Ezra Klein at the Convention

Republican National Convention: Five thoughts on day one

Posted by Ezra Klein on August 29, 2012 at 2:24 pm

J. David Ake — AP

Now that I’ve had some time to process the first day of the Republican National Convention, a few thoughts.

1) It’s genuinely weird for a whole day to be based around “You didn’t build that.” But more than it’s weird, it’s small. It would be like Democrats dedicating a whole day of their convention to “I like to fire people” or “I don’t care about the very poor.” Conventions are supposed to make political parties big. Day one of the Republican National Convention made the Republicans look petty.

2) It’s also dishonest. My colleague Glenn Kessler handed the Republican convention’s use of the line four pinocchios. Then there were the repeated uses of the discredited welfare attack. There was Romney pollster Joe Newhouse’s comment: “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers” — or, you know, facts. This is starting to feel like more than politics as usual. It’s starting to feel like a disregard for the truth that actually matters. As Jon Chait writes in a post that deserves to be quoted at length:

One disturbing hallmark of the previous Republican presidential administration was the willingness of the president and his allies to rely utterly on the version of truth that circulated within the closed confines of the right-wing subculture. The meta-message of the Bush administration for its critics was: We don’t care what you think. What climate scientists or budget crunchers or intelligence experts said didn’t matter. The Republicans had their own people who assured them that carbon emissions weren’t necessarily warming the planet and tax cuts wouldn’t lead to deficits, and these truths would reverberate on Fox News and other friendly media. In that mental state, a Republican can confidently say or do anything, and — as long as he stays true to conservative dogma — he will be hailed as virtuous and true by the only parties whose standing matters to him.

One hope for a potential Romney administration is that Romney, and his appointees, would feel embarrassment at this method. Romney, unlike Bush, is not a product of deep Red America. Perhaps he and his staff would like to be held in high regard by educated people who get their information from news sources not operating under Republican message discipline.

The development of his campaign strongly suggests otherwise. Romney and his campaign feel perfectly cozy inside the confines of the right-wing information cocoon, where fealty to party doctrine is the only standard for which they will ever be held accountable.

3) There was a lot of political talent on display. Scott Walker, Kelly Ayotte, Chris Christie, and a number of other relative newcomers to the national stage performed admirably under the klieg lights.

4) But there wasn’t a lot of planning on display. There was no coherent argument for Mitt Romney. There was no coherence at all, in fact. Ann Romney came out and said, “Tonight I want to talk to you about love.” Christie came out right after her and said, “I believe we have become paralyzed by our desire to be loved.” When your two prime-time speakers can’t agree as to the convention’s position on love, you’ve got problems.

5) All that said, day one is meaningless. A strong day two will completely erase any memory of a weak day one. But, in the end, the only day that will really matter for this election is day three. Mitt Romney is going to have to make the case for Mitt Romney.

Humor: The Borowitz Report

Disturbed Man Gets Past Convention Security, Gives Keynote Address

Posted by Andy Borowitz

 

TAMPA (The Borowitz Report)—A mentally unhinged man slipped past security at the Republican National Convention last night and delivered a keynote address before he was subdued.

The man ranted incoherently on a variety of subjects, frightening many in the national television audience as security officials plotted their next move.

“We thought if we let him blow off some steam, maybe he would go quietly,” said the security spokesman Harland Dorrinson. “But he just kept shouting. I thought he was going to chew someone’s face off.”

After the man was subdued with a tranquilizer dart, Presidential nominee Mitt Romney said, “I hope he gets the help he needs,” adding, “Having said that, I’m going to repeal Obamacare on Day One.”

The entire incident has left the security staff “on edge,” Mr. Dorrinson said.

“A crazed individual breaking in and giving a nationally televised speech is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing,” he said. “But it could happen again tonight.”

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Photograph by Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images.

Mario Piperni on the Clown Show

The Republican Clown Show

August 29, 2012 By mario piperni

If you missed the two main speeches at last night’s GOP Lie-fest (aka The Republican National Convention), here are the two best summaries I’ve come across.

Steve Benen on the Chris Christie speech:

Christie decided to use this opportunity to celebrate … himself.

…

Even Christie’s theme seemed bizarre. The keynote was ostensibly about “hard truths” — he used the word “truth” 21 times — and the need for bold political “courage,” but all of this only reinforced the degree to which Mitt Romney disagrees.

Romney’s afraid to offend conservatives; he’s afraid to push back against extremist rhetoric; he’s afraid of the religious right; and he’s afraid of Limbaugh. He’s afraid to release his tax returns because he thinks Democrats might be mean to him; he’s afraid to disclose his bundlers because he worries sunlight may scare his wealthy benefactors away; and he’s afraid to take a firm position on key issues because he thinks he’d lose. His campaign said last week presenting specifics to voters would be “suicidal.”

Romney’s campaign isn’t about courageous “hard truths”; it’s about hiding the truth and hoping voters don’t notice.

Juan Williams on the Ann Romney speech:

Mitt Romney’s wife, Ann Romney, on the other hand, looked to me like a corporate wife. And, you know, the stories she told about struggle, it’s hard for me to believe. She’s a very rich woman. I know that, and America knows that.

…

It 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, or separated. She did not convince me that, ‘You know what, I understand the struggles of American women in general.’

There you have it. Christie’s speech was little more than a set up for his 2016 run for the White House. If he has any respect for Romney as a leader, it didn’t come across in his speech. Rachel Maddow noted that Christie did not mention Romney’s name until he got through two thirds of his speech. Oh yeah, Christie’s really into Romney.

As for Ann Romney’s speech, Williams could not have stated it better. Ann came across as a loyal wife who would say whatever it took to help her man get elected. None of her words rang true. Trying to convince America that she understands the plight of middle class women because she and her privileged hubby started their marriage in a basement apartment was as phony as she stating yesterday that she buys Mitt’s shirts at Costco and he ironed his own shirt that very morning. Get real. These people treat the electorate as complete morons.

If this is the best Republicans have to offer in terms of convincing America that Romney is anything other than an out-of-touch modern day Gordon Gekko, they’re in deep, deep trouble.

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Humor: The Borowitz Report

Romney Hailed as Regular Guy by Woman with Horse in Olympics

Posted by Andy Borowitz

 

TAMPA (The Borowitz Report)—On the opening night of the 2012 Republican National Convention, the Presidential nominee Mitt Romney received fulsome praise for being a “regular, down-to-earth guy” from his wife, Ann, whose dressage horse, Rafalca, competed in the London Olympics.

“Mitt has never let his success go to his head,” Mrs. Romney said. “Take away the seven-thousand-square-foot house in La Jolla and the bank account in the Caymans, he’s still the same fun-loving boy who pinned a gay kid to the ground and cut off his hair.”

Mrs. Romney adopted an intimate tone as she attempted to describe “the Mitt only I know.”

“Every now and then, Mitt will give me this devilish smile of his, and I know that can only mean one thing,” she said, flushing slightly. “He just fired someone.”

In a small flub that many delegates found endearing, Mrs. Romney said, “Mitt Romney is like you or me—he puts his pants on one leg at a time. Oh, wait. He has a fellow who does that for him. My bad.”

But the nominee’s wife brought the convention audience to its feet with her closing endorsement of her husband: “I promise you that if you elect Mitt President of the United States, he will never give less than thirteen per cent.”

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Photograph by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

From Andrew Sullivan

A Conservative Who Asks: Why Not?

In his farewell post on David Frum’s wonderful blog, Noah Kristula Green gives us a taste of what American conservatism might be if it were not tied to its current extremism. It’s a great list – and note where it starts:

Why couldn’t the Republicans and conservatives…

-Embrace gay marriage with the same enthusiasm as David Cameron? (“I don’t support gay marriage in spite of being a conservative. I support gay marriage because I am a conservative.”)

-Have a Values Voter Summit be about all voters of faith and not merely be an Evangelical Christian convention?

-Would it really be so hard for the GOP to renounce Austrian economics and support monetary stimulus in an emergency? (As Milton Friedman would have done.)

-Could the pro-life movement change priorities from criminalizing abortion to working to find effective ways to disincentivize it?

-Can Republicans acknowledge that a Tax Credit is just as bad a subsidy?

-Can Republicans learn how to do the effective ethnic outreach needed to win minority groups in elections? If even Canadians could learn how to do this…

-And is it so hard to admit that Fox News is clearly produced with an eye towards the geriatric population and that it doesn’t do a good job of speaking to Americans who are not yet 50?

At some point, the GOP will have to do all these things if it wants to survive as a national party. The reason it can’t? Religious and political fundamentalism. I remain of the view that the core conservative problem in America is that conservatives have become their own nemesis: ideological rather than pragmatic, pursuers of the perfect as opposed to the good, deeply uncomfortable with the modern world, and more at ease with the politics of resentment and radicalism than the politics of inclusion and moderation.

The good news is that Romney’s embrace of Ryan means that a defeat this November, if it happens, will not be able to be coherently blamed on Romney’s being a squish. He is putting the most radical agenda of any party in the West on the table. That may either heighten this country’s cultural contradictions and economic decline and lead to a wider global religious war (my fear in a supply-side, Christianist presidency allied with Israel against the entire Muslim world). Or it may help speed the recovery of the conservative mind and temperament. Which is why every sane conservative should vote for Obama this November. It’s the GOP’s only medium-term hope.

Mario Piperni on the New Gipper

Old Gipper, New Gipper

August 28, 2012 By mario piperni

You’ve all heard it before on how Ronald Reagan would fail to pass the conservative purity test required to be a card carrying member of today’s Republican Loony Party. There is little chance that Reagan’s brand of conservatism could win a primary against a teabagging opponent. And yet, conservatives, delusional as ever, still view Reagan as the consummate Republican.

As the Republican convention gets under way, it’s been estimated that Reagan’s name will be repeated no less than a gazillion times over the next few days…which is a good enough reason to revisit the Reagan record.

Ronald Reagan remains the modern Republican Party’s most durable hero. His memory will be hailed as The Great Uncompromiser by those who insist the GOP must never flag in its support for smaller government, lower taxes and conservative social values.

His record tells a different story.

During Reagan’s eight years in the White House, the federal payroll grew by more than 300,000 workers. Although he was a net tax cutter who slashed individual income-tax rates, Reagan raised taxes about a dozen times.

His rhetoric matched that of many of today’s most ardent Christian conservatives, yet he proved to be a reluctant warrior on abortion and other social issues. Perhaps most tellingly, he was willing to cut deals, working closely with Democratic leaders such as House Speaker Tip O’Neill of Massachusetts to overhaul Social Security and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois to revamp the tax code.

Those are the indisputable facts but conservatives like Jim DeMint remain in denial over the Reagan record.

“That’s nonsense,” says the South Carolina Republican and hero of the Tea Party movement.

And for those who bow at the altar of Saint Ronny…well, their prayers have been answered.

“He reminds us of Ronald Reagan,” Nancy Milholland, co-organizer of the Tea Party chapter in Racine, Wisconsin, said of [Paul] Ryan. “He’s like the second coming of Reagan. It’s like he’s channeling Ronald Reagan. He even looks like Reagan.”

Okaaaaay…if you say so.

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(The Ronald Reagan source image is in the public domain.)

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