Two things struck me as David and Samantha Cameron held hands to the sound of I'm a Believer at the end of his speech.
First, the whole event showed that the Camerons are the best thing about the Tories – by a mile – in terms of public appeal. They came across wonderfully well.
He spoke so strongly about the family, its importance, what his means to him and how that feeds into his political beliefs.
When he almost cracked when talking about Ivan, his disabled son who died earlier this year, and then of how proud he was to call Samantha his wife it was poignant, almost beyond belief, for a politician.
It seemed so genuine. And it helped his wider argument that a Cameron government will be compassionate, there for those who need help, and will defend the NHS. It was a speech heavily focused (and rightly so) on him. Government, he told us, would above all be a test of "character" "temperament" and "judgment". Cameron's that was.
But (and this is the second thing) in the end it still all fell a bit flat because his arguments remained strained. He asked us to believe that the view from the summit would be worth the struggle, worth the pain.
But the explanation as to why again tested credulity. He told us there would be less government and drastic cuts in spending to get the deficit and debt under control, yet he also told us he would do much, much more to help the poor, support the NHS, improve schools, mend our "broken society".
He would also send more troops to Afghanistan. The Cameron argument rests on his belief that improvement to all our lives will gradually but surely happen by getting government off people's backs, by trusting professionals, by creating a more "responsible" society built from the foundation of strong families.
It rests on faith in society, rather than state. Yet the NHS is part of the state. It is the bigger state employer by far. And you can't help the poor without the state. I came away with no clear idea of our route to the summit and unconvinced as a result that we would ever get there to see the view.
