Romney hitting all the right buttons for this crowd. While the earlier candidates covered a whole range of issues, he's been hammering away at the family for his entire speech -- focusing on the family, if you will. It went over quite well -- much better than the lackluster speeches this morning. Highlights and crowd-pleasers:
"Parenthood is the ultimate career for which all other careers exist."
"The American family is under stress. is under attack. Ann and I are going to use the bully pulpit to teach Americans that before they have babies, they should get married."
"As president, I will realign government incentives to encourage marriage."
"A federal amendment is the only way we can protect marriage from liberal, unelected judges."
"I will oppose tax payer funding of abortion, oppose partial birth abortion ... ban cloning ... and raise awareness about embryonic adoption, or snow flake babies."
"It will be one strike and you're ours" for pedophiles on the internet -- "long prison sentences, and if you get out, it means an ankle bracelet for the rest of your life."
"I will ensure that every family has health care -- without new taxes, without Hilarycare, without socialized medicine."
Romney was right on target for what this crowd wanted to hear. Nothing about Iraq, nothing about reinstating the gold standard, nothing about S-CHIP – just abortion, marriage, porn, and families. He even mentioned the fact that he's Mormon and that some people might think he shouldn't be the GOP candidate for that reason rather jokingly, brushing it off as a non-issue. He's figuring his "family cred" speaks for itself – I wish I'd tallied how many times the word left his mouth – and it fared quite well with the crowd.
--Kate Sheppard
