A new Gallup poll shows that 38% of national adults rated Mitt Romney’s convention speech as either excellent or good -- that's the lowest percentage since Gallup began tracking this question in 1996. 

The other past convention speeches:
58% said Barack Obama’s ’08 speech was excellent or good
52% said the same of John Kerry’s ’04 speech
52% for Bob Dole’s ’96 speech
51% for Al Gore’s ’00 speech
51% for George W. Bush’s ’00 speech
49% for Bush’s ’04 speech
47% for John McCain’s 08 speech

Joe Skipper / Reuters

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney takes the stage to formally accept the presidential nomination during the final session of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, August 30, 2012.

The Gallup poll also found that 40% of national adults said the GOP’s convention made them more likely to vote for Romney, while 38% said it made them less likely.

TAMPA, Fla. – Among Mitt Romney’s many virtues and accomplishments listed Thursday evening, one of his foremost achievements as governor – enacting sweeping health care reform – was noticeably absent.

Also missing from most of this week’s convention was any mention of the winding-down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, two of the engagements that had largely defined the Republican Party for much of the past decade.

Two top officials from Romney’s time as governor of Massachusetts, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey and Workforce Development Secretary Jane Edmonds, offered testimonials on the Republican presidential nominee’s behalf during the final night in Tampa.

Slideshow: Republican National Convention

But neither of them – and, really, none of the other speakers this week – so much as mentioned the landmark health care reform law Romney signed into law during his lone term in office.

The convention included plenty of promises to undo “Obamacare,” the colloquial name for the health care overhaul President Barack Obama pushed through Congress.

Joe Skipper / Reuters

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney takes the stage to formally accept the presidential nomination during the final session of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, August 30, 2012.

"We will champion small businesses, America’s engine of job growth," Romney said in his acceptance speech. “That means reducing taxes on business, not raising them … it means that we must rein in the skyrocketing cost of health care by repealing and replacing Obamacare."

“The president has declared that the debate over government-controlled health care is over,” Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said in his Wednesday night address. “That will come as news to the millions of Americans who will elect Mitt Romney so we can repeal Obamacare.”

But the convention all but glossed over “Romneycare,” the markedly similar Massachusetts law that Obama has often cited as a model for his own health care law.

Similarly, Romney made no mention of Iraq or Afghanistan, nor did former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a major figure in orchestrating those two wars for the Bush administration.

The only major figure to really make mention of either of the wars was Arizona Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee.

"By committing to withdraw from Afghanistan before peace can be achieved and sustained, the president has discouraged our friends and emboldened our enemies, which is why our commanders did not recommend that decision and why they have said it puts our mission at greater risk," McCain said on Wednesday night.

Romney has struggled to distinguish himself from Obama in terms of how he would differently handle the two wars, and the economy is undoubtedly the prime issue of the 2012 election.

But the Massachusetts law has always been a more politically thorny issue for Romney, having almost tripped up the nominee during the primary fight, precisely for those similarities to Obama’s reforms.

“He is the worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama,” former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said in March of Romney because of that Massachusetts law.

Bringing up Romney’s health care law would, at a minimum, risk cognitive dissonance on the issue; at worst, its mention could stir an angry reaction from the conservative delegates gathered here in Florida.

But conventions are carefully scripted affairs that often help decipher what message a party will carry into the fall campaign. The Romney campaign made clear this week that the economy, jobs and Medicare will be at the core of this November’s election. But maybe not health care.

TAMPA, Fla. – Accepting the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney vowed to move America past what he called the “disappointments” of President Barack Obama’s four years in office if elected to the White House in November.

In a speech that hearkened back to an America typified by Romney’s upbringing “in the middle of the century in the middle of the country,” the nominee argued he was the candidate best suited to rejuvenate a flagging economy.

"Today, the time has come for us to put the disappointments of the last four years behind us," Romney said.

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Mitt Romney stands with his wife, Ann Romney, and family as Paul Ryan and his wife, Janna Ryan, stand with their family on stage as balloons drop during the final night of Republican National Convention in Tampa.

Using a traditional attack line against an incumbent president, Romney said, “This president can tell us that the next four years he’ll get it right.  But this president cannot tell us that you are better off today than when he took office.”

“The time has come to turn the page.”

The nationally televised address, the biggest of Romney’s political career, sought to better introduce him to Americans and erase the low favorable rating from which he suffered before the convention. He made barely veiled overtures toward winning women voters, among whom he trails Obama by 10 points in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Romney's personal side extolled at RNC

But Romney also attempted to project a forward looking vision of America, mentioning the word “future” a total of 13 times during the speech, and the word “tomorrow” three times.

In terms of policy, Romney leaned heavily on the broad planks he’s already outlined as a candidate. He hit Obama on taxes, health care and foreign policy, though he scarcely detailed his own plans on Medicare and made no mention of Iraq or Afghanistan.

Romney’s speech instead intended to seize on voters' disillusionment in Obama, based on the lofty promises made by the then-Illinois senator during his 2008 campaign.

"President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet,” Romney said. “My promise – is to help you and your family.”

And as if to preempt Democratic criticism that he was rooting for failure, Romney said he had hoped for just the opposite.

"I wish President Obama had succeeded because I want America to succeed. But his promises gave way to disappointment and division," Romney said. "This isn't something we have to accept. Now is the moment when we can do something. With your help we will do something."

Watch Thursday night's RNC speeches

Thursday was the culmination of a years-long effort by Romney to capture the nomination, a goal which had eluded his father, the former governor of Michigan. Romney unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination in 2008, and struggled during the 2012 primaries to rally the party’s core of conservatives behind his candidacy before pulling away.

This cycle’s primary – during which Romney boasted of having a “severely conservative” governing record – took its toll on him as a general-election candidate, giving fodder to Obama’s re-election team to use against the Republican during an unforgiving summer campaign.

To that end, much of the Republican National Convention this week in Florida was directed toward reposturing Romney for a general-election audience.

Romney relied on other surrogates earlier in the evening to round out his personal story. Friends, family members, and former co-workers delivered speeches about his leadership in business and government, along with his time in the Mormon Church – a less-discussed aspect of the nominee’s persona.

Slideshow: Republican National Convention

Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images

Republicans gather in Tampa, Florida to officially nominate Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, as the party's candidates for the 2012 presidential election.

Launch slideshow

There were high and low points throughout the convention, and some unusual moments – such as actor Clint Eastwood’s ad-libbed speech to a chair jokingly intended to represent Obama.

Romney sought to address several of his most glaring political vulnerabilities in his acceptance speech. He tried to defray attacks on his career as co-founder of Bain Capital by describing some of the most successful byproducts of the venture capital group's best-known successes.

And Romney celebrated the achievements of women in the private sector and in government, drawing on the example of his own mother's bid for the Senate.

"As governor of Massachusetts, I chose a woman lieutenant governor, a woman chief of staff, half of my cabinet and senior officials were women, and in business, I mentored and supported great women leaders who went on to run great companies," Romney said.

Romney and his veep nominee, Paul Ryan, will take no break from campaigning after a high-stakes week for their ticket, stumping Friday in Florida and Virginia and keeping a busy schedule throughout the weekend.

Obama’s convention, meanwhile, will make the case for a second term at the Democratic National Convention next week in Charlotte, N.C.

The dueling conventions – representing some of the few natural opportunities for candidates to bend the arc of the election – signal the onset of the most intense portion of the general election.

Ryan and Romney, along with Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, will set out to a handful of battleground states over the next 67 days to sway a winnowed group of independents and swing voters who could determine the outcome of the election.

One such state is Florida, the site of the Republican National Convention, and a state on which Romney’s fate might rest this November.

Florida also plays host to one of the three officially sanctioned debates between Obama and Romney scheduled for this fall. (A lone vice presidential debate between Biden and Romney is also on the calendar.)

By virtue of accepting the nomination, Romney now has access to tens of millions of dollars his campaign has raised for the general-election season. The advent of super PACs, political groups with no limits on fundraising or spending, has already pushed the cost of the 2012 election to unprecedented levels, and the price tag is only likely to skyrocket over the remainder of the campaign.

The NBC Politics team is pleased to offer our app and mobile users a live stream of the 2012 Republican National Convention for your convenience. Watch the latest convention speeches and events in real time, on the go, on your iPad or iPhone. Today's session will begin at 7:00 p.m. with remarks from Rep. Connie Mack and will conclude with a speech from Mitt Romney formally accepting the GOP nomination.

Click here to watch the live stream on your iPad or desktop computer.

Click here to watch the live stream on your iPhone.

In the remarks he'll make accepting the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney will offer a harsh indictment of Barack Obama's presidency, as well as promise to create 12 million jobs in his first four years as president, according to excerpts released by his campaign.

"Today the time has come for us to put the disappointments of the last four years behind us, to put aside the divisiveness and the recriminations, to forget about what might have been and to look ahead to what can be," Romney is expected to say.

"Now is the time to restore the promise of America," he will add. "Many Americans have given up on this president but they haven’t ever thought about giving up. Not on themselves. Not on each other. And not on America."

More Romney: "I am running for president to help create a better future -- a future where everyone who wants a job can find one. Where no senior fears for the security of their retirement. An America where every parent knows that their child will get an education that leads them to a good job and a bright horizon. And unlike the president, I have a plan to create 12 million new jobs." 

Romney also talks about his faith.

"Like a lot of families in a new place with no family, we found kinship with a wide circle of friends through our church. When we were new to the community it was welcoming and as the years went by, it was a joy to help others who had just moved to town or just joined our church. We had remarkably vibrant and diverse congregations of all walks of life and many who were new to America. We prayed together, our kids played together and we always stood ready to help each other out in different ways."

And he makes a big pitch to women.

"My mom and dad were true partners, a life lesson that shaped me by everyday example. When my mom ran for the Senate, my dad was there for her every step of the way. I can still hear her saying in her beautiful voice, “Why should women have any less say than men, about the great decisions facing our nation?”

"I wish she could have been here at the convention and heard leaders like Governor Mary Fallin, Gov. Nikki Haley, Gov. Susana Martinez, Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice." 

"As governor of Massachusetts, I chose a woman Lt. governor, a woman chief of staff, half of my cabinet and senior officials were women, and in business, I mentored and supported great women leaders who went on to run great companies."

Actor and director Clint Eastwood has been confirmed as a surprise guest Thursday night at the Republican National Convention.

Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

Director/actor Clint Eastwood accepts the award for Distinguished Collaborator onstage during the 14th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards With Presenting Sponsor Lacoste held at The Beverly Hilton hotel on February 21, 2012 in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Eastwood recently thrust his support behind GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who will receive his official nomination at the convention tonight.

Earlier this year, a Chrysler ad narrated by Eastwood that aired during the Super Bowl appeared to endorse President Barack Obama, prompting the actor to respond that he was not backing either candidate. He then went on to voice his support for Romney earlier this month at a fundraiser in Idaho. 

Eastwood will address the convention Thursday night in Tampa, Fla., before Romney accepts his nomination. Romney will be introduced by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

NBC's Kelly O'Donnell and Sue Kroll contributed to this story.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Almost two weeks ago, Missouri Republican Senate nominee Todd Akin found himself mired in controversy after his remarks about "legitimate rape" and his doubts that a woman could get pregnant after being raped. Since then, many Republican leaders have called for Akin to withdraw from the race, while some conservative leaders (like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee) have defended him.

Recommended: First Thoughts: Mitt's moment

According to interviews with a handful of conservative women here at the Republican convention, opinions about Akin are mixed, with some believing he should remain in the contest. “I think he should stay in," said Mary Summa, an attorney and Republican activist from Charlotte, N.C. "Everybody makes a mistake. It was stupid, it was incorrect, it was wrong. But the guy’s a good man." 

But others think he should step aside. “When something happens like [Akin’s] statement, it’s disappointing to women because rape is the most awful thing that can happen to a woman,” said Suzanne Terrell, a delegate from New Orleans. 

Some of those interviewed are delegates to the convention; others are activists who have gathered here in Tampa. Here are their opinions in their own words: 

Mary Summa
Attorney and Republican activist from Charlotte, North Carolina
Member of the Republican Party Platform Committee 
“I think he should stay in.  Everybody makes a mistake. It was stupid, it was incorrect, it was wrong, but the guy’s a good man.  And he made a misstatement.  He apologized a thousand times.  You know, I think Republicans are really good at eating their own… I don’t think he should get out.  And it’s up to Missouri.  If they want him out, they can get him out.” 

“I’m very pro-life and from my perspective I think it was mountains out of molehills, and the Republicans were the ones who made mountains out of molehills.  We have got to understand – and this is my humble opinion –the inherent dignity of the human person and the right to live is the lynchpin of freedom.  And once we lose that freedom, we will lose every freedom we have.” 

Suzanne Terrell
Delegate from New Orleans, Louisiana
(Terrell runs two organizations working to elect Republican women to office: Project GoPink and ShePAC.  The organizations did not take a position on the Akin controversy, though Terrell said she thought Akin should have stepped aside.  Her organizations supported Akin’s opponent in the Missouri primary, Sarah Steelman.) 

“When something happens like [Akin’s] statement it’s disappointing to women because rape is the most awful thing that can happen to a woman.” “There are [certain] issues that women are better spokespeople on.  Perhaps the Republican Party – and I think they got it this time – needs to encourage more of that conversation, and that sensitivity, that this man clearly was lacking.”  

Natalie Lavering, a delegate from Lake Stevens, Wash., and Heidi Shaw, who is a guest of the Washington state delegation.
Natalie:  "It was an unfortunate comment." 
Heidi:  "He shouldn’t have said it.  I was disappointed in that statement… I thought he was a total idiot to say that."    

Penny Young Nance
Concerned Women for America President 
“[Akin] put not only his foot, but his entire leg in his mouth – and then he kept talking… He apologized and he should have.  Because he really blew it.   However, I don’t think it’s Washington’s place to tell the people of Missouri what to do.”

“[Akin is] pro-life.  He believes in a life exception for the mother.  He believes that in cases of rape that the rapist should be punished, but he thinks it’s still a baby, and so do I.  I have friends… that are products of rape.  And I don’t think that at the end of the day an abortion helps a woman that has been raped.  I think that it further wounds her.  And in addition to the fact that there’s 2-million parents waiting on babies.  No one has to keep a baby they don’t want.”

Just hours before the Republican National Convention played a campaign video Wednesday night showing Mitt Romney at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, his single-biggest financial backer -- billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson -- made a rare public appearance, telling reporters at a Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) event that the GOP presidential candidate is “very pro-Israel” and is “going to defend what he thinks is best for the relationship” between Israel and the United States.

But Adelson, who with his wife has given $10 million to the pro-Romney Restore Our Future super PAC, never had the chance to expand on his views about the Middle East or respond to questions about his mega donations to the GOP cause. As soon as the frail but feisty 79-year-old chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. sat down -- after making a grand entrance clutching a cane and assisted by his Israeli-born wife -- RJC coalition organizers chased away members of the media, repeatedly shouting: “The event is over! We’re going to close this down!”

(Later that evening, a producer with the radio show Democracy Now sought to question Adelson —  being accompanied by Karl Rove — while he was being taken by wheel chair to a fourth floor corporate skybox at the convention. In an incident caught on videotape here, the producer, Mike Burke, reported that a woman identified as Adelson’s daughter grabbed his camera, took it into the skybox and threw it on the ground. Burke said the daughter later apologized.) 

Lior Mizrahi / Getty Images

U.S. gaming tycoon Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam arrive to hear Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney delivers foreign policy remarks on July 29, 2012 in Jerusalem, Israel.

The brief appearance by Adelson came at a spirited event where top members of Congress rubbed elbows with wealthy GOP donors and “Obama ... Oy Vey!” buttons were freely distributed to attendees. At the same time, new details emerged about Adelson’s role in steering supersize checks to groups working to defeat the president and elect Republican members of Congress.

Shortly before Adelson arrived, celebrity rabbi Shmuley Boteach, author of “Kosher Sex” and a one-time spiritual adviser to Michael Jackson who is now running as a Republican candidate for Congress from New Jersey, boasted that Adelson and his wife had recently given $500,000 to “my super PAC” and that they were “heroes of our community.”

Boteach later told reporters that he had then dined with Adelson this week during the RNC convention. “Well, I mean, look they’re friends,” he said of Adelson and his wife. “They don’t need me to tell them where to give their money. They’re very savvy political donors.”

As for the super PAC, called “Patriot Prosperity PAC,” Boteach at first said that, while “we obviously don’t have any contact with them,” it was “set up by the professionals who run my campaign.” 

Although the half-million dollar donation by Adelson and his wife to the “Patriot Prosperity PAC” had already been reported, Boteach’s  reference to “my super PAC” and his reference to it being “set up” by his campaign “professionals”  seemed to raise fresh questions about whether the donations complied with federal election laws. Those laws bar campaign committees from coordinating their activities with supposedly independent super PACs -- which are allowed to take unlimited donations.

But when pressed by reporters about his comments about the origins of the group, the rabbi corrected himself.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” he said when asked if his campaign staff had set up the super PAC donations. “Let’s not pull me into something that I am not -- I said the people who run my campaign are the ones who tell me what we’re allowed to do and what we’re not allowed to do. And we are allowed to tell the people who support us that if they want to support us, there was a super PAC. And that’s what we did. That’s exactly what I meant.”

Adelson’s contributions in the 2012 election --- now, combined with those of his wife, total more than $40 million -- have stirred controversy, in part because of his hardline views on Israel (he is a close friend of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu) but also because of ongoing federal investigations into his gambling empire over allegations that it has paid bribes to Chinese officials.

Also this week, Bloomberg News reported that Adelson’s Sands Corp. -- which generates more than half of its multibillion-dollar revenues from four casinos in Macau -- could see its profits soar if Romney were elected and fulfills his pledge to demand that China loosen currency restrictions, allowing the value of the yuan to rise against the dollar.

Adelson’s appearance was the highlight of the RJC event -- partly sponsored by Comcast (owner of NBC News) -- which was attended by other big GOP donors such as hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer. Also present: GOP Sens. John Thune of South Dakota and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Allen West of Florida, Ed Royce of California and Renee Ellmers of North Carolina.

The event -- briefly interrupted by two protesters who loudly denounced Israeli policies towards the Palestinians and were quickly evicted -- was marked by multiple denunciations of Obama’s policies to Israel.

“I don’t know how there are any Democratic Jews,” said GOP Rep. Billy Long of Missouri. “The way the president has treated [Israeli Prime Minister] Bibi Netanyahu and the land of Israel, I don’t know how any Democratic Jew can still be a Democrat.”

NBC’s Jamie Novogrod also contributed to this story.

Charlie Cook: “Romney’s speech tonight is enormously important—arguably more so than the debates or anything else that is likely to happen between now and Nov. 6…. Romney’s test is more personal. Voters began this week feeling like they didn’t know him. For whatever reason, his campaign is just now getting around to attempting to establish a personal connection between Romney and the public. That connection cannot be made in a debate; the format doesn’t lend itself to it. Romney desperately needs to leave Tampa having created that relationship. Ann Romney’s speech was a start, but tonight, Romney has to do the connecting himself… Romney needs to connect enough to earn the benefit of the doubt from voters." 

More: Swing voters “don’t need to consider him a guy they would like to have a beer with, but they need to feel that if he were a neighbor, they could comfortably ask him to collect the newspapers and the mail while they were away. Focus groups show that people perceive Romney as aloof and wonder whether he would even speak to them. His friends say that this is ridiculous, that he’s a terrific guy. But the doubts persist. Tonight is the night Romney needs to fix that.” 

“[W]hile Thursday’s anointing indeed represents a political triumph for Mitt Romney it is also fraught with risk,” the Boston Globe’s Helman writes. “To name just one: Can the modern Republican Party, with its increasingly conservative bent, successfully court middle-of-the-road voters?” 

The AP: “Mitt Romney is stepping up for the most important speech of his Republican presidential campaign, to an audience of millions, after a rousing warm-up from a running mate who vowed the days of dodging painful budget choices will end if voters toss President Barack Obama from office. Having grasped the nomination on his second try, after years spent cultivating this moment, Romney will use his speech Thursday night to introduce himself to a large portion of voters and claw for advantage in a race that could scarcely be any closer. As part of that introduction, Romney appeared prepared to discuss his Mormon faith in more direct terms than usual, a direction signaled by running mate Paul Ryan on Wednesday night in several allusions to the duo’s differing religions but ‘same moral creed.’”

“Mitt Romney will offer voters a window into his Mormon faith Thursday night before accepting the Republican presidential nomination when the man who succeeded Romney as president of the church’s Boston stake delivers a prayer of invocation,” the Boston Globe writes. 

Susan Page declares: “It is Paul Ryan's party now.” He “signaled the emergence of a more conservative, more combative generation of leaders who are reshaping the Republican Party.”

Ron Brownstein: “Paul Ryan’s forceful but prosaic acceptance speech on Wednesday continued one of the campaign’s most surprising strategic twists: the Republican effort to take the offensive on Medicare. Although polls show that Ryan’s proposal to transform Medicare into a premium-support, or voucher, system still faces enormous public skepticism, he aggressively insisted that President Obama’s health care plan represents the real threat to the giant program for the elderly.”

Molly Ball: “At the Republican convention Wednesday night, there was indeed a lofty, high-minded speech, one that managed to forcefully articulate a conservative world view without cheap partisan attacks or facts stretched to the breaking point. But it wasn't Ryan's -- it was delivered by Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state. Rice's address had a sophistication, ease, and grace almost never found in modern political speeches. It was a speechwriter's speech, the kind you could imagine reading in a history book. She spoke with a diplomat's formality and the teleprompter turned off, glancing only occasionally at her notes on the podium.”

National Journal fact-checks some of the GOP speakers yesterday. 

“Tuning in to the Republican National Convention this week, viewers could be forgiven for thinking they had switched on the Democratic convention of yesteryear, what with all the up-and-coming women and minority politicians taking the stage,” National Journal writes. “It’s a contrast with Democrats, who will trot out a bunch of timeworn white guys next week in Charlotte to help make the party’s case to the nation.”  

Let’s be fair, though: The Democrats’ keynote speaker is Hispanic and the president of the United States is black.