OK Barack Obama, you are now on the clock. Mitt Romney delivered his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last night and according to Politico's Roger Simon, the normally robotic candidate did a solid job in finally revealing his human side. Romney even appeared to choke up a time or two while telling personal anecdotes about his parents love and raising five boys.
On the flip side, Mitt leveled some sharp attacks at the president, questioning his commitment to Israel and his desire to stop Iran from becoming nuclear, while also criticizing the Chicago community organizer for lacking the necessary business acumen to be president.
One common theme of Romney's speech and that of his running mate Paul Ryan, was that both appeared to contain a litany of falsehoods and lacked policy specifics. The deceit may work to rouse the party's base, but could be counterproductive in trying to attract the all-important independent swing vote.
Now on to the theater of the bizarre. In case you missed it, here is a link to the rambling, ad-libbed speech an 82-year old Clint Eastwood gave shortly before Mitt took the stage. To put it lightly, the decision to inject Eastwood's antics so close to Romney's big moment was seen by many as questionable at best.
Unquestionable though, was the charisma and bite shown by Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who introduced the Romney to the stage. It is not hard to see why many in Republican circles think silver-tongued Rubio will be the party's nominee for president someday.
The Democrats get their chance to party it up starting Monday, which is when Nate Silver expects to have some more concrete data on the size of Mitt Romney's convention bounce.