The biggest problem for Mitt Romney is the lack of enthusiastic supporters! Click the image for a video.
How did the speech go?
Here is one view from The Age of Australia (excerpts)
In the tone of a wise and forgiving father Mitt Romney has given permission to the millions of people who voted for Barack Obama four years ago to unite with Republican true believers and install him in the White House. “That president was not the choice of our party but Americans always come together after elections. We are a good and generous people who are united by so much more than what divides us,” he said, setting himself up for the killer line to come. “Tonight I’d ask a simple question: if you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn’t you feel that way now that he’s President Obama?”
This was one of the other great themes not only of Romney’s speech but of the convention. Speaker after speaker highlighted the stubbornly high unemployment rate and linked it to a Democratic Party they claim is wedded to high taxes and cumbersome regulation.
By contrast, the narrative goes, Mr Romney is one of the country’s most accomplished businessmen. He made a direct appeal to women to counter claims by Democrats – and some women’s groups – that his party engaged in a culture war against them.
“My mom and dad were true partners, a life lesson that shaped me by everyday example. When my mom ran for the Senate, my dad was there for her every step of the way. 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?’
”I wish she could have been here at the convention and heard leaders like Governor Mary Fallin, Governor Nikki Haley, Governor Susana Martinez, Senator Kelly Ayotte and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.”
He won thunderous applause after declaring the US would become “energy independent by taking full advantage of our oil and coal and gas and nuclear and renewables”.
There was unanimous sniggering (a disconcerting sound in a sporting arena) when he said: “President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet”. Chants of USA USA USA followed, with the denouement: “MY promise is to help you and your family.”
on foreign affairs: “President Obama has thrown allies like Israel under the bus, even as he has relaxed sanctions on Castro’s Cuba. He abandoned our friends in Poland by walking away from our missile defence commitments, but is eager to give Russia’s President Putin the flexibility he desires, after the election. Under my administration, our friends will see more loyalty, and Mr Putin will see a little less flexibility and more backbone.”
One poll shows that the convention has already given Mr Romney a four-point bounce to 44 per cent against Mr Obama’s 42 per cent among likely voters. But it is yet another statistical dead heat despite months of campaigning and millions spent on advertising.