[volunbeer]

Romney far exceeded my expectations tonight even though I did not like everything he said.

I think the two most important points for Romney were -

Confidence - He appeared to know exactly what he was talking about and Obama looked like he had no confidence and no clue. That is devastating to the average Joe/Jane who was paying attention as an undecided.

Compassion - I really hate that word. I still have to admit that it was a very important thing for Romney to convey against the media tide and he absolutely succeeded. Romney connected tonight with the mushminded voters that thought he did not care.

For the record - my favorite line tonight was “trickle down government”. That was funny!

[expat1000]

>>Compassion..

Undecideds in one focus group moved from 30% to 67% as to whether Romney is compassionate.

[PBRCat]

It is also a sad reminder of how lousy a candidate McCain was in 2008. For years, I refused to board the Straight Talk Express bus. I argued with people that libs were building up McCain as a Republican favorite, so they could roll him in the general election. W. bested McCain in 2000, so the fixed fight was delayed, but McCain (who has many admirable qualities, but is, IMHO, not a good debater) was steam rolled.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Compassion - I really hate that word. I still have to admit that it was a very important thing for Romney to convey against the media tide and he absolutely succeeded. Romney connected tonight with the mushminded voters that thought he did not care.

I recommend The Tragedy of American Compassion by Marvin Olasky. You will see the word differently after reading that book.