NMX: Cardenas: I Want Romney's 'Vision for Tomorrow'

Al Cardenas, chairman of the American Conservative Union, awaits Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech Thursday with excitement. He thinks the Republican nominee will focus on the future, exactly as he should.

“I want his vision for tomorrow,” Cardenas told John Bachman of Newsmax.TV in an interview at the convention. “I think most Americans already know the country is in dire straits. Most Americans feel depressed about the future of our nation.”

Watch the exclusive interview here.



And that’s where Romney enters the room. “I think Mitt Romney should talk about how he is going to take us to a better place. If he does that it will be a home run,” Cardenas said.

He thinks the former Massachusetts governor should make his background part of the mix in his speech. “I think he can interlace his success with the Olympics, with business, with why that creates a comfort level that he can get this thing done,” Cardenas said.

“You gotta throw in your strengths and proof of your record to justify why you’re so confident you can get the job done. There will be a little of that interlacing, but most of it will be about tomorrow, not yesterday.”

Cardenas, who provided a Spanish interview to Univision TV network about Romney Thursday, said the Hispanic community has growing interest in the candidate. “They really don’t know Gov. Romney,” he said.

“Ronald Reagan was well known because he was from California with a big Hispanic population. The networks know him well. Same with the Bushes, 41 and 43, but not from Massachusetts where there aren’t many Hispanics.”

But that’s starting to change helped greatly by former Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. “I think by the end of this convention the Hispanic community will know the Mitt Romney I know,” Cardenas said.

He was highly impressed by the speeches of Ann Romney and Paul Ryan earlier at the convention. Romney set the table by “talking about her family and defending success, which I thought was a big deal,” Cardenas said. “To think in America a guy gets criticized for being successful is something that you would have never thought until this election cycle. I thought that she set the record straight. . . . We are successful, and we are blessed, and that’s something to be celebrated not criticized.”

As for Ryan, he “set the predicate about why we’ve had a miserable last four years and the mistakes that have been made and why this president should not be re-elected,” Cardenas said. “You know, he’s not sorry about one single mistake he’s made. He thinks he needs to talk more to the American people but doesn’t regret the course he set the country on.”