U. alum offers close look at Mitt

Perhaps it was inevitable that Ron Scott, a veteran journalist, would write a book about Mitt Romney. Their paths have been crossing, one way or another, for decades and, if that weren't enough, during his research for the book Scott made this small discovery: They are distant cousins.

Their great-great grandfather was Parley P. Pratt.

"Mitt Romney: An Inside Look at the Man and His Politics" has been years in the making, and this week it makes its debut in bookstores around the country, although it was released in Utah last week.

The 66-year-old Scott, an Olympus High and University of Utah graduate, has followed the Romneys since attending the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco. When ultraconservatives led by Barry Goldwater took over the convention, Michigan Gov. George Romney stormed out in protest, with son Mitt in tow.

"That's what got me interested in politics," says Scott. "The fact that George was a Mormon and had the courage to take a stand. I was a fan after that." He has continued to track the family's political ambitions since then. "It was clear then that Romney family was a force to be reckoned with," says the author.

Scott began writing the book in 2007 when Romney was making his first run for the presidency, but the project was shelved when he dropped out of the race. Scott finished the book last June in time for Romney's run at the 2012 nomination.

Officially, it is an "unauthorized" book and probably the better for it. Among the things we learn in the book is that Romney likes control, including control of information and his image. Scott says he offered Romney the opportunity "to read, comment on and challenge every single word of the manuscript' and told him he would be allowed to correct factual errors. After it was revealed the book would be largely "positive" but would contain some "negative" material, the offer was declined.

A good journalist doesn't think in those terms; he merely writes the truth or his perception of it and lets the chips fall where they may. Scott thinks that Romney comes off well in the book.

Scott researched the book by interviewing Romney family members, friends and staffers. How accurate is it? Scott, who wrote a brief sketch of each of Romney's sons, says he submitted a sketch of Matt, Mitt's second son, to a Romney staffer to pass along for review. According to Scott, when asked if it was accurate, Matt said, "Yeah – but how did he know all this?"