Rest assured that Romney’s wealth, offshore accounts, tax accountants and lawyers will play a huge part in this year’s election. President Obama and the Democrats will do what they can to separate Romney from the "everyman." Romney will be painted as a cold and calculating CEO whose sole motivation in life has been about profit and power and not about the welfare of the wage earner and everyday tax payer. However, since Romney has done more to create jobs and the economy than Obama, they might want to speak generally about that.

The true personal side of Romney, however, makes President Obama’s career as a community organizer look a bit juvenile.

By now, many voters have heard that Mitt Romney once put the family dog, Seamus, in a crate and strapped him to the roof of a station wagon. But far fewer have heard that Romney and his sons once raced across a dark, placid lake on Jet Skis, “Baywatch”-style, to rescue strangers and their dog, McKenzie, after their boat capsized. Or that Romney once temporarily closed the Boston headquarters of his private-equity firm to round up his co-workers, accountants and lawyers and fan out across Manhattan to search for Melissa Gay, his Bain Capital partner’s missing 14-year-old daughter.

Or that as a volunteer lay pastor of his Mormon congregation, Romney spent years counseling neighbors on their marriages and adoptions, helping the unemployed feed their families, and ministering to the sick and the addicted.The lesser-known stories have surfaced occasionally in profiles of the former Massachusetts governor. But they have not blossomed into any kind of gentler portrait of Romney, who emerged as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Tuesday after challenger Rick Santorum suspended his bid.

With the campaign’s focus shifting toward independent voters, especially women, a Washington Post-ABC News poll released this week found that President Obama holds a 2-to-1 advantage as the more friendly and likable of the two candidates.

The long and divisive primary campaign has left Romney shackled by a caricature of a stilted, distant multimillionaire — a quandary that increasingly frustrates some of his advisers and even his wife, Ann.

One can argue the merits of Romney’s "conservatism" and argue them convincingly. There are a few hangups such as "Romneycare," obviously. The truth remains though, Romney lines up well, historically speaking, on the conservative side of many important issues. If not a true conservative, though many have a problem articulating what that term actually means, he is an Enterpriser and certainly not a liberal Republican. Consider this point by John Hinderaker at Power Line:

The republic badly needs a new president, and I think that if the 2011-2012 primary season showed anything, it was that, of the candidates in the race, Romney is best suited to win the general election. I think he will do so. As president, Romney will no doubt disappoint conservatives at times. Every president does; many of our readers are probably too young to remember that conservative Republicans were sometimes in open rebellion against the Reagan administration. But a Romney administration would be a vast and urgently needed improvement over a second Obama term, and conservatives should set to work to do everything possible to make it happen.

I share Hinderaker’s optimism and do not see the supposed weaknesses that others see in a Romney candidacy. His bio and long list of accomplishments are unique. His career while as a governor and in the private sector shows without a doubt his ability to lead, manage, guide and direct. Besides, if the Republicans hang on to the House, which they likely will, and perhaps take the Senate or at least maintain it filibuster proof, Romney will not have to worry too much about leading a conservative cause from the White House. The Republican Congress will do that. Consider that point an intra-system of checks and balances for those who have apprehensions about Romney.