Grandpa Mitt... for the 11th time
Posted: Wednesday, November 21, 2007 2:01 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ's Erin McPike
HIAWATHA, Iowa -- Continuing his two-day swing through Iowa this morning, Romney announced that it's a special day for him because his son, Matt, and his daughter-in-law, Laurie, are due to give birth to a boy this afternoon. This will be Romney's 11th grandchild and Matt and Laurie's fourth child, and he gave the news before packing up some groceries for a Thanksgiving donation.
Romney ended his trip by grocery shopping at a HY-VEE grocery store in Iowa City and dropped off the goods at the Hawkeye Area Community Action Center in a suburb of Cedar Rapids. He weaved through the aisles of the store picking up an assortment of non-perishable food items and stacked them neatly and methodically into the cart -- in much the same way he takes care of his schedule and treats his campaign.
"Where's the Captain when you need him most?" Romney asked aloud of the cereal Captain Crunch. "There he is," he said, adding two regular and two peanut butter boxes into his cart. In addition to many more boxes of cereal (including plenty of Frosted Flakes -- "You can never have too many Frosted Flakes," and Froot Loops -- "Everybody loves Froot Loops"), he piled jars of apple sauce, cans of Tuna, boxes of Stove Top and several containers of maple syrup -- both regular and light.
Reporters asked him if he was going to get anything to go along with the syrup, and he finally picked up three boxes of Hungry Jack pancake mix as his last few items after all the prodding. He also got several jars of JIF peanut butter and said a couple of times that he wanted to get things he liked.
The total of his contribution came to $204.17.
While packing up the food after paying, Romney also sang "Over the River and through the Woods" and "We Gather Together."
