Red Cushion

A Guy named Mitt

For those not privileged enough to live on the West Coast, the first debate for the current Republicans seeking the party nomination (Including a few who've yet announced that they are running, such as Fred Thompson) was held a few nights ago at the Ronald Regan Presidential Library in California.

The reviews of the debate from many sources in the press have been loaded with bites, at times twisting of the real quotes from the Debate. There are two large items of note however from the Debate. One is that not one participant fell to the attempts by moderator, Chris Matthews to debase the current Bush Administration. The other is that the general consensus of those who did watch the debate is that Mitt Romney won the debate. This is really big for Romney's camp as a strong start in the public forum was essential to the viability of his campaign.

Romney's work on the Debate I feel started the previous night when he was a guess on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. IT has been a long while since I've been up that late, but I wanted to see how Mitt would do, and I felt that it was worth it. He was hitting with more one liners at times than Jay was. He showed that he's not as stiff as some have viewed him, and quickly turned the criticisms of his "perfect" appearance into a barrage of jokes, much to the delight and loud reaction of the live audience.

If this is the start for Romney and he's still warming up, I suspect that the polls will begin to reflect a change of national opinion concerning Romney. IF the reactions to Romney in my own office are any indication, the change will be much sooner than later. On this note, if you've not had the chance to read it, I would recommend Hugh Hewitt's book, "A Mormon in the White House? 10 Things Every American Should Know About Mitt Romney" I've read about halfway through and it has been an excellently written book thus far.

One more impression regarding Romney and his abilities on camera and I'll call it a night. Romney is a very articulate and intelligent man. For those not aware, his business ventures include several large corporations that got their capital funding from Bain Capital, including Staples among others. He has a MBA from Harvard University and his track record in the private, public, and service sectors are evidence of such. Friday I was speaking with two co-workers about the debate and stated that the Clinton camp has serious reason to hope against Romney getting the GOP nomination. In many ways, Romney has the charisma, looks, and people skills of a certain Arkansas politician, only this time it's a Republican who's also got morals and is true to them.