RNC DAY 1.5: Baseless Speculation
UPDATE: Romney Officially Nominated as Republican Presidential Candidate

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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. . . .

Please read the whole thing.

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:


Why do you hate Liberty, huh?


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.

 





 

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39 comments

  1. Donnie and Marie! Now it all makes sense. Throw in an appearance by all the brothers singing One Bad Apple (Don’t Spoil The Whole Bunch, Girl)* – which considering Mitt says Obama is not a bad man, just misinformed – and IT ALL MAKES SENSE!

    _________________________________
    *I would prefer Down By The Lazy River
    or Double Lovin’ [IYKWIMAITYD].

  3. I think your article “The Exact Opposite of Truth” is an excellently written condemnation of the MSM and it’s core mission of misinformation.

  6. On the money Bob.
    (BTW, Sorry I couldn’t RT or favor your very fine tweets … blocked you know) …

  13. Didn’t Romney pay $500K to get Journey to play one of his events.

    Of course, Obama can probably get Springsteen for free but I would suggest they start the set with “Glory Days.”

  14. If you feel the impending compulsion to hang yourself, keep the tie. Otherwise, give it to a Paul supporter (you may have to explain what it is).

  15. That nitwit Tabitha Hale is on the side of the “grassroots” which in the Rule 15 thing is just the Paulbots who substituted Paul supporters for delegates won by others at state conventions.

    Rule 12 gives too much power to the RNC, ripe for abuse.

  17. We conservatives were sent a very clear message today by Romney, Boehner, and the GOP: Shut-up and do as we say.

    Time to rise up Wolverines.

    My suggestion going forward: 1) Get Romney & GOP Congress elected and 2) take over local GOP orgs & form a new party.

    #OPERATIONWHIG

  19. Hey there. I’m the lady who shook your hand as you entered the Liberty Plaza to see The Hope and The Change. It was a good movie, and the one they showed earlier, Reagan Rendevous with Destiny, was also top notch. For what it’s worth, I was way more bowled over to see you than the Gingriches, who introduced the Reagan movie.
    Cheers!
    Linda

  21. Off topic, but hey maybe you’ll see this and it pertains to the “actual reporting” angle. You’ve seen the feminut pushback against the DNC for their “no kids” policy. Well the new spin is, “the GOP hates kids too”. So my question is this, are there moms (or dads) with kids at this convention? It’d be a great photo-op to upstage the Party of Abortion!

  22. The reporting on this rule change has been shabby. Michelle covered it well in terms of who said what and when, but things like the so-called “compromise” are not reported with any depth. What happened with the “power grab” part of the rule change? Is the “you can keep your delegates as long as they vote right” compromise intended to make people accept the right to alter the rules without a full convention?

    I’m confused.

  24. Meh. Only solid color tie I’d ever wear is my super-skinny black one.

    Regimental stripes made Rush’s ties look magnificent back when he had his TeeVee show.

  25. Just had a chat with a local PCO…..this push back against the grass roots is nationwide. She went to a local GOP meeting last night that left her flabbergasted with the viciousness displayed by party leaders.

    So, yeah, it’s third party time.

  26. I never liked Springsteen that much. Born to Run was Okay. His Blinded By The Light was a good hit for Manfred Mann. Other than that, whenever I hear a Springsteen song come on the radio, I flip the channel.

  35. Wherever you find Democrats, you find drunk Democrats

    …says the guy whose trademark is posting photos of his beer drinking: either grinning with a bottle in hand or the obligatory bottle on the table next to his laptop. Can’t write without beer, eh? The guy whose night of drinking at the Washington Hilton terrace bar resulted in one of the biggest cock-ups of his career: the completely mis-informed GiveUsRyan hashtag campaign (not to mention the ridiculous claim that said campaign influenced the decision Romney made before said campaign was launched).

    And Upton is a spineless hack. Tweeting gossip as a question rather than a fact so he could say if challenged that he was only asking a question; and then losing his nerve and deleting the tweet. My bet: Upton tweeted drunk and then deleted when he sobered up.

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