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With regard to Reagan, at this point in 1980, not only were we not sure that he was going to beat Carter in the fall, but we had no idea what a great president he would turn out to be. No doubt, Reagan had his base of fanatic supporters but a good number of Republicans were openly regretting that we did not select somebody "more reliable" such as a George Bush or Howard Baker (I'm not kidding). At the time, Reagan was perceived as being too old to appeal to the electorate and was seen as a loose cannon who might blunder badly during the general election campaign.

George HW Bush was pretty much forced on to the Reagan ticket to alleviate some of those concerns. (I still say the biggest mistake that Reagan ever made was to accept Bush as his running mate. It was a decision that has adversely affected the conservative movement for the past 30 years.)

But getting back to Reagan, he was not projected for greatness when he was on the campaign trail in 1980. Republicans were basically hoping that he could pull out a victory in November, lest we be saddled with another four years of Jimmy Carter.

Reagan would go on to surprise us all but remember that it wasn't really until around the end of 1982 that the "Reagan Revolution" launched our economy on a rocket ride that would carry us higher and higher for the next two decades. And it would take nearly a decade for the Soviet Union to crumble, but crumble it did and Reagan's presidency was directly responsible for that as well.

Mitt Romney has similar potential to surprise us. Not saying it will happen but the potential is there. Once he is elected, Romney will have two choices. He can continue in the RINO vein that he showed us in Massachusetts. If that is the case, he'll just be another hapless, ineffective, affable placeholder who will hand the White House back to a Democrat in four years (as the first Bush did).

OR...he can reinvent himself and govern as a strong conservative. In other words, be more like he was at Bain Capital and less what he was like as Massachusetts governor.

Let's put it this way. If we increase our hold on the House this November, capture the senate and capture additional governorships by way of a massive GOP landslide, than what motive would Mitt Romney have to govern as a RINO?

You are Mitt Romney and you've just won the presidency along with nearly unprecedented power as a result of your party having majorities in both the House and Senate. What would you do? Wouldn't you want to make some history by using your power to effect a conservative revolution not seen since the early days of Reagan? Serious question.

If you look at Mitt Romney's history, he has always been an opportunist. He has a history of adapting himself to the environment he is in. In Massachusetts, he had to show his RINO side just to survive. But survive he did and just so you know, it is no easy task to win a statewide election in Massachusetts as a Republican. But he did it.

I'm just saying - if he gets elected and he has a conservative legislature behind him - prepare to be surprised.