The Other McCain

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

LIVE AT FIVESIX: 08.30.12

Posted on | August 30, 2012 | 5 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Paul Ryan’s Urgent Message: America Needs A Turnaround

Your next President (of the Senate) Paul Ryan

“College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life.”



Condoleezza Rice: “American Strength Begins At Home”
“Where does America stand?” When our friends and our foes, alike, do not know the answer to that question — clearly and unambiguously — the world is a chaotic and dangerous place.

Isaac Misses New Orleans, Continues To Soak Louisiana With Rain
Surrounding parishes could see two feet of rain and serious flooding



POLITICS
President Screws Around On Internet While Black People Drown

President Obama on Reddit

Obama answers ten questions on Reddit

NASA Launches Twin Satellites Into Van Allen Radiation Belts

McCain: America Can’t Afford Another Obama Term

Rob Portman: Being Cool Doesn’t Fix The Economy

Appeals Court Grants George Zimmerman New Judge

Pentagon Investigating SEAL’s Bin Laden Book For Classified Info



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Down Slightly As Isaac comes Ashore; NYMEX $95.33, Brent $112.54
US Economy Barely Moved In Second Quarter
German Unemployment Rises For Fifth Straight Month
Homeowner Aid From Banks Reported At $10.5 Billion
Asian Shares Retreat Ahead Of Bernanke’s Speech
Sears Booted From S&P Over Float Level
Citigroup Settles Shareholder Suit For $590 Million
Sales Of Foreclosed Properties Up In Second Quarter
US Farm Income Up As Drought Spurs Higher Prices
S&P Downgrades Illinois After Pension Reform Failure
Dell XPS 10 Windows RT Tablet Revealed; Has 20-Hour Battery
Samsung Updates Galaxy Note Phablet
Google Plus Launched Business-Savvy Networking Tools
Samsung Unveils Windows Devices
HP Tries Again With Envy X2 Convertible Tablet/Laptop Windows 8 Hybrid
Intel Adds Wireless Power Sharing For Laptops, Smartphones
Kojim Productions Announces Open World “Metal Gear Solid” Game



SPORTS
Clemens Slated for Second Sugar Land Start September 7

Roger Clemens pitching in the Atlantic League

Not thinking about major-league comeback; will be on Hall of Fame ballots this fall

Replacement Refs To Work NFL’s Week One

NHLPA May Table Counteroffer Today As Lockout Looms

Bullpen Delivers As Giants Beat Astros

Stewart Debut Ugly As Angels Rip Red Sox 10-3

Rocked By Rays: Harrison Allows Seven Runs In 5.1 Innings

Sabathia Struggles As Yanks Lose To Blue Jays 8-5

Harvey, Duda Help Mets Get Even With Phillies In 3-2 Win

Blanton, Ellis Lead Dodgers Over Rockies, 10-8

Harper Ends Nats’ Five Game Skid With Two Dingers, Ejection



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Courtney Stodden Turns 18

Courtney Stodden

Immediately bombarded with porn offers

LiLo Owes: Chateau Marmont Bill Tops $46K

Holly Madison Expecting First Child

John Travolta’s Former Gay Lover Tells All

Ryan Gosling To Make Directing Debut On “How To Catch A Monster” With Christina Hendricks

Eyewitness Claims Coke Used In Prince Hal’s Room During Naked Vegas Romp

Heidi Klum And Seal’s Divorce Battle Heating Up

Unspeakable Armenian Settles Lookalike Suit With Old Navy for $$$



FOREIGNERS
Up To 47 Dead In PRC Coal Mine Explosion
Syrian Emigres In US Seek Aid To Arm Rebels
Barak: Egypt Clearly Trying To Control Sinai Terror
Tehran Jumps To Assad’s Rescue
Ayatollah Khamenei Says Iran Has No Interest In The Bomb, Will Pursue Peaceful Nuclear Power
Rush Of Asylum-Seekers Before Australian Crackdown
Assange Case Forces Ecuador To Release Long-Jailed Dissident
Twin Typhoons Raise Fears For Disaster-Prone Norks
Ban Ki-Moon Condemns Iran For Israel Threats, Holocaust Denial At Non-Aligned Nations Conference



BLOGS & STUFF
EBL: Hey Girl, Paul Ryan Is Giving His Speech At The RNC
WyBlog: Why Your Next Car Will Be An Overpriced Golf Cart
Gateway Pundit: I Call BS As Lib Media Says GOP Delegates Threw Nuts At Black Camerawoman & Used Slurs – Where’s The Video, Audio, Or Names?
Pat Dollard: Clint Eastwood Believed To Be Today’s Mystery Speaker
Jim Geraghty: The Growing Inclination To Hype Or Trash Convention Speeches
Sacred Monkeys: Romney Gets 5% Bounce In Swing States Poll
Newsbusters: Gwen Ifill Stands Up For Disgraced David Chalian
Atlas Shrugs: Yahoo News Washington Bureau Chief Says “Republicans Happy To Party When Black People Drown”
Legal Insurrection: “Nor Can a Peace Be Brokered”
Riehl World News: Juan Williams, Stop Digging
NRO Media Blog: Brian Ross Beclowns Himself Again
Just One Minute: A New Judge For George Zimmerman
AmSpecBlog: Susanna Martinez – Obama Built The Deficit
Wizbang: Burned-Out Occupy Anarchists
Lonely conservative: Obama Sent Form Letters To Families Of The Fallen
Ed Driscoll: Wow, The GOP Turned Into Golf Digest So Slowly…
NRO Corner: On Those “Odd” Parts Of The GOP Platform

Category: Live at Five

COMPLETE TEXT: PAUL RYAN’S SPEECH TO THE GOP CONVENTION

Posted on | August 29, 2012 | 26 Comments

Provided by the Romney campaign:

Mr. Chairman, delegates, and fellow citizens: I am honored by the support of this convention for vice president of the United States.
I accept the duty to help lead our nation out of a jobs crisis and back to prosperity – and I know we can do this.
I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us, with opportunity for the young and security for the old – and I know that we are ready.
Our nominee is sure ready. His whole life has prepared him for this moment – to meet serious challenges in a serious way, without excuses and idle words. After four years of getting the run-around, America needs a turnaround, and the man for the job is Governor Mitt Romney.
I’m the newcomer to the campaign, so let me share a first impression. I have never seen opponents so silent about their record, and so desperate to keep their power.
They’ve run out of ideas. Their moment came and went. Fear and division are all they’ve got left.
With all their attack ads, the president is just throwing away money – and he’s pretty experienced at that. You see, some people can’t be dragged down by the usual cheap tactics, because their ability, character, and plain decency are so obvious – and ladies and gentlemen, that is Mitt Romney.
For my part, your nomination is an unexpected turn. It certainly came as news to my family, and I’d like you to meet them: My wife Janna, our daughter Liza, and our boys Charlie and Sam.
The kids are happy to see their grandma, who lives in Florida. There she is – my Mom, Betty.
My Dad, a small-town lawyer, was also named Paul. Until we lost him when I was 16, he was a gentle presence in my life. I like to think he’d be proud of me and my sister and brothers, because I’m sure proud of him and of where I come from, Janesville, Wisconsin.
I live on the same block where I grew up. We belong to the same parish where I was baptized. Janesville is that kind of place.
The people of Wisconsin have been good to me. I’ve tried to live up to their trust. And now I ask those hardworking men and women, and millions like them across America, to join our cause and get this country working again.
When Governor Romney asked me to join the ticket, I said, “Let’s get this done” – and that is exactly, what we’re going to do.
President Barack Obama came to office during an economic crisis, as he has reminded us a time or two. Those were very tough days, and any fair measure of his record has to take that into account. My home state voted for President Obama. When he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it, especially in Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory.
A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: “I believe that if our government is there to support you … this plant will be here for another hundred years.” That’s what he said in 2008.
Well, as it turned out, that plant didn’t last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day. And that’s how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight.
Right now, 23 million men and women are struggling to find work. Twenty-three million people, unemployed or underemployed. Nearly one in six Americans is living in poverty. Millions of young Americans have graduated from college during the Obama presidency, ready to use their gifts and get moving in life. Half of them can’t find the work they studied for, or any work at all.
So here’s the question: Without a change in leadership, why would the next four years be any different from the last four years?
The first troubling sign came with the stimulus. It was President Obama’s first and best shot at fixing the economy, at a time when he got everything he wanted under one-party rule. It cost $831 billion – the largest one-time expenditure ever by our federal government.
It went to companies like Solyndra, with their gold-plated connections, subsidized jobs, and make-believe markets. The stimulus was a case of political patronage, corporate welfare, and cronyism at their worst. You, the working men and women of this country, were cut out of the deal.
What did the taxpayers get out of the Obama stimulus? More debt. That money wasn’t just spent and wasted – it was borrowed, spent, and wasted.
Maybe the greatest waste of all was time. Here we were, faced with a massive job crisis – so deep that if everyone out of work stood in single file, that unemployment line would stretch the length of the entire American continent. You would think that any president, whatever his party, would make job creation, and nothing else, his first order of economic business.
But this president didn’t do that. Instead, we got a long, divisive, all-or-nothing attempt to put the federal government in charge of health care.
Obamacare comes to more than two thousand pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees, and fines that have no place in a free country.
The president has declared that the debate over government-controlled health care is over. That will come as news to the millions of Americans who will elect Mitt Romney so we can repeal Obamacare.
And the biggest, coldest power play of all in Obamacare came at the expense of the elderly.
You see, even with all the hidden taxes to pay for the health care takeover, even with new taxes on nearly a million small businesses, the planners in Washington still didn’t have enough money. They needed more. They needed hundreds of billions more. So, they just took it all away from Medicare. Seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama. An obligation we have to our parents and grandparents is being sacrificed, all to pay for a new entitlement we didn’t even ask for. The greatest threat to Medicare is Obamacare, and we’re going to stop it.
In Congress, when they take out the heavy books and wall charts about Medicare, my thoughts go back to a house on Garfield Street in Janesville. My wonderful grandma, Janet, had Alzheimer’s and moved in with Mom and me. Though she felt lost at times, we did all the little things that made her feel loved.
We had help from Medicare, and it was there, just like it’s there for my Mom today. Medicare is a promise, and we will honor it. A Romney-Ryan administration will protect and strengthen Medicare, for my Mom’s generation, for my generation, and for my kids and yours.
So our opponents can consider themselves on notice. In this election, on this issue, the usual posturing on the Left isn’t going to work. Mitt Romney and I know the difference between protecting a program, and raiding it. Ladies and gentlemen, our nation needs this debate. We want this debate. We will win this debate.
Obamacare, as much as anything else, explains why a presidency that began with such anticipation now comes to such a disappointing close.
It began with a financial crisis; it ends with a job crisis.
It began with a housing crisis they alone didn’t cause; it ends with a housing crisis they didn’t correct.
It began with a perfect Triple-A credit rating for the United States; it ends with a downgraded America.
It all started off with stirring speeches, Greek columns, the thrill of something new. Now all that’s left is a presidency adrift, surviving on slogans that already seem tired, grasping at a moment that has already passed, like a ship trying to sail on yesterday’s wind.
President Obama was asked not long ago to reflect on any mistakes he might have made. He said, well, “I haven’t communicated enough.” He said his job is to “tell a story to the American people” – as if that’s the whole problem here? He needs to talk more, and we need to be better listeners?
Ladies and gentlemen, these past four years we have suffered no shortage of words in the White House. What’s missing is leadership in the White House. And the story that Barack Obama does tell, forever shifting blame to the last administration, is getting old. The man assumed office almost four years ago – isn’t it about time he assumed responsibility?
In this generation, a defining responsibility of government is to steer our nation clear of a debt crisis while there is still time. Back in 2008, candidate Obama called a $10 trillion national debt “unpatriotic” – serious talk from what looked to be a serious reformer.
Yet by his own decisions, President Obama has added more debt than any other president before him, and more than all the troubled governments of Europe combined. One president, one term, $5 trillion in new debt.
He created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.
Republicans stepped up with good-faith reforms and solutions equal to the problems. How did the president respond? By doing nothing – nothing except to dodge and demagogue the issue.
So here we are, $16 trillion in debt and still he does nothing. In Europe, massive debts have put entire governments at risk of collapse, and still he does nothing. And all we have heard from this president and his team are attacks on anyone who dares to point out the obvious.
They have no answer to this simple reality: We need to stop spending money we don’t have.
My Dad used to say to me: “Son. You have a choice: You can be part of the problem, or you can be part of the solution.” The present administration has made its choices. And Mitt Romney and I have made ours: Before the math and the momentum overwhelm us all, we are going to solve this nation’s economic problems.
And I’m going to level with you: We don’t have that much time. But if we are serious, and smart, and we lead, we can do this.
After four years of government trying to divide up the wealth, we will get America creating wealth again. With tax fairness and regulatory reform, we’ll put government back on the side of the men and women who create jobs, and the men and women who need jobs.
My Mom started a small business, and I’ve seen what it takes. Mom was 50 when my Dad died. She got on a bus every weekday for years, and rode 40 miles each morning to Madison. She earned a new degree and learned new skills to start her small business. It wasn’t just a new livelihood. It was a new life. And it transformed my Mom from a widow in grief to a small businesswoman whose happiness wasn’t just in the past. Her work gave her hope. It made our family proud. And to this day, my Mom is my role model.
Behind every small business, there’s a story worth knowing. All the corner shops in our towns and cities, the restaurants, cleaners, gyms, hair salons, hardware stores – these didn’t come out of nowhere. A lot of heart goes into each one. And if small businesspeople say they made it on their own, all they are saying is that nobody else worked seven days a week in their place. Nobody showed up in their place to open the door at five in the morning. Nobody did their thinking, and worrying, and sweating for them. After all that work, and in a bad economy, it sure doesn’t help to hear from their president that government gets the credit. What they deserve to hear is the truth: Yes, you did build that.
We have a plan for a stronger middle class, with the goal of generating 12 million new jobs over the next four years.
In a clean break from the Obama years, and frankly from the years before this president, we will keep federal spending at 20 percent of GDP, or less. That is enough. The choice is whether to put hard limits on economic growth, or hard limits on the size of government, and we choose to limit government.
I learned a good deal about economics, and about America, from the author of the Reagan tax reforms – the great Jack Kemp. What gave Jack that incredible enthusiasm was his belief in the possibilities of free people, in the power of free enterprise and strong communities to overcome poverty and despair. We need that same optimism right now.
And in our dealings with other nations, a Romney-Ryan administration will speak with confidence and clarity. Wherever men and women rise up for their own freedom, they will know that the American president is on their side. Instead of managing American decline, leaving allies to doubt us and adversaries to test us, we will act in the conviction that the United States is still the greatest force for peace and liberty that this world has ever known.
President Obama is the kind of politician who puts promises on the record, and then calls that the record. But we are four years into this presidency. The issue is not the economy as Barack Obama inherited it, not the economy as he envisions it, but this economy as we are living it.
College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life. Everyone who feels stuck in the Obama economy is right to focus on the here and now. And I hope you understand this too, if you’re feeling left out or passed by: You have not failed, your leaders have failed you.
None of us have to settle for the best this administration offers – a dull, adventureless journey from one entitlement to the next, a government-planned life, a country where everything is free but us.
Listen to the way we’re spoken to already, as if everyone is stuck in some class or station in life, victims of circumstances beyond our control, with government there to help us cope with our fate.
It’s the exact opposite of everything I learned growing up in Wisconsin, or at college in Ohio. When I was waiting tables, washing dishes, or mowing lawns for money, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life. I was on my own path, my own journey, an American journey where I could think for myself, decide for myself, define happiness for myself. That’s what we do in this country. That’s the American Dream. That’s freedom, and I’ll take it any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners.
By themselves, the failures of one administration are not a mandate for a new administration. A challenger must stand on his own merits. He must be ready and worthy to serve in the office of president.
We’re a full generation apart, Governor Romney and I. And, in some ways, we’re a little different. There are the songs on his iPod, which I’ve heard on the campaign bus and on many hotel elevators. He actually urged me to play some of these songs at campaign rallies. I said, I hope it’s not a deal-breaker Mitt, but my playlist starts with AC/DC, and ends with Zeppelin.
A generation apart. That makes us different, but not in any of the things that matter. Mitt Romney and I both grew up in the heartland, and we know what places like Wisconsin and Michigan look like when times are good, when people are working, when families are doing more than just getting by. And we both know it can be that way again.
We’ve had very different careers – mine mainly in public service, his mostly in the private sector. He helped start businesses and turn around failing ones. By the way, being successful in business – that’s a good thing.
Mitt has not only succeeded, but succeeded where others could not. He turned around the Olympics at a time when a great institution was collapsing under the weight of bad management, overspending, and corruption – sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
He was the Republican governor of a state where almost nine in ten legislators are Democrats, and yet he balanced the budget without raising taxes. Unemployment went down, household incomes went up, and Massachusetts, under Mitt Romney, saw its credit rating upgraded.
Mitt and I also go to different churches. But in any church, the best kind of preaching is done by example. And I’ve been watching that example. The man who will accept your nomination tomorrow is prayerful and faithful and honorable. Not only a defender of marriage, he offers an example of marriage at its best. Not only a fine businessman, he’s a fine man, worthy of leading this optimistic and good-hearted country.
Our different faiths come together in the same moral creed. We believe that in every life there is goodness; for every person, there is hope. Each one of us was made for a reason, bearing the image and likeness of the Lord of Life.
We have responsibilities, one to another – we do not each face the world alone. And the greatest of all responsibilities, is that of the strong to protect the weak. The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves.
Each of these great moral ideas is essential to democratic government – to the rule of law, to life in a humane and decent society. They are the moral creed of our country, as powerful in our time, as on the day of America’s founding. They are self-evident and unchanging, and sometimes, even presidents need reminding, that our rights come from nature and God, not from government.
The founding generation secured those rights for us, and in every generation since, the best among us have defended our freedoms. They are protecting us right now. We honor them and all our veterans, and we thank them.
The right that makes all the difference now, is the right to choose our own leaders. And you are entitled to the clearest possible choice, because the time for choosing is drawing near. So here is our pledge.
We will not duck the tough issues, we will lead.
We will not spend four years blaming others, we will take responsibility.
We will not try to replace our founding principles, we will reapply our founding principles.
The work ahead will be hard. These times demand the best of us – all of us, but we can do this. Together, we can do this.
We can get this country working again. We can get this economy growing again. We can make the safety net safe again. We can do this.
Whatever your political party, let’s come together for the sake of our country. Join Mitt Romney and me. Let’s give this effort everything we have. Let’s see this through all the way. Let’s get this done.
Thank you, and God bless.

 


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

COMPLETE TEXT: ROB PORTMAN’S SPEECH TO THE GOP CONVENTION

Posted on | August 29, 2012 | 6 Comments

TAMPA, Florida
Provided by the Republican National Committee:

Good evening America, and hello to the fired-up delegation from the Buckeye State right in front of me.
My name is Rob Portman and they say I was on Governor Romney’s short list of vice presidential candidates.
Apparently, it wasn’t short enough.
But it’s been a great convention and I am delighted to be here tonight to talk about the fundamental differences between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama when it comes to understanding our economy.
Let’s begin by talking about something the Democrats love to demonize – Mitt Romney’s success in the private sector. He built a company from the ground up, created lots of jobs, and yes, he made money.
He made it the old fashioned way . . . He earned it.
Then you have Barack Obama, who has never started a business-never even worked in business. And he claims those who have should give credit to the government or someone else for their success.
So, you have one candidate who understands that success comes from working hard, competing and taking risks.
And you have another candidate who believes success comes from government.
Which one do you think knows how to turn this economy around?
Which one would you choose to invest your life’s savings?
Should it be any different for safeguarding our nation’s economy?
Or let’s say you don’t have any savings. Let’s say you’re worried about how to pay September’s rent or mortgage.
Let’s say you are one of the millions of Americans out of work or the millions more who have given up looking.
You’ve gotta be running out of patience – and hope. You have to be tired, looking for a new start.
Well, you don’t have to be patient any longer. Through your vote this fall you can change the leadership of this country and the opportunities for you and your family.
America, it has been nearly four years of over eight percent unemployment – and double digit unemployment for young people, Hispanics and African-Americans.
Four years. FDR and Truman won an entire world war in four years.
America is tired of waiting.
In business, if you don’t move rapidly, you are out of business. You are finished.
We want a president who operates at business speed not government speed.
President Obama says he deserves reelection because his economic policies have worked.
Not in this universe they haven’t.
In fact, the experts tell us that if we don’t change our policies we are going back into recession next year.
Tens of millions of Americans are not out of the last recession!
Governor Romney had a plan to build his business. He now has a detailed plan to restore our economy and strengthen the middle class.
I ask you: Where is the president’s economic plan?
Blaming others does not qualify as a plan. Now the president did submit a budget. It was so bad that not a single Republican or a single Democrat in the entire United States Congress would vote for it.
He got zero votes. That is a failure of leadership.
President Obama has been right about at least one prediction he’s made about the economy. He said, “If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.”
I think you are right about that, Mr. President.
It hasn’t worked, because you cannot spend your way, regulate your way, tax your way or blame your way out of the economic mess we are in.
You have to liberate the productive power of the American people through policies that encourage innovation, risk taking, investment and jobs.
And you have to compete and win in the global economy. Governor Romney understands this.
In contrast, President Obama is the first president in 75 years-Democrat or Republican-who hasn’t even sought the ability to negotiate export agreements and open markets overseas. Now why is this important?
Because 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside our borders. And to create jobs, our workers and our farmers need to sell more of what we make to those people.
While this administration has been dragging its feet, other countries have been busy negotiating hundreds of new trade agreements to benefit their workers and their farmers, taking away our opportunities.
President Obama has been so driven to advance his big government ideology that he has abandoned the daily economic work that a government must do to open markets, restore business confidence and create the climate for job growth.
This is the work President Romney would begin on day one.
Take trade with China. China manipulates its currency giving it an unfair trade advantage. So why doesn’t the president do something about it?
I’ll tell you one reason – President Obama could not run up his record trillion dollar deficits if the Chinese did not buy our bonds to finance them.
We are as beholden to China for bonds as we are to the Middle East for oil.
This will end under Mitt Romney.
We need to knock down these trade barriers abroad, but we also need to knock down the self-imposed barriers to success right here at home.
We need to reform our outdated and complicated tax code. We need to fix our burdensome regulatory system and we need an energy policy that encourages development of our resources right here, in the ground, in America.
America has a choice between Mitt Romney, who seeks to grow the economy, and Barack Obama who seeks to redistribute it.
Which one do you think will liberate America’s entrepreneurial spirit?
At the other party’s convention, you will hear the chant, “Four more years. Four more years.”
Folks – we can’t afford four more years. How about no more years?
Governor Romney chose a terrific partner in Paul Ryan of Wisconsin – Paul is a close friend with a great family and a reformer’s heart.
Vice President Biden has told people out of work to just, “hang in there.” So much for hope and change.
Paul Ryan is not asking America to continue to hang in there. He is proposing new policies that will give poor and middle class families opportunities and hope for the future.
Mitt Romney made his mark turning around businesses and solving problems.
Paul Ryan made his mark as a respected reformer focused on results.
Together they will do what President Obama has not done: They will lead in breaking through the partisan gridlock in Washington, D.C.
America, give them the chance to restore America’s economy and restore the American dream.
I have seen that dream up close. When I was a kid, my dad left his job as a salesman and started his own business selling forklift trucks. My Mom was the bookkeeper. He had to borrow money from her uncle because the bank wouldn’t give him a loan. He lost money for the first few years, but he never lost his dream.
And by the time he retired and my brother took over, the business had 200 employees – supporting 200 families in Southwest Ohio.
This is the classic American story – not of government telling us what to do – but of free men and free women willing to work hard and take a risk to build something of value for themselves, their families and their community.
About a year into the Obama Administration – I asked my dad whether he would do it again. He said, “Rob – with all the uncertainty out there today – I don’t know if I would take the risk.”
In that one sentence, he summed up what I’ve heard from hundreds of small business owners across Ohio and around this great country. They’re afraid to make the investment and jobs are the casualty.
Ladies and gentlemen, we need new leadership and new policies to bring back the dream and renew America’s promise.
No more excuses, no more blaming others, no more waiting.
We need Romney/Ryan and we need them now! And with your help, it will happen.
Thank you and God bless our great country.

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

@DavidChalian Got Breitbarted
UPDATE: Video Interview With ‘Hating Breitbart’ Director Andrew Marcus

Posted on | August 29, 2012 | 14 Comments

TAMPA, Florida
This morning while I was on my way to the Media Filing Center here at the Republican National Convention, the story went viral that David Chalian, Washington bureau chief of Yahoo News, had been caught on an open microphone saying — in regard to the coincidence of the GOP convention and Hurricane Isaac — “They aren’t concerned at all . . . They are happy to have a party with black people drowning.”

There was no time for me to blog about that, because I had to rush to the world premiere screening of Hating Breitbart, the new documentary film directed by Andrew Marcus. And while I was watching that movie, Yahoo News fired David Chalian.

Adios, douchebag.

This is strictly a coincidence, of course, just as it is strictly a coincidence that the guy who exposed Chalian is Newsbusters founder Matthew Sheffield, who is featured prominently in Hating Breitbart.

An awful lot of coincidences happened in Andrew Breitbart’s life.

I mean, if you believe in “coincidences,” which I don’t.

UPDATE: My video interview with Hating Breitbart director Andrew Marcus:

Category: Andrew Breitbart, Fear and Loathing at the Republican National Convention, Media Bias

RNC Rule 5 With Ann Romney and Other Smokin’ Hot Republican Party Babes

Posted on | August 29, 2012 | 25 Comments

TAMPA, Florida
Before our wolfish readers start getting all hubba-hubba about this photo of Dana Loesch and Lauren Luxemburg, permit me to point out that the photo was taken at Tuesday night’s “Homocon” party sponsored by GOProud, held at an Ybor City gay bar called The Honey Pot. As a matter of fact, if you’ll notice in the background, there is what would appear to be some evidence of the general orientation of the soireé.

Considering that it was well past 1 a.m. when I got there — after hitting deadline for The American Spectator — the guys in the background might be closing the deal, so to speak. NTTAWWT.

Isn’t that cruel of me, to lure in you lust-crazed freaks with the babe picture, and then spoil it like that by pushing your homophobia buttons? Just to make the buzzkill complete, I’ll point out that Dana is married and her husband Chris could probably beat you up.

Pouring cold water on your concupiscent interests is necessary, because this blog is all about family values, and it would be unseemly — disrepectful, even — for you to be in a tumescent condition when the topic at hand involves the next First Lady of the United States:

At 5:40 p.m. Tuesday, when the New Jersey delegation cast all 50 of their votes for Mitt Romney, it gave the former governor of Massachusetts 1,150 votes — six more than the 1,144 necessary for a majority — and he at last became officially the presidential nominee of the Republican Party. Choosing a nominee is, after all, the actual purpose of the convention, but the roll call that marked the culmination of Romney’s long campaign (which has been effectively continuous since 2006) was not a primetime event. Instead, TV viewers saw a night of speeches that culminated with back-to-back speeches by the candidate’s wife, Ann Romney, and the keynote speaker, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
It was a powerful one-two punch to cap the opening night of the Republican National Convention, which saw its first day’s schedule cancelled by fears of Hurricane Isaac, the storm that turned away from Tampa and instead headed west across the Gulf of Mexico. The delayed beginning did not lessen the power of the speech by Ann Romney, who told a story of her husband’s success that contradicted the narrative the liberal media have constructed about him.
“Tonight I want to talk to you about love,” Mrs. Romney told the thousands of GOP delegates gathered inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum. “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.”
Republicans in love? Whoever heard of such a thing? The media would have us believe that Republicans are soulless automatons incapable of love. At certain points during Mrs. Romney’s speech, one could hear a few reporters in the Media Filing Center sarcastically mocking her words. The liberal media have spent months pushing the Obama campaign’s message that the GOP is the Anti-Woman Party, but liberal journalists are scarcely able to conceal their contempt for Republican women like Ann Romney, who used her speech as an opportunity to appeal directly to women without the media filter.
“It’s the moms of this nation — single, married, widowed — who really hold this country together,” Mrs. Romney said. “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.” Mothers “are the best of America. You are the hope of America. There would not be an America without you.” . . .

Read the whole thing at The American Spectator — you sick freaks!

 

 

PREVIOUSLY:

 


Category: Election 2012, Fear and Loathing at the Republican National Convention, Rule 5

LIVE AT FIVE: 08.29.12

Posted on | August 29, 2012 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Chris Christie Brings The Tough Love To Convention Keynote Speech

"It's time to end the era of absentee leadership."

Fires up delegates with hard-nosed speech; rips Obama as much as he praises Romney

Ann Romney: “This Man Will Not Fail”
Mrs. Romney offers passionate testimonial

Isaac Hits Louisiana
Calm prevails amid memories of Katrina



POLITICS
Artur Davis: I Made A Mistake In Backing Obama

Former Alabama Democrat Artur Davis

“Ask yourself if these Democrats still speak for you.”

Jeff Flake Wins Arizona GOP Senate Nomination

Washington Judges Toss Texas Redistricting Plan; State Will Appeal To Supremes

Brown Gets Half A Loaf With California Pension Reform


Will “2016: Obama’s America” Sway Undecided Voters?

Specter Fighting Cancer Again

Obama Courts Votes Of Less-Engaged Youth



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Prices Continue To Slump As Isaac Expected To Spare Gulf Oil Facilities; NYMEX $95.78, Brent $112.30
All Ears Turn To Bernanke’s Jackson Hole Speech On Friday
Euro Near Eight-week High As Italy Prepares To Sell Debt
Dollar Weakens Against Euro, Pound And Yen As Consumer Confidence Falls
Lexmark To Wind Down inkjet Printer Business
PRC Official Says Economic Growth “Stabilizing At a Low Rate”
No Ban On Samsung Devices For Apple Until December 6 Hearing
Blizzard Cuts Iranian Gamers Off From World Of Warcraft
Google’s Home Page Now A Billboard
Samsung Slaps Earth Tones On Galaxy S III
IBM Bets $1 Billion On New Mainframe In Shrinking Market



SPORTS
Dodgers Lose To Rockies, Fall Further Behind In NL West

Dodgers CF Matt Kemp hits the wall at Coors Stadium

Kemp leaves early after crashing into wall; getting MRI and CT scan

NHL Labor Talks Resume

Alvarez Goes Yard Twice As Bucs Rout Cards

Romero Loses 11th Straight As Blue Jays Fall To Yankees 2-1


Indians Blanked By A’s Again, 7-0

Darvish K’s 10, Kinsler Homers As Rangers Edge Rays 1-0

Fish Pound Strasburg, Extend Nats’ Skid To Five Games



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
No Prosecution For Lindsay Lohan In Jewelry Theft

Lindsay Lohan

DA rejects case for insufficient evidence, lack of witnesses

ABC Greenlights “S.H.I.E.L.D.” Series, Whedon To Write And Possibly Direct
Show already cancelled (j/k)

Prince Harry’s Naked Vegas Romp Caught On Video

Adrienne Maloof Files For Divorce

Robert Pattinson Selling Kristen Stewart Love Nest

Russell Brand Dating Ginger Spice



FOREIGNERS
Catalonia Asks Madrid For Emergency Funds
Clinton Set To Take Asia Push To South Pacific
Court Rules Israel Not At Fault In Rachel Corrie’s Death
Mumbai Jihadi Kasab Loses Plea, Indian Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentence
Japan, Norks Hold First Talks Since 2008
France Opens Murder Inquiry Into Arafat’s Death
Venezuelan Refinery Fire Finally Extinguished After Four Days
Opposition Leader Accuses Putin Of Spending Billions On Jets, Palaces, And Yachts



BLOGS & STUFF
Zilla Of The Resistance: Meet An Occupooper Who’d Like Mitt Romney And Paul Ryan Assassinated, Ann Romney Raped, And Thinks Cop-Killers Are Cool
WyBlog: We Don’t Need No Education – Teacher Fired For Posting Students’ Anti-Obama Pictures
Gateway Pundit: Ann Romney Lights Up The RNC
AmSpecBlog: What Mitt Romney And Ted Williams Have In Common
Judicial Watch: Stack Of “Overlooked” CIA Docs Obtained Detailing Meetings With Bin Laden Movie Makers
Michelle Malkin: Rules Changes Provoke Paul Supporters And Lots Of Romney Delegates As Well
Legal Insurrection: Court Throws Out Texas Redistricting Plan
Da Tech Guy: I’ll See You A Cardinal Dolan And Raise You…A Cardinal Dolan
Lonely conservative: Mia Love’s RNC Gun Story – Plus Video Of Her Convention Speech
Ed Morrissey: It’s Time To Cancel All National Political Covnentions
National Review: Politifiction
Scared Monkeys: Don’t Look Now, But Obama’s Support In Iowa Is Sliding
Weasel Zippers: DNC Chair Villaraigosa – Republicans Can’t Just Trot Out A Brown Face
Weekly Standard Blog: Hooters Welcomes Joe Biden To Tampa

Category: Live at Five

COMPLETE TEXT: CHRIS CHRISTIE SPEECH TO GOP CONVENTION

Posted on | August 28, 2012 | 19 Comments

TAMPA, Florida
From the Republican National Committee:

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.

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

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
« go back — keep looking »

    About

    This is an area on your website where you can add text. This will serve as an informative location on your website, where you can talk about your site.

    Subscribe to our feed

    Search

    Admin