1. The former governor of Massachusetts came out blazing against the Eastern Establishment! “For decades, the Washington sun has been rising in the east — Washington has been looking to the eastern elites, to the editorial pages of the Times and the Post, and to the broadcasters from the coast. If America really wants change, it’s time to look for the sun in the west, ’cause it’s about to rise and shine from Arizona and Alaska!”

Agnewesque — and Goldwaterian — but fine.

1.5. By “the Times and the Post,” he did not mean the Washington Times and the New York Post, I assure you!

1.75. It was probably not quite right to pair the Post’s editorial page with that of the Times — better to have cited the Boston Globe, a paper Governor Romney knows a lot about!

2. “Is a government liberal or conservative that puts the interests of the teachers union ahead of the needs of our children?” I must say that got my anti-NEA juices flowing. (And I ain’t talking the National Endowment for the Arts, although we could talk that, too.) I also believe it was fairly gutsy, politically.

3. “Is a Congress liberal or conservative that stops nuclear power plants and off-shore drilling, making us more and more dependent on Middle East tyrants?” Bull’s-eye.

4. Mitt kept up in this vein, saying that government in Washington — certainly the Washington establishment — is essentially liberal. This is quite aside from who happens to occupy the White House. I was reminded of something Reagan said in 1984. His opponents kept going on about “change,” and how it was time for a change. Reagan, with some irritation, responded, “We are the change.”

And he was exactly right, of course.

5. Said Mitt, “They think we have the biggest and strongest economy in the world because of our government. They’re wrong. America is strong because of the ingenuity and entrepreneurship and hard work of the American people.” Simple, and perhaps even simplistic. But basic and important.

6. Here was one of the best lines of the entire convention, I thought: “We strengthen our people and our economy when we preserve and promote opportunity. Opportunity is what lets hope become reality.” This states a fundamental truth. And it corrects and rebukes the Democratic nominee.

7. “America cannot long lead the family of nations if we fail the family here at home!” That, I’m afraid, was hokey — hokily put. A false note in a sound speech.

8. “Democrats want to use the slowdown as an excuse to do what their special interests are always begging for: higher taxes, bigger government, and less trade with other nations.” True, true. “It’s the same path Europe took a few decades ago. It leads to moribund growth and double-digit unemployment.”

I was hoping that someone would point out the similarity between today’s Democratic party and the Western European Left — and Romney did it.

9. You might regard what follows as red meat — and it is. But, in my mouth, it was pure honey: “[We must] stand up to the Tyrannosaurus appetite of government unions!” Bravo, Mitt, and thank you.

10. This was a hard-hitting point, but a fair, right, and necessary point, too, I think: “Did you hear any Democrats talk last week about the threat from radical, violent jihad?” I did not, and I watched a lot. Further on in the speech, “At Saddleback, after Barack Obama dodged and ducked every direct question, John McCain hit the nail on the head: Radical violent Islam is evil, and he will defeat it! Republicans prefer straight talk to politically correct talk!”

Bracing, rude (maybe), and correct.

11. “Just like you, there has never been a day when I was not proud to be an American. We inherited the greatest nation in the history of the earth.” A little crude, in its anti-Michelle thrust, but understandable and acceptable.

12. Mitt was outshone last night, by Sarah and maybe a couple of others. But it could not have been otherwise. And I thought he acquitted himself very well. The Repubs were right to put him up there. And I hope very much that his political career — his office-seeking career — is not yet over.