Romney Rising

Nancy French, an activist for Mitt Romney, was interviewed on Hugh Hewitt's program today. I'm hoping there will be a transcript of it at Radioblogger. She talked about how she was able to get enough people out to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference to bring Romney in second to Bill Frist in the attendees straw poll. The conference was held in Tennessee, so Frist's support was expected. Romney's was not.

What impressed me was what Ms. French had to say about the reactions to Romney's being a Mormon. Some people told her Mormons are better Baptists than most Baptists. One minister told her, "You've already got a pastor. What we need is a good president." In other words, the backlash by Evangelicals may be Evanescent.

Romney really is an impressive guy. He has terrific executive skills and an outstanding record in dealing with budget deficits both as Massachusetts governor and coming in when the Utah Winter Olympics were in peril and leading them to a successful and popular event. I think he has the charisma of Reagan, but with more youth, and the intelligence and executive experience to be a national leader. He has the ability to explain his ideas cogently and to come up with solutions that make sense.

The Romney Revolution could run McCain's Straight Talk Express off the road. He's already demonstrated that he's not anathema to liberals. I think that a lot of Democrats in Massachusetts respect him, even if he is a Republican. He nearly beat Ted Kennedy for Senator, until Kennedy's union supporters went to work and played the religion card.