August 30, 2012

Live-blogging Day 3 of the GOP Convention.

6:04: Settle in. It's going to be a long night. Are you looking forward to anything other than Rubio and Romney?

6:30: A Mormon invocation, from Ken Hutchins, thanking God for "the beauty of the heavens and the earth... a lasting testament of Thy love for us."

6:43: "Once again, it's morning in America!" announces Connie Mack, gesturing exuberantly.

6:47: Another story of an immigrant who started a business. It's the American Dream, Mack tells us. "It's morning in America," he repeats, and the tribute video to Ronald Reagan begins.

6:53: "Whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone," says the  voice of the departed President, "I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence, rather than your doubts. In this springtime of hope, some lights seem eternal. America's is." And so, we hear the theme of the night: hope, dreams... the very words that won the last election for the other party.

6:59: It's Callista and Newt Gingrich, here to liken Romney to Reagan and Obama to Carter. It's like 1980 again, you must understand, and it's striking how President Carter and President Obama both wrecked out hopes and dreams within only 4 years. They're speaking in this slow, methodical way. I think this would have been livelier without Callista, but she's bringing the woman... and the beauty... very crisp beauty.

7:03: Hispanics: We love you! We really, really love you. Your values are Republican Party values. Hard work. Entrepreneurship. The American Dream. The successful Hispanics have been Republican.  Identify with success, o Hispanic people! [This was a video. I'll post it here when I find it.]

7:06: It's Craig Romney, the youngest Romney son. He speaks at some length in Spanish, and it sounds fluent to me. He's really handsome too, by the way.

7:12: Jeb Bush comes out and speaks his first few words in Spanish. I'm picturing the Democrats suddenly scrambling to put more Hispanic in their convention.

7:40: Grant Bennett, a friend and fellow church member of Romney's, explains the work Romney did within the LDS Church. This is beautifully stated, explaining a life of service to others. Meade says, "Community organizing!" And I say, "No, he was ministering to individuals." There was no organizing.

7:47: An array of church members testifying to Romney's religious ministry. [This is very touching, parents with children who suffered and died.]

8:37: More testimonials from businesses that were helped by Mitt Romney and from Olympians who benefited from Mitt's leadership. This section is well-done. I'm not particularizing it, but let me say I'm impressed by it.

9:03: Clint Eastwood!

9:10: Clint's talking to an empty chair representing Obama. Oh, I don't think it's possible for him to do that to himself.  

9:13: We own this country... Politicians are employees of ours... When somebody does not do the job, we've got to let them go. Note the echo with Mitt Romney's famous: "I like being able to fire people."

9:14: Marco Rubio! About Obama: "Our problem is not that he's a bad person. It's that he's a bad President."

10:42: And now, Romney has given his speech. It was a Romney speech.

634 comments:

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LoafingOaf said...

Looking forward to Palladian getting drunk again on election night and crying.

LoafingOaf said...

Speaking of drunk, was Clint Eastwood having too many Johnnie Walker Blacks before his...whatever that was?

Chip Ahoy said...

Synova there's no point in planting trees because they still take too long to grow

The moral of your woeful tale of botanic neglect seems to be to plant trees regardless of the expected outcome. And you're too polite to actually call your grandpa shortsighted.

I planted lemon trees from seeds from grocery store lemons two years ago and this season they're growing like mad, and this is Denver, as you know, not known for its citrus. Faster and healthier and more rewarding than avocado. Way better. This season it doubled in height, so like three feet total now. It's creeping up the window. Except the thing is, most of the leaves are elliptic shape and some of them are double elliptic shape like kaffir lime leaves. So I don't know what happened I thought they were all lemons with the possibility of an orange or two. Plus thorns. Didn't expect that.

ba san said...


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ba san said...

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rcommal said...

My thought, on account of all these political threads, is that Althouse sees no reason for cafe posts anymore--and perhaps (nay, almost certainly, and I do not blame her) she is right: because, God knows, no one here wants to talk about anything else.

rcommal said...

Clint's dialogue with a chair was deliciously reminiscent of theater productions over the past 50-odd years, at the very least. And that was the point.

History (of various types), anyone?

Again, that was the point.

rcommal said...

Loafing Oaf:

My son already has more cultural and historic awareness than, apparently, you do. He's 12. What the hell is your excuse?

rcommal said...

Oops! So stupid of me. It's obvious: You loaf around.

Mick said...

Alex said...

"Althouse cries foul on the lawyer joke".


Lawyer politicians have destroyed America.

rcommal said...

No one would ever ask my opinion, of course. And perhaps it's true that it's worth nothing. That said, wouldn't it have been interesting if, rather than engaging something on an otherwise empty stage (both a common technique AND motif over the last half-century), Clint Eastwood's speech had morphed into some sort of live performance art? Better yet, some sort of crowd-source, or cloud-cluster, or whatever, thing?

I mean, you know.

kentuckyliz said...

I want to hear old Clint Eastwood say,

"Get off my lawn!"

edutcher said...

I have a feeling 600+ posts will be a record, so I'll add my 2 cents and go back to bed.

The Republicans go out of Tampa having had a great convention showcasing the very deep bench the party has. They're united and fired up, and, most important, swimming in money.

The Romster gave a pretty good speech, not Reaganesque, but one that probably surprised some people. He can now go after Choom full bore and, for those who remember the primaries, he can be expected to do to the demos what he did to Newt and then Santorum.

I have a feeling the trolls will soon be so busy crying, "Foul", that all the "mittens" stuff will be shown for the empty bravado it is.

Paco Wové said...

"Lanvin Handbag was seen dead with a pile of notes in his hand."

Oh noes, the spam-bots returneth! ... though this is actually one of the better comments on this thread.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Kathy said:
"Chris Matthews must immediately resign as he hands his job off to a person of color. End of story."

Oh I agree. If Chris Matthews doesn't do this, it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is a full blown bat shit crazy racial racist.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

radical racist. That is... Chris Matthews.

harrogate said...

"Obama and the Democratic Party-controlled senate have failed the nation for the last four years.

It's time for real change."

Yeah, I miss the days of the GOP Presidency and Senate and House. Those Terri Shiavo moments were the stuff leadership is made of.

Craig said...

No serape? No cigar?
High Plains Drifter hits the skids.

pm317 said...

Dims trying to insult Clint Eastwood, why? It makes me laugh. Clint's speech was unconventionally funny, smartly abstract and expertly executed that it flew right over these stupid people's head.

Roger J. said...

My only thought after watching the convention on PBS (the GF doesnt get CSPAN), was the R's have one hell of a diverse and young bench of dynamic up and comers. Will be interesting to see who the D's trot out.

Icepick said...

Monkey spunk.

...

Just because I want to be a part of this thread.

And because monkey spunk is always funny.

At least when it happens to other people!

Bob Ellison said...

Hey...did I miss the whole party? Darn it, text me the next time this happens!

Sorun said...

Can someone summarize these comments in two short paragraphs?

Thanks.

Icepick said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tank said...

Mick said...

9:14: Marco Rubio! About Obama: "Our problem is not that he's a bad person. It's that he's a bad President."


Nonsense. They trip all over themselves to avoid the "racist" label. The fact is that Obama is the destroyer of America, and of American sovereignty. He is a criminal Usurper. Yeah he's a very bad guy.


Bingo. Why can we not just say it? Zero is not a nice guy, and not a good guy. The bad guys always love their own kids and dogs, some of them might even be good parents, but they're still bad guys.

Con men are bad guys.
Zero is a con man.

Icepick said...

Can someone summarize these comments in two short paragraphs?

From the Demorrhoids: Eastwood crazy old man. Romney weird rich man. Repulsicons racist, sexist and delusional.

From the Repulsicons: Eastwood funny and biting. Romney turn-around artist. Demorrhoids = Communists.

Bonus Paragraph: Both sides, "We've got this thing in the bag!"

Bob Ellison said...

Icepick, excellent!

furious_a said...

I heard Clint used an empty chair because he couldn't find an empty suit in Obama's size.

Icepick said...

Icepick, excellent!

yes, monkey spunk is excellent as long as it happens to other people.

test said...

edutcher said...

The Republicans go out of Tampa having had a great convention showcasing the very deep bench the party has. They're united and fired up, and, most important, swimming in money.


Your list is nice but it's not required. Obama is swimming upstream because of the lousy economy and the foolish things he's said which show voters why he won't change. All Romney had to do was appear a reasonable guy.

Objective met. Romney's going to win 2-3 states more than he needs in the EC with roughly the same national vote split Obama had in 2008, 52/51 to 47/48.

Known Unknown said...

Leftists guillotined Lavoisier.

Pol Pot didn't dig people in glasses.

jungatheart said...

A tidy little convention. I am very curious to see what the Dem's will look like. I picture it coming off as a celebration of decadence compared to the virtuous tone of the Republican's. I'm fairly certain glittery vaginas will not be welcome.

I'm wondering how the swing vote will be affected by the healthcare issue. The working class element who are in jobs without health insurance may be single issue voters on this point.

Geoff Matthews said...

Surprised that Crack didn't show up, given all of the explicit references to Mormonism.

Unknown said...

Hi Ann,
I loved reading this piece! Well written!

Merlen Hogg
primer

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