Trying to better relate to voters, he's "gotten personal" in recent weeks -- and that means talking about death. A lot.

Reuters

LEESBURG, Va. -- Mitt Romney's speeches start out upbeat. He thanks the crowd. He bashes the president a bit. He talks about his five-point jobs plan. And then the deaths begin.

There is the story about his old friend from Harvard who became a quadriplegic but soldiered on bravely through life. "God bless you, Billy," Romney said to him one day, only to find out the next day that the man had died.

There is the story about the leukemia-stricken 14-year-old member of his church who called "Brother Romney" to his hospital deathbed, asking Romney to write out a will as he decided who would get his fishing pole, his skateboard, his rifle. And then he died.

There is the one about the woman he met at the Republican convention, whose husband was a sharpshooter in Afghanistan. She was packing a box of birthday presents to send to him overseas when a knock came on her door, and she learned he had been killed.

There is the story about the Colorado Boy Scout troop who bought a special flag and had it flown over the state and national capitols. Then they got NASA to take it on the space shuttle. The boys watched as the rocket with their flag aboard lifted off the launch pad. And then it blew up, killing everyone aboard.