Thursday night was a powerful introduction to the real Mitt Romney

The goal of the Thursday night session was to introduce the real Mitt Romney to
America.  I thought they succeeded massively.  The session was wonderful
beyond words.  Even as a big Mitt supporter, I learned many important aspects of his career and character that I didn’t know before.  It strengthened my strong belief that Mitt Romney is the right man to lead this nation.

Early in the evening, a tribute video to President Reagan was shown.  Due to his values and character, President Reagan was able to lead America back to greatness after the disappointment of Jimmy Carter.  Now, 22 years later, we
are in the same position, with America again struggling after the disappointment of the Obama years.  Once again, we need new, strong leadership to restore America’s greatness.

Mitt Romney has led a life of service, of accomplishment, and been successful across a wide array of different areas.  Thursday night’s program helped us get a fuller appreciation of this man who is hoping to lead our nation as his crowning service to the nation he loves.  I’ll just briefly recap the areas of service
that were highlighted last night.

Church service.  We learned that in the Mormon Church, the local congregations are led by men who also have other fulltime jobs.  Mitt served as the leader of his
congregation for several years.  His assistant during that time told us of the many hours of service Mitt rendered each week to help those in the congregation that were struggling with life and needed help in some way.  The Obama
campaign has accused Mitt of being out of touch with the ordinary person.  They have no idea…. experiences like this have helped Mitt understand the ordinary person like very few in government ever will.  We also heard from two different families that were the beneficiaries of Mitt’s kindness and caring.   There is no doubt that Mitt has exemplified compassion and personal service.

Work.   Mitt began his career at Bain and Company, a management consulting firm.  He then founded Bain Capital, a company formed to invest in, and nurture the success of up and coming companies.  The CEO of Staples told us about how Mitt believed in his vision of an office supply superstore, and was instrumental in the success of the company.  Mitt even came and spoke to all the employees
at one point, rallying them at a time of need.  Mitt has been behind the success of several other companies such as Sports Authority, Bright Horizons (child care), and Steel Dynamics, a new and successful U.S. steel company.  Many
thousands of jobs have been created by companies that Mitt helped shepherd.

2002 Salt Lake Olympics.  The U.S. Olympics were in trouble.  Big trouble.  Bob White, who has been Mitt’s right hand man for three decades, told us that when he understood how bad the problems were, he didn’t think it could be salvaged. 
Mitt was undeterred.  Through three years of unending hard work, the Salt Lake Olympics became the role model of a successful Olympics.  And this was
despite the fact that September 11th occurred just five months before, meaning a massive increase in security precautions. 

We heard from several Olympians who told us the impact that Mitt had on them and the Olympics.  Dan Jansen, the gold medalist speed skater, told us that he was worried about whether the Olympics would come off until he met
Mitt Romney; he then told his friends not to worry, they were in good hands.  Incidentally, if you didn’t hear Bob White’s talk, I would recommend watching it on YouTube.  He has worked closely with Mitt for over 30 years, and gives a
tremendous perspective on the kind of leader Mitt really is.

Governor of Massachusetts.  We got to hear from both Mitt’s Lt. Governor and his Secretary of Workforce Development.  We learned about how Mitt was an organized, focused leader who brought high standards, a sense of direction and sweeping changes to Massachusetts.  The Secretary of Workforce Development, Jane Edmonds told us she was dubious about the new Governor.  After her first meeting with Mitt, she was suddenly very thrilled to be working with this man.  A self-described liberal Democrat, she told us we need Mitt Romney to lead this country.  

When Mitt became the governor, Massachusetts was mired in a deep economic slump, and battling a $3 billion deficit.  Mitt balanced the budget all four years he
was there, and lowered taxes on top of that.  As a result of his sound fiscal leadership, Massachusetts enjoyed an increase in the credit rating of their bonds. 
In the field of education, Massachusetts became the top rated state in the nation.  Mitt established a scholarship fund for children to attend Massachusetts colleges.  Through both of these talks, the portrait of Mitt as a man of great leadership skills and a man of accomplishment was againshown.

Mitt’s talk was great.  He mostly tried to paint a vision of restoring America’s greatness.  We have lost our way as a country after four years.  He even told us that he had hoped that Barack Obama would be successful, because he wants America to be successful.   But after the failures of the past four years, he is stepping forward to help America again get back on the right track.  I won’t recap his talk as I am sure that many readers of this blog either saw the talk or have read about it. 

I thought the final evening was highly successful in portraying the Mitt Romney that America needs to know.  He is a man of great accomplishment and skills that have been applied across a wide range of activities.  He is a man who has been
successful in whatever he has undertaken. He relishes taking on big challenges
and succeeding.  He is a man of great compassion and caring.  He is clearly a
strong family man, and deeply in love with his wife.   He is one of the most accomplished, successful men to ever run for the Presidency of the United States.  We would be fortunate to have a man of Mitt Romney’s skills and abilities to be our President.

Would you like to watch any of the speakers or videos? 
Here’s a link:   http://www.youtube.com/user/gopconvention2012/videos 

Thank you Palo Alto Patch for the opportunity to blog the Convention!