Romney's chance to connect with America arrives

Mitt Romney's powers of persuasion will be put to the ultimate test on Thursday in a prime-time speech seen by millions of Americans as he accepts the Republican presidential nomination. The former Massachusetts governor's elevation to official challenger to President Barack Obama in the November election comes more than five long years after he launched his first White House bid. But for Romney this will be new territory, and he will be under intense pressure to show he has the best character, skills and policies for the job in a pitch-perfect closing address at the Republican National Convention. He will aim to generate enough campaign momentum to slingshot out of Tampa and through the grueling 10-week dash across battleground states like Florida, Ohio, Virginia and Colorado, any of which could decide the race. Romney has trailed over the last few months, but the multimillionaire former venture capitalist has recently drawn even in national polls with Obama, an incumbent saddled with a sluggish US economy and stubbornly high unemployment. Romney has touted his business acumen, arguing he has the skills necessary to steer the country back to prosperity, but he trails Obama badly in terms of likability and can come across as stiff, awkward, and aloof. An ABC News/Washington Post poll carried out ahead of the convention found that just 40 percent of Americans viewed Romney "favorably overall" while 51 percent view him as unfavorable. That's considerably worse than Obama, who enjoys a 50-47 percent rating, and Romney's is the lowest favorability rating of any major party nominee at the time of the convention since at least 1984, the pollsters said. A killer acceptance speech that humanizes Romney could go far towards reversing those numbers and blunting Democratic assaults on his time at private equity firm Bain Capital, where he became fabulously wealthy. But last week he told The Wall Street Journal that he won't use his campaign as "a way to personalize me like I'm a piece of meat." Instead, the job of humanizing Romney has largely fallen to his wife Ann, who brought down the house Tuesday with a rousing speech about their high school romance, their all-American family and his devotion to public service. "No one will work harder, no one will care more. No one will move heaven and earth like Mitt Romney to make this country a better place to live," she said to a standing ovation.Romney lost the Republican primary race to Senator John McCain, who went on to lose to Obama in 2008. He must now convince Americans that the man they voted for four years ago isn't up to the job. Throughout the three-day convention, one surrogate after another has made the case that Romney is the only candidate who can guide America out of the malaise that set in with the 2007-8 financial collapse. Wednesday night it was running mate Paul Ryan's turn. The energetic deficit hawk laid out the case for replacing Obama, offering searing criticism of the president and his policies and stressing Romney was prepared to step into the world's biggest job on Day 1. "Our nominee is sure ready. His whole life has prepared him for this moment -- to meet serious challenges in a serious way, without excuses and idle words," Ryan said. "After four years of getting the run-around, America needs a turnaround, and the man for the job is governor Mitt Romney." On Thursday, it will be Romney himself who has to stand and deliver. Senior strategist Stuart Stevens said Tuesday that Romney had already completed his speech. "It will be a clear vision of a Romney presidency, and very much from his heart about America, and why he wants to be president," Stevens said. Romney said he was confident enough that he could set the speech aside for several hours the day before and fly to Indianapolis to speak with military veterans, which he described as "a privilege not to be missed."