(Getty Images)
(Time magazine/courtesy of Mitt Romney)
MISS YA! Mitt Romney sent this photo of himself to future wife Ann (right) from France, where he was a Mormon missionary. It appears in Time magazine. (
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TOLEDO, Ohio — Mitt Romney really does have a big heart.
A young, romantic Mitt went to great lengths to profess his love for future wife Ann, posing on a beach encircled by a heart etched in the sand.
The inscription: “I love Ann.” It was the late 1960s, and the lovesick Romney was working in France as a missionary for his church.
The photograph emerged in the new issue of Time magazine, as Romney again found himself far away from Ann, although this time, he was campaigning by bus across Ohio in an aggressive bid to win the White House.
Romney has been showcasing his family life and his love of Ann in a video displayed on big screens at campaign events.
“I’m happy in life as long as I’ve got my soul mate with me,” Romney says of Ann in the video. “She’s gorgeous — absolutely beautiful.”
Romney gets philosophical, saying he “can’t explain love.”
“I don’t know why it happens,” he says in the video.
“At the very beginning, I sat with her, chatted with her, put my arm around her — something changed.”
Romney also teamed up on the campaign trail with Mike Rowe, host of the Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs,” and picked up an endorsement from golf legend and Ohio native Jack Nicklaus.
Romney can use any help he can get from his supporting cast.
New Ohio polls show him trailing President Obama by as much as 10 points in a state that historically has been a must-win for a presidential candidate.
The Obama campaign yesterday tried to restrain its glee.
“We’d rather be us than them,” Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that the campaign is running like it’s “5 points behind.”
The Romney campaign insisted the race is actually much closer than the polls show.
Both Obama and Romney campaigned yesterday across the Buckeye State, with Obama holding rallies at two universities and Romney taking his bus tour to Columbus, Cleveland and Toledo.
At each stop, Romney hammered Obama for failing to fix high unemployment or get tough with China’s unfair trade practices.
“We’re going to crack down on China when they cheat — they’ve stolen our jobs!” Romney declared at a rally near Columbus.
He warned that Obama has “laid out a plan which was just like what he said four years ago: another stimulus, bigger government.”
At Bowling Green State University, Obama lambasted Romney for what he described as “newfound outrage” about China trade.
“It feels a lot like that fox saying, ‘You know, we need more secure chicken coops,’ ” Obama told the university crowd. “I mean, it’s just not credible.”