PORTSMOUTH, N.H. ? Deborah Bouchard-Smith was peeved at former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
?Why did he just redirect the question?? she asked, scowling at Romney?s image on TV as he spun a question about electability into a spiel about his economic know-how. ?What was the question again? He went everywhere with that answer.?
Romney isn?t the only Republican presidential candidate that Bouchard-Smith, a business owner and undecided independent, reprimanded as she watched the debate with her husband, Ken Smith, and teenage daughter Mia last week.
?What is he, 12?? she asked as former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum made his own electability pitch, adding she?d love to hear him out but can?t focus because of his flashy, striped necktie. ?I?m distracted by the peppermint stick around his neck.?
Meet the Smiths.
The Herald will follow the Portsmouth family as they follow the GOP primary ? hashing out the pros and cons of the candidates while they run their small gift store, Maine-ly New Hampshire, take their kids to school and gather in the kitchen to make dinner and talk politics.
Deborah and Ken Smith, who is a Portsmouth city councilor, haven?t decided which of the GOP candidates they?ll support in the all-important Jan. 10 primary in New Hampshire, where presidential politics is a small-town, family affair. But the Smith family, like thousands of others in the Granite State, are closely following the roller-coaster-like process, and using it to teach their children, Grant, 16, and Mia, 13, the importance of their vote.
?They?re all so different,? Ken Smith said about the candidates. ?Each one of them brings a whole set of different ideas, different opinions, different experiences, and at the same time they also come with their own baggage.?
He said his business has given him a laser-like focus on jobs.
?We have to get businesses and people back to work. ... We have a lot of friends that are out of work, we have a lot of friends that are underemployed, you know, we see it in our small business that people don?t come in and spend what they used to,? he said. ?Really, when you?re hiring the president, you want someone who can do the job.?
Bouchard-Smith keeps an eye on the spouses.
?I take a really good, hard look at who has his ear at 2 o?clock in the morning in the president?s bed,? she said. ?What kind of influence is she going to have over that man??
She doesn?t have a good handle on Ann Romney or Callista Gingrich, but she couldn?t believe former candidate Herman Cain?s wife, Gloria, didn?t buttonhole her husband sooner amid the sex scandals.
?Really? If that was my husband I would be in his face and we?d be having a conversation,? she said as Ken chuckled.
The family has other ways of testing the candidates. Donald Trump visited the store when he was considering a run ? ?He was tall,? observed Mia ? and they are hoping former Speaker Newt Gingrich will stop in this week. They also make sure the kids stay on top of the news.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bostonherald/news/~3/EDgbJyPkd5s/view.bg
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