Introduced by Clint Eastwood's brilliant ad-lib backed by a simple solution: "When somebody does not do the job, we gotta let'em go" ... and Sen. Marco Rubio's distinguishment of America's exceptionalism and that "Our problem with President Obama is not that he's a bad guy; our problem is that he's a bad president" ... Mitt Romney walked through a delegate-flanked aisle, and upon reaching the podium, accepted the Republican nomination...
"Mr. Chairman, delegates. I accept your nomination for President of the United States of America. I do so with humility, deeply moved by the trust you have placed in me. It is a great honor. It is an even greater responsibility."
While juxtaposing his VP nominee's speech of the prior evening, Romney's approach tonight countered that of Obama's soaring rhetoric with a solid, effective appeal to ALL Americans: let's get this country working again, and let's do that by first understanding where we went wrong four years ago...
"Four years ago, I know that many Americans felt a fresh excitement about the possibilities of a new president. That president was not the choice of our party but Americans always come together after elections. We are a good and generous people who are united by so much more than what divides us."
"When that hard fought election was over, when the yard signs came down and the television commercials finally came off the air, Americans were eager to go back to work, to live our lives the way Americans always have – optimistic and positive and confident in the future."
"That very optimism is uniquely American."
"But today, four years from the excitement of the last election, for the first time, the majority of Americans now doubt that our children will have a better future."
"It is not what we were promised."
"I wish President Obama had succeeded because I want America to succeed. But his promises gave way to disappointment and division. This isn't something we have to accept. Now is the moment when we CAN do something. With your help we will do something."
"Now is the moment when we can stand up and say, “I’m an American. I make my destiny. And we deserve better! My children deserve better! My family deserves better. My country deserves better!”"
Romney delivered a magnificent line while memorializing Neil Armstrong that really illuminated 'that unique blend of optimism, humility, and the utter confidence' of the American spirit...
"...when the world needs someone to do the really big stuff, you need an American."
You know it!
Then after elaborating on his baby boomer roots, particularly focusing on some very sentimental stories surrounding his parents, Romney spoke of the strengths of America through the greatness of its communities, families and faiths, how this bedrock brings out the best in us, but also how for far too many Americans, "these good days are harder to come by." It was at this point in which Romney's focus turned to those not at the convention, and those who likely voted for his opponent four years ago...
"How many days have you woken up feeling that something really special was happening in America? Many of you felt that way on Election Day four years ago. Hope and Change had a powerful appeal. But tonight I'd ask a simple question: If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn’t you feel that way now that he’s President Obama? You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him."
Exactly. After expressing Obama's lack of basic qualifications, devoid of business experience, and stating that "Jobs to him are about government," Romney owned up to his extraordinary record of business experience, embracing his work at Bain Capital, which helped to start familiar American companies like Staples, The Sports Authority, Bright Horizons (praised by Michelle Obama), and Steel Dynamics, one of the largest steel producers in the US. And while celebrating these American success stories, Romney juxtaposed Obama's perspective...
"These are American success stories. And yet the centerpiece of the President’s entire re-election campaign is attacking success. Is it any wonder that someone who attacks success has led the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression? In America, we celebrate success, we don't apologize for it."
"We weren’t always successful at Bain. But no one ever is in the real world of business."
"That’s what this President doesn’t seem to understand. Business and growing jobs is about taking risk, sometimes failing, sometimes succeeding, but always striving. It is about dreams. ... It’s the genius of the American free enterprise system – to harness the extraordinary creativity and talent and industry of the American people with a system that is dedicated to creating tomorrow’s prosperity rather than trying to redistribute today's."
Yep! Then targeting the root of the economic slowdown, Romney emphasized the obvious uncomplicated ailment of our country...
"It doesn't take a special government commission to tell us what America needs. What America needs is jobs. Lots of jobs."
After going over all the ways Obama's policies have not helped create jobs, but depressed them, Romney gave a stark message to every voter out there:
"To the majority of Americans who now believe that the future will not be better than the past, I can guarantee you this: if Barack Obama is re-elected, you will be right."
However, for those who seek a better future, Romney laid out the five planks of his plan to generate 12 million new jobs:
"First, by 2020, North America will be energy independent by taking full advantage of our oil and coal and gas and nuclear and renewables."
"Second, we will give our fellow citizens the skills they need for the jobs of today and the careers of tomorrow. When it comes to the school your child will attend, every parent should have a choice, and every child should have a chance."
"Third, we will make trade work for America by forging new trade agreements. And when nations cheat in trade, there will be unmistakable consequences."
"Fourth, to assure every entrepreneur and every job creator that their investments in America will not vanish as have those in Greece, we will cut the deficit and put America on track to a balanced budget."
"And fifth, we will champion SMALL businesses, America’s engine of job growth. That means reducing taxes on business, not raising them. It means simplifying and modernizing the regulations that hurt small business the most. And it means that we must rein in the skyrocketing cost of healthcare by repealing and replacing Obamacare."
After rounding out the rest of the expected Republican pledges, most of which encompass those core issues attacked by Democrats recently (protecting the sanctity of life, honoring the institution of marriage, guaranteeing the freedom of religion...you know, everything we'll see mocked & opposed next week at the Democrat Convention!), Romney offered an excellent contrasting zinger...what some would say was the'line of the night':
"President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans...and heal the planet.... MY promise is to help you and your family."
Transitioning from the emphasis on jobs to foreign policy, Romney stirred feelings from that speech of Condi's last night...
"I will begin my presidency with a jobs tour. President Obama began with an apology tour. America, he said, had dictated to other nations. No Mr. President, America has freed other nations from dictators."
"Every American was relieved the day President Obama gave the order, and Seal Team Six took out Osama bin Laden. But on another front, every American is less secure today because he has failed to slow Iran's nuclear threat."
"President Obama has thrown allies like Israel under the bus, even as he has relaxed sanctions on Castro's Cuba. He abandoned our friends in Poland by walking away from our missile defense commitments, but is eager to give Russia's President Putin the flexibility he desires, after the election. Under my administration, our friends will see more loyalty, and Mr. Putin will see a little less flexibility and more backbone."
"We will honor America’s democratic ideals because a free world is a more peaceful world. This is the bipartisan foreign policy legacy of Truman and Reagan. And under my presidency we will return to it once again."
Romney concluded his speech, first with a series of Q & A responses for the delegates, listing detriments that our country finds itself lingering in under the current administration, but that we'd obviously rather see turned around, then concluding with a stirring call of unity...
"The America we all know has been a story of the many becoming one, uniting to preserve liberty, uniting to build the greatest economy in the world, uniting to save the world from unspeakable darkness."
"Everywhere I go in America, there are monuments that list those who have given their lives for America. There is no mention of their race, their party affiliation, or what they did for a living. They lived and died under a single flag, fighting for a single purpose. They pledged allegiance to the UNITED States of America."
"That America, that united America, can unleash an economy that will put Americans back to work, that will once again lead the world with innovation and productivity, and that will restore every father and mother's confidence that their children's future is brighter even than the past."
"That America, that united America, will preserve a military that is so strong, no nation would ever dare to test it."
"That America, that united America, will uphold the constellation of rights that were endowed by our Creator, and codified in our Constitution."
"That united America will care for the poor and the sick, will honor and respect the elderly, and will give a helping hand to those in need."
"That America is the best within each of us. That America we want for our children."
"If I am elected President of these United States, I will work with all my energy and soul to restore that America, to lift our eyes to a better future. That future is our destiny. That future is out there. It is waiting for us. Our children deserve it, our nation depends upon it, the peace and freedom of the world require it. And with your help we will deliver it. Let us begin that future together tonight."
Now, I'm not gonna lie, anyone who knows me knows that I would tend to lean towards the stronger tone of that impassioned speech that Paul Ryan gave Wednesday night. And though I thought there were a few moments tonight that could have been given the contracted treatment (i.e., the obvious & overemphasized 'compassionate' segments towards the beginning), I nonetheless thought this was a very solid delivery that quickly strengthened as its delivery progressed. This speech went a long way in humanizing the GOP nominee that much more, contrasting the Democratic media's image and introducing our next Commander-in-Chief to those on the fence who felt more confident Thursday night in saying, 'I can see that guy as President'. Also, in more ways than one, particularly on the economy and business, but even in foreign affairs, Mitt Romney proved that he gets it.
"I accept the duty to help lead our nation out of a jobs crisis and back to prosperity. And I know we can do this. I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us with opportunity for the young and security for the old. And I know that we are ready."
After graciously accepting the nomination as the next Vice President of the United States, and setting the tone and context, he quickly began laying down the law...
"I have never seen opponents so silent about their record, and so desperate to keep their power. They have run out of ideas. Their moment came and went. Fear and division is all they've got left. With all of their attack ads the president is
just throwing away money. And he is pretty experienced at that."
Ryan segued into a personal story affecting his hometown that echoes across the streets of America...a story about a perceived hope in government and the bailouts that followed, but ultimately ending in failure, betrayal and little-to-no recovery. After describing what happened to a hometown G.M. plant, and the people that lost those jobs, Ryan says of Obama's first term 'change'...
"...that's how it is in so many towns where the recovery that was promised is no where in sight. Right now, 23 million men and women are struggling to find work. 23 million people unemployed or underemployed. Nearly one in six Americans is in poverty. Millions of young Americans have graduated from college during the Obama presidency, ready to use their gifts and get moving in life. Half of them can't find the work they studied for, or any work at all."
"So here's the question: Without a change in leadership, why would the next four years be any different from the last four years?"
Tracing the steps of failure from the very beginning, Ryan dove right into the first troubling sign of the stimulus, and the ensuing cronyism and debt that followed...
"You -- you the American people of this country were cut out of the deal. What did taxpayers get out of the Obama stimulus? More debt. That money wasn't just spent and wasted, it was borrowed, spent and wasted."
And you know what came shortly after that: ObamaCare. Ryan framed this power-grab in the effective context that all need to be reminded of...
"Maybe the greatest waste of all, was time. Here we were faced with a massive job crisis so deep that if everyone out of work stood in single file, that unemployment line would stretch the length of the entire American continent."
"You would think that any president, whatever his party, would make job creation and nothing else his first order of economic business, but this president didn't do that. Instead, we got a long, divisive, all or nothing attempt to put the federal government in charge of health care."
"ObamaCare comes to more than 2,000 pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees and fines that have no place in a free country."
"The president has declared that the debate over government controlled health care is over. That will come as news to the millions of American who will elect Mitt Romney so we can repeal ObamaCare."
And reminding everyone that "the biggest, coldest power play of all in ObamaCare
came at the expense of the elderly" throught the Medicare raid, Ryan put opponents on notice:
"In this election, on this issue , the usual posturing on the Left isn't going to work. Mitt Romney and I know the difference between protecting a program and raiding it. Ladies and gentlemen, our nation needs this debate, we want this debate, we will win this debate."
Atop ObamaCare, Ryan then laid out Obama's first term record from beginning to dismal end:
It began with a financial crisis; it ends with a job crisis.
It began with a housing crisis they alone didn't cause; it ends with a housing crisis they didn't correct.
It began with a perfect AAA credit rating for the United States; it ends with the downgraded America.
"It all started off with stirring speeches, Greek columns, the thrill of something new. Now all that's left is a presidency adrift, surviving on slogans that already seem tired, grasping at the moment that has already passed, like a ship trying to sail on yesterday's wind."
Damn...and this has barely scratched the surface of Paul Ryan's extraordinarily brilliant observations and comments of the night! Ok, ok...
Of Obama's lofty self-evaluation asked of him from a sympathetic press, and confiding that perhaps he hadn't communicated enough, that he needs to better "tell a story to the American people," Ryan so succinctly states...
"Ladies and gentlemen, these past four years, we have suffered no shortage of words in the White House. What is missing is leadership in the White House. And the story that Barack Obama does tell, forever shifting blame to the last administration, is getting old. The man assumed office almost four years ago. Isn't it about time he assumed responsibility?"
Right on!
"One president, one term, $5 trillion in new debt."
"So here we are, $16 trillion in debt and still he does nothing. In Europe, massive debts have put entire governments at risk of collapse, and still he does nothing. And all we have heard from this president and his team are attacks on anyone who dares to point out the obvious."
"They have no answer to this simple reality: We need to stop
spending money we don't have."
It IS as simple as that.
And as for Obama's 'You didn't build that' statement, Ryan once again tells it like it needs to be said...
"Behind every small business, there's a story worth knowing. All the corner shops in our towns and cities, the restaurants, cleaners, gyms, hair salons, hardware stores, these didn't come out of nowhere. A lot of heart goes into each one."
"And if small business people say they made it on their own, all they are saying is that nobody else worked seven days a week in their place. Nobody showed up in their place to open the door at five in the morning. Nobody did their thinking, and worrying, and sweating for them."
"After all that work, and in a bad economy, it sure doesn't help to hear from their president that government gets the credit. What they deserve to hear is the truth: Yes, you did build that."
Ryan went on to outline their campaign's plan to make a 'clean break' with both the Obama years and the previous Bush years, keeping federal spending at 20% of GDP or less, while maintaining a goal of generating 12 million jobs over the next four years.
The issue is not the economy that Barack Obama inherited, not the economy as he envisions, but this economy that we are living.One of my personal favorite segments from Ryan's speech came immediately after a rather keen observation that "College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life."
"Everyone -- everyone who feels stuck in the Obama economy is right to focus on the here and now. And I hope you understand this too, if you're feeling left out or passed by: You have not failed, your leaders have failed you."
"None of us -- none of us have to settle for the best this administration offers, a dull, adventureless journey from one entitlement to the next, a government-planned life, a country where everything is free BUT US."
"Listen to the way we're already spoken to -- listen to the way we are spoken to already, as if everyone is stuck in some class or station in life, victims of circumstances beyond our control, with government there to help us cope with our fate. It's the exact opposite of everything I learned growing up..."
"Now when I was waiting tables, washing dishes, or mowing lawns for money, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life. I was on my own path, my own journey, an American journey, where I could think for myself, decide for myself, define happiness for myself. That's what we do in this country. That's the American dream."
"That's freedom, and I will take it any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners."
HELL YEAH!! This could have come from the lips of Levin! But he wasn't done with these conservative truths...
"By the way, being successful in business, that's a good thing."
Towards his closing remarks, Ryan spoke of the moral creed he shares with Romney; one which you'll never hear Obama utter, but one that would make our Founders well up with pride that principle might return to leadership...
"We believe that in every life, there is goodness, for every person there is hope. Each one of us was made for a reason, bearing the image and likeness of the lord of life."
"We have responsibilities, one to another. We do not each face the world alone. And the greatest of all responsibilities, is that of the strong to protect the weak.
The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves."
"Each of these great moral ideas is essential to democratic government, to the rule of law, to life in a humane and decent society. They are the moral creed of our country, as powerful in our time, as on the day of America's founding. They are self-evident and unchanging, and sometimes, even presidents need reminding, that our rights come from nature and God, and not from government."
"The founding generation secured those rights for us, and in every generation since, the best among us have defended our freedoms. They are protecting us right now. We honor them and all our veterans, and we thank them."
You know, now as I take in everything this statesman has said, I should rephrase my original statement...the night was not only Paul Ryan's, but America's...if she'll take it.
MSNBC wants you to think the Republican Party hates minorities. So much so that the liberal news network cut minority speeches from it’s convention coverage.
When popular Tea Party candidate Ted Cruz, the GOP nominee for Senate, took the stage, MSNBC cut away from the Republican National Convention and the Hispanic Republican from Texas’ speech.
MSNBC stayed on commercial through former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis’ speech, as well. Davis, who recently became a Republican, is black.
Then, when Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuno’s wife Luce’ Vela Fortuño took the stage minutes later, MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews opted to talk over the First Lady’s speech.
And Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval? Noticeably missing from MSNBC, too.
Mia Love, a black candidate for Congress in Utah, was also ignored by MSNBC.
"Ann Romney ... looked to me like a corporate wife. The stories she told about struggles — eh! It's hard for me to believe... looks like a woman whose husband takes care of her, and she's been very lucky and blessed in this life. She's not speaking, I think, for the tremendous number of single women in this country or married women. She did not convince me that, 'You know what, I understand the struggles of American women in general.'"
No, it wasn't that this clown didn't hear the same speech we all heard; it's that he decided to hand out the same ol' Democrat class & race division lines...
Wholeheartedly agree with Malkin's Twitter comment, "Ann Romney = Class. Juan Williams = Ass."
And it's not just the speakers who were being accosted by the racebaiting media. The delegates felt it too...from NBC's Chuck Todd...
"Republicans have been criticized in conventions past for while having a diverse list of speakers, that the audience is not diverse. Well this time, every delegation that has any sort of diversity to it, they are getting much more, much better seating so that when the cameras catch the delegates reacting to speeches it is a more diverse -- the delegation looks like America."
...to the Los Angeles Slimes' narrative of 'a brown face on a white party'...(sheesh)
Until Ann Romney and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie stepped into the prime-time spotlight Tuesday night, the stage at the Republican National Convention was dominated by a parade of racial and ethnic minorities. The same could not be said about the delegates in the hall. As the United States has become an increasingly more diverse country, the Republican Party has maintained a distinctly pale hue.
In a year when Republicans are brazenly trying to suppress the minority vote in Ohio and Florida and are taking the hardest of hard lines on immigration, voting Republican may be a tough sell in minority communities. Still, the party has found some forceful salesmen who have risen from those communities, and they are filling the stage in Tampa with them.
But with all of this media coverage, or lack thereof, remember: supposedly we're the racist.
Riiight...I'm just gonna default to my standard 'shocked' reaction that so many of these scumbags passing as 'journalists', or even 'reporters', would pull this...
Rising GOP starlet Mia Love (small-town Utah mayor running for Congress) electrified'em early in the evening, speaking on the American Dream: "The America that I grew up knowing was centered in self reliance and filled with the possibilities of living the American Dream. The America I know is grounded in the determination found in patriots and pioneers, in small businesses with big ideas; it's found in farmers who work in the beauty of our landscapes, and our heroic military; it's found in the Olympic athletes, and every child who looks at the seemingly impossible and says, 'I can do that.' That's the America I know. President Obama's version of America is a divided one, often pitting us against each other, based on income level, gender and social status. His policies have failed us, we're not better off than we were four years ago, and no rhetoric, bumper sticker or Hollywood campaign ad can change that! Mr President, I'm here to tell you the American People are awake, and we're not buy what you're selling in 2012."
Like governors Kasich and Christie's speeches, Gov. Scott Walker focused on how a new energized Republican administration can turn around an indebted state. Then he defined what that kind of reform means: "Now more than ever, we need reformers; leaders who think more about the next generation, than just the next election... Now in a few weeks, we'll celebrate the 225th anniversary of our federal Constitution. Moments like that remind us that what makes America so great, what makes us exceptional, is that throughout our history, in moments of crisis, be they economic or fiscal, military or spiritual, what makes America amazing is that there have always been men and women of courage who think more about the future of their children and their grandchildren than they did about their own political careers."
Rick Santorum ran the gambit of issues important to conservative principles, from a mixture of immigration & handouts to the family & marriage to education & school choice. Then upon addressing welfare and work requirements, Santorum issued a stern warning followed by a resilient hope: "But President Obama's policies undermine the traditional family, weaken the education system, and this summer he showed us once again he believes in government handouts and dependency by waiving the work requirement for welfare. Now I helped write the welfare reform bill. We made the law crystal clear: no president can waive the work requirement. But as with his refusal to enforce our immigration laws, President Obama rules like he is above the law. Americans take heed. When a president can simply give a speech or write a memo, and change the law to do what the law says he cannot do, we will no longer be a republic. Yet as my family and I criss-crossed America, something became so obvious to us: America is still the greatest country in the world, and with God's help and good leadership, we can restore the American Dream." And building from that journey across the country with a story about the hardworking hands he shook along the way, Santorum's standing-O moment came with the story of his Bella, lauding the party for firmly opposing abortion: "I thank God that America still has one party that reaches out their hands in love to lift up ALL of God's children, born and unborn."
Considering the day's earlier actions of the chattering class, it had to have been difficult, but fellow Texan, Ted Cruz, still came out swinging for the grassroots: "I have the honor of standing before you this evening for one reason: because thousands and thousands of grassroots activists stood united, not for a candidate, but for the sake of liberty... We are seeing a great awakening, a national movement of We the People brought together by what unites us: a shared love of liberty and an understanding of the unlimited potential of free men and free women. I want to tell you a love story. It's the story of all of us. It's a love story of freedom. It's the story of our Founding Fathers who fought and bled for freedom, and crafted the most miraculous political document ever conceived, our Constitution. The Framers understood that our rights come not from monarchs, but from God; and that those rights are secure only when government power is restrained."
And look, even a former Alabama Democrat congressman turned Republican, Artur Davis, showed up! "The last time I spoke at a convention, it turned out I was at the wrong place, so Tampa, my fellow Republicans, thank you for welcoming me where I belong!" After the greetings, Davis gave a few poignant messages, not only to Republicans at the convention: "Now, America is the land of second chances, and I gather in this close race, you have room for the estimated 6 million of us who got it wrong in 2008, and who want to fix it?" ...but to Democrats watching as well: "To those Democrats and Independents whose minds are open to argument, listen closely to the Democratic Party that will gather in Charlotte and ask yourself if you hear your voice in the clamor? Ask yourself if these Democrats still speak for you?"
Nikki Haley excoriated Obama over his assault on South Carolina. After speaking of the challenges governors face, she said, "like so many of my governors, I work day in and day out to try and improve the lives of the people of my state; and sadly, the hardest part of my job continues to be this federal government, this administration and this president... Unfortunately, these past few years, you can work hard, try to be as successful as possible, follow the rules, and President Obama will do everything he can to stand in your way." She continued to call him out...on illegal immigration, on voter ID, and on federal labor unions & blocking non-union manufacturing...
Then came the speech of the night! No, not the keynote from Chris Christie...but the phenomenal speech given by the next first lady, Ann Romney! She knocked it out of the park on so many levels by personalizing the relationship between her and the boy she met at a dance 47 years ago, sharing their profound love of family, of country, of life. Ann focused on so many aspects of motherhood and womanhood, effectively muzzling the Democratic narrative, while summing up the difficulties facing women in this recession so succinctly: "We're too smart to know there aren't easy answers, but we're not dumb enough to accept that there aren't better answers." Right on! And of Mitt, Ann gave one of the most personal and powerful comments of the night: "This is important, I want you to hear what I'm going to say: Mitt doesn't like to talk about how he has helped others, because he sees it as a privilege, not a political talking point." Then after elaborating on his bottom-up work ethic, his successes and strengths both in business and as governor, Ann Romney pledged, "I can't tell you what will happen over the next four years, but I can only stand here tonight as a wife and a mother and a grandmother, an American, and make you this solemn commitment: This man will not fail. This man will not let us down. This man will lift up America." For those who had not met Ann Romney before tonight, this was certainly not the woman the liberal media had introduced you to, not the corporate wife...on the contrary, she proved herself to be an all-American woman.
I'm gonna get back to the Republican convention in a bit...but just ran across a reminder from Quin Hillyer about a particular topic...
The inimitable Mark Levin has the full goods on Barry Obama's unconscionable opposition to the Illinois version of the Infants Born-Alive Protection Act. What a cold, cold man Obama is. This man does not value human life. Period.
Since there's been a lot of talk about abortion in the media lately, and we've already been given a glimpse of what the Democrat convention will have in store for us as pertains to those 'women's health' issues, then butting that up with this theme of the 'nice, but incompetent' president, I think it's important to repeatedly point out the record of their so-called nice leader.
The Weekly Standard, elaborating on an MRC article, detailed an extraordinarily cold and without a doubt extremist view from the then-Illinois state senator Barack Obama, while arguing against legislation that protected infants who had survived a botched abortion...
"We're in the middle of a political fight for the country, and we're trying to play nice with someone that isn't being nice to our children or the future of our country. What is going on here? Look at what Obama has said and what he has done - does that come across as a nice person, someone that has your best interests at heart?"
...it is chilling to not only know that some look at the fragility of life in this manner with more concern for the abortionist than the fragile life that has survived his knife, but even more so horrific to know that this kind of man is now President.
Ok, I'll get back to convention talk...
ADDENDUM: Wow. And if this powerful new Susan B. Anthony List ad featuring an abortion survivor doesn't put Obama’s vote(s) against protecting those born alive from botched abortions into perspective...
This is just the kind of establishment CRAP that's given cause for some of the conservative reservations about a Romney nomination from the beginning. When are the campaign's operatives going to realize they're BAD ideas?!
Conservatives of all stripes, especially Tea Party activists, this is an attempt to destroy your ability to influence the presidential and vice presidential nomination process in the Republican Party. It is an attempt to eviscerate the input of state parties. It is a brazen assault on the grassroots. And it is sleazy to the core.
If I didn't know better, I'd think Obama was behind it. Instead, Romney's operatives are orchestrating it.
Levin was referencing a report from BuzzFeed over the weekend that described steps taken on Friday by the convention's rules committee "to weaken the power of state conventions and state parties, while consolidating the power of presidential candidates in the nominating process."
Some of the changes — to require that delegations from statewide caucuses and primaries to the convention adhere to the will of voters — weakened the hand of insurgent-type candidates but have been well received by the committee. But a change allowing presidential candidates the right to vet their own delegates to the national convention has many state party officials up in arms — and they are planning to bring it to the convention floor.
The change, pushed by the Romney campaign's top lawyer Ben Ginsburg originally allowed candidates to select all the delegates bound to them in state contests. Now it allows candidates to refuse the delegate, requiring another in his or her stead to be selected by the state.
By last night, we had received news that the backers of the rule change had backed down...
Under a compromise reached late Monday, Romney supporters and GOP leaders agreed to back down from a proposed rule change that effectively would have allowed presidential nominees to choose what delegates represent them at national conventions.
But this morning, it doesn't look like the rules fight is over...Erick Erickson of RedState reports:
At 2:00 p.m. today in Tampa, the Republican National Committee, led by Team Romney, is moving to shut down conservative grassroots activists. I’ve been on the phone with several individuals involved in the fight who tell me that the fight is not over, it is only just starting.
The first rule to be proposed is one that would give the Republican National Committee the power to change rules between conventions with a three-quarters vote of the RNC. One source tells me, “With a Republican President, of course this is doable. Everybody will roll over if a President Romney asks them too. They’ll be able to get Ben Ginsberg’s proposal next year.”
In other words, if Team Romney prevails in this rules change, they don’t have to worry about Ben Ginsberg not getting his way today on the delegate changes. They’ll be able to do it later when the press and grassroots are not watching.
The second rules change would front load winner takes all primaries. Grassroots conservatives point to both Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum as reasons to stop this rule. Had there been front loaded winner takes all primaries, neither the Gingrich nor the Santorum campaigns would have been able to get any traction.
“This is going to be a fight on the floor if they don’t back down. They have too much pride to back down and we’re going to humble them,” said one delegate to the convention.
Another tells me, “They’ve gotten social conservatives comfortable with the platform and now that they’re placated [Team Romney] is going to undercut them with this change.”
Bottom line: It could not be more apparent that the Establishment does not want conservatives in power in any way in the Republican Party. They fear this war on women crap, the racist charges and all the other Democrat narratives propagated by a liberal media, but they don't have the spines or intellectual fortitude to fight them, so what do they do...waiver from principle, cave to that elitist media and attempt to suppress the fighters from their side! WTF?!
Keep this crap up, Establishment, and you'll not only split the party (which some would argue that you've done a pretty bang up job thus far)...but you'll absolutely LOSE THIS ELECTION! You CANNOT WIN without conservatives, period. Deal with it...and grow a pair for once in your miserable lives! Face & debunk the Democrat lies with fact, discredit the media narratives, know your political enemies, and stop blaming conservatives for crying out loud!
ADDENDUM: Rush gives more info, insight and fury on this preposterous tactic today...
I just got off the phone with a concerned Florida activist, Laura Noble, who informed me that both of Florida's Rules Committee members, Peter Feaman and Kathleen King, have been removed from the Rules committee and replaced with Romney-appointed delegates.
Clearly anticipating a grassroots backlash against the "compromise" on Rule 15 and the changes on Rule 12 has caused the Romney camp to preemptively replace delegates to ensure they have support on the Rules Committee.
It's enough to make your blood boil. Please call your state's Rules Committee delegates here and ask that they oppose the "compromise" on Rule 15, oppose the changes to Rule 12, and support the full Minority Reports on the Rules.
Last night there was great optimism after the RNC agreed to compromise on the rule changes in an effort to avoid a floor fight. Unfortunately as a result of that compromise, RNC proposed rule 12, which would allow the RNC to rewrite the rules post convention, free of delegate and grassroots influence, will likely stand.
This new rule could be a huge blow to the grassroots community, the RNC rules committee sets the parameters for how we as a party operate, how we establish the platform and how we choose candidates. Allowing the RNC to change the rules without our influence is a contingency plan for the RNC to keep the power to choose the direction of the GOP out of the hands of patriots like you and me.
The reality is we must pay as much attention to the RNC as we do the DNC, our movement is threatened from both. We have made, and will continue to make a huge impact on the direction of the GOP. The RNC is terrified of our influence, they are worried that we are constantly lurking to hold them accountable to the will of the people, if they weren’t they would not be fighting so hard for rule 12.
FreedomWorks also reported that "there appears to be an effort to gather signatures to push for a floor on the minority report." This is still developing...
UPDATE III: Does this sound like a rule that's been passed 'without objection'? Unbelievable...and please note, this is not just a Ru Paul thing, as many in the media are attempting to frame it. This rule inevitably centralizes power in the RNC, power that's been reserved for delegates from the states. Imagine that, embracing centralization, something grassroots conservatives have been fighting for over the past four years!
And on the Mark Levin Show this evening, Mark reiterated how these kind of moves by the establishment effectively cast the GOP Convention in a lackluster light, fizzling the excitement, "and that is because the Republican Establishment has distanced itself from the American people - the conservatives and the Tea Party. The very movement that allowed for a landslide victory in 2010 is now being suppressed by the Establishment bureaucracy."
It didn't really matter which trajectory this storm took...you could bank on the Left, whether with the administration's bureacracy or the liberal media, politicizing it...
...while some leaners are concerned with the tone of the convention...
...now that day one has been derailed, others in the press look to derail the next, if not the entire convention...
ADDENDUM: Listen to this montage and tell me they're not politicizing this rainstorm...they're salivating at the opportunity to split screen the Republican convention speeches and possible hurricane devastation on Tuesday night!
"Dinesh D’Souza’s movie, 2016: Obama’s America. This movie is going gangbusters! The Hollywood press is writing about this in a shocked and dismayed way. Overflow crowds! This movie is gonna be on over a thousand screens this weekend. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dinesh’s movie is maybe the second-highest grossing box office movie of the weekend. I wouldn’t be surprised. If it’s number three, I would not be surprised. And stop and think: It’s a documentary." ~ El Rushbo
The weekend's upon us...so go see the documentary that's going gangbusters!
TheDailyCaller: Conservative author Dinesh D’Souza’s new documentary, “Obama’s America: 2016,” is a hit at the box office.
“Obama’s America” has earned $2 million from screenings in 169 theaters including decidedly liberal enclaves like Los Angeles and New York City, according to The Hollywood Reporter. So far, the film is the second-highest grossing documentary of the year behind the Weinstein Company’s “Bully”...
Over this past weekend, “Obama’s America” was number three at the box office, behind big-budget summer blockbusters “The Dark Knight” and “Total Recall.”
The film — based on D’Souza’s 2010 book “The Roots of Obama’s Rage” — follows the author as he attempts to piece together President Barack Obama’s past, how his ideology developed and, should he be re-elected, what his America would look like in 2016.
“Obama’s America” is already the twelfth highest-grossing political documentary of all-time — a genre made popular by liberal documentarian Michael Moore.
“Obama’s America” will get a chance to climb the box office ranks when it rolls out to a total of 1,075 theaters this weekend, a strategic roll-out on the heels of the start of the Republican National Convention.
Entertainment Weekly further explains how this extraordinary film is on track to do far better than the average documentary. Check it out this weekend at a theater near you!
ADDENDUM: Note to the Republican Establishment: Dinesh has provided you with the researched, rational ammunition, the people are reacting positively...don't fear this!
...by none other than the all-seeing, all-knowing Maha Rushie (so, I might be repeating reality for thinking people)...
"His entire campaign consists of trying to scare everybody in his pathetic base of voters, what a bad guy Romney is. His agenda is to try to get people to hate Mitt Romney. That's Obama's second term agenda, to try to get you to hate Mitt Romney. That's the basis on which he wants to be reelected. He is not running around telling you how your life is going to improve. He's not singing the song about the greatness and resilience of America. He doesn't tell us how he's gonna keep us safe from foreign...none of that. Not one thing traditional to this guy's campaign. It's all rooted and oriented around you being scared to death of Romney and Ryan. And then for color, they throw Biden in to go out and tell black people that Romney want's them back on slave camps and in chains. That's the agenda. Now I'm sorry folks, I don't see that winning."
Nope!
"There is, all throughout the Obama campaign, a big sense of desperation. They've got nothing. They can't be honest about what he intends. We know what he's gonna do, but he doesn't dare tell anybody, or that'll close the deal."
Be sure to catch the tag at the end concerning why Obama is demanding that Romney release his tax returns. Simply brilliant.
TheOval: President Obama's Twitter account has 18.8 million followers -- but more than half of them really don't exist, according to reports.
A new Web tool has determined that 70% of Obama's crowd includes "fake followers," The New York Times reports in a story about how Twitter followers can be purchased.
"The practice has become so widespread that StatusPeople, a social media management company in London, released a Web tool last month called the Fake Follower Check that it says can ascertain how many fake followers you and your friends have," the Times reports.
You gotta hand it to him...this one really gets the libs' heads spinning and the media gasping (but I repeat myself)! At a Romney/Ryan rally drawing thousands at a Michigan township, Mitt cracked a great one...
Right on, right on!
ADDENDUM: Rush thinks Romney & Ryan are test-driving a few things...
NationalReview: Better call the Obama Truth Team! Anderson Cooper blasts DNC Chair Schutlz for taking a Los Angeles Times quote of context in an attempt to link Mitt Romney to Todd “legitimate rape” Akin. Enjoy:
I guess, to quote from Schultz during her interview with Copper, “it doesn’t matter” if she lies.
Do you recall a few weeks ago when Obama was bragging that under his leadership, 4.5 million jobs had been created over the last 29 months? Adding up to 1.1 million new jobs this year? Well as Peter Ferrara would advise us, "You should have learned by now on your own that you can’t believe a word the man says." Let's hear some straight talk, shall we?
If it is not outright false, it is cast out of context to deliberately mislead... At the same point during the Reagan recovery, the economy had created more than 9.5 million new jobs.
Moreover, in just one month during the Reagan economic recovery boom, September, 1983, the economy created 1.1 million new jobs. That’s a real recovery.
But Obama’s statement is even more misleading. Because during his entire Administration, the economy has created less than zero jobs. Investors Business Daily replied on August 4 to Obama’s statement, “But ‘we’ haven’t created any jobs. As a matter of fact, since Obama has entered office, some 1.1 million payroll jobs have disappeared.” Former Bush Chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors Edward Lazear added in the Wall Street Journal on July 30, “there hasn’t been one day during the entire Obama Presidency when as many Americans were working as on the day President Bush left office.”
Moreover, “since Obama stepped into office, 7.5 million people have left the workforce,” IBD added. Almost all of those folks are still out there without a job.
Obama also neglected to add that the Labor Department’s household survey, which determines the unemployment rate, found that the number of jobs plummeted last month by 195,000. That is why the U3 unemployment rate rose again, to 8.3%. It was the establishment survey of businesses that claimed the economy created 163,000, not 172,000, net new jobs last month. But that number is heavily influenced by seasonal adjustments that can be outdated, and by estimates not counts of jobs created by new businesses. It is inconsistent with the fact the Labor Dept. also reported on Friday that 150,000 left the workforce last month.
That makes a postwar record 42 months of unemployment over 8%, the longest period of unemployment that high since the Great Depression. While Obama promised us when he wanted to pass his nearly $1 trillion wasteful government spending stimulus that unemployment would never climb above 8% if we did, it has never fallen below 8% during his entire, mistaken Presidency.
Nevertheless, Obama's lying minions continue to tout bogus numbers. Enter, deputy campaign propagandist, Stephanie Cutter, with her latest lie, which Twitchyso eloquently calls out, "Lying liar Stephanie Cutter claims Reagan recovery takes back seat to Obama’s." Here's her 'oh, boy' moment on MSLSD...
When Obama took office, there were 142 million people employed. Last month, there were 142.2 million people employed. A tad under 200,000 more people have jobs today than had them when Obama was sworn in. In January 2009, 11.6 million people were unemployed. Today, 12.7 million are unemployed.
Those numbers are bad enough, but they are abysmal when you factor in population growth. We've added almost 10 million working age adults to the population since January 2009. The only thing keeping our unemployment rate from double-digits is that millions of people have simply given up. Since Obama took office, over 7 million people left the labor force. If the same number of adults today were in the workforce as in 2009, the unemployment rate would be 11%.
If you torture statistics long enough, they will confess to anything. But nothing in Obama's economic record supports even the most partisan spin of the numbers. Saying that Obama's recovery has added more jobs than Reagan's is pure fantasy. It is simply a made up talking point. If I were to read that in a political novel, I would shake my head thinking that, in real life, no one would have the audacity to make such a blatantly false claim. But, sadly, an objective media is the stuff of fiction today, too.
And you had to have known Sununu would come out swinging on this one!
And on that note, I'll end this one as Erika Johnsen of HotAir did, "Sorry, Ms. Cutter — I remain unconvinced that President Obama’s policies are doing anything to move this country “forward,” and you may put that in your pipe and smoke it."
