Final Thoughts Of Tampa

My recap of the RNC Convention:

Chris Christie: Talked about himself quite a bit as his primary objective at the convention was to promote himself.  What he didn’t say was that unemployment in the Garden State is 9.2% nearly a full percentage point above the national rate. And, according to the W.P Carey School of Business, his 1.02% job growth in 2012 is far behind the national average of 1.40%. 

Jeb Bush: In an uneven speech on Wednesday, the Other Bush told us he loved school choice and milk choice (and in the process sounding like Bubba from Forrest Gump), but what about a woman’s reproductive rights?  Is choice OK there?  Are there bad teachers?  Yes.  Are there bad administrators? Yes. Are there good charter schools?  Yes.  But you also have to accept that the majority of teachers and administrators are good or better, and that not all charter schools are successes.  What is most troubling is the core belief that instead of fixing the education problem, they want to ignore the majority of urban kids who will not have access.  Yes school choice is a great concept, but how do you make it work on large scale? 

Paul Ryan: When I see Ryan what comes to mind is the famous line from the classic western movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence: “When legend becomes fact, print the legend.”  Legend: Ryan is a fiscal conservative.  Fact: he voted for auto bailouts, prescription drug windfalls for Big Pharma, and two unfunded wars.  Legend: He believes in deficit reduction.  Fact: He voted against Simpson-Bowles.  Legend: He is courageous and tells the hard truth.  Fact: He refuses to include defense spending in proposed government cuts, and he lied about the President’s welfare and Medicare plans.

Ann Romney: She did what she had to do: show the human side to Mitt.  But her forced Oprahesque “It's the moms of this nation — single, married, widowed — who really hold this country together. We're the mothers, we're the wives, we're the grandmothers, we're the big sisters, we're the little sisters, we're the daughters”, just didn’t come across as sincere.  Firstly, like her husband she cannot relate to retirees that saw their nest eggs scrambled as the result of financial malfeasance and mischief, she cannot relate to the single mom raising her children, she cannot relate to the factory worker living pay check to paycheck, and she certainly didn’t reach the millions of women who aren’t moms. 

Romney video, great video too bad the RNC used the prime time slot to show an old man talking to an empty chair.  Clearly the objective of the convention was to show Romney in a new light as a loving father, caring husband, and compassionate boss.  The video shown Thursday night did just that, it was compelling and emotional.  Too bad not enough people saw it.

Marco Rubio: Very compelling story.  You would think he would welcome immigration reform to give others that chance.  And I don’t mean the creation of 2^nd class citizens like his ‘DREAM Act-lite” proposal.

Scott Walker: the hero and darling of the GOP who fought off a recall to stay in office.  Too bad his record doesn’t match his popularity in the party.  According to the W.P Carey School of Business, Wisconsin ranks 48^th in job growth in 2012 and has actually LOST 23,000 jobs this year.  Yes that is not JOB Growth, but Job Loss.

Condi Rice: A brilliant woman, not so much on national security (cough 9/11), with another great story about not eating a hamburger at Woolworths “But they make her believe that even though she can’t have a hamburger at the Woolworth’s lunch counter, she can be president of the United States and she becomes the secretary of State.” Yes, Condi and GOVERNMENT intervention via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has allowed that to happen.  Nonetheless, look to her running for a California Senate Seat of Governorship in the near future.

Which brings us to Romney’s speech.  The man painted a brilliant visual of his young years in while middle America.  His nostalgic trip of what America was and his plan to return to those days was also visual, but do we really want a President that wants to take us backwards.  Do we want the Romney vision of his teenage America before the Civil Rights Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Air Act, Title IX, and Medicare?  His failure to mention our soldiers who have lost their lives, those that have been wounded, and the families impacted by these wars was shameful. When coupled with his tough talk about Iran, Syria, China, and Russia I see a man who sees the might of the U.S. Armed Forces as a tool, not as a collective of our mane and women.  Several a months ago when Romney called Russia our number one geopolitical foe, former US Secretary of State Colin Powell quipped “C’mon Mitt.”  After listening to Thursday’s speech, I can’t imagine what General Powell thought.  The man’s national  security and foreign policy teams consist of 24 professionals, 17 of whom worked in the Bush administration.  Do we really want to go back to those days?

And finally there was the evening at the improve with Clint Eastwood.  A lot has been said about Eastwood’s speech, but one undeniable fact: on the night that was supposed to be about Romney’s reintroduction and rebranding Clint stole the show.  By Friday morning, Clint’s video had attracted 560,000 online viewings while Mr. Romney’s had attracted 35,000 viewers.

…off to Charlotte.