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When the man said he wasn't asking for any handouts, Romney said, "You knew what you were getting into. ... I wish you well, but I'm not going to promise you more bucks." He's not always distant. At an earlier stop in New Hampshire, Romney explained how he lived on a careful budget as a Mormon missionary, using crude toilets and living in modest apartments. He also talked about his time as a lay pastor in Boston's Mormon church, when he says he counseled struggling families. "When people don't have a job and they don't feel like they're contributing to the betterment of their family and their future, they get pretty depressed," he told the crowd. "Being out of work for a long time is real tough and it's not the fault of the person's that out of work." When a voter in Bethlehem, N.H., asked him how her elderly friends would get through the winter with the price of heating fuel so high, Romney didn't hesitate. "You're finding throughout this country that it's harder and harder on middle-income families," he said. "The costs of oil, the costs of food, and health care have all gone up." But when he's trying to connect one-on-one, he sometimes hits notes that sound jarring. As he stood at the cash register at a Concord, N.H., toy store, picking up a few gifts for charity, a patron asked him what he gave his family for Christmas. Earlier in the day, he had bought his wife a $285 North Face jacket as a gift, he said. For his sons? "We sent them checks," said Romney, a multimillionaire. "Cash is always good."
[Associated
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