Campaign Outsider

From our Coincidental Coverage desk:

Remarkably similar pieces on Mitt Romney (R-We Don’t Need No Stinking Tie!) from Sunday’s Boston Globe and New York Times.

Globe headline:

Romney campaign shuns the limelight

Times headline:

Romney Explores a Run Without Saying So or Seeking the Spotlight

Globe photo:

Times photo:

Globe nut graf:

Four years ago at this time, Mitt Romney seemed to be everywhere at once, racing from appearance to appearance, and speech to speech, focusing with special zeal on the early primary states.

This time around, as a still-unannounced but all but certain contender, his strategy seems strikingly different: Don’t make noise. Be the grown-up in the mix. Dare, for the moment, to be typecast as dull.

Times nut graf:

Four years ago, he was turning up everywhere — Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada — and even some admirers concede that he did not wear particularly well. Now, he is taking a low-key approach, staying out of sight as he travels nearly every day to reintroduce himself to voters on his own terms and to build a robust network of donors.

Further, the Times and the Globe cite the same campaign-trail anecdote, but with a difference.

Globe anecdote:

Romney spent the past two days in Las Vegas, making his first public appearances in a month — a strikingly light schedule for a top-tier presidential candidate. During the visit, he focused on the two issues he wants to be most closely attached to: the economy and foreign policy.

On Friday, he toured a depressed neighborhood lined with foreclosed homes as he continued trying to criticize Obama’s handling of the economy.

Dressed casually in Gap jeans (slightly frayed at the bottom), black loafers, and a buttoned shirt, Romney attempted a lighter, more laid-back tone to counter the staid reputation he had during the last campaign. When he approached a small gaggle of reporters standing outside the home, he looked around, smiled lightly, and said, “Old friends.’’

While walking through the neighborhood, one woman stopped her Chevrolet Silverado and yelled out to Romney that she had voted for him in 2008. “It’s not every day I find someone who voted for me,’’ he joked.

When the woman, Jennifer Fung, drove back about 15 minutes later to ask for an autograph, Romney was happy to oblige. “If by some chance I become something someday, that might be worth saving,’’ he told her. “Otherwise, put it in the circular file.’

Times anecdote:

In his last public appearance a month ago in a remote New Hampshire skiing town, he rushed toward the door when journalists tried to approach. But he smiled on Friday as he strolled through a subdivision with a half-dozen reporters in tow.

Jennifer Fung stopped her blue S.U.V. and rolled down the window. “I actually voted for you in the last election,” said Ms. Fung, who later added that she, like Mr. Romney, was a Mormon.

“How much do I owe you?” Mr. Romney joked as he hurried over.

Fifteen minutes later, she circled back around the block and asked for Mr. Romney’s autograph. He signed a white piece of paper and wrote the date, noting aloud that it was April Fool’s Day.

As he stuck his head in the passenger window of her vehicle, he said: “If by some chance I become something someday, that might be worth saving. Otherwise, put it in the circular file.”

Wait – did the same thing happen in Las Vegas and New Hampshire?

The Times and the Globe need to get their stories straight.