I had been urging Governor Romney to give such a speech for over a year, ever since he invited me to his home, along with about a dozen other Evangelical leaders to have an open and free-wheeling discussion about his candidacy and the questions he needed to answer to get a serious hearing from Evangelicals.

I told him then that he needed to give a JFK style speech and I even gave him a copy of my then forthcoming book, The Divided States of America? which contains then Senator Kennedy’s speech as an appendix.

I had the privilege of attending Gov. Romney’s speech, and sitting on the second row, you could not only see the Governor’s emotions, you could feel them. One of his staff members told me, “I’ve been working for the Governor for six years, and I have never heard him more eloquent.”

I responded, “Nothing generates more eloquence than heart-felt conviction.”

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