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You are here: Home / 2012 Campaign / Romney’s Speech

Romney’s Speech

August 30, 2012 at 10:57 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

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 +.”

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About Political Wire

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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