Stressing his record of job creation, Mitt Romney promises steady competence.

Tampa, Fla. — Mitt Romney, who has spent much of the past decade running for president, accepted the Republican nomination on Thursday, launching his general-election campaign against President Obama with a promise of competency and a pledge to shrink the federal government.

Romney’s tone was forceful, but it was not harsh or especially partisan. “I wish President Obama had succeeded, because I want America to succeed,” Romney told the crowd. “But his promises gave way to disappointment and division. This isn’t something we have to accept.”


Romney directly took on the depiction of his career as a shadowy endeavor. He did not want to run away from his past; he wanted to use his 40-minute turn on the national stage, in front of millions watching on television, to share a personal perspective.

“This is a small window for him to tell his story,” says Kevin Madden, a Romney adviser. “It is his time, away from the campaign distractions.”

For months, Obama has criticized Romney for his work at Bain Capital, a private-equity firm. In his remarks, Romney hit back at those charges with sharp language and blasted the president for knocking the company. As a second adviser tells me, “Romney wanted to talk about why Bain matters.”


“When I was 37, I helped start a small company,” Romney said, discussing his mid-career transition from Bain Consulting to Bain Capital. “Some of us had this idea that if we really believed our advice was helping companies, we should invest in companies; we should bet on ourselves.”


As he spoke about that period in his life, Romney narrated his ascent, and he took care to connect himself to small-business owners, not just the titans of Wall Street who invested in his enterprise. His experience, he said, may have yielded huge profits, but those profits were the product of hard work.

“That business we started with ten people has now grown into a great American success story,” Romney said. “Some of the companies we helped start are names you know,” such as the Sports Authority and Staples, “where, I’m pleased to see, the Obama campaign has been shopping.”


Earlier in the evening, Romney’s campaign released a series of web videos about Romney’s Bain tenure. Around 9 p.m., Bob White, the Romney campaign’s chairman and a former Bain Capital executive, spoke glowingly about Romney’s leadership at the firm and his faith in American ingenuity.

“It was a great way to teach a lesson about the importance of capital in our economy and why it’s important for entrepreneurs,” says Tony Fratto, a former adviser to President George W. Bush. “He knows his business better than anyone else, so it means a lot for him to explain it, on his own terms.”


On policy, Romney touted a five-point plan and predicted that it would create 12 million jobs. He highlighted his energy agenda, and his message was a pitch for the support of voters from energy-producing states. A Romney administration, he said, would take “full advantage” of oil and gas.

Romney also touched on education. The former Massachusetts governor embraced parental choice, a popular conservative plank. His platform includes linking federal education funds to individual students. “When it comes to the school your child will attend, every parent should have a choice, and every child should have a chance,” he said.

In a nod to the influence of the Tea Party, Romney said that as president he would cut the deficit and “put America on track to a balanced budget.” As Romney spoke, a “debt clock” loomed under a section of upper-deck seats, signaling the convention’s theme of fiscal courage and budget reform.


Turning to trade policy, Romney had a warning for China and other nations that have caused trouble for American manufacturers. “When nations cheat in trade, there will be unmistakable consequences,” he said.

Many of Romney’s proposals were mentioned only briefly. The conservative thrust was evident, but not emphasized. When he was governor, critics on the right were wary of his health-care reforms, but in Tampa, Romney reminded the audience that he is, as ever, an opponent of Obamacare.

“That means reducing taxes on business, not raising them,” Romney said. “It means simplifying and modernizing the regulations that hurt small business the most. And it means that we must rein in the skyrocketing cost of health care by repealing and replacing Obamacare.”

“Governor Romney knew that he had to talk about who he is, but spending a big chunk of the speech talking about what he is going to do, and about how he would deliver if he was president, is very important,” says former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, a Romney adviser. “To win over the undecided voters, you have to talk about your plan and your ideas.”

The speech had some humorous moments, too. Levity is rare in the typical Romney speech, but in his convention performance, the governor elicited extended laughter with a poke at Obama’s vaunted rhetorical superiority.

“President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans,” Romney said, grinning slightly, as thousands of attendees chuckled. “And to heal the planet,” he continued. He then paused, and let the line sit for a moment. “My promise is to help you and your family,” he said.

The delegates roared.

“The media can say what they want, but this guy can connect,” says former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. “The millions of people watching Romney, they’re going to make their own decision. And I think they see a man they want to hire.”


Perhaps the most moving section of the speech came when Romney spoke about his wife, Ann, his five sons, and, especially, his late father, George Romney, the former Michigan governor. An hour before the speech, Romney spent a few moments backstage looking at a picture of his dad.

“His father always said that first and foremost, you should raise your family, then you can look into how you can do public service,” Madden says. “Governor Romney always talks about that and about how his parents instilled those values of hard work, integrity, and public service.”

The lessons his parents handed down to him included his Mormon faith. Romney, who has often been hesitant to discuss religion on the campaign trail, opened up about his work as a lay pastor in his church. His anecdotes were warmly received, and the speeches earlier in the night by several Mormons, all of whom were helped by Romney through the decades, brought many in the crowd to tears.

“Like a lot of families in a new place with no family, we found kinship with a wide circle of friends through our church,” Romney said, describing his family’s move to Massachusetts. “We prayed together, our kids played together, and we always stood ready to help each other out.”

“It is important for the country to see the totality of the man, beyond the sound bites,” says Ron Kaufman, a Romney adviser. “People see that he is a hardworking, thoughtful person who has done a lot in life to help people.”

According to Romney’s advisers, the Republican nominee’s speech took weeks to write, and the draft was not finalized until late Thursday afternoon. Romney and his chief strategist, Stuart Stevens, reviewed the text in a hotel suite until 3 p.m. and revised passages on their iPads.

An hour later, Romney went across the street to the Tampa Bay Times Forum for a quick appearance on the stage, long before delegates would pack the arena. As Stevens and other aides looked on, a group of convention staffers advised Romney about the schedule and the teleprompter.

The run-through lasted a few minutes, as scores of photographers snapped photos of the prep session. Then, Romney returned to the Marriott hotel, where he and his family, and his advisers, have been camped. He had a bite to eat, reread his speech, and relaxed with friends.

Over the past few weeks, during talks with his senior advisers, Romney told his speechwriting consultants that he wanted his speech to echo the tone of George W. Bush’s speech to the GOP convention in Philadelphia in 2000. Both Stevens and Romney wanted to capture the frustration Bush expressed about the Clinton administration and to update that sensibility for this cycle.

“Every family in America wanted this to be a time when they could get ahead a little more,” Romney said. “But for too many Americans, these good days are harder to come by. How many days have you woken up feeling that something really special was happening in America?”

“He didn’t have to throw a Hail Mary pass,” says John Sununu, a Romney adviser. “He deserves credit for having the discipline to understand the timing and tempo of this campaign, which is like a basketball game.” To Sununu and other advisers, Romney didn’t necessarily need to wow; he simply needed to stress his business acumen and his political vision.

“Look, in a basketball game, it’s all about the last two minutes,” Sununu says. “In a presidential campaign, it’s all about the last two months. Romney gets that, and tonight was the beginning of the last two months.”

— Robert Costa is a political reporter for National Review.