Rush Limbaugh's overwhelmingly positive reaction to Mitt Romney's speech --with compliments like Rush's commentary, you don't need a formal endorsement-- confirms for me that the speech was an overwhelming success on many levels. There is simply no better predictor of conservative reaction than Rush. He's not infallible, of course, but his understanding of the center of conservative opinion is as good as it gets.
For more commentary on why the speech worked so very, very well, read Dan Riehl's commentary. Of course there are some nay-sayers. There always are. I don't trust their judgment about the campaign at this point if they didn't think the speech was at least very good. Getting too close to the campaigns or too inside-the-Beltway can blind some observers to what the average Republican thinks or how he or she responds. That's why the combination of being a talk show host who actually talsk with scores of Americans from all over the country every week and living on the other side of he country from the Beltway-Manhattan media elites helps a great deal in judging how events impact center-right voters.
I also had the advantage of watching the speech while waiting to go onto CNN International to discuss it, thus thinking throughout Romney's masterful delivery of the international audience watching --huge and diverse, full of friends, competitors and hate-filled enemies-- and this perspective made me even more appreciative of Romney's manifest pride in America. It is a wonderful thing to see an unqualified endorsement of this country's place in history and role in the world, and Romney will get an enthusiastic reaction from 90% or more of the center-right voters as a result. The anti-American left will hate him more, but that goes with the territory. Every lefty blogger denouncing Mitt means another scared and increasingly desperate Hillary booster seeing their dream crumble.
UPDATE: Reactions like Laura Lee Donoho's must make Team Romney very happy indeed:
It seems I only have time to blog lately, when the lack of time and stress work together to knock me out. I am home sick today and was able to view Mitt Romney’s speech in Houston on religion. Anyone who includes John or Samuel Adams in a speech will make me sit up and take notice. For the past year I have read every book I can on John and Abigail Adams. To me, they are the Adam and Eve of our nation.
After viewing the speech, I have a new found respect for the good man, Mitt Romney. He delivered the speech brilliantly, sincerely and with grave respect. As I watched the speech I could picture Romney delivering it from the Oval Office. Romney has always seemed to have all the right qualities and stature to be the Republican nominee for 2008 but for some reason came off a little too slick. He doesn’t now.
Read the whole thing.
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