One of the great speeches given during the primary season was Mitt Romney's CPAC speech. Unfortunately it was also his concession speech. Shortly after that speech I wrote my reaction to it. I recently re-read that reaction and was struck at how relevant my feelings in February are today, just 14 days from Election Day.

Below is what I wrote in February. It strikes me that the Dependency Doctrine of Barack Obama is the central issue going into the final sprint of this long election cycle. Everything Obama proposes has to do with citizens of the United States becoming more and more dependent on the Government.

America the Dependent? Feb. 7 2008

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

-Thomas Jefferson

Mitt Romney withdrew his candidacy for the republican presidential nomination today. And the media, along with Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama, breathed a sigh of relief. As Mitt finished his speech I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of "what have we done!?" As he walked off the stage it was painfully obvious that the candidate best suited to lead our nation through the difficult choices ahead, had just been eliminated.

However, in his quitting the race, we can take hope. He used the opportunity to speak, to directly attack the speech that Barack Obama gave earlier in the morning at Tulane University. The speech was full of anti-American rhetoric, blame, and anecdotal nothingness. Obama places heavy blame on "America" for the ills in society. He does so in broad sweeping terms, conjuring up stories about poor single mothers, hungry children and worrisome fathers. He said, this morning:

"When I was down in Houston visiting evacuees a few days after Katrina, I met a woman in the Reliant Center who had long known these storms (poverty and joblessness) in her life. She told me, 'We had nothing before the hurricane. Now we got less than nothing.' We had nothing before the hurricane. Now we got less than nothing. I think about her sometimes. I think about how America left her behind. And I wonder where she is today. America failed that woman long before that failure showed up on our television screens. We failed her again during Katrina. And - tragically - we are failing her for a third time."

America is to blame for the poverty of some anonymous woman in Texas. It isn't the failings of her parents or her lack of education, it isn't her laziness or ignorance. It is our fault. Your fault and my fault that she suffers. Now, of course, I am jumping to conclusions in naming her parents or her ignorance as reasons for her failure. My point however is that in Obama's mind, there is nothing she could have done in her life to change her circumstances. She is a victim of an America that has failed her.

This anti-American, pro-dependeny doctrine is a poison that is seeping through our great nation. And it is that poison that Mitt Romney chose to spend much of his speech at CPAC today combating. I believe it was a direct response to Senator Obama's remarks today. He said:

"In the 1960s, there were welfare programs that created a culture of poverty in our country. Now, some people think we won that battle when we reformed welfare. But the liberals haven't given up. At every turn, they tried to substitute government largess for individual responsibility. They fight to strip work requirements from welfare, to put more people on Medicaid, and remove more and more people from having to pay any income tax whatsoever."

He continued,

"Dependency is death to initiative, risk-taking and opportunity. Dependency is culture killing. It's a drug. We've got to fight it like the poison it is."

Barak Obama is traveling the country spreading this poisonous doctrine of dependency. He wants the population to believe that they are not accountable for their own well-being. Obama said:

"So many of us live a life that is ordered, with comforts we can count on. Somewhere, we know, there are people who don't have a house with a sturdy roof; who have nowhere to go when they can't make rent; who don't have a car to drive to another city when a storm is coming; who can't get care when they're sick, or get the education that would give them a chance at their dreams. But too often, we lose our sense of common destiny; that understanding that we are all tied together; that when a woman has less than nothing in this country, that makes us all poorer."

The democratic vision is mired in a socialistic ideology that is neither practical nor healthy. Instead of blaming America for it's poverty, it is time for our leaders to instill a sense of possibility in our citizens. For every woman who had nothing, and less than nothing, there are stories of people who rose above the mud and water of Katrina and rebuilt their lives from the ground up. We live in a land of opportunity. And the opportunity that our Framers designed, and our soldiers have died for is not one of government handouts and dependency--but rather one of innovation and individualism.

It stung to watch Governor Romney concede this morning. But he did it with incredible class and dignity. He took one more chance to lay out his vision of America. A vision that included a people of accountability, responsibility, and with a deep appreciation of the culture that makes America, the beautiful.

"Some reason that culture is merely an accessory to America's vitality. We know that it's the source of our strength. And we will not be dissuaded by the snickers and knowing glances when we stand up for family values and morality and culture. "

That is a culture that Barack Obama is trying to weaken. The defeatism of the Left is as dangerous to our nation as the Jihadist's and their roadside bombs. An America that falls from within, an America that is dependent on its own, and other governments around the world, will never stand against outside military threats.

And so, while I felt an overwhelming sense of "What have we done!?" as Mitt Romney exited the stage, I quickly saw the message he delivered. Ahead of us we have a bitter battle. It is not a battle with Jihadist's. For their success or failure is a product of our success, or failure, in this domestic cultural war. President Hinckley admonished us many times to "stand for something". I believe that now is the time to stand for the principles and ideals that made America the great shining city. The Left will have us surrender our might, so that none may suffer. I'd rather fight for it, so that many may prosper.