RNC DAY 1.5: Baseless Speculation
UPDATE: Romney Officially Nominated as Republican Presidential Candidate
Posted on | August 28, 2012 | 39 Comments
TAMPA, Florida
OK, we’ll count Monday as a half-day, and I apologize for the late start today, but schmoozing and socializing with colleagues and sources is part of the job. There will be actual news here momentarily, I promise, but first: Baseless speculation from Jim Geraghty!
Buried deep in the convention schedule released Monday is a vague reference to a mystery speaker scheduled for the event’s final evening. “To Be Announced” has a prime speaking slot late in the Thursday program. . . .
I have no inside information (yet), but at dinner with my NR colleagues, last night, I pointed out that Palin is glaring by her absence from the program . . .
Right, Jim. And while I likewise have no inside information (yet) my strong suspicion is . . . Donnie and Marie Osmond.
It’s so obvious and logical.
UPDATE: To eliminate all possible confusion:
The RNC provides these convenient “You Are Here” signs to assist liberal reporters who fail to realize they are in Tampa in 2012 and instead believe they’re in Nurmberg in 1934 — which reminds me that I’ve got a column today in The American Spectator:
The Republican Party has spared no expense to accommodate the hundreds of journalists who have come here to write dishonest stories aimed at preventing the GOP from winning this year’s election.
If you’ve been following major media coverage of the Republican National Convention, you know that the party’s presidential candidate is Todd Akin, who will campaign this fall on a platform of undiluted hatred and evil, with the able assistance of his running mate, Martin Bormann Jr. The Akin-Bormann ticket was personally selected by RNC Chairman Rush Limbaugh and endorsed by Karl Rove after consultation with a secretive cabal of right-wing Mormon billionaires. The Republican delegates who are assembling this week in Tampa are mere dupes hired by the Koch brothers to provide the superficial appearance of a “political convention” debating a platform and nominating candidates.
Such is the narrative subtext of most of the GOP convention coverage, which is provided by a political press corps that is overwhelmingly composed of people who would never vote for any Republican under any imaginable circumstance. . . .
UPDATE II: Wherever you find Democrats, you find drunk Democrats: Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley was reportedly seen in an extreme state of intoxication in an Ybor City bar last night. Fortunately, no campaign aides were drowned — that we know of.
UPDATE III: Rules committee drama? We’ll see. Right now, I’ve got to get over to the Sheraton for an important meeting.
UPDATE IV: The meeting at the Sheraton has been delayed. Meanwhile, I dropped over to the “Liberty Plaza” site to catch a screening of Stephen K. Bannon’s new documentary, The Hope and the Change, about disillusioned former Obama voters. Excellent film.
Meanwhile — and, hey, this is actual news, if not particularly surprising — Mitt Romney is now officially the Republican Party presidential nominee. The roll-call vote put him over the top, clearing the 1,144 votes needed for a majority, at 5:40 p.m. ET, when the New Jersey delegation cast all of its 50 votes for Romney.
UPDATE V: While at the Sheraton, I ran into an old friend — a guy from Texas I interviewed last October:
They’ll soon be calling him Senator Ted Cruz.
UPDATE VI: A few photos from today:
Notice the pro-Israel protester next to the Ron Paul activists.
Stephen Bannon and Larry O’Connor of Breitbart.com broadcast from Radio Row.
NPR’s idea of Republicans: David Brooks and David Gergen are interviewed by a TV crew.
UPDATE VII: Just got back from the Tampa Bay Times Forum and got this photo from the nosebleed section:
I worked my way around to Suite 557 — the vice-chairman’s suite — where I had expected to find Javier Manjarres of the Shark Tank. He wasn’t there, but I got to stay and listen to Rick Santorum’s awesome speech.
PREVIOUSLY:
- Aug. 24:Tampa, Here I Come
- Aug. 24: Todd Akin Rapes Missouri GOP
- Aug. 25: Memo From the National Affairs Desk: Fear, Loathing and Deficient Hygiene
- Aug. 25: Monday GOP Convention Schedule Postponed Due to Anticipated BlogBash Hangovers and Approaching Hurricane …
- Aug. 26: First Arrest of RNC Protesters Reported
- Aug. 26: Ybor City Scenes
- Aug. 27: Journalism as Masochism
- Aug. 27: Health Care Expert: ObamaCare Will Kill Estimated 40,000 Seniors Every Year

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