Clint, Marco And Mitt

Tonight was the big night at the Republican convention, with three major speeches, including the Big One, Governor Romney's acceptance speech.

Here's my initial reaction to all three.

Clint Eastwood only disappointed me once tonight, and it wasn't his fault. Somebody forgot to use the theme music from 'The Good, The Bad and the Ugly' to bring him onstage. It would have been perfect.

The speech itself was actually a pretty kinky brand of satire a lot of the left was too crazed to fully get. It featured Clint Eastwood in an imaginary conversation with Barack Obama, explaining to him exactly why he should get out of Dodge. Unscripted, a little rambling just like a real conversation, but effective as all get out, from someone who's a long time libertarian and old enough and successful enough not to give a damn what anyone thinks. Some money quotes:

..I just think that there is so much to be done, and I think that Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan are two guys that can come along. See, I never thought it was a good idea for attorneys to the president, anyway. {...}

They are always devil’s advocating this and bifurcating this and bifurcating that. You know all that stuff. But, I think it is maybe time -- what do you think -- for maybe a businessman. How about that?

(APPLAUSE)A stellar businessman. Quote, unquote, “a stellar businessman.”


And I think it’s that time. And I think if you just step aside and Mr. Romney can kind of take over. You can maybe still use a plane.

(APPLAUSE)Though maybe a smaller one. Not that big gas guzzler you are going around to colleges and talking about student loans and stuff like that.{...}

I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we -- we own this country.

(APPLAUSE)

We -- we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.

(APPLAUSE)

And -- so -- they are just going to come around and beg for votes every few years. It is the same old deal. But I just think it is important that you realize , that you’re the best in the world. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican or whether you’re libertarian or whatever, you are the best. And we should not ever forget that. And when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go.

That last is a classic line that could have come from one of Clint Eastwood's films.Right up there with 'A man's got to know his limitations.'



Marco Rubio's speech was very much worth the price of admission. To my mind, it pretty much tied with Paul Ryan's last night as the best one out of the whole convention.

You see, Senator Rubio, like Mia Love, really gets America. He not only understands it's challenges but its possibilities. At one point in his speech, talking about the time he spent with his Cuban grandfather, he said. "For those of us who were born and raised in this country, it's easy to forget how special America is. But my grandfather understood how different America is from the rest of the world, because he knew what life was like outside America."

I couldn't agree more, and I've seen that more than once in immigrants to this country myself. And Americans who travel overseas and spend real time in a foreign country instead of just briefly hitting the tourist circuit frequently get that same appreciation.

Senator Rubio understands innately that one of the most insidious things the Obama regime is doing to America is eroding those possibilities. And with it, a great deal of what has traditionally made America a special place:

No matter how you feel about President Obama, this election is about your future, not his. And it's not simply a choice between a Democrat and a Republican.

It's a choice about what kind of country we want America to be.

As we prepare to make this choice, we should remember what made us special. For most of history almost everyone was poor. Power and wealth belonged to only a few.

Your rights were whatever your rulers allowed you to have. Your future was determined by your past.

If your parents were poor, so would you be. If you were born without opportunities, so were your children.

But America was founded on the principle that every person has God-given rights. That power belongs to the people. That government exists to protect our rights and serve our interests.

That we shouldn't be trapped in the circumstances of our birth. That we should be free to go as far as our talents and work can take us.

We are special because we've been united not by a common race or ethnicity. We're bound together by common values. That family is the most important institution in society. That almighty God is the source of all we have.

Special, because we've never made the mistake of believing that we are so smart that we can rely solely on our leaders or our government.

Like Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio was unafraid to hit President Obama in his weakest spot...his abysmal record as president. And like Ryan, he did it with humor and verve.

We will be seeing more of Marco Rubio in national politics. Sin duda.

So now we get to the big event..Governor Mitt Romney's acceptance speech.



The Governor's speech had some wonderful moments, but overall I give it a A- to a B+. Although to be honest, that grade very much depends on what you felt this speech needed to do.You see, unlike the current occupant of the White House, Mitt Romney is far more concentrated on actually doing things than just spewing hot air about them.

if tonight's speech was intended to humanize Governor Romney to people who are undecided and that didn't know much about him aside from the caricature of him as a heartless plutocrat they've seen and heard about via the Obama media, I think it did so. Governor Romney essentially is simply a decent, public spirited and principled man, and that came across tonight. People are unused to that, because it's been a long time since we had that quality showing so obviously in our president. Mitt Romney has that in abundance.

He touched all the right bases...his plans for the economy, religious freedom,even President Obama's abysmal foreign policy.

And yet, to my mind, he failed in one important area. Look at this:

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.

The President hasn’t disappointed you because he wanted to. The President has disappointed America because he hasn’t led America in the right direction. He took office without the basic qualification that most Americans have and one that was essential to his task. He had almost no experience working in a business. Jobs to him are about government.

'The President hasn’t disappointed you because he wanted to'? What idiot speechwriter stuck that in there?

President Obama has been quite deliberate about the direction he wanted America to go since day one. The problems we face now are entirely his responsibility. He was elected to solve problems and to govern, and instead what we got was a crooked, self-serving and dishonest Chicago style rape of law, our national principles. and the public treasury, rotten with crony capitalism and special interests.

It's about time someone had the stones to say so openly.

I have heard a number of clips of President Reagan in the 1980 election going after President Jimmy Carter's record and hammering him on it..and President Obama's record actually makes President Carter look halfway competent. Ronaldus Maximus knew how to hit Jimmy Carter hard, sometimes with humor, sometimes with a stiletto, sometimes with a Louisville slugger. But he never stopped pounding him.It worked well,because if any president deserved to be knocked around for his record, it was President Carter.

I'm disappointed that Governor Romney saw fit to buy into President Obama's number one alibi, repeated ad nauseum..that none of this was President Obama's fault.

Rest assured that when the Democrats meet in Charlotte next week, every other word out of their mouths will be used to demonize Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and Republicans in general. All of their media lackeys will be mobilized to talk about how hard hitting and masterful these speeches are, and when President Obama gets up on stage and mouths the usual nonsense, the media will genuflect no matter what he says.

The Democrats will not care one whit about what looks presidential. They will simply pull out all the stops and do what they do.

I'm hoping that this was just a momentary lapse of reason on the Romney campaign's part, and that they will understand what kind of people they're dealing with.

They may still end up winning without doing so, but if they want the sort of electoral repudiation of Barack Obama and his party that their performance in office merits, they had better wake up and take some lessons from Ronald Reagan.