Today marked the official opening of the Republican National Convention, and it certainly was eventful. First off, Mitt Romney has been officially nominated as the Presidential Candidate for the GOP and now the only question that remains is whether or not he can successfully rally the party to truly support his campaign. Unfortunately, Romney himself won't be speaking until Thursday, but other prestigious party members offered their own insights into Mitt, Obama, and the American dream.
One of the major speakers tonight, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, reminiscing about his victory in Wisconsin, criticized the methods that the current administration has adopted in order to curb unemployment. However, its difficult to listen to his success stories when the Wisconsin election controversy and pro-union protests are still in the recent past. Unfortunately, the union criticism found in Walker's speech was a recurring theme throughout the night.
Following Walker was a spate of ethnically diverse speakers, including Governors Brian Sandoval (Nevada) and Nikki Haley (South Carolina), as well as Senate Candidate Ted Cruz (Texas) and Former Rep. Artur Davis. The first to speak, Sandoval, spoke of how his parents came to America with a dream, and built their family from the ground up, in an attempt to gain favor with the swing Latino vote (see previous post). Unfortunately, the "We Built This!" speeches dragged on from here. Governor Nikki Haley condemned the Obama administration for a variety of reasons, namely for suing a Boeing factory in her home state of South Carolina.
The star of the night, Ann Romney, spoke to the delegates about how love and unity crafted her family, and whole-heartedly endorsed her husband's campaign. Her speech was a little sappy, but it seems that she's going to be very successful at winning favor for Mitt. Following her was Governor Chris Christie (New Jersey), who gave a surprisingly eloquent keynote speech. He, too, spoke of his immigrant family background and advocated for Mitt Romney and the controversial Ryan Plan.
Unfortunately, its difficult to completely accurately convey the complete texts of these speeches without making this post any more boring. I recommend watching the speeches, especially the Haley, Romney, and Christie ones to get a sense of the tone the convention is taking. What's your take on the speeches? Are they compelling or hypocritical?
2 comments:
Overall, I thought the speeches were of excellent quality. I especially enjoyed Ann Romney's heartfelt speech, which I believed not only helped Romney appear more like a down-to-earth American, but also attracted the sympathies of many women in the audience, who could relate to her stories about life with her five sons. However, I believe that while speeches like Ann Romney's bolster Mitt Romney's campaign, speeches that solely criticize the faults and shortcomings of the Democratic Party and Obama accomplish little to nothing towards aiding Mitt Romney's campaign. Rather, they would be better off discussing the goals the Republican Party has for America as a whole, as well as solutions they have for the problems they believe the Obama administration has caused. Complaining about the nation's current faults and placing the blame on the Democratic Party is merely shameful mud-slinging that does not get any problems solved.
I agree that the speeches were well-presented. However, I wish we all got a chance to hear more about the plans for the future of the party and Mitt Romney's personal plans that he would enact while in office. While I understand that the speakers feel like they need to use personal appeals to connect with much of the audience, I felt like many other important things were left unsaid, and replaced with stories to demonstrate "good values" and moral backgrounds. I'm not sure if I am alone here, but personally, I do not find those sentiments particularly moving. I wish we could obtain a more detailed sort of plan for what the Republican party, and more importantly Romney himself, is planning to actually DO with his values once in office. Not to downplay his "hard working" reputation, but what does that really mean?
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