“I don’t think Romney toots his own horn enough”

He has already started to appear again in more settings that lend themselves to intimate exchanges with voters and will soon do longer interviews, which he has largely avoided, during which he can dole out tales about himself.

Still, the aides say Mr. Romney has a natural reticence — he regards talking about himself as bragging, they say. And they are all too aware of his susceptibility to awkward or off-key statements when it comes to disclosing personal information, like the story he told to voters in Wisconsin on Wednesday about his father, as head of American Motors, closing a factory in Michigan and moving the production to Wisconsin…

“He’s got some good stories to tell, and I don’t think he tells them very well,” Mrs. Lester said, wondering aloud why Mr. Romney rarely talks about how he supported his wife during her struggles with multiple sclerosis and breast cancer…

“There’s so many stories of Mitt helping and reaching out and helping other people, and he’s very modest about it and he doesn’t talk about it,” said his wife, Ann, when asked by Neil Cavuto of Fox News this month why she and her husband rarely talk about how he supported her during her illnesses.

Now, she and other surrogates are trying to do the job that Mr. Romney seems uncomfortable, or unwilling, to do himself.