Tuesday night opened the Republican National Convention with, excepting Ann Romney, very little mention of the man of the hour it seemed. In fact, listening to Gov. Chris Christie, one might be forgiven for thinking that the candidate was Christie, and showed Mitt Romney was maybe wise when he went to Paul Ryan instead. Ryan and co. tried to change that Wednesday night.
The opening acts of Sen. Rob Portman and former Gov. Tim Pawlenty delivered speeches that were perfectly serviceable and were key in showing that if they were the other choices for vice-president, Romney probably made the right choice. It's not that they were bad speeches, so much as that neither man is a particularly natural speaker.
Mike Huckabee also spoke and he showed the crowd what they missed out in not getting him to run. It was evident from the reaction that they still love him. Condoleeza Rice is another name that was mentioned quite a bit in the last couple of months. Obviously that did not happen, but she did herself proud. Her speech was surprisingly effective and personal as well as being a shining example of moderation, but it did not wow the crowd the way Ryan did.
You can read the text of her speech here.
Vice-presidents have to make their presidents look good (something Christie maybe lacks), and also deliver stinging attacks on the opponent, and if the attacks are little truth challenged...Once it's out there, it's out there that the Janesville, Wisc. GM plant is closed, never mind that it closed during George W. Bush's presidency (Washington Post). How many people fact check, right? And so the nation lost its AAA credit grading because the House refused to vote on the debt ceiling? Who remembers that, right? It was an effective speech, and never mind that even he didn't mention Romney all that much.
You can read the text of his speech here.
What did you think? Were the speakers as a whole, stronger the second night? Did you find yourself understanding exactly why Romney chose Ryan? Or did you find yourself wistfully wondering what might have been with Huckabee or Rice?
Photo Credit: Paul Ryan Facebook Page
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Comments: 54
We're being "played;" we shall see in due course how deeply Americans love their Country...and whether the Elites can "take the Country out of the Boy..."
" and also deliver stinging attacks on the opponent, and if the attacks are little truth challenged...Once it's out there, it's out there that the Janesville, Wisc. GM plant is closed, never mind that it closed during George W. Bush's presidency (Washington Post). How many people fact check, right? And so the nation lost its AAA credit grading because the House refused to vote on the debt ceiling? Who remembers that, right?"
The entire Republican strategy of repeating lies until they are accepted as truths is exposed in this paragraph.
Neophyte...
The entire Republican strategy of repeating lies until they are accepted as truths is exposed in this paragraph.
I think that's kind of a political truth (there's an oxymoron!), right? Lies are repeated so often that they almost sound like truth. And sometimes it isn't until you've actually processed what was said or that you read that stop and think, wait - what?
Yes, Kay. I understand why he was picked...it is because he's the only one who wishes to come off as a Conservative...their only hope.
"Wistfully wondering" with regard to Hucksterbee or Rice???...um, not in the least...
Paul Ryan lied so blatantly, that even Fox News on their night late news report, were forced to call many of the points he made in his speech "deceptive". It was noted by all other news networks, that Ryan presented at least six outright lies during his speech, while also having included numerous misleading points throughout the spoken monologue.
All from a guy who during his presidential campaign ran on a religious faith platform. (Many would define his platform as being that of a religious extremist) Ryan proudly professes to be a practicing member of the Roman Catholic Church. Which leads me to say, "So much for Truth in Religion".
If, he is truly the faithful Catholic he claims to be, then I'm willing to bet that he was on the front row at Midnight Prayer Mass last night. Determined to be the first one in line to ask the Priest for forgiveness and complete absolution for knowingly telling all those lies.
FEI: For the Folks who are not aware, that's the benefit of being a member of the Catholic Religion. As a member, you can knowingly lie to the public and a Priest can grant you absolution on the spot.
Out of pure curiousity, why do you feel compelled or obligated, whichever, to make unsupportable excuses for a man whom you do not even know, nor who would waste one second of his time coming to your defense. (i.e. he's a lying politician, not your beer drinking buddy)
BTW: Your new avatar is much more appropriate, it shows both your distain for the opposit sex and with out a doubt, successfully eliminates any previous misconception that you were purposely being a racist fool.
Soldier on, Big Mama, Soldier on.
Christian or objectivist? One cannot honestly be both. Most conservatives today in the Republican Party, and especially its Tea Party tumour, are objectivists masquerading as Christians.
In a surprising move, Fox News joined CNN, The Huffington Post, the Washington Post's Wonkblog, and ThinkProgress in publishing a fact-check of the Republican vice presidential nominee's speech, finding that the speech was full of lies and misleading assertions.
Media Calls Paul Ryan A Liar. Real Facts Say Otherwise
I really get tired of lamestream media.
The article does not address the AAA credit grade loss. Nor does it address the Medicare claims. Our credit was downgraded when the Republican led House (spurred on by its new Tea Party members) refused to even think about raising the debt ceiling. You might have agreed with that decision, but that uncertainty, totally new in the American political landscape, caused the downgrade.
As for the Medicare cuts, while what he said is true that there are cuts to the program, it's not true in the way he implied. The cuts are to reimbursement rates that the insurance companies and healthcare providers agreed to because of the universal coverage part.
When Obama was there, it was already scheduled for closing.
The plant shut its doors for good in 2009. According to an Associated Press article in the local Rockford Register Star, the plant ceased operations of large SUVs – its main product -- on December 31, 2008 and was scheduled to completely shut down several months later.
“About 50 workers will remain at the Janesville plant to complete an order of small- to medium-duty trucks for Isuzu Motors Ltd. They’re scheduled to finish by May or June, and then the plant will close down for good,†The Rockford Register Star reported December 31, 2008, citing GM spokesman Christopher Lee.
Another article – from the Janesville Gazette – reported that the plant continued operations into 2009, building medium-duty delivery trucks for Japanese automaker Isuzu.
“Full-size sport utility vehicle production has ended at the local General Motors plant, but medium-duty truck production is continuing—not starting—in Janesville. And it likely will continue into May, when the lights finally go off in the facility that has been producing vehicles since 1923†the paper reported February 2, 2009.
In fact, a GM press release confirms that the automaker had placed the Janesville plant on “standby capacity†– an auto industry term for a factory no longer producing vehicles – in May of 2009.
“Janesville was placed on standby capacity in May 2009 and will remain in that status,†GM said in a June 26, 2009 press release.
In sum, the Janesville plant shut down the majority of its production in December 2008, laying off all but 50 of its approximately 1,200 employees. Those 50 employees remained at the plant making Isuzu trucks for several more months as the plant’s operations wound down.
As a candidate, President Obama promised to support re-tooling the factory to make more fuel-efficient vehicles and keep the plant open for a century. The plant, however, remains closed.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/janesville-gm-plant-closed-2009-after-obama-promised-save-it
If you don't like CNS news, you can try Hot Air:
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/08/30/fact-checking-the-factcheckers-on-ryans-speech/
Any way you look at it, the plant was still open when Obama was there. He made them some promises. Then they never heard from him again.
The AAA rating change was clearly Team Obama's fault. We should be downsizing, which is what the rating companies told us. That's still not happening. And, the TEA party Republicans were doing exactly what they were voted in to do. The rating could have been saved if government was downsized.
Here's some of what Forbes says about the Medicare money stolen for Obamacare. (Note: Stolen is my word, not theirs, but who among us gave our permission to have this money moved?)
Of the $716 billion in cuts, $415 billion come in the form of “updates to fee-for-service payment rates,†a euphemism for reducing Medicare’s payments to doctors and hospitals. But what happens when you reduce payments to doctors? Doctors stop being willing to see Medicare patients. And if you can’t actually get a doctor’s appointment, what does it really matter what your insurance plan covers on paper?
We already see this happening in the Medicaid program, where sick and injured children can’t get appointments to deal with urgent medical conditions, because Medicaid so severely underpays doctors relative to private insurers. By the end of this decade, under Obamacare, Medicare reimbursement rates are set to fall below those of Medicaid.
Forbes has 4 pages proving Team Obama's allegations about Romney/Ryan's plans are wrong.
Their conclusion: APOTHEFACT CONCLUSION: President Obama is not being honest about the Romney Medicare reform plan, which was expressly designed to respond to the cost-shifting critique of the 2011 Ryan plan. The Romney plan preserves Medicare’s benefits without exposing seniors to rising health-care prices.
Here's the link: Fact Checking the Obama Campaign
Notice a similarity?
It's going to be UGLY!
???
I guess that is how you Republicans see your vice-president picks ... like Sarah Palin, completely different than whoever would be President ... except that the VP could very well be President.
Biden will do fine.
Are you guys running for VP or President ?
I weally wonder which would be worse for what ?
but it doesn't mean as much
and it doesn't go as deep as the criticisms of George W. Bush,
"W" - who kicked off this whole exploding debt mess that has led to collapse
AND
it doesn't make those same Republican ideas,
tax cuts
&
destroying the social safety net
ANY MORE ACCEPTABLE -
there is nothing here for anyone who does actual work and actual sacrifice for America - nothing at all.
If the depression of 1920 went away it was for just a few years and all under Republicans .... Harding, Coolidge and Hoover, and another Republican, Taft, was President in 1920.
Because of poorly understood economics and Republican policies we have regular recessions and these bad depressions. Tax cuts and cutting government do not work, and they will not work when the problem is insufficient demand for products.
Marilyn, you are so naive I don't know why I bother.