Romney Delivers

Apparently the Romney speech (full text) went about as well as could be hoped. Here’s some comments from people that were there:

At RedState.com, Erick Erickson lauds Romney: “The people who want a conservative have found their man, it seems. Mitt Romney was pitch perfect and willing to talk social issues -- something totally missing from Giuliani's speech. And people noticed…Mitt was followed by Ann Coulter who put the red meat conservative seal of approval on him. It was an excellent speech that should resolve all fears conservatives have about Romney.”

At the Politico, Jonathan Martin writes about ‘A New Mitt’: “Mitt's team got what they wanted: a tougher, more focused, more forward-leaning speech that was just that, a speech. Gone were the rambling anecdotes and asides (no Olympics and no Challenger) and left was a more concise message.”

At NRO, Kate O’Bierne says Romney scored: “In stringing together some of the events he faced upon taking office -- the Massachusetts court ordering gay marriage, the scientific community's support for creating embryos for research, and the blackballing of Catholic Charities over gay adoption -- he offered a potentially plausible sequence that prompted second thoughts on social issues.”

While Kathryn Jean Lopez, also at NRO, says Romney has turned it around from the NRI Summit: “Romney's addressing CPAC now and oh boy is this different than the disappointing speech he gave in late January at the NRI conservative summit…This is the speech he should have given in January at our summit. This is the speech he should have given when he launched the campaign. This speech — this is a rallying speech.” She also added: “Immediately after his speech, a social-conservative activst who was so not into him said to me "now that's more like it."”

The NY Times political blog reports: "Grover Norquist, head of the Americans for Tax Reform, said the Massachusetts governor had proven he could govern conservatively in that extremely liberal state in the way that Ginger Rogers danced – doing everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels. Following that introduction, Mr. Romney said, “I’m glad to be here in high heels, walking backwards.”

The Libertarian Party blog said this: “I came back and found a massively long line leading to the now delayed 2:45 Mitt Romney speech. I mean massive. The Huckabee speech was full...packed...and it had nothing on the Romney speech. Outside of a literally packed massive ballroom, there was a line 300 yards long of a slew of Republican fans.”