Former Lt. Governor of Florida Toni Jennings under Jeb Bush wrote a commentary in the Tampa Tribune on Romney today:

Last week, Mitt Romney traveled to Washington and dominated a conference of more than 5,000 conservative political leaders. It is no surprise that Gov. Romney had such success. He represents the best virtues of conservative thinking and leadership: He embraces innovation, optimism, transformation, and strength. I am proud to be the honorary chairwoman of his efforts in Florida as he campaigns for our nation's highest office.

On the blogosphere many are trying to discount Romney's CPAC showing (not just the poll). Yet clearly when the dust settles it will be remebered as an early victory for Romney.

Toni goes on,

Romney is a strong leader. At the Olympics in 2002, he turned around an organization mired in scandal and facing financial crisis, and the games were a dramatic success.

As chief executive of Massachusetts, he brought fiscal discipline back to the Statehouse while providing a responsible plan for every citizen to have health insurance.

Out of all the contendors in the field, I would say Romney is the strongest in terms of pure leadership abilities. McCain has never led anything, unless you count his gang of 14, and the effort to stifle grassroots organizations right to free speech. Rudy did do a great job with 9-11, I won't deny it. But it's safe to argue he just happened to be in the right place at the right time, it's not like he had a choice in the matter. I guess he could have abdicated his office and ducked out, but that would have been an egregious sin, not the working standard among mayors. So his 9-11 mayoral experiece is a positive, but it's not going to win him an election.

Romney, it should be noted, gave up a quite successful buisness to run the Olympics and he did it for free. Romney chose to fight for traditional marriage, something he easily could have backed off from. Romney chose to be proactive and work for Health Care reform and he chose to turn a 3 billion deificit into a 1 billion surplus without raising taxes. He chose to veto government waste over and over and he chose to veto over-the-counter abortives.

Toni wraps it up here:

I have been very fortunate to get to know Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, on a personal level. Mitt and Ann live their private lives in exactly the same way they live their public lives - with compassion, honesty, faithfulness, and an optimistic and hopeful belief in the strength of the American people.

Yes, well...I will keep my mouth shut here, but you can guess.