Irin Carmon: The Real Ann Romney!!

"I've always wished that Mitt could understand pregnancy, and a campaign is the closest thing to being pregnant," Ann Romney once said. "It has about a nine month life. It's very painful. It has a lot of ups and downs. At about nine months, you're saying to yourself, 'How can I get out of this?' But then, you know, it's over. The thing that's nice about pregnancy is that, in the end, you have a baby. It was 1994, and taking the metaphor to its logical conclusion, Mitt's first campaign for Senate in Boston was a stillbirth. Ann wouldn't tire of the pregnancy analogy, however, returning to it over the course of her husband's next three races, a win, a loss, one TBD, to explain why she was on-board after declaring "never again." "Mitt laughs. He says, 'You know what, Ann? You say that after every pregnancy, and we know how that worked out - we have five sons.' Yes, pregnancy is something Ann knows a lot about, more than Mitt could understand, as she put it, and she seems to see a similar immutable separateness when it comes to his chosen lot. Politics and public life are things she supports, even partners in, but are uncomplicatedly not her things. Each of their roles is clear and unquestioned: She is mother, wife and helpmate, and this grueling gestation process is simply the way to the role they both see for Mitt, which is to be a "great man". "I truly want Mitt to fulfill his destiny, and for that to happen, he's got to do politics," Ann told the Los Angeles Times on the eve of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. In his book "Turnaround," Mitt says he initially resisted the offer to take over the games until Ann changed his mind. "There's no one else who can do it," he remembers her saying.