TAMPA, FL -- Just hours after addressing the Republican National Convention herself Monday night, Ann Romney was back at it again bright and early Tuesday morning, making her pitch to a group of women voters.

Slideshow: The 2012 Republican National Convention

"So many of the women in this nation have got to figure out, am I going to go in that voting booth and vote for my children’s future?" Mrs. Romney asked the several hundred women at a breakfast just a few blocks from the GOP convention. "That’s what they have got to ask because this is going to be an economic question for them. We’re OK. We’re OK. The next generation is going to be paying for our debts."

With Mitt Romney struggling with the gender gap -- President Barack Obama is leading among females 51 percent to 41 percent according to the NBC News/WSJ poll --  his wife appears to be taking on the role of helping try to reduce that.

Charlie Neibergall / AP

Ann Romney, wife of U.S. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, addresses the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012.

Not only did Ann, who wore a light pink suit, share personal stories about her and Mitt Romney's 42-year long marriage -- their love, struggles, and family -- all five of her daughters-in-law appeared on stage with stories of their own.

"One thing I really love about Ann is she’s a really modern feminist. She’s kind of the 21st century woman. She is so comfortable in her own skin and I promise that’s for real," Andelyne Romney, son Ben's wife, said.

Making her debut on the campaign trail, Janna Ryan, wife of the vice presidential nominee-in-waiting, Rep. Paul Ryan, also gave very brief remarks inside the Hyatt Hotel.

"I have to say it again, wasn't Ann great last night. So good," Mrs. Ryan said, giving Americans the first glimpse of America's potential next Second Lady. "Ann's story is an inspiration for millions of women across this country and her friendship is an unexpected blessing in this campaign. It is a privilege to join you and Mitt on this campaign."

And Mitt Romney himself, via video, joined the conversation as well to talk about "his sweetheart."

"By the time I get to town, the delegates may have decided to nominate Ann instead. And wouldn’t that be interesting?," Romney joked. "And do you think if Ann were the nominee, the press would write stories about how my job is to humanize Ann? I don’t think so."

Mixed messages: Both Ann Romney and Chris Christie gave fine speeches, but they created a disjointed message… Christie raises the bar for Romney… Last night showcased the GOP’s governors and its diverse candidates/officials… Isaac slams into Louisiana… Previewing Ryan’s speech… Is it really Mitt Romney’s party?... On the trail: Romney delivers speech to American Legion conference  in Indianapolis, while Obama stumps in Charlottesville… And did the Sea of Galilee story claim its first victim?

TAMPA, FL -- Ann Romney humanizing her husband and delivering a well-received speech, check. Chris Christie hitting the Democrats and President Obama, as well as making the case that leadership requires tough choices, check. Individually, last night’s two primetime speeches here at the Republican convention accomplished what they set out to do. But taken together, they represented a clash in tone -- with Ann Romney telling the audience she wanted to talk about the power of love, and with Christie declaring, “Tonight, we’re going to choose respect over love.” Christie later added, “Our ideas are right for America, and their ideas have failed America.” Either speech could have concluded the night, but the two addresses didn’t mix well; it was like a meal of blueberry pancakes and ribeye steak, or a dessert of pickles and ice cream. There wasn’t a unifying message, so the parts seemed greater than the whole. Make no mistake: The Romney campaign can take pride in both speeches. And the time constraints and Monday’s cancellation didn’t give them a better alternative. But two polar-opposite addresses created a disjointed message.

*** Christie raises the bar for Romney: So if there’s criticism of Christie’s speech, it wasn’t in the substance -- but rather in the fact that it wasn’t the lasting moment after Ann Romney’s address. In a way, it was classic New Jersey: an interruption. One thing that Christie’s keynote speech did was raise the bar for Romney on Thursday. “You see, Mr. President -- real leaders don’t follow polls,” he said last night. “Real leaders change polls.” But is that a message more suited for Romney or Christie himself? After all, Romney is a politician who has often taken the easier path in politics (running as a supporter of abortion rights in Massachusetts, opposing them when he started eyeing the presidency, downplaying his health-care law, not answering if he would overturn President Obama’s new deportation policy for young undocumented immigrants).

*** Showcasing the GOP’s governors and its diverse candidates: But if the convention planners achieved one goal from last night, it was showcasing the party’s young governors and its diverse candidates and officials. Look at the governors who spoke last night: John Kasich, Mary Fallin, Bob McDonnell, Scott Walker, Brian Sandoval, and Nikki Haley. (In fact, Walker probably brought the crowd to its feet more than any other speaker last night.) And then there was the diversity: Mia Love, Kelly Ayotte, Ted Cruz, and Artur Davis. (Outside of Ann Romney, Christie, and Walker, Love’s short speech might have been the most impressive of the night.) Other things that struck us: Rick Santorum’s speech didn’t deliver the way the Romney campaign had seemed to promise (the welfare attack on Obama fell flat with the audience), and Cruz (with his walking around the stage) appeared to try too hard.

*** Isaac slams into Louisiana: We’ll say a final word about last night: It came as Hurricane Isaac slammed into Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. “Hurricane Isaac spun into the southern Louisiana coast late Tuesday, sending floodwaters surging and unleashing fierce winds as residents hunkered down behind boarded-up windows,” the AP writes. “New Orleans calmly waited out another storm on the eve of Hurricane Katrina's seventh anniversary, hoping the city's strengthened levees would hold.” Ann Romney asked the audience to “hope and pray” that everyone on Gulf Coast was safe. But outside of that, the references to Isaac were sparse. 

*** Previewing Ryan’s speech: We now turn to tonight’s schedule of activities at the GOP convention, which will be highlighted by Paul Ryan’s speech accepting the party’s vice-presidential nomination. Already a full-fledged star in the Republican Party, Ryan has the potential to rock the crowd here in Tampa. After all, he can do it with biography (his family, the loss of his father, his love of hunting) as well as policy (the Ryan budget). And it will be the biggest speech of his political career so far. But let's also not get too carried away about the VP nominee speech; Palin's was the exception. (Beyond her, name another impactful VP nominee speech. The memorable convo speeches are almost all keynotes, spouses and top of tickets, not the VP.) The Romney camp says that, in Wisconsin, it will hold 20 watch parties of Ryan’s speech, and that there will be a special event in his hometown of Janesville. Meanwhile, the Obama campaign has produced this web video before Ryan’s speech tonight. Other stories we’ll be watching tonight: Will Mike Huckabee say anything about Todd Akin? And how will Condi Rice be received? We can’t think of her ever making a true public political speech before… 

*** Wednesday’s schedule (the theme is “We change it”):

7:00 pm ET hour: Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul
8:00 pm hour: John McCain, John Thune, Rob Portman,
9:00 pm hour: Luis Fortuno, Tim Pawlenty, Mike Huckabee
10:00 pm hour: Condi Rice, Susana Martinez, Paul Ryan

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie addresses the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. on Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012.

*** Is this really Romney’s party? Don’t miss this analysis from the Tampa Bay Times’ Adam Smith: “Mitt Romney on Tuesday officially became the leader of the Republican Party. What's unclear is how much it's really his Republican Party. Talk to delegates in and around the Tampa Bay Times Forum, and they're more likely to gush about Chris Christie or Marco Rubio than their nominee. Ask them to explain Romney's agenda and ideology and they point enthusiastically to running mate Paul Ryan's. ‘The party's not defined by the top of the ticket anymore. The party is defined by the broader community of people who choose to associate and participate,'' said Matt Kibbe, chairman of FreedomWorks, the grass roots organizing group aligned with tea party conservatives. ’It's not so much about Mitt.’”

*** On the trail: The day before his big acceptance speech, Romney addresses the American Legion’s national conference in Indianapolis, IN… And President Obama finishes his two-day swing to college towns, speaking in Charlottesville, VA  30 minutes later at 3:30 pm ET.

*** Did that dip in the Sea of Galilee claim its first victim? Arizona held its primaries last night, and David Schweikert (R) defeated Ben Quayle (R) in the state’s member-vs.-member contest.Taegan Goddard's Political Wire spots this in the Arizona Republic's write-up  of the race. “As ballots rolled in, Quayle campaign volunteer Paul Gorman attributed the loss to fallout from a recent story about Congress members partying in Israel, including one who stripped naked to swim. Quayle was on the trip but said he only took a brief, reverent dip in the Sea of Galilee.” The race was always going to be tough for Quayle, but the timing of the Sea of Galilee story sure didn’t help. In other news out of Arizona, we have our Senate match up -- Jeff Flake (R) vs. Richard Carmona (D).

Countdown to Dem convention: 5 days
Countdown to 1^st presidential debate: 35 days
Countdown to VP debate: 43 days
Countdown to 2^nd presidential debate: 48 days
Countdown to 3^rd presidential debate: 54 days
Countdown to Election Day: 69 days

Click here to sign up for First Read emails. 
Text FIRST to 622639, to sign up for First Read alerts to your mobile phone.
Check us out on Facebook and also on Twitter. Follow us @chucktodd, @mmurraypolitics, @DomenicoNBC, @brookebrower

In a convention with few reminders of the 2012 Republican primary just a few months ago, Rick Santorum brought everyone back.

The former Pennsylvania senator delivered a somber speech that was more about his personal story than a ringing endorsement of Mitt Romney. It hit on many of the same themes he pushed while pursuing his longshot presidential bid, including family values, marriage and abortion. 

In fact, even though Santorum was the first speaker to raise the welfare issue, his allusion to abortion was the best-received line of his speech.

“I thank God that America still has one party that reaches out their hands in love to lift up all of God’s children -- born and unborn -- and says that each of us has dignity and all of us have the right to live the American Dream,” Santorum said to a standing ovation.

On welfare, Santorum, who touted his work on welfare reform in the 1990s, accused the president of trying to “weaken our republic” and acting as if he were “above the law.”

“President Obama’s policies undermine the traditional family, weaken the education system,” Santorum said. “And this summer he showed us once again he believes in government handouts and dependency by waiving the work requirement for welfare.

“I helped write welfare reform; we made the law crystal clear -- no president can waive the work requirement. But as with his refusal to enforce our immigration laws, President Obama rules like he is above the law. America take heed, when a president can simply give a speech or write a memo and change the law to do what the law says he can’t, we weaken our republic.”

Of course, the welfare attack has been widely discredited, and there is still a work requirement for welfare. There also was limited crowd reaction to the attack, which has become a mainstay of the Romney campaign on the trail and in millions of dollars in television ads.

TAMPA, Fla. -- The two highest-profile speakers Tuesday night at the Republican National Convention sought to paint Mitt Romney as sensitive and relatable, but also resolute and decisive in a way that President Barack Obama is not.

Ann Romney, the wife of the Republican nominee-in-waiting, made an unmasked pitch to women voters, a bloc her husband has struggled with in the polls.

Watch Tuesday night's speeches here

And Chris Christie, the brash governor of New Jersey, used his keynote event to lionize Romney as a problem solver who would prioritize "respect over love" from voters.

Charlie Neibergall / AP

Ann Romney, wife of U.S. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, addresses the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012.

These speeches, broadcast to a national audience, were among the best-received remarks in an evening that sometimes suffered from a lack of energy among delegates who have gathered in downtown Tampa.

"No one will work harder, no one will care more, and no one will move heaven and earth like Mitt Romney to make this country a better place to live," Mrs. Romney said in one of the evening's biggest applause lines.

Slideshow: The 2012 Republican National Convention

Many of Tuesday's various speeches showcased the party's diversity, particularly among women and Latinos.

The speakers emphasized hardscrabble roots and the importance of small businesses in keeping with the evening's theme, "We Built It" -- a play on President Barack Obama's comments in July about government's role in supporting business.

"We ended an era of absentee leadership without purpose or principle in New Jersey; it’s time to end this era of absentee leadership in the Oval Office and send real leaders to the White House," Christie said, adding a degree of immediacy before the crowd of delegates.

"America needs Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and we need them right now," he added.

The New Jersey governor is regarded as one of the Republican Party's most direct voices, which has made him a star in the GOP -- so much so that some Republicans had recruited him (unsucessfully) to run for president this campaign cycle.

The Republican convention was shortened after inclement weather forced organizers to cancel Monday's programming. In this time span, the GOP is tasked with making their case against Obama and humanizing Mitt Romney, whose personal opinion rating was in net-negative territory entering the convention.

Part of that included an attack on Obama's own words from a Roanoke, Va., campaign event: "If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen," followed by criticism of that "you didn't get there on your own" contention.

"Now if a guy walked into our bar, heard all that, and said, 'If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that,'" said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, referring to his own family's bar. "You know what we’d do. Throw him out."

The evening was often an excercise, too, in projecting the party's diversity. For a stretch during the evening, no white men were featured as speakers.

Watch Tuesday night's speeches here

Ann Romney's speech was tailored in large part to speak directly toward women, whether single or working.

"It's the moms who always have to work a little harder, to make everything right," she said.

Obama led Romney 51 percent to 41 percent among women in the August NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, and the GOP brand lags significantly behind the Democratic brand among women voters. Forty-five percent of women in the August poll had a favorable impression of the Democratic Party, while 36 percent had an unfavorable view; women voters had a 36 percent positive view of the GOP, and a 47 percent negative view.

Scott Olson / Getty Images file photo

Sen. Kelly Ayotte stands on stage during a soundcheck with stage manager Howard Kolins during the Republican National Convention on Tuesday.

Ann Romney also described her relationship with Mitt as far from a "storybook marriage," recounting difficulties ranging from raising five sons to battling multiple sclerosis and breast cancer.

"I know this good and decent man for what he is -- warm and loving and patient," she said.

But if Mrs. Romney's speech was directed toward softening Romney's public persona, Christie's was intended to project Romney's strength (and boast a little bit of his own).

Indeed, one of the most warmly welcomed Republicans to speak Tuesday evening was Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who pushed a controversial bill curbing collective bargaining rights through his state legislature, and survived a resulting recall effort.

"Now, more than ever, we need reformers: leaders who think more about the next generation than just the next election," Walker said. "That’s what you get from Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan."

The NBC Politics team has curated some of the notable speeches from the first night of the Republican National Convention in Tampa.  

Ann Romney talks about her marriage to Mitt Romney, her children and their lives together as she characterizes the GOP nominee as a trustworthy, compasionate leader.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie uses his keynote address at the Republican National Convention to talk about New Jersey's successes and how he believes that as a country "we are beginning to do what is right ... to make our country great again." 

House Speaker John Boehner tells the rank-and-file at the Republican National Convention that "we can do better" as he pans President Barack Obama's performance.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell emphasizes the importance of small business owners in America as he criticizes President Barack Obama's fiscal policies at the Republican National Convention.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker criticizes President Barack Obama's fiscal policies while promoting the experience of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney at the Republican National Convention.

Addressing the Republican National Convention, Former Senator Rick Santorum broke from the recurring theme of criticising President Barrack Obama's fiscal policies to emphasize social issues.

South Carolina Gov. Nikky Haley denounces President Obama's fiscal policies while depict GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney as a results driven leader.

According to a family friend of former Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter:

Early in the week of July 15th, the former senator collapsed while playing squash. He required emergency surgery to remove a growth in his abdomen that was affecting his breathing.

At that time, doctors discovered the reemergence of an aggressive cancer. He was severely ill with an infection following surgery and at one point that same week was not expected to survive even hours. 

Defying all medical expectations, since that time, he has responded remarkably well to vigorous chemotherapy and has been moved to a rehabilitation facility. He does go to the hospital for treatments, but is not currently in the hospital.

*** UPDATE *** Vicki Siegel Herson, a former Specter staffer says, “Anyone who knows Arlen Specter knows never to count him out as he will never ever give up."

College journalists from key swing states peppered President Obama with questions on Tuesday as part of the president's push to court young voters this week.

Obama hosted a conference call with student reporters at colleges and universities in swing states, which featured questions ranging from education to job opportunities for recent college graduates.

But the president kept the call on message, answering many of the questions with attacks on Romney featured heavily in his speeches.

"Gov. Romney's message and the whole republican platform basically is: if we cut taxes some more, even if it's paid for by raising taxes on middle class families, even if it means cutting out loan assistance programs, cutting out basic investments in research and science, voucherizing the Medicare program, that somehow we're going to be better off," Obama told students.

While the call was only technically available to student news organizations, NBC News was able to listen in on the conversation.

The president endeavored to explain some of his state-by-state strategy to the students.

One Ohio State University journalist asked why the president was specifically targeting central Ohio, mentioning that the president has visited Ohio State University multiple times in the past few years. The president said visiting the school wasn’t just about getting votes.

“Obviously OSU is a huge university and so there's a lot of students there," he said. "So it makes sense for me to make sure I'm going where I can reach as many people as possible.”

He continued: ”Part of my goal when I go to universities is not only to get votes but also to highlight some of the great work that's currently being done and you know, if Ohio is doing well, then America is going to do well."

He also gave that reporter a little scoop, “I expect if you're not completely tired of me, you're going to see me at Ohio State again."

And Obama wrapped up the call with the overall theme of the three college town stops today and tomorrow, by thanking the reporters informing students of the need to make their voices heard and “know the rules to make sure they're going to be able to vote.”

"Regardless of whether you're voting Democrat, Republican, the key here is to make sure that your voice is heard and hopefully people will get educated on the issues," he said.

Updated at 9:50 pm ET Having a famous – or notorious – crossover from the opposing party speak at your party’s national convention is a time-honored tradition, one that former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama continued Tuesday night when he addressed the Republican convention in Tampa.

"The last time I spoke at a convention, it turned out I was in the wrong place,"  Davis told the delegates, an allusion to his speech at the 2008 Democratic convention in Denver.  

In another reference to that convention, Davis said, "Maybe we should have known that night in Denver that things that begin with plywood Greek columns and artificial smoke typically don’t end well."

He said he and other Obama supporters in 2008 "led with our hearts and our dreams that we could be more inclusive than America had ever been, and no candidate had ever spoken so beautifully."

But he said "dreams meet daybreak: the jobless know what I mean, so do the families who wonder how this Administration could wreck a recovery for three years and counting."

Despite crossover speakers such Davis being an established convention ritual, it’s a ritual that still angers some people in the former party of the “turncoat” speaker.

Davis’s former Democratic colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus released a letter Tuesday in which they accused him not only of “transparent opportunism” but of “nakedly personal and political calculation” and “simmering anguish” over having lost the Democratic nomination for governor of Alabama.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL) talks on the phone while standing on a balcony outside the U.S. Capitol March 19, 2010 in Washington, DC.

They noted that Davis, while a Democratic House member in 2009, had voted for the Obama stimulus bill and for the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, stances putting him at odds with almost all Republicans.

The most famous crossover was Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate who went to St. Paul, Minn., to speak on behalf of his friend, Republican nominee Sen. John McCain.  Prior to that convention, Lieberman was even widely reported to have been in contention to be McCain’s running mate.

A recurring theme of such crossover speakers is their disenchantment with -- and sometimes bitterness -- toward their former party. In one form or another, these crossover speakers are echoing Ronald Reagan’s remark, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. It left me.”

Four years ago, there were Lieberman counterparts – albeit less famous – on the Democratic side.

Jim Leach, a 15-term Republican House member from Iowa who’d been defeated in the 2006 election, endorsed Obama at the Democratic convention in Denver.

Although Leach said he was “proud of my (Republican) party’s contributions to American history” he praised the “good judgment of good people in this good party, in nominating a transcending candidate,” who will “be a truly great president.”

Leach, one of only six House Republicans to vote in 2002 against the resolution authorizing President Bush to use military force against Iraq, said in Denver that “the party of military responsibility has taken us to war with a country that did not attack us.”

Obama later appointed Leach to be chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Another Republican who appeared at the Democratic convention to show his support for Obama was former Reagan administration Justice Department official Doug Kmiec.

He was still fuming about the way the Mike Huckabee campaign had attacked the man Kmiec supported for the GOP nomination in 2008, Mitt Romney.

Kmiec told me in Denver he had “been greatly impressed by Sen. Obama’s understanding of faith” and slammed Republicans for “using faith as a way of winning elections, creating fear and animosity in evangelicals and Catholics that ‘the Democrats hate you….’ That kind of fear –mongering has become a (Karl) Rove-ian trademark.”

Obama later appointed Kmiec ambassador to Malta.

The most dramatic crossover speaker at a recent convention was Zell Miller, former Democratic senator from Georgia, who delivered a scathing attack on his former Senate colleague, John Kerry, at the 2004 Republican convention in New York.

(In 2005, Bush appointed Miller to the American Battle Monuments Commission.)

“Listing all the weapon systems that Sen. Kerry tried his best to shut down sounds like an auctioneer selling off our national security,” he added.

“This is the man who wants to be the Commander in Chief of our U.S. Armed Forces? U.S. forces armed with what -- spitballs?”

On Tuesday it was Davis’s turn to fire some spitballs at Obama.

Don’t call it a comeback. At least not anymore.

Chris Christie proudly touted the “New Jersey Comeback” in both his 2011 and 2012 State of the State addresses. 

But the hard-charging Republican governor said those three words won’t be in his hotly anticipated keynote speech at tonight’s Republican National Convention.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie looks over the podium during a sound check at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012.

"Let’s make one thing really clear,” Christie said Wednesday, per the New Jersey Star Ledger. “There are three words that are not in my speech Tuesday night: ‘The Jersey Comeback.’ So for all those Democrats real worried or got real excited that maybe I’d have to take it out or maybe I put it in, those three words aren’t in the speech.”

There’s a reason for that. When Christie took office in Jan. 2010 unemployment was 9.7 percent. It dropped to 9.0 percent earlier this year, but has since ballooned to 9.8 percent – the highest it’s been in 35 years.

It declined to 9.4 percent when Christie gave his 2011 State of the State Address.

“New Jersey’s comeback has begun,” Christie declared. He added later: “The unemployment rate has begun to drop— and today is below, not above, the national average.”

By his 2012 address, New Jersey’s unemployment rate fell even further to 9.0 percent -- and Christie was going to capitalize. He mentioned “New Jersey Comeback” eight times during the speech.

“Today, I am proud to report that the New Jersey Comeback has begun,” Christie said. “How do we know it has begun? Just look around you. In the last two years, we have come together to address the mess that was our budget. The decline, deficits, and departures that plagued our State just two years ago have been reversed. The budget is balanced. Our unemployment rate is no longer going up, it is coming down. Job growth has been restored – in the private sector, where we want it. New Jersey is back. … People are recognizing the New Jersey Comeback all around the world.” 

But in the months since that speech, the state’s unemployment rate has since climbed to 9.8 percent.

The stimulus, which allocated $17.5 billion to New Jersey, helped keep teachers, firefighters, and police officers employed. But, since Jan. 2010, the state has lost 26,000 government jobs, a 4 percent decline. On the other hand, private-sector jobs have gained 73,000 jobs, a 2% gain. 

Christie is sure to fire up the crowd with what the Mitt Romney campaign is billing as trademark Christie -- “brash” and “bold.”

He is still popular back home. A Quinnipiac poll in July found his approval rating at 54 percent. But his statewide economic record could also highlight for a wider national audience the potential downside of severe budget cuts when it comes to short-term job creation.

Updated 6:21 pm. - TAMPA, Fla. -- Republicans formally nominated Mitt Romney for president on Tuesday, minting the former Massachusetts governor as the party's official opponent this fall versus President Barack Obama.

Romney has been the presumptive Republican presidential nominee since late spring, when his major opponents ended their campaigns for president. But he will be able to shed the "presumptive" qualifier when he formally accepts the nomination during his Thursday night speech.

David Goldman / AP

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks as as Mitt Romney is nominated by the state delegates for the Office of the President of the United States at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012.

Republicans held the roll call of state delegations late Tuesday afternoon, delayed from its initial scheduled vote during Monday's hurricane-canceled session. Convention Secretary Kim Reynolds presided over the vote.

"I am truly honored to annouce these votes for a man who happens to be my brother, and whom I love: Mitt Romney, the next president of the United States," said Scott Romney, the brother of Mitt Romney, in leading Michigan's delegation in casting its votes.

Shortly thereafter, Republicans nominated Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as their vice presidential candidate by acclimation.

Slideshow: The 2012 Republican National Convention

There were occasional outburts of cheers for Texas Rep. Ron Paul when some states' delegates voted for the retiring congressman. Some delegates abstained from voting in instances, suggesting their dissenting opinion from Romney.

The fanfare on Romney's behalf at the convention hall made the delegate math of the Republican primaries earlier this year almost seem like an afterthought. Romney's battles with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum had seemed, for a time, to threaten to transform the battle for the GOP nomination into a protracted delegate battle.

When Romney accepts the nomination, he'll be able to access and spend tens of millions of dollars he has raised in general election funds. This formal distinction will enable the former Massachusetts governor's campaign to spend millions more on organization and television ads heading into the height of the fall campaign.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Republican leaders pushed through contentious changes to delegate rules over the objection of conservatives and supporters of Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Loud boos erupted Tuesday on the floor of the Republican National Convention as RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, ruled that a voice vote was sufficient to approve credentialing rules for delegates at future conventions.

Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

Delegates shout in protest over changes in Republican party rules that would restrict the impact of grassroots movements, before a vote to adopt the new rules during the second session of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, August 28, 2012.

Chants that sounded like "Seat them now!" did battle with chants of "U-S-A" from supportive delegates seeking to shout the protestors down.

The rules change essentially tightens party control over the manner in which delegates are allocated and bound to candidates.

The proposal prompted frustration from some supporters of Paul, whose campaign was able to appeal to the somewhat arcane rules of delegate allocation to win a majority of four states' delegations, despite having failed to win a single nominating contest.

Other conservatives -- including 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin -- had protested the move as a power play to shut out grassroots conservatives.

As Priebus and Boehner brought up the controversial rules change for a voice vote, supporters replied with loud "ayes," and almost equally vocal "noes."

When Boehner determined, in his capacity as the convention's permanent chairman, that the ayes had won it, cheers and boos mixed together in the convention hall.

TAMPA, FLa. -- Rick Santorum on Tuesday accused President Obama and liberals of advocating for abortions, an attack aimed at discrediting the notion that the Democratic Party is more inclusive than Republicans.

"I love how the left and this president talk about inclusion as they advocate the discarding and destruction of over one million children every year," Santorum said. "Some inclusion."

The former Republican presidential candidate spoke here at the "Treasure Life" event sponsored by the Republican National coalition for life and Family Research Council. His remarks came just days after Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin's controversial statement that women are unlikely to become pregnant from rape and referred to "legitimate rape." It's also just hours before Santorum will take the stage at the Republican National Convention, where he is expected to deliver a speech centered on work and welfare reform.

In an appearance on CBS earlier today, Santorum delivered much milder words than many of his Republican colleagues who have weighed in on Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin's controversial statement the women are unlikely to become pregnant from rape. He called Akin a "good man" who made a "ridiculous statement."

At the "Treasure Life" luncheon, Santorum received an award for his work as an anti-abortion rights advocate, as did former presidential hopefuls Rep. Michele Bachmann and Gov. Rick Perry. 

This was not the first time Santorum has accused the president of advocating for abortions. While campaigning in Ohio in February, the former Pennsylvania senator accused Obama of requiring free prenatal testing in the Affordable Care Act because it would detect if children were disabled, encourage more abortions and save money. 

"One of the things that you don't know about ObamaCare in one of the mandates is they require free prenatal testing," he said. "Why? Because free prenatal testing ends up in more abortions and, therefore, less care that has to be done, because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society. That too is part of ObamaCare -- another hidden message as to what president Obama thinks of those who are less able than the elites who want to govern our country."

Santorum was known for his fiery rhetoric on the campaign. His strongest advocates were those in the Republican Party who place the heaviest emphasis on social issues. And though he was presumptive nominee Mitt Romney's biggest critic during the primary, he will defend the former Massachusetts governor when he takes the stage tonight.

"We can walk out of Tampa proudly with a platform and a nominee that stands for life," he told the crowd this afternoon.

Not all who spoke used such harsh words. Perry ended his speech with a plea for compassion for the women who decide to undergo an abortion.

"You know, we talk a lot about protecting unborn children, and we should," he said. "But we also need to recognize that there are women who ache because of the decision that they made to terminate the pregnancy. They live with those emotional scars.... Our message to these women that feel this pain from abortion, is not that we judge you, but we love you. And in you, that your heart aches, the pro-life movement looks upon you with open hearts. Our No. 1 imperative is to protect innocent lives." 

TAMPA, FL -- How much of a bounce in the polls can Mitt Romney expect coming off his official acceptance of the GOP nomination this week at the Republican National Convention in Tampa? 

It depends on whom you ask in Romney World. Indeed, two Romney advisers have given two different answers to this question in the past month.

This morning on a campaign flight from Boston to Tampa, senior strategist Stu Stevens faced a question about the predicted bounce, and replied with these four words: "I have no idea."

Stevens attributed the uncertainty to the extraordinary nature of this convention, including the truncated program thanks to Hurricane Isaac, and the opening of the Democratic National Convention immediately following the upcoming holiday weekend.

"Of course, this convention is different because of the hurricane. I mean, conventions are different now. They’re much later now than we were having them. The way that you’re having back-to-back conventions."  

"We’ve never come into a convention after another campaign has spent half a billion dollars. Plus the outside groups. So I just think all bets are off about any kind of past performance being a predictor of the future," said Stevens, a veteran of multiple past Republican presidential campaigns. 

But on Aug. 10, at a briefing with senior staff and advisers to the Romney campaign, one top campaign official suggested that if history is any guide, Romney stood to gain more political ground from his convention than President Obama would from his. 

The senior Romney adviser cautioned that this convention would be unlike any in recent history because of how close the two conventions run to one another, but added that if history was a guide, Romney should get a substantially bigger bounce than President Obama following the two conventions.

Displaying a power point slide, the Romney adviser showed two sets of historical polling dating back to 1976, and explained:

"The incumbent averaged a minus-four on the ballot going into the convention and came out plus three. The challenger, because the challenger is less well known and not as well defined, came in at minus-four and came out at plus seven. So they picked up about 11 points. So the challenger picks up more points than the incumbent does, which makes sense."

"In terms of image, the incumbent's image on average before and after their convention went up nine points. The challengers image on average went up 18 points," the adviser continued, explaining that while it would be nearly impossible to get a good measurement on a possible Romney bounce before the DNC begins but that history seems to suggest, as the lesser-known challenger Romney could see a big swing in the polls after the convention gavels closed. 

"It just gives you an idea of potentially the convention should be of more benefit to Mitt Romney and our campaign than it will be to Barack Obama because Barack Obama is already pretty well defined," the adviser said.

President Barack Obama set off on a college tour on Tuesday intended to recapture young voters' enthusiasm heading into the height of his re-election campaign.

The president told an audience of Iowa coeds that they should be more invested in his campaign than any other age group, during a stop at Iowa State University in Ames.

"The truth is you've got more at stake in this election than just about anybody. When you step in that voting booth, the choice you make in that one instance is gonna shape your country and your world for decades to come," Obama told about 6,000 students. "I know that's a pretty heavy idea to lay on you on a Tuesday but it's true."

Obama warned that his Republican opponent Mitt Romney, if elected, would enact policies that would be detrimental to college-aged students and recent graduates, seizing on Romney’s opposition to the national health care law, which has allowed students up to age 26 to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans.

"Gov. Romney promised that sometime between taking the oath of office and going to the inaugural ball he'd sit right down, grab a pen and kick 7 million young people off their parents' plan by repealing health reform," the president said.

Playing on the Republicans’ derisive term for the law – "Obamacare" – the president said, "Maybe we should call his plan Romney Doesn't Care. Because I do care."

Speaking in front of thousands of enthusiastic college students is an unusual route for an incumbent to take while his opponent’s party is kicking off its convention, but the president took a full-steam-ahead approach, even taking a jab at the Tampa confab during his Iowa speech.

“It should be a pretty entertaining show,” Obama said. “It will be and I’m sure they’ll have some wonderful things to say about me,” he continued, referring to Republicans gathered in Tampa.

The president’s three-state college tour, which after Iowa takes him to Colorado and Virginia, taps into two key elements of his 2012 re-election strategy: winning a combination of battleground states as well as repeating his lopsided victory among college-age voters.

By the end of this trip, the president will have visited five colleges in August alone, all of them in key swing states: Rollins College in Florida; Capital University in Ohio; plus the three schools in Iowa, Colorado and Virginia.

The good news for Obama in recent polling? He’s still leading Mitt Romney 52 to 41 percent among young voters, a key part of his winning 2008 coalition.

At this week’s Republican convention in Tampa, one of the tasks of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett and state party chairman Rob Gleason is to convince party activists that their state really is winnable for Mitt Romney, firing the delegates up so “when they go back to Pennsylvania they hit the ground running,” as Corbett said Monday.

But there are reasons to doubt that Pennsylvania will be one of the states where Romney and President Barack Obama will be fighting it out 60 days from now in the closing phase of the campaign.

• First, the Democrats enjoy an edge in voter registration over Republicans in Pennsylvania of well over one million voters. In the city of Philadelphia the Democratic voter registration advantage is better than 6 to 1, which is one reason why healthy turnout in Philadelphia is vital to Obama and to any Democratic presidential candidate. In some jeopardy in Pennsylvania just eight days before the 2004 election, Democratic candidate John Kerry brought in former president Bill Clinton, recuperating from heart bypass surgery, to join him at a rally in downtown Philadelphia. Kerry ended up winning the state by 144,000.
• No Democrat has lost the state since Mike Dukakis in 1988. Obama carried it by 620,000 votes in 2008 and his margin in Philadelphia was nearly 480,000 votes, margins that will be very hard for Romney to erode and overcome, especially if he’s investing most of his time and campaign advertising dollars in places such as Ohio and Florida.
• In 2008, Obama carried bellwether exurban Chester County which George W. Bush had carried fairly easily in 2000 and 2004  -- Democrats see this as evidence that highly affluent, college-educated exurban voters are trending Democratic over the long term.
• The latest Franklin & Marshall poll shows Obama with a six percentage point lead in the state, 44 percent to 38 percent, over Romney, with 15 percent undecided.
• So far, both sides' ad spending in Pennsylvania has been modest, compared to what they've been spending in states such as Ohio, Virginia, and Nevada. Three Republican groups have spent more than $11 million on TV ads, according to NBC's ad-tracking data, but Romney's own campaign has yet to spend any money on TV in Pennsylvania. The Obama campaign and an allied group, Priorities USA, have spent $8 million on TV so far in the state.
• Finally, if voter sentiment turns really sour on Obama in September and October he’ll be fighting for survival in other places such as Virginia, Iowa, and Florida, and not just in Pennsylvania.

Yet, having said all that, Republicans scored some remarkable successes in Pennsylvania in the 2010 elections: gaining 15 seats in the state House, taking control of the legislature (and thus of re-districting), electing a Republican governor, a United States senator, Pat Toomey, and gaining five House seats that Democrats had held, most significantly in battleground Bucks County and Delaware County in the suburbs outside Philadelphia.

Read: Villaraigosa: Republicans 'can't just trot out a brown face'

In an interview, Gleason explained that Republicans built on their successes in the 2010 elections in 2011: “Last year in our local grassroots elections, we took 53 counties, we’ve never had 53 counties before (out of 67 counties in the state); we have courthouse control of the commissioners. So our grassroots is playing really well.”

And he noted that in every mail piece the state GOP sent out in county commissioner races last year, “We had Obama’s picture on them” -- linking the president to local Democratic candidates.

Gleason has been state party chairman for a long stretch, six years, and he said, “I’ve learned a lot of lessons – Barack Obama taught me a few four years ago.”

Gleason kept his state party staff on the payroll after the 2010 elections. “In the old days they would lay people off after the election and just wait for the next one. I’ve had the same team working around the state: our job is turnout.”

“Mitt Romney has to sell himself. I think that he is doing a good job,” he said. “He plays really well in the suburbs of Philadelphia, where John McCain maybe didn’t and maybe some other people didn’t. There are a lot of independents there now and they see Mitt Romney as a bit more moderate than some of candidates in the past.”

Recommended: Convention seeks to repair GOP erosion with women and Latinos

But he said Philadelphia is “where we get crushed. We lost it by 478,000 votes in 2008….Our biggest problem was that there are 1,999 precincts” in Philadelphia “and in 1,000 of them we didn’t have a Republican on the election board. You’re allowed to have a minimum of two Republicans on the (five-member) board. We didn’t have any…. I hope that by Election Day we’ll only have 600 uncovered.”

The importance of having Republicans on local elections boards is that now with state law requiring photo ID for voters, “they’ll make sure everybody shows a photo ID.”

On Sept. 13, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will hear an appeal of a lower court ruling that allowed the voter identification law which Corbett signed last year to be enforced in the Nov. 6 election.\

More from Tom Curry: Polling data on recession-wracked electorate gives GOP hope

Even if the court blocks enforcement of the law, or if the Justice Department intervenes in the dispute, Gleason said, “Enough has been said; everybody’s heard about it. No matter what they (the courts) decide now, people think you’ve got to have it.”

And some Republicans think the voter ID requirement will deter the use of “street money” which some Republicans allege Democrats use to pay people to cast votes using the names of deceased voters.

Gleason said it would be “a wonderful victory for me” to hold Obama’s margin in Philadelphia to under 400,000.

“We lost the suburbs by 200,000, but this time he said “we going to win the suburbs this time. That (2008) was a whole different ball game.”

Referring to Gleason and his team, Franklin & Marshall College pollster and political scientist Terry Madonna said, “I think they did learn a lesson (from the 2008 campaign) about the organizational side of things.”

But he noted that every poll in Pennsylvania shows Romney behind. And Madonna asked, “What is their plan to win the Philadelphia suburbs?”

Tonight’s theme at the GOP convention -- “We Built It” -- is a direct reference to President Obama’s “You didn’t build that” remark he made in Roanoke, VA on July 13. 

Republicans have argued that the line typifies Obama’s disdain for the private sector. An example from excerpts the Romney campaign released of Virginia  Gov. Bob McDonnell’s speech tonight:

“We need a President who will say to a small businesswoman: congratulations, we applaud your success, you did make that happen, you did build that! Big government didn't build America: You built America!”

Democrats point out that the line was taken out of context – in a discussion about how no one achieved success on their own. In fact, they have argued that “You didn’t build that… Somebody  else made that happen” was referring to the roads and bridges that preceded the comment, not someone’s business. Here's what Obama said:

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help.  There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.  Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive.  Somebody invested in roads and bridges.  If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen.  The Internet didn’t get invented on its own.  Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

TAMPA, Fla. –  After a one-day delay, the Republican National Convention has kicked off, and the party’s overtures to women and Latinos – two groups with whom the GOP has lagged in this election cycle – will make up the centerpiece of Tuesday’s programming.

Some Republican Latinos regarded as rising stars in the party will be thrust into the national spotlight over the next few days, part of a comprehensive effort by the GOP to court Hispanic voters, an increasingly important voting bloc in several swing states.

Among the Latino speakers appearing at Tuesday's Republican National Convention session are Rep. Francisco Canseco, R-Texas, Sher Valenzuela, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Delaware, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, and Texas GOP Senate nominee Ted Cruz.

And Luce Vela Fortuno, the first lady of Puerto Rico, will introduce Ann Romney before her highly anticipated address.

All conventions are choreographed to send a very specific message to voters, and are intended to win additional support that the presidential candidate or party might not have been able to count on.

NBC Latino: Republican Latinos unite behind Romney and focus on the economy

But the stakes are particularly high for the GOP this cycle given Mitt Romney’s deficit with Latino voters, along with a similar disadvantage with women – groups whom the Obama campaign has assiduously courted as it charts a path toward re-election.

“The party has shot itself many times in the foot with the community; it hasn’t done all it could,” said Al Cardenas, the American Conservative Union chairman who’s long pushed for greater efforts to court Latinos. “The good news for Romney is that the party kind of hit bottom, so the arrow has nowhere to point but north.”

Johnny Hanson / AP

Ted Cruz, left, and his general consultant Jason Johnson look at early returns in his war room at the JW Marriott in the Galleria during his runoff election on July 31, 2012, in Houston.

Republicans feel they’re putting forward more powerful voices than ever, though, in their bid to win over Hispanics. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s speech introducing Romney on Thursday is one of the convention’s most highly anticipated, as are the speeches by Cruz and Sandoval.

“I think the GOP putting our five highest-level elected Latinos as speakers at the convention is really a very good thing,” said Ana Navarro, a Florida-based Republican strategist.

Read: Villaraigosa: Republicans 'can't just trot out a brown face'

President George W. Bush won 44 percent of the Latino vote in his 2004 re-election bid, and Arizona Sen. John McCain won 31 percent of the Latino vote in 2008. Both were proponents of comprehensive immigration reform.

In the most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Telemundo poll, Romney won the support of just 23 percent of registered Latino voters – an ominous sign, especially since Hispanic voters are wielding growing influence in several swing states.

“If the polls are accurate, and Romney is under 30 percent – in the high 20s with Latinos – it really is very concerning,” said Navarro.

“If the needle doesn't move, put a fork in Romney because he's done.”

Democrats have been dismissive of Republican efforts to court Latinos as mere lip service for Hispanic voters and their concerns.

"You can't just trot out a brown face or a Spanish surname and expect people are going to vote for your party or your candidate," said Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at a press conference Tuesday morning.

But arguably just as pressing for Republicans this week is their need to eat into Obama's and Democrats’ advantage among women.

Obama led Romney 51 percent to 41 percent among women in the August NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, and the GOP brand lags significantly behind the Democratic brand among women voters. Forty-five percent of women in the August poll had a favorable impression of the Democratic Party, while 36 percent had an unfavorable view; women voters had a 36 percent positive view of the GOP, and a 47 percent negative view.

Related: “We need the Hispanic vote and we want to win it,” says Craig Romney

Republicans are hopeful that Tuesday evening’s speeches by Ann Romney and Washington Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers will help soften women’s views of the party, especially on the heels of Missouri Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin’s recent comments about rape.

Other prominent GOP women taking the stage tonight are Gov. Nikki Haley, R-S.C., Gov. Mary Fallin, R-Okla., and New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte (a rumored member of Mitt Romney's vice presidential short list).

“We’re not in territory where we can’t win … you can lose women by 7 to 8 points and win the election,” said Sara Taylor Fagen, a former communications director in the Bush administration. “We’re in territory with Hispanics where, if over the long term we don’t improve, we can’t win.”

Jewel Samad / AFP - Getty Images

Mitt Romney's wife, Ann, answers questions from the media on board their campaign plane on Aug. 28, 2012 en route to Tampa, Florida, for the Republican National Convention.

The Obama campaign has seized on instances where Republicans seemed to target access to contraception this past year in order to strengthen its advantage among women; it's backed up that message with millions in television advertising.

California Rep. Mary Bono Mack, a Republican who supports abortion rights, said earlier today on MSNBC that she wished the GOP would use “softer” language in its platform when it comes to reproductive rights.

“I think that we would be better served if we loosened that up a bit,” she said.

But Republicans might be better served to stay the course with their emphasis on the economy and health care rather than contraceptive issues.

“Women in this campaign who are going to vote on the basis of social issues have already probably decided for Barack Obama,” she said. 

TAMPA, Fla. -- Ron Paul's appearance Tuesday on the floor of the Republican National Convention evoked split conventions of the past as the retiring Texas congressman received a hero's welcome from supporters.

The former two-time GOP presidential candidate walked out to greet a roaring group of supporters from the Nevada delegation, one of several he won during the detailed process of allocating delegates to this convention.

When asked by NBC News what he hoped to accomplish by visiting the floor, Paul said, "Just saying hi to some friends from Nevada."

Paul supporters started chanted, "Let Him Speak!" When Romney supporters started chanting "Romney, Romney!" Paul backers screamed "Ron Paul! Ron Paul," drowning out the delegates pledged to the Republican nominee-in-waiting.

After posing for pictures and signing some autographs, Paul left the floor ahead of the official start of the session. The convention will feature a video tribute to Paul, and his son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, will address delegates this week.

Although the gathered delegates tonight will nominate Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan -- during the roll call vote -- they won’t become the official nominees until they deliver their acceptance speeches, according to Republican officials. 

So for Romney, he doesn’t become the official nominee -- and can’t start spending his money earmarked for the general election -- until Thursday. 

New Hampshire's former Republican Governor John Sununu laid out the contrast we can expect between tonight's two keynote speeches at the Republican National Convention from Chris Christie and Ann Romney. 

"One will be hot and one will be cool," Sununu said. 

He suspects Christie's keynote will focus on "what's wrong with America," whereas Ann Romney's main point will be "Mitt Romney the person."

Watch David's entire PRESS Pass conversation with John Sununu above to hear more from the former governor about the fall campaign and what he thinks Mitt Romney needs to do in order to win in November. 

The NBC Politics team is pleased to offer our app and mobile users a live stream of the 2012 Republican National Convention for your convenience. Watch the latest convention speeches and events in real time, on the go, on your iPad or iPhone. Tonight's session will begin at 7:00 p.m. with remarks from House Speaker John Boehner.

Click here to watch the live stream on your iPad or desktop computer.

Click here to watch the live stream on your iPhone.

Updated, 1:30 p.m. - TAMPA, Fla. -- Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said that Republicans "can't just trot out a brown face" to make inroads with the Latino community, an increasingly important growing bloc.

As the GOP prepares to showcase some of its rising Hispanic stars during the next two days of its national convention, the Democratic mayor dismissed Republican overtures toward Latinos as insincere.

"You can't just trot out a brown face or a Spanish surname and expect people are going to vote for your party or your candidate," Villaraigosa said at a press conference here organized by the Democratic National Committee.

"People are going to vote just like Anglos do, just like African-Americans do, and virtually every demographic group. They vote for people based on what they say, what they've done, and what they're going to do," he later added.

Among the Latinos speaking in Tuesday's Republican National Convention programming are Rep. Francisco Canseco, R-Texas. Sher Valenzuela, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Delaware, Republican Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and Texas GOP Senate nominee Ted Cruz.

But, other staunch opponents of illegal immigration -- like Iowa Rep. Steve King, who's speaking as well on Tuesday -- will also be among the featured voices in the day's program.

"I don't think it's going to do much for him, frankly," Villaraigosa said of the GOP's overall message.

The Los Angeles mayor predicted that President Barack Obama would win "close to 70 percent" of the Latino vote in his re-election effort; Romney advisers have set a goal in the upper-30th percentile in targeting Hispanic voters.

Latino voters are of particular importance in swing states like Colorado, Florida and Virginia -- a sign of shifting demographics that Republicans have worried would put them at a long-term political disadvantage unless they were to become more welcoming of Latinos.

Ryan Williams, a spokesman for Romney, said in response to today's Democratic bracketing event: "Today, as we learn that more than a quarter of Democrats believe President Obama does not have a clear plan for creating jobs, his surrogates in Tampa continued to launch false and baseless attacks against Governor Romney.  The facts speak for themselves – with 23 million Americans struggling for work, nearly one in six Americans living in poverty, and median incomes declining, the Obama campaign cannot defend a record of broken promises and failed policies.  Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have a plan to strengthen the middle class by creating jobs and turning around our economy."