Live Blogging Mitt Romney's Speech--WRAP UP

Looking at the maps in The Guns of August, tracing with my index finger von Kluck's sweep through Belgium and then down to Compiegne...that great gray slug smearing itself over Flanders...is depressing.  Why did I choose to read that on vacation, in sunny California, in August? 
Of course WWI was not a surprise to anyone.  Of course it was going to happen.  General staffs from Moscow to Berlin to Paris to London had planned for it for at least fifteen years.  That's what general staffs are for.
We all know the future.  It is, after all, right in front of us. 
Was it a good speech?  My mind was wandering.  I'll try to focus next time.