And there we have it.
An empty suit with no core values who thinks we can magically alter our financial agreements with China, drastically lower taxes where there is actual revenue, raise them where it will cripple aggregate demand, and retool for a battle against the Soviet menace might be the next President of the United States.
Back later with reactions and round ups.
10:16pm CST Iraq. Not one word. Libya. Not one word. Afghanistan. Not one word. But, Obama foreign policy is dangerous and bad.
10:13pm CST I can't keep up with the bullshit. This is a speech so far removed from every policy proposal Team Romney has produced to date that it's like some other candidate altogether.
10:08pm CST 12 million new jobs. Romney just promised us 12 million new jobs.
Total energy independence by 2020 (and unicorns) Better education (Vouchers, vouchers, vouchers) New trade agreements (because the structural collapse of job expansion will really be turned around by more NAFTA's) A balanced budget (whose? It sure ain't his).
Real and replace Obamacare... with... crickets...
Wow. Romney, whose plan actually raises taxes on the middle class, says he won't raise taxes on the middle class like Obama, who has no intention of raising taxes on the middle class.
Now he's making fun of environmentalism.
10:04pm CST Romney is the only speaker of the evening speaking more about the future than the past but it might as well be a future of lollipop farms and unicorn factories.
Yes, "what America needs is jobs."
Now a total misrepresentation about gas prices from a guy who, at the very least, understands futures and speculation. Unforgivable.
A guy who has actually shipped jobs to China saying his opponent might send jobs to China is bullshit.
10:00pm CST Carter comparisons. From a Dukakis impersonator.
9:58pm CST Well. I know what I've been waiting for my whole life is a president who made the retirement of Episcopal church leaders more comfortable. This is nuts.
Annnd... Obama is "attacking success." HOW? Prove it.
9:55pm CST Mitt's talking now, at best, about an upper middle class American existence most of us haven't lived in a generation. He really doesn't get it.
Here we go. Obama had "no experience." 14 years in the private sector practicing law is still not a real job.
9:53pm CST It's really beginning to gall me the more I think about Mitt declaring "God Bless Neil Armstrong" after a campaign which insists government can't do anything right and taxes of any kind, ever, are always bad.
Also, Mitt Romney misses his children being little. This is all about doing damage control with women. He wants women to know Ann's Job "was harder" than his. Not so sure a personal homily makes up for a platform Akin loves.
9:48pm CST Are we hearing smatterings of boos over the mention of Detroit and Michigan?
9:47pm CST Romney needs to start selling himself but quick. This reminds me of 1988. There was really no reason for Bush to win other than the sputtering unlikability of Dukakis.
We all "deserve better!" Great! How, again, are you better?
Mitt wants us to know he was born in the 'middle of the country and the middle of the century.' And, when top tier rates that helped us afford the moon shot he's talking about were so much higher than today that anyone proposing a return to them is called a Marxist by the GOP.
Facepalm
9:41pm CST Wow. Mitt opens by spending two minutes talking about Ryan. Reminding the voters that they would prefer someone else is just stupid. He then has the wild audacity to suggest that the whole country came together after the election of Obama. Too bad every elected Republican failed to get hat memo.
Again, this is fantasy. It's un-rooted from anything resembling the truth as we know it.
9:36pm CST Mitt. Is it just me or is the crowd stunningly subdued? I mean, I get it. How can you follow Eastwood and Rubio? You'd think they wouldn't have set the stage so well for buyer's remorse.
9:33pm CST After nearly fifteen minutes of a past through rose colored lenses, Rubio is finally taking about the future. I wonder if Rubio actually believes in this glorious future possible only through the election of Mitt Romney.
Now Romney is "a special man."
Must. Resist. Urge. To. Make. Bad. Joke.
9:29pm CST "The story of those who came before us" is not what this election is about. I find the proceedings consistently delusional. Are we actually being sold a time machine? Do they really, genuinely believe an idealized past is somehow going to be reconstituted?
9:26pm CST Rubio is launching an attack on government spending and its relation to demand. Death to Keynes. But he immediately pulls back to homilies about Romney's decency. Rubio has the good grace to say Obama is "not a bad person." But it's all smarm. "He's a bad president."
This devotion to the notion that government simply needs to get out the way is tired. That said, Rubio sure is a good salesman.
As we lead into Romney, we continue to hear more about the past than we do about the future. We are still hearing more about what's wrong with Obama than what is right with Romney.
If I didn't know better, I'd think this was actually a recall election. How this will play nationally is anybody's guess.
"We're special." Apparently, were so special that we don't need any policy specifics because government bad. And the "most important" characteristic of citizenship is declared to scriptural faith. As a Christian, I call bullshit.
9:19pm CST Rubio is here and we are immediately praying for Cuba.
Apparently, at last, we are going to hear someone "talk about what this election is about." Annnnd... a personal story about sitting on his granddad's porch. Seriously.
9:16pm CST To be fair, Eastwood is making a strong case for Democracy. Politicians are our employees. We should view elections as a chance to hire and to fire them. This is precisely why someone who has spent his whole life as the boss is not appropriate for the job of POTUS. He has only ever fired. He has never really risked being fired.
9:14pm CST Ugh. Biden jokes. Now he's channeling Heston. Albeit a much more pleasant Heston.
A dig about the fact that Obama and Biden are attorneys. This is treading a little too close to anti-intellectualism for my tastes.
"It's time for a businessman." Sad. America is a country. It's not a business. This does sum up the common thinking of the GOP today, though. We would all be wise to examine why it's so resonant.
9:09pm CST Wow. He used the positive, emotional memory of Obama's victory to turn to the emotional reaction to more than 20 million unemployed.
He seems to be struggling to remain the basically fair man he is known to be. Obama is getting a certain degree of credit but a slam for the Afghan War pullout date.
9:05pm CST And here we are.
9:03pm CST At this point, Larison is absolutely correct: Having to make the case that Mitt is an actual, genuine human being is a losing position.
9:01pm CST There is something truly unseemly about using Ann Romney's legitimate health crisis to appeal to regular folks. Whatever fear and pain they went through, they were never in danger of losing a home, a job, a house. There is no connect between their experience and ordinary Americans. Worse, the Romney plan is to ensure that ordinary Americans facing the same health threat will be at greater risk of financial ruin.
Also, Mitt is no George Romney
The rapid pivot back to Bain with it's declaration that Mitt "was a cheap son of a gun" is inexplicable in a prepared video.
8:55pm CST More Romney movie. Mitt just said we need to "give everyone a fair chance." When the exact same words appear at next week's Dem convention they will called out for their obvious Marxism.
8:52pm CST Can we just throw in the towel on this thing get to the Clint Eastwood nomination?
8:48pm CST So, Iran is supposedly an "existential threat," but we are listening to an "Olympic memory?" Our nation is hurtling towards an entitlement abyss, but we're listening to a personal friend and athlete speak tearfully about carrying the WTC flag? Is Romney going to make sure we all get to carry the flag. So it's touching. What does it have to do with anything? ANYTHING?
Ahhhh... structural unemployment is simply because we aren't inspired. Maybe someone can bring this whole clusterfuck full-circle and tells us we need to win it for the Gipper?
And now? We return to the feel of a revival. Literally shaking my head here.
8:42pm CST If our country, as the GOP wants us to believe, is so disastrously off course, should we really be hearing this much about sports? I mean it. I think this is a tremendous mistake. Also, Romney's record on the 2002 games isn't exactly without stench.
8:37pm CST Something about the night's proceedings just doesn't feel like a lead up the actual nominee's important speech. It's great that we have all these Olympians but so what?
Well, it's about the only time a chant of "USA, USA" hasn't risked the appearance of nativist exclusion.
8:34pm CST A female, skeet-shooting, Olympian gold medalist. Well played, Romney.
8:29pm CST We are told that Romney "is authentic."
Larison tweets
8:26pm CST Now they are just failing to make any sense. They are promoting full ride scholarships in Massachusetts when Romney/Ryan are 100% behind massive cutbacks to Pell grants and a doubling of student interest rates. This is just as bizarre as Romney touting Romneycare when it's despised by the GOP base. Also, the current GOP is not exactly for education spending. Seriously. It makes no sense.
Having a self-described "liberal Democrat" from Romney's Mass administration tout his record of expanding government opportunities for women in "top state positions" sure is interesting.
8:21pm CST Testimonials are all well and good but showing is more powerful than telling and all these folks are doing is telling.
Now we get the "Obama is an apologist" meme whereas Romney will "lead us back to an America" that, I repeat, never was.
8:17pm CST Heading into the convention wrap, Team Romney playing this much defense should be a disaster. The coming election looks harder and harder to predict, though.
Okay, now this just pure fantasy. Claiming Mitt Romney "saved" the 2002 Olympics without mentioning the $1.3 billion in taxpayer money he needed to do it is insane. No Republican seems to care.
Again, "Mitt Romney is a good and honorable man." Should we really need this many reminders?
8:10pm CST Where the first hour, aside from Jeb Bush making a great case for himself in four years, seems to have been devoted to humanizing Romney and mainstreaming his religion, the second hour seems to be about redeeming Bain.
Bingo.
8:06pm CST Staples President Bob Stemburg brings the Solyndra. Elect Mitt Romney because he knows how to "save a dollar on paper clips."
The lending collapse to actual small businesses goes utterly unexplored. No. Policy. Whatsoever.
Wow, That ANYONE at this convention would accuse Obama of "fiction, half truths, and outright lies" is disgusting. And that was mmediately followed by? Repeating the lie that "no jobs" have been created on Obama's watch. Stemburg is one slippery son of a bitch.
He's certainly got this crowd eating out of his hand. Leading everyone in chants that the Obama Team "Just. Don't. Get it."
A heaping crap-ton of false statements.
8:01pm CST Okay. Mitt saved a runaway. We've heard that story. Bain founded a children's charity which, I am sure, was not in any way motivated by the subsequent write-off potential.
Oh Christ. Running footage of Obama's you "didn't build that" gaffe. You really screwed up on that, Mr. President.
7:56pm CST Bob White, allegedly Mitt's man with plan, wants to know just how "spectacular" we all thought Ann Romney was the other night. No comment.
Mitt has had a "profoundly positive impact" on people's lives... by starting Bain Capital.
I suppose this was a forgone conclusion. On the heels of this week's Bain revelations, however, this portrait of Romney is just not believable. Remember, until Mitt had the Feds bail out Bain after he nearly destroyed it, he had reduced it to "no value as a going concern."
7:50pm CST I can only guess that someone behind the scenes has grown really alarmed at alienating the evangelical wing of the base. More references to Romney as "clergy." Is this really how they mean to head into the last weeks before the general election?
It's great to know that the Romneys "love their neighbor" but when his policy proposals would likely result in tremendous pain it rings hollow.
7:46pm CST Okay. We get it. We are supposed to think of Romney as a "deeply good man."
We really need policy statements. And we need them on something resembling economics. There was more on the issue of school choice than there has been on jobs.
This is beginning to come across as desperate.
7:37pm CST It occurs to me that this is actually tremendously important. If there is anything they really need to do, it's render Romney more human-like.
Mitt Romney showed "compassion in all its beautiful varieties." No, really. The guy just said it.
7:34pm CST Listening to man call time spent with Romney as "wonderful, even glorious" is just creepy. This longtime LDS member is doing quite the job of mainstreaming the group as just another Christian sect. As a Christian, I admit it bothers me.
Apparently, Mitt Romney can be counted on to, you know, get up early in the morning.
Quoting from the New Testament. Still waiting for some Joseph Smith.
7:30pm CST Rep. Rogers of Washington has arrived. She refers to the "small business" owners who have appeared over the last two nights, who didn't build it without taxpayer money, that they built it. They're totally removed from reality.
7:23pm CST If the Democrats have canned presentations this bad next week we are in really serious trouble.
7:22pm CST School choice, thug teachers "slashing tires," it's too hard to fire teachers.
Jeb mentioned Scott Walker more times than he has the GOP nominee on that nominee's big night.
7:18pm CST There something profoundly vulgar about this convention for this ticket allegedly fighting on behalf of teachers.
Okay, Jeb Bush just compared school choice to choosing from different varieties of milk in a grocery store. Insane.
Annnnnd... unions are bad!
Bush has brought another young face on to tout "choice" and, by total coincidence (cough, cough) the speaker pivots off last night's "zip code" remark by Condi.
7:13pm CST Jeb Bush is making one Hell of an argument for... Jeb Bush in 2016
7:10pm CST Jeb Bush instead of current Gov. Scott. No films about recent accomplishments (there aren't any). Just constant reminders of Reagan. Jeb just told Obama to stop "blaming" his brother... while still making sure not to mention his own brother's name.
School choice. Tenure is bad because it hurts young teachers. Nothing new here at all.
7:02pm CST The coordinated attempt to make the case for Hispanic support smacks of desperation. What is this? Vote for us and help us encourage your neighbors to "self-deport?"
6:57pm CST One more time, HERE is Romney's signature on a document begging for waivers of welfare reform requirements
6:55pm CST Team Gingrich conflates Obama with Carter. This is more of a campaign against an imaginary presidency. They are touting Romney's energy plan and condemning Obama's when the largest rise in domestic production since, yes, Reagan has been under the guidance of this administration.
Under Reagan "spending controls worked"?! On what planet was this?
Here's the welfare attack. A repetition of the abject falsehood that Obama is "gutting" the welfare work requirement.
6:51pm CST Newt and Calista. Wow. Let's all remember that Newt spent his afternoon vigorously defending Rep. Akin
6:49pm CST The Reagan tribute is a stark reminder of just how little contemporary accomplishment the GOP has to run on. If the Dems run equivalent pablum about JFK, I will shake my head just as vigorously.
We are not facing the "stag-flation" of 1980. We are challenged by entrenched globalism and a fundamental lack of incentive for our wealthiest to kickstart aggregate demand.
6:45pm CST Mack wants us all to know that we are "a nation of dreamers." I find it odd that they continue to hype immigrant stories when the convention has been the most nativist in decades.
6:40pm CST Connie Mack has a whole series of bumper stickers for sale. Or something.
6:30pm CST Well, here we go again. In a half hour, we will all find out if the GOP can actually top last night's display of cynical disregard for provable truths.
Raw convention stream HERE
Earlier coverage HERE, HERE and HERE
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