But the story of Mitt and Ann Romney’s courtship suggests the opposite: She may be a picture-perfect wife and mother today, but young Ann Davies was willing to defy the men in her life — beginning with her father, but very much including her young beau, Mitt — when her interests failed to coincide with theirs…

It’s no surprise, then, that Romney is putting her front and center at the convention. But that isn’t the first time he’s done so: In contravention of convention, she appears in his official portrait in the governor’s mansion; she is the only first lady in Massachusetts accorded that honor — and that at her husband’s insistence. She is also the perfect counterexample to Sandra Fluke and the tedious parade of feminists the Democrats will be inflicting on the American public at their convention: Rather than demanding public subsidies, she has spent her life investing in her own family and helping others, both through organized charitable work and in the course of living a life focused on family and community. Social conservatives can sometimes be scolds, but Ann Romney has taken St. Francis’s advice: Always be preaching — if necessary, use words.