Romney looking confident ahead of seminal speech

Mitt Romney looked confident when he was on stage a little earlier. He was checking out camera angles, the podium position and doing a mike test.

His core message will be a mix of the deeply personal and the intensely political.

His speech writers are aiming to capture a national mood of disappointment. They recognize that there is little personal anger towards President Obama among swing voters who still regard him as an empathetic and historic figure.

So the tone Romney will choose is not adversarial or combative but gently mocking.

One released extract from his speech, illustrating this tactic:

Delegates are now streaming into the Convention centre. As soon as Romney has finished his speech there will be an avalanche of analysis and instant judgments. But let's all take a deep breath and remember the only verdict that matters is delivered in 68 days by the voters.