Mitt Romney's address yesterday on faith and politics was simply outstanding. I've been fairly critical of Romney on this site, but there is no question that his address yesterday was masterful, and showed a man of conviction, and a man who isn't about to back away from his beliefs, regardless of whether it costs him either the Republican nomination or the presidency. How could one not respect that? What other candidate on either the Republican or Democratic side has given such an original (Romney wrote it himself) and profound speech during this campaign cycle? Romney overruled some of his own advisors, who considered the speech too risky at this juncture in the campaign, and that only increases one's admiration for the man. Can you imagine Hillary Clinton doing the same thing? Of course not.

Pat Buchanan sums Romney's speech up effectively:

If Mitt Romney wins the Republican nomination, it will be due in large measure to his splendid and moving defense of his faith and beliefs delivered today at the George Bush Presidential Library.

The address was courageous in a way John F. Kennedy's speech to the Baptist ministers was not. Kennedy went to Houston to assure the ministers he agreed with them on virtually every issue where they differed with the Catholic agenda and that his faith would not affect any decision he made as president. He called himself "the Democratic Party's candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic."

It was like saying: "I happen to be left-handed. I can't help it."

Romney did not truckle. He did not suggest that his faith was irrelevant to the formation of his political philosophy. While declaring, "I will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause and no one interest," he did not back away an inch from his Mormon faith.

"There are some for whom these commitments are not enough," said Romney. "They would prefer it if I would simply distance myself from my religion, say that it is more a tradition than my personal conviction, or disavow one or another of its precepts. That I will not do. I believe in my Mormon faith, and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers. I will be true to them and to my beliefs."

If this costs me the presidency, said Romney, so be it.

That is the kind of defiance this country can never hear enough of.

What Romney was saying was: If you so dislike or resent my faith you will not vote for me if I stay true to it, don't vote for me. But that may say more about you than it does about me.

Indeed.

Romney has changed many of his positions more than many can comfortably accept, and he has a disturbing tendency to quickly throw associates who get into difficulty under the bus. But of his faith and how it informs his politics, his admirable defense of it, and his refusal to back away from it is commendable and inspiring.

Mitt Romney has - with his speech yesterday - exponentially infused his campaign with new energy, and Republican caucus goers and primary voters are likely to respond accordingly. My own level of respect for Mitt Romney has increased greatly because of his enthusiastic willingness to take the risk of giving this speech, his steadfast refusal to back away from his beliefs, and his needed reminder to the American people that many seek to impose their secular religion on America.

Romney's GOP nomination rivals should be rather anxious on this day, as it seems that Romney's speech has truly hit a nerve with the Republican rank-and-file. As Pat Buchanan stated above, if Romney wins the Republican nomination, his speech of yesterday will have been a major contributor to that effect.