OK, just as soon as we invest Mitt's $250 million personal wealth into food stamps. You're on, Mitt!

This guy is a major douche. A few points:

1. There's a tacit understanding that all the talk about reforming "Washington" is really a critique of corrupt Republican congressmen and an incompetent president. Romney had the chutzpah to deny this boldly and loudly, but it's an absurd case to make. The Supreme Court he decries is pretty evenly split - and more conservative than it was 8 years ago. And government until a year and a half ago was completely controlled by the Republicans, who still have their man in the top seat. Republicans want to have their cake and eat it too - decrying the government while pretending that they haven't been running it.

2. This was a laundry list of conservative talking points with no thought behind them. Just a recitation of slogans and catchphrases. Sadly, the audience seemed to be lapping it up.

3. Do any of these people care that Romney stood for almost none of these things when he ACTUALLY held office? Suddenly he gets to be Mr. Conservative despite a lifetime of experience to the contrary. Pathetic.

4. This is a transparent attempt to mimic Reagan's '76 address. But say what you will about Reagan, he had a way with words, and some ideas - however simple or misguided you might think they are - behind him. Romney tries to impose a Cold War rubric on a multipolar world, inflate jihadists to the status of a global superpower, and decry big government liberalism that has been dead for two decades. It's an incoherent and extremely weak attempt, not to reinvent Reagan for the 21st century but simply to co-opt his message and, Mad Libs style, insert some new buzzwords here and there. Weak.

5. Speaking of the Reagan connection, McCain must be seething right now. This speech was all about Romney '12 - what were there, 2 mentions of McCain/Palin? How arrogant. Hillary's speech (and I have major problems with her) was very focused on rounding up her supporters behind Obama. Mitt was focused on rounding up supporters for Mitt in 4 years. That's all.

In a sense, I wish he'd be nominated. He doesn't make the slightest overture towards the middle and is so gratingly phoney (though I'm starting to believe he really would govern like he says he would, out of some inflated sense of himself as the new Gipper) that Obama could have wiped the floor with him. As I said yesterday, many Republican die-hards would rather be Right than president. Me too.

In closing: one positive note. He's the only Republican I've heard acknowledge the dire economy (even if he used it as an excuse to bash Democrats).