The concession and victory speeches: Romney

I watched Romney's speech this morning and was impressed. Short and sweet, relentlessly positive (like Hillary's), gracious in defeat, Romney looked good.

He emphasized finishing above a bunch of household names--Giuliani, McCain, Thompson. In the wider view of things, that is impressive.

Romney emphasized that he is an outsider to Washington. This is something of course that Hillary can't do. But Romney and Hillary have a similar problem, and that is that their appeal is based on a political situation that is a decade out of date. Romney's running a year-2000 campaign; rewind the clock eight years and his campaign would be very formidable. Hillary is appealing to an older set of voters. Romney as well ran even with Huckabee only with older voters.

The mood is for change. Here's a factoid: 44% of Republican voters in Iowa voted for candidates who have expressed displeasure with President Bush's foreign policy. If Republicans are ready for change, Democrats are dying for it. Romney does not tap into this passion. He did emphasize from the beginning of the speech that he is an outsider, so this is a belated recognition of what voters were after.