This Is What A "Check" Looks Like

[King]

Romney looked good tonight, Politico.  He showed for the first time since he launched his original campaign in 2007 that he was actually willing to acknowledge and accept his record as Governor of Massachusetts.  Governor Mitt Romney is a winner, and he's never been willing to own up to it.  He ran his campaign to this point as businessman Mitt Romney.  Finally doing that was something unexpected.  He didn't earn my vote, for one big reason, but he did earn my trust that he would put economics before deficit control and not be a ideologue conservative President.  You could see, even in this debate, that the conservative issues he spouted were the phony awkward Mitt Romney while he lit up when he talked more about his moderate stances.  I saw who the genuine Mitt was.  The Governor not the businessman.
 
However, that wasn't really enough to seriously change my mind because at the same time he was doing this, he was also telling me that he and Obama really don't have very many differences as candidates.  On the major foundations of what needs to be done to the country, they have the same plan at heart.  I thoroughly believe it. Romney's win in the debate then, for me, was more of Obama losing.  Obama definitely was not as energetic and focused, and he let Romney get away with a lot.  For example, one could EASILY point out that a tax plan that states "no tax cuts that would increase the deficit," criticizes "$716 billion in spending cuts," and "refuses to cut defense spending ... education spending ... medicare spending" means Romney does not plan on balancing the budget in his first term.  Yet Obama let it go by without saying anything concise that made the illogical proposal stand out.

One idea that Romney had, which could sway voters like me and definitely a lot of people, was one he didn't hit hard enough on.  It's pretty obvious the Democrats are more willing to cooperate than the Republicans.  Romney can bring the Republicans in block vote, or at least enough of them to pair with the Democrats, because most of the center to center-right Republican hatred of the Obama administration, I believe, is simply that he is a Democrat. 

The Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney, who has more or less the same plan for America as Barack Obama, would be 100 times more likely to get the important agenda passed in full.  Democrats + moderate Republicans led by a Republican President, who isn't conservative, would be able to get supermajority action done.  I'm not sure I'm ready to believe Mitt Romney isn't conservative, but he is trying to make the case now, and if he does, I won't say I'll vote for him, but I won't dislike a victory.

I still think Obama will win this in the end.