HUDSON, N.H. - Mitt Romney made millions in business with meticulous planning, serious salesmanship, and shrewd execution. As a candidate for president, he is applying the same techniques, courting voters with a tightly mapped strategy that governs nearly every step of his campaign.
Each week, his aides announce a theme - such as strengthening America's families or promoting a "Reagan zone of economic freedom" - and Romney sounds the message on the stump as TV and radio ads echo his platform.
He recites textbook GOP positions on national security and terrorism, taxes and spending, and abortion and gay marriage to build what he calls a "three-legged stool" of support, made up of military conservatives, economic conservatives, and social conservatives. And he repeats family anecdotes, praising his wife's meatloaf along the way, to reassure voters who may feel alienated by his wealth, Mormon faith, or Massachusetts roots.
Now, just seven weeks before the first votes are cast, Romney's disciplined approach stands as one of the biggest contrasts with his main rivals for the Republican nomination, all of whom are campaigning more as charismatic figures than as methodical politicians seeking to lock up various constituencies.
Backed by heavy spending, Romney's game plan has propelled him into the lead in Iowa and New Hampshire polls and into the top tier of GOP contenders nationwide. But it has also drawn critics who say his persona is so carefully crafted it appears contrived and does not elicit the same kind of passionate support as his rivals, who showcase their personalities.
"The fear is that voters won't know who this guy is," said Daron Shaw, a University of Texas political scientist and a strategist for President Bush's campaigns in 2000 and 2004 who is not involved in this campaign. "That's kind of the concern with people who are on Romney's side and looking for him to do well. He can have wonderful positions on the issues, but if voters don't know him and don't have a sense of him, they're not going to trust the particulars of his healthcare plan. They're not going to trust that he's necessarily going to be tough on national security issues."
Romney's strategy has produced broad-based, but not deeply loyal, support. A Boston Globe poll published Sunday indicated that Romney was leading in New Hampshire by 12 percentage points over his nearest rival, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. It also suggests that Romney's supporters are the least likely to have made up their minds, compared with backers of Giuliani and Senator John McCain of Arizona.
Giuliani, McCain, and Fred Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee, often sound freewheeling on the campaign trail in comparison with Romney. Each was already a celebrity in his own way: Giuliani as the man who held New York together on 9/11, McCain as a former POW and Senate maverick, and Thompson as an actor. And each has shaped his campaign appearances to highlight his persona as much as his policies.
McCain rarely fails to repeat his mantra - "Let me give you a little straight talk" - and to toss out a few characteristically saucy observations. He often takes a quick dig at Bush, who once claimed to have looked into the eyes of President Vladimir Putin of Russia and seen Putin's soul. "When I look into his eyes, I see three letters: K-G-B," McCain quips.
McCain's emphasis is not about any particular policy, but on buffing his image as an unvarnished truth-teller who cuts through the usual political pablum.
Giuliani strives for a similar effect. On the stump, he often holds out a card printed with his 12 promises to the American people and dismisses anyone who speaks up against them. The message is that he is an unbending foe of terrorism and taxes, and voters should know what they are getting. "If you agree with these positions, I'd ask you to support me," Giuliani said. "If you don't agree with those positions, I'd ask you to support someone else."
Thompson leans heavily on his folksy style and humble roots. In a New Hampshire stop this month, a question about race relations prompted him to meander into a story about his childhood in Lawrenceburg, Tenn., and his "momma, who's back home watching now," who never had a formal education but raised him right. "That's the advantage I had," Thompson said. "I had nothing else in terms of riches, but I had the moral support."
Romney, by contrast, talks more about his political values than his personal history. During recent campaign events, the former governor barely mentioned his experience running the 2002 Winter Olympics and glossed over his resume as a venture capitalist and consultant. Instead, he stressed his agenda and said he was elected as a "conservative Republican" in Massachusetts.
"I'm from the Republican wing of the Republican party," he said recently, updating a line that Howard Dean used in the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries and infuriating his rivals, who say Romney has been anything but an ideologically pure Republican.
"His views are either well-researched or calculating," said Frank J. Donatelli, a former political aide to Ronald Reagan who has endorsed McCain. "Romney's running the most traditional campaign for a Republican - raising a lot of money, concentrating on the early primary states, and paying a lot of attention to conservatives."
Paul M. Weyrich, the conservative activist who endorsed Romney last week, said Romney's strategy is exactly right.
"I think he's thought through where he thinks he can win, how he thinks he can win, and what he's going to do about it," he said. "Most of the other candidates don't really have a clue."
Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.
