Romney’s Speech

Mitt Romney accepted the Republican presidential nomination but gave a speech that was flat. He started slowly, often rambling, but gradually moved to a more powerful, scolding tone. It was utterly predictable and lacked specifics, but he checked off most of the important topics.

A bizarre appearance
by Clint Eastwood beforehand and interruptions by Code Pink hecklers during his speech certainly
didn’t help, but Romney just isn’t an inspiring speaker. It was not worthy of the moment.

Other reactions:

Josh Marshall: “I thought the first half to 2/3 of the speech were really weak, disjointed, kind of rambling… That changed in the last ten or fifteen minutes – it finally developed
some verve and direction. In speech terms it was fairly solid at the end… But on balance, I thought it was fairly weak as a speech. He’s the
underdog and he’s the guy who needs to have a galvanizing introduction
to the general public. In those terms, it was a missed opportunity. A
pretty big one.”

Andrew Sullivan: “My instant verdict? A good night for improving Mitt’s personal image;
but a sad evening for an actual reality-based critique of Obama’s
record, or a coherent set of proposals for the future… In a word: mediocre, and deeply dishonest as an argument. As a way to soften his awful image: B +.”