entire chapter is devoted to Romneycare.

The Real Romney compares very favorably with a similar just-in-time-for-the-election biography from 2008--Obama: From Promise to Power by Chicago Tribune reporter David Mendell. Mendell's biography was pretty thin and wound up relying heavily on Obama's own book to cover Obama's early life. Romney has a much longer political career (going back to his U.S. Senate run) than Obama did in 2008, and the Boston Globe has been covering him much longer than the Chicago Tribune had Obama. It shows. This isn't a Robert Caro work, but it's an extremely valuable voice about Romney right now.

The Real Romney very much reads like a series of long newspaper articles. That's both good and bad. Kranish & Helman give the facts. But they don't engage in a lot of in-depth analysis. So the critical portions consist of repeating the attacks of his critics. This is unsatisfactory for a couple reasons: those statements are not explored in greater depth and they come off as sour grapes, both of which makes them difficult to judge.

This review is of the Kindle edition. Kranish & Helman don't provide footnotes or endnotes, but copious notes and the index take up about 40% of the Kindle edition. Unfortunately, the notes don't allow the reader to jump directly to the applicable text as endnotes and some Kindle notes do. The page numbers in both the notes and the index refer to the hardcover edition, so there is no way to use either to find something on the Kindle.

46 of 58 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Story of a Man, not Sound Bites or Newspaper Headlines January 17, 2012

By Bill Makar

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

A fair assessment of Mitt Romney's life and times is a bit of a surprise coming from Boston Globe writers, a company owned by the New York Times and the leader in criticizing his tenure as Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Still, they offer the reader a fairly well-rounded knowledge of the man, his relationship with his father, and his experiences that have prepared him for the leadership role he seeks and also given his opponents ammunition.

The book is not a headline grabber in the sense of propelling or halting his ongoing campaign. It instead explores the many facets of a man who has struggled to merge his private and public life, the legacy of his father, the demands of his business concerns, the Massachusetts voting base, expectations of the conservative base in the national GOP primary, and what Romney sees as the expectations of the general electorate.

The stories and accounts from his personal life, Bain & Company, Bain Capital, the 2002 Olympics, Governor's Office, to becoming National Candidate are not those that have remained untold, they are known. But "The Real Romney" offers context and a steady hand. The candidate that was in the media's view the conservative alternative to McCain in 2008 and now without any major policy shifts, the "moderate" frontrunner in 2012 shows how the mainstream media can frame these candidates into characters to fit their storylines and ratings. Hopefully, voters will look beyond the 10-second sound bites and distortion from other campaigns (including Romney's) when they assess a candidates ability to lead.