LIVE AT FIVE: 08.29.12

This stage and this moment are very improbable for me.
A New Jersey Republican delivering the keynote address to our national convention, from a state with 700,000 more Democrats than Republicans.
A New Jersey Republican stands before you tonight.
Proud of my party, proud of my state and proud of my country.
I am the son of an Irish father and a Sicilian mother.
My Dad, who I am blessed to have with me here tonight, is gregarious, outgoing and loveable.
My Mom, who I lost 8 years ago, was the enforcer. She made sure we all knew who set the rules.
In the automobile of life, Dad was just a passenger. Mom was the driver.
They both lived hard lives. Dad grew up in poverty. After returning from Army service, he worked at the Breyers Ice Cream plant in the 1950s. With that job and the G.I. bill he put himself through Rutgers University at night to become the first in his family to earn a college degree. Our first family picture was on his graduation day, with Mom beaming next to him, six months pregnant with me.
Mom also came from nothing. She was raised by a single mother who took three buses to get to work every day. And mom spent the time she was supposed to be a kid actually raising children – her two younger siblings. She was tough as nails and didn’t suffer fools at all. The truth was she couldn’t afford to. She spoke the truth – bluntly, directly and without much varnish.
I am her son.
I was her son as I listened to “Darkness on the Edge of Town” with my high school friends on the Jersey Shore.
I was her son as I moved into a studio apartment with Mary Pat to start a marriage that is now 26 years old.
I was her son as I coached our sons Andrew and Patrick on the fields of Mendham, and as I watched with pride as our daughters Sarah and Bridget marched with their soccer teams in the Labor Day parade.
And I am still her son today, as Governor, following the rules she taught me: to speak from the heart and to fight for your principles. She never thought you get extra credit for just speaking the truth.
The greatest lesson Mom ever taught me, though, was this one: she told me there would be times in your life when you have to choose between being loved and being respected. She said to always pick being respected, that love without respect was always fleeting — but that respect could grow into real, lasting love.
Now, of course, she was talking about women.
But I have learned over time that it applies just as much to leadership. In fact, I think that advice applies to America today more than ever.
I believe we have become paralyzed by our desire to be loved.
Our founding fathers had the wisdom to know that social acceptance and popularity is fleeting and that this country’s principles needed to be rooted in strengths greater than the passions and emotions of the times.
Our leaders today have decided it is more important to be popular, to do what is easy and say “yes,” rather than to say no when “no” is what’s required.
In recent years, we as a country have too often chosen the same path.
It’s been easy for our leaders to say not us, and not now, in taking on the tough issues. And we’ve stood silently by and let them get away with it.
But tonight, I say enough.
I say, together, let’s make a much different choice. Tonight, we are speaking up for ourselves and stepping up.
We are beginning to do what is right and what is necessary to make our country great again.
We are demanding that our leaders stop tearing each other down, and work together to take action on the big things facing America.
Tonight, we choose respect over love.
We are not afraid. We are taking our country back.
We are the great grandchildren of men and women who broke their backs in the name of American ingenuity; the grandchildren of the Greatest Generation; the sons and daughters of immigrants; the brothers and sisters of everyday heroes; the neighbors of entrepreneurs and firefighters, teachers and farmers, veterans and factory workers and everyone in-between who shows up not just on the big days or the good days, but on the bad days and on the hard days.
Each and every day. All 365 of them.
We are the United States of America.
Now we must lead the way our citizens live. To lead as my mother insisted I live, not by avoiding truths, especially the hard ones, but by facing up to them and being the better for it.
We cannot afford to do anything less.
I know because this was the challenge in New Jersey.
When I came into office, I could continue on the same path that led to wealth, jobs and people leaving the state or I could do the job the people elected me to do – to do the big things.
There were those who said it couldn’t be done. The problems were too big, too politically charged, too broken to fix. But we were on a path we could no longer afford to follow.
They said it was impossible to cut taxes in a state where taxes were raised 115 times in eight years. That it was impossible to balance a budget at the same time, with an $11 billion deficit. Three years later, we have three balanced budgets with lower taxes.
We did it.
They said it was impossible to touch the third rail of politics. To take on the public sector unions and to reform a pension and health benefit system that was headed to bankruptcy.
With bipartisan leadership we saved taxpayers $132 billion over 30 years and saved retirees their pension.
We did it.
They said it was impossible to speak the truth to the teachers union. They were just too powerful. Real teacher tenure reform that demands accountability and ends the guarantee of a job for life regardless of performance would never happen.
For the first time in 100 years with bipartisan support, we did it.
The disciples of yesterday’s politics underestimated the will of the people. They assumed our people were selfish; that when told of the difficult problems, tough choices and complicated solutions, they would simply turn their backs, that they would decide it was every man for himself.
Instead, the people of New Jersey stepped up and shared in the sacrifice.
They rewarded politicians who led instead of politicians who pandered.
We shouldn’t be surprised.
We’ve never been a country to shy away from the truth. History shows that we stand up when it counts and it’s this quality that has defined our character and our significance in the world.
I know this simple truth and I’m not afraid to say it: our ideas are right for America and their ideas have failed America.
Let’s be clear with the American people tonight. Here’s what we believe as Republicans and what they believe as Democrats.
We believe in telling hard working families the truth about our country’s fiscal realities. Telling them what they already know – the math of federal spending doesn’t add up.

With $5 trillion in debt added over the last four years, we have no other option but to make the hard choices, cut federal spending and fundamentally reduce the size of government.
They believe that the American people don’t want to hear the truth about the extent of our fiscal difficulties and need to be coddled by big government.
They believe the American people are content to live the lie with them.
We believe in telling seniors the truth about our overburdened entitlements.
We know seniors not only want these programs to survive, but they just as badly want them secured for their grandchildren.
Seniors are not selfish.
They believe seniors will always put themselves ahead of their grandchildren. So they prey on their vulnerabilities and scare them with misinformation for the cynical purpose of winning the next election.
Their plan: whistle a happy tune while driving us off the fiscal cliff, as long as they are behind the wheel of power.
We believe that the majority of teachers in America know our system must be reformed to put students first so that America can compete.
Teachers don’t teach to become rich or famous. They teach because they love children.
We believe that we should honor and reward the good ones while doing what’s best for our nation’s future – demanding accountability, higher standards and the best teacher in every classroom.
They believe the educational establishment will always put themselves ahead of children. That self-interest trumps common sense.
They believe in pitting unions against teachers, educators against parents, and lobbyists against children.
They believe in teacher’s unions.
We believe in teachers.
We believe that if we tell the people the truth they will act bigger than the pettiness of Washington, D.C.
We believe it’s possible to forge bipartisan compromise and stand up for conservative principles.
It’s the power of our ideas, not of our rhetoric, that attracts people to our Party.
We win when we make it about what needs to be done; we lose when we play along with their game of scaring and dividing.
For make no mistake, the problems are too big to let the American people lose – the slowest economic recovery in decades, a spiraling out of control deficit, an education system that’s failing to compete in the world.
It doesn’t matter how we got here. There is enough blame to go around.
What matters now is what we do.
I know we can fix our problems.
When there are people in the room who care more about doing the job they were elected to do than worrying about winning re-election, it’s possible to work together, achieve principled compromise and get results.
The people have no patience for any other way.
It’s simple.
We need politicians to care more about doing something and less about being something.
Believe me, if we can do this in a blue state with a conservative Republican Governor, Washington is out of excuses.
Leadership delivers.
Leadership counts.
Leadership matters.
We have this leader for America.
We have a nominee who will tell us the truth and who will lead with conviction. And now he has a running mate who will do the same.
We have Governor Mitt Romney and Congressman Paul Ryan, and we must make them our next President and Vice President.
Mitt Romney will tell us the hard truths we need to hear to put us back on the path to growth and create good paying private sector jobs again in America.
Mitt Romney will tell us the hard truths we need to hear to end the torrent of debt that is compromising our future and burying our economy.
Mitt Romney will tell us the hard truths we need to hear to end the debacle of putting the world’s greatest health care system in the hands of federal bureaucrats and putting those bureaucrats between an American citizen and her doctor.
We ended an era of absentee leadership without purpose or principle in New Jersey.
It’s time to end this era of absentee leadership in the Oval Office and send real leaders to the White House.
America needs Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and we need them right now.
There is doubt and fear for our future in every corner of our country.
These feelings are real.
This moment is real.
It’s a moment like this where some skeptics wonder if American greatness is over.
How those who have come before us had the spirit and tenacity to lead America to a new era of greatness in the face of challenge.
Not to look around and say “not me,” but to say, “YES, ME.”
I have an answer tonight for the skeptics and the naysayers, the dividers and the defenders of the status quo.
I have faith in us.
I know we can be the men and women our country calls on us to be.
I believe in America and her history.
There’s only one thing missing now. Leadership. It takes leadership that you don’t get from reading a poll.
You see, Mr. President – real leaders don’t follow polls. Real leaders change polls.
That’s what we need to do now.
Change polls through the power of our principles.
Change polls through the strength of our convictions.
Tonight, our duty is to tell the American people the truth.
Our problems are big and the solutions will not be painless. We all must share in the sacrifice. Any leader that tells us differently is simply not telling the truth.
I think tonight of the Greatest Generation.
We look back and marvel at their courage – overcoming the Great Depression, fighting Nazi tyranny, standing up for freedom around the world.
Now it’s our time to answer history’s call.
For make no mistake, every generation will be judged and so will we.
What will our children and grandchildren say of us? Will they say we buried our heads in the sand, we assuaged ourselves with the creature comforts we’ve acquired, that our problems were too big and we were too small, that someone else should make a difference because we can’t?
Or will they say we stood up and made the tough choices needed to preserve our way of life?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my children and grandchildren to have to read in a history book what it was like to live in an American Century.
I don’t want their only inheritance to be an enormous government that has overtaxed, overspent and over-borrowed a great people into second-class citizenship.
I want them to live in a second American Century.
A second American Century of strong economic growth where those who are willing to work hard will have good paying jobs to support their families and reach their dreams.
A second American Century where real American exceptionalism is not a political punch line, but is evident to everyone in the world just by watching the way our government conducts its business and everyday Americans live their lives.
A second American Century where our military is strong, our values are sure, our work ethic is unmatched and our Constitution remains a model for anyone in the world struggling for liberty.
Let us choose a path that will be remembered for generations to come. Standing strong for freedom will make the next century as great an American century as the last one.
This is the American way.
We have never been victims of destiny.
We have always been masters of our own.
I won’t be part of the generation that fails that test and neither will you.
It’s now time to stand up. There’s no time left to waste.
If you’re willing to stand up with me for America’s future, I will stand up with you.
If you’re willing to fight with me for Mitt Romney, I will fight with you.
If you’re willing to hear the truth about the hard road ahead, and the rewards for America that truth will bear, I’m here to begin with you this new era of truth-telling.
Tonight, we choose the path that has always defined our nation’s history.
Tonight, we finally and firmly answer the call that so many generations have had the courage to answer before us.
Tonight, we stand up for Mitt Romney as the next President of the United States.
And, together, we stand up once again for American greatness.

COMPLETE TEXT: ANN ROMNEY SPEECH TO GOP CONVENTION

Posted on | August 28, 2012 | 13 Comments

TAMPA, Florida
Just got this from the Romney campaign:

I want to talk to you tonight not about politics and not about party.
And while there are many important issues we’ll hear discussed in this convention and throughout this campaign, tonight I want to talk to you from my heart about our hearts.
I want to talk not about what divides us, but what holds us together as an American family. I want to talk to you tonight about that one great thing that unites us, that one thing that brings us our greatest joy when times are good, and the deepest solace in our dark hours.
Tonight I want to talk to you about love.
I want to talk to you about the deep and abiding love I have for a man I met at a dance many years ago. And the profound love I have, and I know we share, for this country.
I want to talk to you about that love so deep only a mother can fathom it — the love we have for our children and our children’s children.
And I want us to think tonight about the love we all share for those Americans, our brothers and sisters, who are going through difficult times, whose days are never easy, nights are always long, and whose work never seems done.
They are here among us tonight in this hall; they are here in neighborhoods across Tampa and all across America. The parents who lie awake at night side by side, wondering how they’ll be able to pay the mortgage or make the rent; the single dad who’s working extra hours tonight, so that his kids can buy some new clothes to go back to school, can take a school trip or play a sport, so his kids can feel… like the other kids.
And the working moms who love their jobs but would like to work just a little less to spend more time with the kids, but that’s just out of the question with this economy. Or that couple who would like to have another child, but wonder how will they afford it.
I’ve been all across this country for the past year and a half and heard these stories of how hard it is to get ahead now. I’ve heard your voices: “I’m running in place,” “we just can’t get ahead.”
Sometimes I think that late at night, if we were all silent for just a few moments and listened carefully, we could hear a great collective sigh from the moms and dads across America who made it through another day, and know that they’ll make it through another one tomorrow. But in that end of the day moment, they just aren’t sure how.
And if you listen carefully, you’ll hear the women sighing a little bit more than the men. It’s how it is, isn’t it?
It’s the moms who always have to work a little harder, to make everything right.
It’s the moms of this nation — single, married, widowed — who really hold this country together. We’re the mothers, we’re the wives, we’re the grandmothers, we’re the big sisters, we’re the little sisters, we’re the daughters.
You know it’s true, don’t you?
You’re the ones who always have to do a little more.
You know what it’s like to work a little harder during the day to earn the respect you deserve at work and then come home to help with that book report which just has to be done.
You know what those late night phone calls with an elderly parent are like and the long weekend drives just to see how they’re doing.
You know the fastest route to the local emergency room and which doctors actually answer the phone when you call at night.
You know what it’s like to sit in that graduation ceremony and wonder how it was that so many long days turned into years that went by so quickly.
You are the best of America.
You are the hope of America.
There would not be an America without you.
Tonight, we salute you and sing your praises.
I’m not sure if men really understand this, but I don’t think there’s a woman in America who really expects her life to be easy. In our own ways, we all know better!
And that’s fine. We don’t want easy. But these last few years have been harder than they needed to be. It’s all the little things — that price at the pump you just can’t believe, the grocery bills that just get bigger; all those things that used to be free, like school sports, are now one more bill to pay. It’s all the little things that pile up to become big things. And the big things — the good jobs, the chance at college, that home you want to buy, just get harder. Everything has become harder.
We’re too smart to know there aren’t easy answers. But we’re not dumb enough to accept that there aren’t better answers.
And that is where this boy I met at a high school dance comes in.
His name is Mitt Romney and you really should get to know him.
I could tell you why I fell in love with him — he was tall, laughed a lot, was nervous — girls like that, it shows the guy’s a little intimidated — and he was nice to my parents but he was really glad when my parents weren’t around.
That’s a good thing. And he made me laugh.
I am the granddaughter of a Welsh coal miner who was determined that his kids get out of the mines. My dad got his first job when he was six years old, in a little village in Wales called Nantyffyllon, cleaning bottles at the Colliers Arms.
When he was 15, dad came to America. In our country, he saw hope and an opportunity to escape from poverty. He moved to a small town in the great state of Michigan. There, he started a business — one he built himself, by the way.
He raised a family. And he became mayor of our town.
My dad would often remind my brothers and me how fortunate we were to grow up in a place like America. He wanted us to have every opportunity that came with life in this country — and so he pushed us to be our best and give our all.
Inside the houses that lined the streets of our town, there were a lot of good fathers teaching their sons and daughters those same values. I didn’t know it at the time, but one of those dads was my future father-in-law, George Romney.
Mitt’s dad never graduated from college. Instead, he became a carpenter.
He worked hard, and he became the head of a car company, and then the governor of Michigan.
When Mitt and I met and fell in love, we were determined not to let anything stand in the way of our life together. I was an Episcopalian. He was a Mormon.
We were very young. Both still in college. There were many reasons to delay marriage, and you know? We just didn’t care. We got married and moved into a basement apartment. We walked to class together, shared the housekeeping, and ate a lot of pasta and tuna fish. Our desk was a door propped up on sawhorses. Our dining room table was a fold down ironing board in the kitchen. Those were very special days.
Then our first son came along. All at once I’m 22 years old, with a baby and a husband who’s going to business school and law school at the same time, and I can tell you, probably like every other girl who finds herself in a new life far from family and friends, with a new baby and a new husband, that it dawned on me that I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into.
That was 42 years ago. Now we have five sons and 18 grandchildren and I’m still in love with that boy I met at a high school dance.
I read somewhere that Mitt and I have a “storybook marriage.” Well, in the storybooks I read, there were never long, long, rainy winter afternoons in a house with five boys screaming at once. And those storybooks never seemed to have chapters called MS or Breast Cancer.
A storybook marriage? No, not at all. What Mitt Romney and I have is a real marriage.
I know this good and decent man for what he is — warm and loving and patient.
He has tried to live his life with a set of values centered on family, faith, and love of one’s fellow man. From the time we were first married, I’ve seen him spend countless hours helping others. I’ve seen him drop everything to help a friend in trouble, and been there when late-night calls of panic came from a member of our church whose child had been taken to the hospital.
You may not agree with Mitt’s positions on issues or his politics. Massachusetts is only 13% Republican, so it’s not like that’s a shock.
But let me say this to every American who is thinking about who should be our next President:
No one will work harder.
No one will care more.
No one will move heaven and earth like Mitt Romney to make this country a better place to live!
It’s true that Mitt has been successful at each new challenge he has taken on. It amazes me to see his history of success actually being attacked. Are those really the values that made our country great? As a mom of five boys, do we want to raise our children to be afraid of success?
Do we send our children out in the world with the advice, “Try to do… okay?”
And let’s be honest. If the last four years had been more successful, do we really think there would be this attack on Mitt Romney’s success?
Of course not.
Mitt will be the first to tell you that he is the most fortunate man in the world. He had two loving parents who gave him strong values and taught him the value of work. He had the chance to get the education his father never had.
But as his partner on this amazing journey, I can tell you Mitt Romney was not handed success.
He built it.
He stayed in Massachusetts after graduate school and got a job. I saw the long hours that started with that first job. I was there when he and a small group of friends talked about starting a new company. I was there when they struggled and wondered if the whole idea just wasn’t going to work. Mitt’s reaction was to work harder and press on.
Today that company has become another great American success story.
Has it made those who started the company successful beyond their dreams?
Yes, it has.
It allowed us to give our sons the chance at good educations and made all those long hours of book reports and homework worth every minute. It’s given us the deep satisfaction of being able to help others in ways that we could never have imagined. Mitt doesn’t like to talk about how he has helped others because he sees it as a privilege, not a political talking point. And we’re no different than the millions of Americans who quietly help their neighbors, their churches and their communities. They don’t do it so that others will think more of them.
They do it because there IS no greater joy.
“Give and it shall be given unto you.”
But because this is America, that small company which grew has helped so many others lead better lives. The jobs that grew from the risks they took have become college educations, first homes. That success has helped fund scholarships, pensions, and retirement funds. This is the genius of America: dreams fulfilled help others launch new dreams.
At every turn in his life, this man I met at a high school dance, has helped lift up others. He did it with the Olympics, when many wanted to give up.
He did it in Massachusetts, where he guided a state from economic crisis to unemployment of just 4.7%.
Under Mitt, Massachusetts’s schools were the best in the nation. The best. He started the John and Abigail Adams scholarships, which give the top 25% of high school graduates a four-year tuition-free scholarship.
This is the man America needs.
This is the man who will wake up every day with the determination to solve the problems that others say can’t be solved, to fix what others say is beyond repair. This is the man who will work harder than anyone so that we can work a little less hard.
I can’t tell you what will happen over the next four years. But I can only stand here tonight, as a wife, a mother, a grandmother, an American, and make you this solemn commitment:
This man will not fail.
This man will not let us down.
This man will lift up America!
It has been 47 years since that tall, kind of charming young man brought me home from our first dance. Not every day since has been easy.
But he still makes me laugh. And never once did I have a single reason to doubt that I was the luckiest woman in the world.
I said tonight I wanted to talk to you about love. Look into your hearts.
This is our country.
This is our future.
These are our children and grandchildren.
You can trust Mitt.
He loves America.
He will take us to a better place, just as he took me home safely from that dance.
Give him that chance.
Give America that chance.
God bless each of you and God Bless the United States of America.

Category: Election 2012, Fear and Loathing at the Republican National Convention

Matt Kibbe Of FreedomWorks Sounds Dismayed With The RNC

Posted on | August 28, 2012 | 21 Comments

by Smitty

I believe that the Republican party has made a huge mistake by effectively disenfranchising grassroots activists who want to be a part of the party process. If the party sincerely wants the support of citizens, shutting them out of the process is not the way to do it. Sooner rather than later the Republican establishment needs to come to terms with the decentralized nature of grassroots organization circa 2012. The terms of engagement can no longer be dictated from the top-down.

Oops.
Weigel says ‘No biggie‘:

You’ve been talking about aesthetics and how carefully Romney’s people shaped this thing. The Great Ron Paul Revolt may not affect any of that. Come Wednesday, the heavily reported stories of RNC rules 12 and 15 will be forgotten. Ryanmania will be our guide.

I don’t know, David. People are. . .noticing. This whole Internet memory thing is affecting politics in mysterious ways.
More detail:

At issue: two rules dubbed Rule 16 and Rule 12.

The first is a compromise of an earlier proposal, named Rule 15, that was vehemently opposed by many grassroots activists, including many Ron Paul supporters. It addresses delegate selection in future Republican presidential primaries – instituting stronger enforcement mechanisms to compel delegates to vote as they are bound by their states. In the original proposal, future presidential candidates would have had veto power over who could become a delegate.

The second rule concerns the RNC’s ability to change its rules in between its conventions.

Both rules were adopted on the convention floor by a voice vote. Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, chairman of the Rules Committee and a top surrogate for Romney, presented the rules. House Speaker John Boehner held the audible floor vote to adopt them.

Though the voices “for” and “against” sounded about the same, Boehner declared: “The ayes have it.”

That caused opponents on the floor to erupt in a chorus of boos.

Having looked at some of the local fracas, I can see where centralizing control is appealing. I can also tell you that feelings of betrayal will lead to unforseen consequences. I hope that Mitt has the acumen to look at all this and offer some reassurances.

Update: Bill Quick plays the realpolitik card straight up. His point is well taken. I suppose, perhaps from naivete, I’m willing to give Romney the benefit of the doubt. Mainly because, with the Internet, the amount of shenanigans anybody can pull will be somewhat diminished. Absent the Internet, I’d agree: we’re baked.

Category: Freedom Works

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. . . .

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.

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

Category: Election 2012, Fear and Loathing at the Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney

The Daily Gator Says: ‘A Bitch Slapping’

Posted on | August 28, 2012 | 4 Comments

by Smitty

It’s important to note that this organization is NOT composed of active duty military members. Spec Ops for America, via The Daily Gator:

I feel that November isn’t so much an election as it is a full-on Constitutional referendum. In all sincerity, I’d expect #OccupyResoluteDesk, and the Congress, to view the 22nd Amendment as seriously as they have the national budget for the last 3 years.
That is, if you don’t boot BHO now, you might not have another opportunity. Yes, that’s a heavy speculation. No, given the previous few years: it’s not farfetched.

Category: Barack Obama

Chris Matthews: Pecksniff

Posted on | August 28, 2012 | 15 Comments

by Smitty

Via Hot Air, Politico, emphasis mine:

“It is obvious that this is something I care passionately about: race was abused by white politicians in my lifetime, including Reagan. For someone to come on the program and deny that this is part of their process, I couldn’t take that,” Matthews said. “This is something I really, deeply believe in. We grew up in a country where appeals to race have been awful, terrible. This language — we are beyond this. It had to be called out.”

Is

Two letters. Therein lies the rub. You either buy into Matthews’s Orwellian raaaaacism plantation as a current existential phenomenon, where Chris can rub his preciousssss Gollum hands together, and sanctimoniously declaim about YOUR evil, or you can say: Get Stuffed!

Matthews, whatever little Antebellum world exists in your head, it applies neither outside that head, nor the place the head is lodged. You, Jamelle Bouie et al. are cordially invited to stated any current, actual racism (DNA-based decision making) you can find. But this backward-looking, airbrushed historical view is no longer tolerable. Recovering the economy is going to mean putting you and Uncle Choo-Choo out in a pasture somewhere, so that sane, honest people can be about their business.

Last word to Reince Preibus, who had to tolerate Matthew’s verbal diarrhea on the Morning Joe:

Update: Daily Pundit concurs.

Category: Hot Air, Media Bias, MSNBC

LIVE AT FIVE: 08.28.12

Posted on | August 28, 2012 | Comments Off on LIVE AT FIVE: 08.28.12

— compiled by Wombat-socho

TOP NEWS
Obama Declares State Of Emergency In Louisiana For Tropical Storm Isaac

Governor Jindal speaks to the press

Jindal fires back that what the state asked for was a disaster area declaration

Protests At GOP Convention Muted, Small
Organizers complain about weather, police presence affecting numbers

Will Colombia Make Peace With FARC?
President Santos announces talks with rebels in nationally broadcast speech

POLITICS
Flood Of Internet Posts Pay Tribute to Neil ~~Young~~Armstrong

Neil Armstrong, Hero Of The Internet People

Compilation of tweets, Facebook posts and other memorials by network that misidentified the fallen astronaut

Convention-Bound Ryan Slams Obama For Presiding Over “Debt, Doubt And Decline”

Opponents Defeat “Power Grab” Feared By TEA Party, NRA, Other Grassroots Movements

Ron Paul Supporters Rally In Tampa, Still Lukewarm On Romney

San Francisco’s Archbishop-elect Busted For DUI In San Diego

THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Gasoline Surges, Oil Falls As Gulf Refineries Shut Down For Isaac; NYMEX $95.47, Brent $112.26
Apple’s Win Against Samsung A Loss For Consumers?
FAA To Study Use Of Electronics In-Flight
Japan Downgrades August Economic Outlook
Founder Schulze Cleared For Best Buy Buyout Bid
M&T Bank Snaps Up Distressed Lenders As Prey Becomes Predator
AOL Announces Special Dividend, $600 Million Stock Buyback
Samsung’s Reaction To Apple Verdict: No Surrender
Active In Cloud, Amazon Reshapes Computing
What’s Missing In Windows 8 Apps
The Future Of Fitness: Bluetooth Opens Up With New Running, Cycling Standards
Samsung Unveils Galaxy Player 5.8
The Anternet: How Ants Speak The Language Of The Internet
Facebook App Center Under Fire In Germany

SPORTS
Beltre Continues Hot Streak As Rangers Edge Rays 6-5

Rangers 3B Adrian Beltre

3 for 3 with a home run and four RBI

Blue Jays Bounce Back, Beat Yankees 8-7 In 11th
Teixeira gets calf owie, out 1-2 weeks

Red Sox 5, Royals 1; Dice-K Off The DL, Big Papi On

McLouth Comes Through In The Clutch As O’s Rally To Beat Pale Hose 4-3

Francis, Rockies Shut Out Dodgers 10-0

King Felix Goes The Distance Again, Shuts Out Twins 1-o

Tribe Stomped By A’s 3-0; Just Like The Bad Old Days In Cleveland

FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Jessica Alba Is Ready for “Sin City” Sequel

Jessica Alba goes blonde again

And as you can see, so is her hair

Unspeakable Armenian Donates 100 Pairs of Designer Shoes To Charity After Kanye West Empties Her “Ghetto” Closet

Prince Harry Freezes Facebook Account, Meets With Head Of Army

The Emma Stone Interview

Carly Rae Jepsen Splits From “Call Me Maybe” BF, Finds New Man

DiCaprio, Maguire & Hardy Teaming Up For Movie About Animal Trafficking

Katy Perry! You Just Broke Up With John Mayer! What Are You Going To Do Now?

Chattanooga Lookouts Have Something…Unique On Their Outfield Wall

Amanda Bynes Hit & Run Case Reopened Because She’s Death On Wheels

FOREIGNERS
India Parliament Remains Stalled Over Coal Scandal
Sonia Gandhi Takes Point On Coal Row Counteroffensive
Bodies Fill Mass Graves As Assad Struggles To Keep Power
France Tells Syrian Rebels To Form A Provisional Government And They’ll Support It
Typhoon Buffets ROK, Kills Four; Storm Now Headed Toward Norks
US Troops Punished For Koran Burning, Urination Video
Pakistan Supreme Court Gives PM More Time In Graft Case
Hamas Welcomes Israeli Kids Back To School With Rocket Barrage
Riots Erupt In Mombasa After Killing Of Fiery Muslim Cleric
Toronto Police Arrest Estranged Boyfriend In Scattered Body Parts Case
Mexican Police Detained In Shooting Of US Agents

BLOGS & STUFF
First Street Journal: Why Officer Moses Walker Is Dead
WyBlog: Under The Radar, Obama And His FCC Push Ahead With Broadband Internet Tax Scheme
Bret Stephens: Barack Obama, Global Has-Been
Twitter Room: God Not Listening To Samuel Jackson On TS Isaac; Actor Flips Out
Rush Limbaugh: Tracking The Hurricane With The Media
a Blog For All: Four US Soldiers Charged In Terror Plot
Jim Geraghty: Priebus On Matthews – “He Made The Case For Us”
NewsBusters: Newt Takes It To Chris Matthews On His “Racist Thinking”
Hit & run: Did Todd Akin Make The GOP’s Abortion Plank Suddenly Relevant?
Wizbang: Here’s The Latest Paul Ryan “Scandal” You’re Supposed To Care About
Weasel Zippers: Spain Gets Revenge On America
Right Scoop: Mark Levin Explains The GOP Rules Change And Why It Had To Be Defeated
Power Line: Ritchie’s Ratchet, Part 3
Lonely Conservative: Obama Posts Picture Of Himself To Memorialize Neil Armstrong – And Then It Gets Worse
Jawa Report: Caption This – Neil Didn’t Do It Himself
Small Dead Animals: Is There Nothing Obama Can’t Do?
Conservatives 4 Palin: Governor Palin Discusses “Hope-ium” With Sean Hannity
Gateway Pundit: New Tone! Unhinged Actress Hopes Isaac Washes GOP Convention Out To Sea
Legal Insurrection: Strains Show In Warren Campaign – Cameraman Attacked

Category: Live at Five

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The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

LIVE AT FIVE: 08.29.12

COMPLETE TEXT: CHRIS CHRISTIE SPEECH TO GOP CONVENTION

COMPLETE TEXT: ANN ROMNEY SPEECH TO GOP CONVENTION

Matt Kibbe Of FreedomWorks Sounds Dismayed With The RNC

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

The Daily Gator Says: ‘A Bitch Slapping’

Chris Matthews: Pecksniff

Is

LIVE AT FIVE: 08.28.12

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