BURBANK, Calif. - Mitt Romney rarely wears suits anymore and sometimes his perfectly coiffed hair isn't so perfect. He shows up at NASCAR races and tweets pictures of himself eating Subway sandwiches. His wife, Ann, is a staple on the campaign trail and she gushes in a new online video about the start of their four-decade old "love story."
The Republican presidential front-runner's latest efforts to show his more personal -- critics would say more human -- side were on display as he sat down with a late-night talk show host for the first time since 2010.
"I'll tell you what. I can do you a favour with this," Romney said late Tuesday on Jay Leno's "Tonight Show," as the comic pressed him about his list of potential vice-presidents. Romney quipped: "I'll choose David Letterman," referring to Leno's rival late night TV talk show host.
Expect more such moments, and similar light settings, in the coming weeks as the likely Republican nominee shifts toward the general election and starts to introduce himself in earnest to a country that doesn't know him nearly as well as the Republican primary electorate does after two campaigns for the party's nomination.
Aides and allies long have insisted that there's a likable, personable, even fun Romney underneath the persistent image of a buttoned-downed, multi-millionaire businessman that Republican voters got to know during his failed bid for the nomination in 2008. This time, the former Massachusetts governor has sought to shake the rap, even among some supporters, that he's awkward, boring and scripted.
Romney's advisers downplay any notion of a makeover or a major shift in the campaign. And they publicly insist they are focused on the primary race even though their boss is all but certain to clinch the nomination.
But aides also are mindful that when he does get the 1,144 convention delegates needed to secure the party nod, the general electorate will start to pay closer attention to the presidential race and some will take their first serious look at Romney. The campaign is looking for ways to seize that opportunity and attract independent voters who will be critical in the campaign against President Barack Obama.
Just 38 per cent of independents said they had considerable interest in the primary fight, according to a February AP-GfK poll. The rest had only a passing interest or no interest at all. That's far lower than partisans -- 73 per cent of Republicans said they had a great deal or quite a bit of interest in the election, likely meaning they watch developments carefully.
So, the campaign is discussing possible ways to show Americans a more complete picture of Romney, from longer-form TV interviews with his family of five sons and 16 grandchildren by his side to having his wife of 42 years appear on programs like daytime talk or cooking shows.
Ann Romney, whom the candidate introduces as "my sweetheart" at nearly every campaign stop, is likely to play a big role in introducing her husband to a wider audience; aides say her mere presence softens his sometimes rough edges. That's why she's been a near constant presence on the campaign trail with him during this campaign, taking the microphone from him to tell the story of how they fell in love and how he'd call while away on a business trip to tell her that raising their children was more important than his job.
To be sure, Romney's attempts over the past year to show his regular-guy side -- that he's more than just a wealthy Northeastern businessman who governed a liberal state as a moderate -- sometimes fall flat.
When he showed up at the Daytona 500 earlier this month, he said he didn't know much about car-racing but knew a few of the NASCAR team owners. His sense of humour is sometimes goofily awkward, like when he pretended a waitress at a New Hampshire diner had pinched his behind when she hadn't. And he once referred to Ann as a "heavyweight" champion -- a remark she gracefully brushed away when she took the microphone back from her husband.
"If this goes on much longer, I will be the heavyweight champion," she said. "Things are getting a little tight. This is what happens if you're on the campaign trail."
Romney himself has acknowledged making such missteps and he has vowed to improve.
Lately, he's started venturing to the back of his campaign plane to chat with reporters about the more mundane parts of life, like a dinner he planned to have with one of his five sons, whether he gets nervous on election days and whether he has a lucky tie.
Such exchanges project a relaxed, confident person -- an image his campaign hopes will come through more in a general election than it has in the primary.
Still, it's clear his Boston campaign advisers don't want to push him too far. Romney took a call from them as his SUV navigated the L.A. freeways on his way to tape Leno's show.
"They said, 'don't try and be funny, just answer the questions straight,"' Romney said in a video one of his aides posted on Twitter. "I'm rarely funny on purpose, so we'll see what happens tonight."
