Mittens Is In: Romney Officially Declares, Finally

 
 Capping off perhaps the most exciting pre-campaign campaign since fictional candidate Tim Pawlenty's campaign was accidentally announced on a website on a Sunday night, Mitt Romney today announced he was really doing that thing he has been doing non-stop since approximately 1996: running for president. The health-reform Mormon returned to his roots in liberalMassachusettsNew Hampshire (where heboughtrented a giant farm specifically so he could do this in New Hampshire), where he woodenly recited his talking points and was politely applauded by paid staffers and family members.

Romneybought(rented? borrowed?) the 300-acre landmark so he would have a backdrop for his presidential campaign announcement. Most people just get some banners and a PA system or whatever, but Mitt Romney is one of the wealthiest men in America, so he justboughtsomehow got this gazillion-dollar farm in a state where he doesn't even live. Why not?

From the NYT blogs:  

Mr. Romney made his candidacy official at a family farm, where he invited supporters and media to a “Cookout With Mitt and Ann.” Under clear but windy skies and with tractors and hay bales as a backdrop, Mr. Romney hopes to send the message that he intends to win New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary.

The choice of the Bittersweet Farm for his announcement is an interesting one for Mr. Romney, who regularly argues for a smaller federal government that spends less. The rolling green hills of the farm were preserved in recent years in part with $1 million in federal money, according to a recent report in Seacoast Online.

Another gazillionaire welfare farmer. OR NOT, god you guys. Didn't he buy some mansion in New Hampshire? Is this not it? Ugh, nobody's MUCH HELP. [ NYT ]