His acceptance speech still does not change one word of the draconian platform his Party has written and deeply believes in. His Thursday speech may sound somewhat empathetic but his latest stated policies show no compassion for all those in those in our country deserving of care, i.e., seniors who have already paid into Medicare, college students seeking Pell grants and children attending Head Start...

How do you know Mr. Romney's psyche so well? He displayed disgusting behavior as an 18 year old. Gave bad advice to his parishioners when it came up against Church Doctrine. That's a good listener? He called teachers who belong to unions "stooges." He insults the entire British government and people in one or two sentences. He refuses to be vetted for the presidency as other candidates have done for years. We also know he had an odd way of transporting the family pet to Canada. His answer for immigration is to make things so bad in the US that people will self deport forgetting they are enmeshed in the economics of this country. Any harsh moves won't just harm those who crossed the border illegally. He also chose Eric Fernstrom as his campaign manager and pals around with Donald Trump and Dick Cheney. His foreign affairs advisors read like a who's who of neo-conservative who pushed Mr. Bush into the Iraq War. Their view is that the US protects its status in the world by pushing its considerable military might around. It is clear Mr. Romney has bought this view. Poor people are fine and he sees no need for wasting government dollars on teachers, firefighters, or police. It is endless and no fantastic speech will wipe away his deep disastrous political beliefs. He is just not a good choice for President unless you want the clock of progress to go backwards.

You are surely on a different planet. He is a man who is compassionate - not when the cameras are on, but in private, when it really explains who he is. He is accomplished, starting and building companies, rescuing them when in trouble. He has helped raise a family who are explempary. I think you evaluate a man by his associates. No Bill Ayres, no David Axelrod, no Jeremiah Wright. No SEIU characters. No illegal immigrant relatives. No radical parents. He is fully engaged in his work, not campaigning for the next job. He takes life seriously, not looking for handouts. He pays his taxes - millions in taxes, I remind you. He is vetted. Any idea of Obama's real past? Nothing published, no record of achievement in anything other than politics. He claims his expertise in in constitutional law. Yet he was nothing but an adjunct professor. Even ABC News, Jake Tapper, said the media did no vetting or investigation of who Obama really is. And we get saddled with his eternal campaign but no real work or accomplishments. We are deeper in debt - a 50% increase in 4 short years. No budget passed. The Senate, just obstruction. Almost 50% of the country receiving money from the other half and paying no income taxes. I am so tired of the liberal dogma, unchallenged and ineffective.

The country will be underwhelmed with Romney's speech, the dems will point out that since we all know Romney stands for absolutely nothing, the party platform of hate and deprivation is sure to win out, Mitt will say well golly, fellows, you know thats not true, and he will lose another election.

I actually do not fear a Romney presidency, but what I do fear is a Republican Presidency beholden to the Tea Party and Religious Zealots. If the GOP platform taught us anything, it is that the party, as constituted today, has lost all sense of moderation, and the ability to reach reasonable compromise.

For someone who typically speaks out for the little guy, this little love song to Governor Romney with his Swiss bank accounts, offshore money, itch to attack Iran, and desire to overturn Roe v. Wade is strangely dissonant. You really think he's so different from your friends who run Liberty Mutual?

Now JP05 how do you know how he is in private? You are the one that inhabits a warp in the twilight zone. Private means you don't know the last time I looked it up. The dust up with Reverend Wright, a military veteran and a supporter of helping people climb out of poverty was completely manufactured. Read the entire sermon that caused so much animosity by some folks. It is even germane to our time. His sermon was in 3 parts and his theme was how blacks had been abused by their government but had the ability to change to correct these wrongs. The first part was Governments Lie: They had made afro-americans lesser citizens by law. Their inferiority was a bald face lie. The second part was Governments Change. When the citizenry rises up to petition their government to change for the better this is a great source of hope for this country. And finally he put forth that Jesus does not liet. The force that created us was not going to praise America's sins of slavery, segregation, discrimination in housing. So in those instances God did not bless America, it was damnation that was required and needed redress. This was the message that day. If you like a better version, read Lincoln's Second Inaugural. "Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." To briefly shine light on the list you provide let me add. Gov Romney spent more than 200 days out of office his last year and left with a approval rate of 34%. Did the President make millions no. He worked in poor black communities trying to bring positive change to the neighborhoods. He was praised for his work. He was an effective state legislator. As for family life it is patently obvious that the President is a role model. There's more but it just occurred to me you are just waiting to change the life history of President Obama from what it truly is. It is the story of a successful citizen whose contributions were focused on his fellow Americans, not how much money he had in the bank by being a slick business man. Sorry I am more partial to Barack Obama's truly American story.

Compassion?!? those of us impacted by Bain "re-engineering" and with experience seeing Romney in action coil at such tripe. Romney acts in person like a yuk-yuk spoilt brat who always gets his way, and he has "compassion" for only one thing: making more money than anyone else. He and his partners acted at Bain as if exploitation was a game. I'm sure Romney showed lots of compassion for us taxpayers when, as head of Marriott's audit committee, he settled with the IRS rather than have execs go to jail for tax evasion (see Son of BOSS). Compassion? .. yeah, right.

I wonder if Mitt's acceptance speech will use the same theme his wife did: Ann said, "You may not agree with Mitt's positions on issues or his politics" then she asked people to vote for him. Is she appealing to "you people" to vote against our own interests so Mitt can be President?

I agree we should not underestimate him. However, we cannot underestimate, either, the influence of the people around him. Romney respects money. If he wins, money will have bought him this election. Money will hold him to the promises he made to money, and none of those promises will help the middle class or retain the respect for the US overseas that Obama has created.

This piece isn't so much about Mitt Romney as it is about Brian McGrory. Mr. McGrory was obviuosly unable to resist devoting an entire column to the subject of how well he knows a major party presidential candidate. Mitt Romney patted him on the head at some point, and he's never gotten over the thrill of it. There is absolutely nothing unusual about this, which is exactly the problem with the news industry today.

I'm still stunned when I read these comments about Romney's money. Why do you demonize such a person? Because he is successful? Really? If you where hiring a CEO for your company, and you compared the resume's of the two candidates, do you really think Obama would clearly be the choice? I'm sure 90% of liberals today have their opinions because they had parents that worked hard, built or worked a long time for a business, and lived the American dream so you could go to a liberal ivy league school, not have to worry about a paycheck or make rent/mortgage payment or put food on the table. Then turn around and demonize those same people that had that same work ethic that made them who they are today. So you all are betting the next 4 years on some speech on Thursday night. Really? We are voting on speech writers now. Look at the track record. Obama has had no real world work experience, ever, and Romney has a ton. It comes down to experience. We tried the who Hope & Change stuff but Obama and the Dem's screwed it up.

To wit, in four years as governor, he did surprisingly little harm to the safety net, and actually strengthened it with universal health care. He once reversed cuts to homeless programs in Massachusetts after it was pointed out that he had broken an earlier promise to leave those funds alone.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This is what he hopes his party will forget, and his campaign minimizes, because it directly conflicts with the GOP platform.

Romney has demonstrated by adopting right-wing Republican policies that he cares more about winning than about serving. This is where money comes in: Romney has been bought and paid for by multi-millionaires. Only multi-millionaires would benefit from a Romney/Ryan win. His own moneyed background means he has no idea what life is like for ordinary Americans, and his policies reflect this ignorance.

Romney/Ryan budget plan would cost us 4 MILLION jobs and give us a new recession. This is what happens when you put ideology above good sense. This is what happens when you put dogma above science. This is what happens when you are bought and paid for by the Koch brothers.

Pretend all you like that this talk of money is personal--it's not. Voters are supposed to decide elections, but the Citizens United decision means that elections are now openly bought by multi-millionaires and multi-billionaires. Romney's policies would create a government of the millionaires, by the millionaires, for the millionaires. It's supposed to be of the people, for the people, by the people. Mitt Romney thinks "Corporations are people."

Sez you. These were not little pranks as Mr. Romney calls them. Eighteen is a time of knowing what is right and wrong. If you want to delve deeper into his business style at Bain you can take a gander at Matt Taibbi's article in Rolling Stone. A bit too intense for me but you will get the idea.

Unfortunately the political tone was not going to let it go that Reverend Wright has some unspeakable thing. Just do yourself a favor and read the sermon transcript on line. You will see it was fiery but to shed light on the plight of afro-americans and what was the way forward. Don't take my word for it. The other thing is Obama's style was much different than the good reverend and he said so. He wanted to use a different path to bring justice. Reverend Wright was preaching to a narrower audience, although quite justified, and Obama had to broaden his approach or he would not have been elected. It just became a political reality. It mostly does not reflect well on the press and major parts of the electorate. Again read it and see if he was saying America was a bad country. He highlighted our sins committed by our government at times and quite frankly that is a good thing.

I don't care what you call it was telling about this man. The English newspapers did not think it was mere slip of the tongue. Romney has on more than one occasion had a hard time when others perform as well as he has. His speeches constantly reek of "I know how to fix....(this or that)." The man has so cloistered himself with constant fawning from his inner circle he is oblivious to the things he says about others. He called teachers belonging to a union "stooges." This does not sound like a man who takes other's feelings into account. Maybe he liked Christie's speech better than his wife's. She believes in puppy love while the NJ governor went for omerta as he is the professed champion of all known truths.

Nice column, Dan!

Best column of all I've read about Romney. Wonderful insights.

You write about Romney... "He is neither mean-spirited nor venal, never one to score cheap political points at someone else's expense." There are soooo many remarks he's made about the President that are cheap, I've lost count. The last one coming in Michigan when he boasted of his birth there and said no one had to ask him for his birth certificate. A candidate should hold the promise of bringing dignity to the Office of the President. It's not the place for cheap shot artists.

Wow! Strong praise coming from you, especially considering all the taxes he raised here. Oh wait, he didn't raise taxes, those were "fees".

Mr. McGrory is, for some strange reason, assuming he's the same Mitt Romney who served as governor -- like he's going to change back to a moderate after he's elected. The problem is that he wouldn't be allowed to do that if he intends to run for a second term, or if he has a Republican majority in Congress. They would never stand for it.

After reviewing many of the comments it becomes obvious that many of the comments express immature sarcasm and often lack common sense. This ugliness against persons who have more money than oneself, is called 'envy.' What's with this sentiment of spurious thoughts? _____________________new paragraph__________________How about looking at the polices of both presidential candidates? How about enough of the ugly resentment against a man who has been a good father, a good husband, a good neighbor and a goog friend to many, many people - and has also worked hard to support himself and his family. What is the matter with someone who lives a decent life and attends church every Sunday? ____________________GET OVER THE BITTERNESS__________________Many rich people pay a lower tax percentage, but based upon capital, the amount is often much, much, more than you or I are paying. ____________________Get over it. The amount of money in a person's pocket book should not dictate what you think of hime or her____________________GET OVER THIS CRAZINESS! 

Ambassador to the Vatican? New Zealand? Please. Eomney picked Paul Ryan as VP for crissake. Him possibly a heartbeat away from being POTUS? No thank you. Bring back Palin, at least she was good for a laugh now and again.