Mitt Romney has a new campaign plane, thanks to all that money now freed up by his acceptance of the Republican presidential nomination. Let me quickly recap Thursday night’s winners. Clint Eastwood is the obvious loser. Visit our posts here for Clint Eastwood’s disrespect of President Obama and Obama’s response.

Mitt Romney: “Obama Promised to Begin to Slow the Rise of the Oceans and Heal the Planet, I Will Help You and Your Family” (Photo credit: CBS News)

Winners:

Marco Rubio: He is very talented, but I don’t know how many Latinos he won over for Mitt Romney, since his speech was mostly about him and not so much about Romney. Make no mistake, Marco Rubio a major political star, whether you agree with his political ideology or not. It was a notch below Condoleezza Rice’s speech. He got some good jabs in at Obama’s expense: ”Our problem is not that he’s a bad person. Our problem is that he’s a bad president.”

* The Oparowskis: The tale of the couple who lost their son to cancer was incredibly moving to just about everyone who watched. I teared up a little. We saw Mitt Romney’s human side through his dedication to their young son, when he helped the teenager write a will and delivered the eulogy at his funeral. It painted a side of Romney most people had never seen before. This couple should have delivered their story before Romney’s speech, not before Clint Eastwood’s train wreck.

* Mitt Romney (sort of): He delivered better than I had expected. He gave some simple solutions to many problems, made a bunch of empty promises, as they all do, but I think he made a good enough case to give him a look, though time will tell whether or not people bought the bag of goods he was selling. He gave a workman-like address and made a strong enough case that President Obama hasn’t given us that “hope and change” we expected. He was gracious to the president on getting Osama bin Laden, but had a Cold War-esque resolve about going after the Russians. Bad move. Even Condoleezza Rice would concede that was the wrong fight to pick. There was some half-truths, but clearly not to the extent of Lying Ryan, his vice presidential candidate.

The sparks are going to fly on the campaign trail and during the debate when Mitt Romney will have to answer questions that could make or break his presidential aspirations. I especially liked the line that Obama has no business experience and he does — casting himself as the anti-Obama, though his vice presidential candidate has only worked in government like Obama. A little hypocrisy. The most quoted line of the speech will most likely be: “President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. My promise…is to help you and your family.”

Here’s an interesting take from staunching conservative William Kristol:

“Mitt Romney said not a word about the war in Afghanistan. Nor did he utter a word of appreciation to the troops fighting there, or to those who have fought there. Nor for that matter were there thanks for those who fought in Iraq, another conflict that went unmentioned.”

“Leave aside the question of the political wisdom of Romney’s silence, and the opportunities it opens up for President Obama next week. What about the civic propriety of a presidential nominee failing even to mention, in his acceptance speech, a war we’re fighting and our young men and women who are fighting it?”