I heard through the grapevine that Republican apparatchiks had lost control of the Romney speech, and now I can see what it was all about. Mitt Romney is thinking ‘If John McCain loses, the party is going to be tired of mavericks. They’ll want a hard right-winger, and that will be me!“ He drifted so far right, I’m sort of, my mind is boggling. Who was this guy? I remember a few years ago, a moderate Republican, but he’s made a strategic choice. That is as right-wing a speech as we’ll hear, maybe as right-wing a speech as we’ve heard at a Republican convention in many conventions.

David Brooks on Mitt Romney’s speech at the 2008 Republican convention