Bob Jones III’s endorsement will go a long way in South Carolina, the early primary state in which The Mormon Question loomed largest, but Romney still has everything to gain or lose here in this early stage of his courtship of the Religious Right. Let’s see what kind of response he gets...

A very West Wing entrance, with a side of megachurch. Before any specific observations, I've gotta say Mitt nailed it. Hard. A couple of things worked to his advantage: 1) He had 100 campaigners here, according to a leafleteer I asked. 2) He spoke after dinner, when everyone was rested and ready for another round. Best time slot of the day.

He kicked off saying "I'm pro-family on every level, from personal to political...America's future will not be determined by heads of state, but by heads of households." For some reason he was interrupted by the loudest applause of the day. Everyone said something to that effect, but when Mitt said it people got amped. Then he quoted CS Lewis. From jump, the crowd popped with a boisterousness not seen all day.

And then...family family family family. He hit on the economic, moral and practical advantages of the two-parent, two-sex family, but skillfully slipped in some respect for single moms such as his sister Jane.

He raised some eyebrows on bloggers row when, after citing the Moynihan report, he said "Hats off to Bill Cosby, by the way, for telling it like it is." I'd have felt unfair and shameless going there myself, but I'm not Mitt Romney.

He smartly hit the outrage button on the Maine middle school birth control story. Why did others fail to do this?

Did you know that the "strength and preservation of a civilization" is at stake in the same-sex marriage debate? Me neither.

While Romney confessed to being a pro life "convert," he claimed "I will be a pro-life president, just like I was a pro-life governor." The applause sounded like buy-in.

"By the way, you might've heard that I'm Mormon..."

...Did not lead to The Mormon Speech. Instead of addressing that, he switched gears to talk about how he could keep the Reagan coalition together. Talk about a letdown.

Then it was "We're not going to beat Hillary Clinton by acting like Hillary Clinton." What a zinger.

He wound down by skillfully hammering the family family family message, then backed away to a soundtrack that sounded like hail to the chief with a bass line, looking like a frontrunner.