Yesterday at 8:30 PM GOP convention speakers seek to humanize Romney, and Democrats stand up for health care reform.

By SANDHYA SOMASHEKHAR The Washington Post

This year, the political conventions got personal. Extremely so.

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Stacey Lihn addresses the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte last week as her husband, Caleb, listens with daughters Zoe, left, and Emerson. Lihn credited the Affordable Care Act with saving one daughters life.

The Associated Press

From heart-rending tales of premature babies to tactfully described female disorders, the organizers of the Republican and Democratic conventions featured deeply personal stories of health struggles that in previous years might have been more at home on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" than at the podium of a national political event.

There's no mystery as to why. For months, the presidential race has been fought at 30,000 feet, with the candidates spouting off on esoteric ideas about the role of government and who has better ideas about health care and the economy. Voters have had little opportunity to connect with those ideas -- or the men espousing them -- on a personal level.

That changed when Republicans gathered in Tampa to formally choose Mitt Romney as their nominee and to introduce him to a voting public that has been slow to warm to him personally. The trend continued last week, as Democrats assembled in Charlotte tried to solidify their advantage with female voters and cast as positively as possible President Obama's signature health-care law.

"It humanizes and personalizes the politics, that it's not just about policy it's also about people," said Frank Luntz, a Republican media consultant. "Whenever policy is put in people terms, that's when it succeeds."

Read more from the original source:

Both parties highlight personal health struggles