Romney Acceptance Warm, but not Intimate

Mitt's acceptance speech made a stark promise:

Mitt Romney accepted the Republican nomination for president Thursday night with a pledge to create 12 million jobs and to work for American families weakened by four years of economic distress. "President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet," Romney said. "My promise is to help you and your family." Calling on voters "to put the disappointment of the last four years behind us," Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, also pledged lower taxes, energy independence and a repeal of Obamacare.

Mitt included a paean to women. His mother was a Hollywood actress and with her Michigan governor husband George:

"When my mom ran for the Senate, my dad was there for her every step of the way," he said. "I can still hear her saying in her beautiful voice, 'Why should women have any less say than men about the great decisions facing our nation?' "

Indeed, Mitt followed up:

In an effort to close a gender gap that has been dragging down his poll numbers, he stressed his commitment to making women equal partners in reviving America....Romney talked about providing unconditional love to his five boys but said he always believed his wife had the harder job of raising them while he took endless business trips. "And I knew without question that her job as a mom was a lot more important than mine. And as America saw Tuesday night, Ann would have succeeded at anything she wanted to."

But the meat and potatoes was saved for the end:

Much of Romney's story was told throughout the evening by onstage testimonials from people he worked with as the head of Bain Capital and from a lineup of Olympian medalists who praised him for rescuing the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. A biographical video included a description of Romney as a cheapskate, a man who would replace a stove-hood light with a standard lightbulbThe portrait was intended to show the fiscally responsible side of Romney, who as governor of Massachusetts cut spending and balanced the state's budget. The anecdote reinforced the underlying theme of his speech and the convention -- to restore a greatness to America that Republicans believe has been lost by Obama and will be harder to retrieve if he is re-elected. "You know there's something wrong with the kind of job he's done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him," Romney said.

And now he and Ryan will embark on a six-day "jobs tour."

But Marco Rubio stole the show at the Convention, giving what many commentators considered a speech rivalling that of young Barack Obama in 2004, the keynote that vaulted him into the race for POTUS.
Among the rising stars who took the stage here at the GOP’s national convention this week, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida may have been the brightest of them all.

Rubio, a tea party favorite and national GOP luminary who first won election to the Senate in 2010, captivated the crowd at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on Thursday evening with a prime-time address in which he cited his parents’ journey from Cuba to the United States as proof that America is an exceptional country.

“The dreams he had when he was young became impossible to achieve,” Rubio told the crowd of his Cuban-born grandfather, with whom he said he watched his first GOP convention in 1980. “But there was no limit to how far I could go, because I was an American.”

With his speech, he was clearly being presented as a future of the party.

Rubio seized on President Obama’s 2008 campaign themes of hope and change, telling the crowd that “under Barack Obama, the only change is that hope has been hard to find.”

Chris Cilliza of the Post says this about Rubio.

Marco Rubio: We knew the Florida Senator was talented. But his speech on Thursday night showed that he is a MAJOR political star. Rubio’s speech was, without question, the best of the convention. He seemed entirely at ease in the massive national spotlight — compellingly telling his life story and mixing in jabs at Obama in a more-than-sorrow-than-anger tone that made the hits more powerful. (One example: ”Our problem is not that he’s a bad person. Our problem is that he’s a bad president.”) It’s uniquely possible that we will look back in four or eight years to this night as the time when it became clear Rubio had that something special that made him a force to be reckoned with in presidential politics.

Obviously, Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio are the twin supernovas, along with stars Condi Rice and Chris Christie---also first team material. The GOP has a much brighter future than the tired and listless Demonrats.