UK: The race to the White House from a British viewpoint

"Put simply, if you thought of Mitt Romney as a joke figure bound to lose in November and soon to be forgotten, think again. This election is knife-edge close – and, to state what for many around the world will be an unwelcome truth, that means either man could win."

The Guardian

Think again. In a few months it could be President Romney

Mitt Romney's lack of charm may not matter. Republicans believe he is the proven turnaround artist that America's economy needs

• Jonathan Freedland

If you're outside the United States, in Britain say, the last time you checked in Mitt Romney was the privileged, hapless candidate born with a silver foot in his mouth who had managed to screw up what should have been the easiest possible assignment – making nice to London on the eve of the Olympics – and was surely destined to go down to defeat in November at the hands of that master rhetorician and campaigner, Barack Obama.

If that's your view, you may want to sit down. For Romney and Obama are now locked in a bitingly tight contest, one that the Republican candidate has a good – and increasing – prospect of winning. On 7 November there is an even, maybe better than even, chance that the world will wake up to President Romney.

This is not a verdict on Romney's speech here in Florida, formally accepting his party's nomination. That was a bland affair – even supporters called it "workmanlike" – which drew a tepid response in the hall. Nor did Romney reveal previously hidden gifts for oratory or suddenly show himself to be a warm, telegenic match for Obama. Instead it is an assessment of the basic political reality, one in which those defects of Romney's might not even matter.

Read it at The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/31/us-economy-needs-president-mitt-romney