Romney Speech Reaction...

...is better than I think the Romney campaign could have hoped for. Rush Limbaugh has spent his entire show praising the speech, and he keeps having to remind people that he's not endorsing any candidate for the primary. Although if he were to endorse someone, I doubt Rush could match the glowing accolades that he is showering on Romney.

If you haven't seen the speech yet, watch it here.



Over at The Corner on National Review Online, reaction is more mixed. Mona Charen calls it arguably "the best political speech of the year," and Kate O'Bierne said "I predict it will get rave reviews." Even Chris Matthews has said that he "heard greatness this morning" in Romney's speech.

That's the good stuff. But much of the NRO Corner contingent is upset that the speech left out atheists, which strikes me as a pretty petty criticism. David Frum, who wrote such a persuasive analysis of why the speech would fail, is convinced it did, because he thinks Romney opened the door to questions about the loonier aspects of his faith. (I think he was dead right with his first article and dead wrong with this one.)

Every indication in the evangelical community seems to suggest that the speech was well-received. Two evangelical leaders in Iowa have had good things to say, and the folks at evangelicalsformitt.com have called it a grand-slam home run.

Three-plus hours after the speech, I remain convinced that my initial impression was right. I also think it makes my initial election predictions more likely. After this speech, Romney stands a good chance of winning Iowa again, and if he does, that will effectively end the Huckaboom, defy expectations, and get Mitt the momentum he needs to power through the primaries to the nomination. He's ironically in a better position than he was when he was the presumptive Iowa caucus winner, because now an Iowa victory will actually mean something. (I also think that Romney's organization is so superior to Huckabee's that he could very well have won Iowa without this speech, which would have shocked the world, too.)

Good day for the Romney campaign.