Ann Romney: My Husband is the 'Man America Needs'

Ann Romney declared that her husband Mitt Romney will lift up America if elected president.

"This is the man America needs," she said to thunderous applause.

Mrs. Romney talked of her 43-year marriage to the just-nominated Republican presidential candidate, speaking of her own experiences with muscular sclerosis and breast cancer and says her husband is a man who wakes up every day determined to solve the problems that others say can't be solved.

Saying she was standing on the platform as a wife, a mother, a grandmother and an American, she said that Romney will not fail. In her words, "This man will not let us down."

Ann Romney painted a positive picture of the man she has known for nearly 50 years.

She said her husband has attacked every challenge he has faced - from reviving the struggling Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002 to helping her battle multiple sclerosis and breast cancer.

"At every turn in his life, this man I met at a high school dance has helped lift up others," said Romney, 63. "He did it with the Olympics, when many wanted to give up."

"This is the man who will wake up every day with the determination to solve the problems that others say can't be solved, to fix what others say is beyond repair," she said. "This is the man who will work harder than anyone so that we can work a little less hard."

Romney countered claims that her husband, a former private equity executive who made millions before entering politics, had never struggled in life and was out of touch with the problems of ordinary Americans.

"I read somewhere that Mitt and I have a 'storybook marriage,'" she said. "Well, in the storybooks I read, there were never long, long, rainy winter afternoons in a house with five boys screaming at once. And those storybooks never seemed to have chapters called MS or Breast Cancer."

"A storybook marriage? No, not at all. What Mitt Romney and I have is a real marriage."

Ann Romney, the mother of five boys, is one of Romney's best surrogates and has been at the forefront of his campaign's efforts to present the human side of the former Massachusetts governor.

"I can't tell you what will happen over the next four years. But I can only stand here tonight, as a wife, a mother, a grandmother, an American, and make you this solemn commitment: This man will not fail. This man will not let us down. This man will lift up America," she said.