LIVONIA, Mich. - You never know who you’re going to run into on the campaign trail.
While Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has been shadowed by a guy in a Flipper the Dolphin suit (a dig at the former Massachusetts governor’s position changes on issues like abortion rights), he also ran into his first grade teacher.
“This was my talent right here,” said Gloria Blazo, 78, who was reunited with Romney after a campaign event in Michigan. “He was one person you never had to reprimand about talking at all, he worked and worked hard and has lots of brains.”
Blazo, now retired, even brought a list of reading groups from Romney’s 1953-54 class, though it listed the Michigan-born White House contender as Billy Romney since he used his first name at that time.
Romney explained that he convinced his mother to let him use his middle name, Mitt, because of a song he didn’t like at the time that used his first name.
“I think it was first grade when I decided I didn’t want to be Billy anymore because there was a song they sung back then ‘Where have you been Billy boy, where have you been charming Billy, I’ve been to find a wife, she’s the joy of my life,’” he said. (Not quite the lyrics but pretty close.)
“I did not like that song so I convinced my mom to let me use my middle name.”
Front Row Washington
Tracking U.S. politics
School days catch up with Romney on the trail
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