'Mitt for president' is the rallying cry

Many of the people lined up at Deseret Book on Monday waiting to have Mitt Romney sign copies of his new book, "Turnaround," seemed convinced they were about to meet a future presidential candidate.

"Someday, Mitt Romney may be president of the United States, so I'm getting his signature," Marian Nielson of Salt Lake City said. Nielson bought three copies of Romney's book — two for her grown sons and one for her.

Nielson said she even told Romney that she was "looking forward your being president."

Romney,the governor of Massachusetts, laughed off any suggestion he's ready to move on to higher office. The former head of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee was elected just months after the 2002 Winter Games ended.

"I'm just working as hard as I can, where I am," a smiling Romney told one of the 150 or so people at the ZCMI Center for the two-hour event to promote his book, an account of how the scandal-ridden Olympics were transformed into a success after he arrived in Utah in 1999.

Romney is taking a week off from his duties as the Republican governor of largely Democratic Massachusetts to promote his book in Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C.

It's hard to imagine he'll get a better reception in any of those cities than he received here in Utah. Besides Deseret Book, Romney also held book signings at Barnes and Noble Booksellers in Sugar House and at the Gateway.

The nearly 500 Olympic volunteers and SLOC staffers at the invitation-only signing at the Gateway couldn't have been more excited to see their one-time leader again. Each received a special "President's Pin" with the Games' logo.

Some of them also suggested Romney should seek the presidency someday.

One volunteer, Pam Romney-Held, even stood at the front of the line with a hand-drawn sign reading, "Romney for President 2008." Romney-Held, who described herself as a distant cousin to the governor, said she believed "he'd be great for the country."

Other volunteers remembered Romney fondly. "He treated everyone like they were royalty," said Lynn Wyss, who continues to volunteer at the Utah Olympic Oval after serving in the venue in 2002. "Nobody was above anything. He was wonderful."

Two Wisconsin college professors, Robert and Silvana Richardson, took a sabbatical in 2002 to volunteer and now split their time between here and La Crosse. Robert Richardson wore a curling T-shirt from the oval's post-Games program "so Mitt knows we've got legacy."

He too, raised the possibility of Romney leading the country someday. "I was very impressed with his leadership. I'm frankly a Democrat, but if he were running for president, I'd vote for him," Richardson said.

Romney, along with Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and Olympic speedskating gold medalist Derek Parra, welcomed the crowd. "We love you," Romney said with his wife, Ann, by his side. "We love this place."

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