I'm suffering some convention sleep deficits right now. I've been staying up far too late reading twitter posts and watching CNN coverage of the convention.
And then the kids are home, along with cousins and friendies. So, when Romney says that Ann's job was harder than his, HE'S RIGHT. Five boys. Can you imagine? Just the thought of five kids makes me want to triple up on the birth control.
Alright, I have 30 minutes before Ian and I skip off to Fairway. We're having a party tomorrow and I need to buy olives and beer. With that 30 minutes, let's talk about the convention.
The superstars of the week were Marco Rubio and Condi. Christie gave his stump speech for 2016, but Rubio was much better. He's only 41, so now I feel like a total loser.
The Mormons did a very good job talking about all the service that Romney did over the years. Their speeches made me think about Walter Kirn's essay for the New Republic, which talked about the good deeds of Mormons.
Other speakers talked about Mormonism and urged Evangelical voters to vote for Romney. I'm not plugged into that community, so I'm not sure if conservative Protestants are cool with Romney now that they don't have any other choice.
I polled my own focus group of conservatives about the convention. My folks gave a "meh" to Christie, but loved Ryan. Mom thought he seemed like a nice boy with good ties to his family. She wasn't terribly concerned that he wasn't terribly logical or truthful.
And of course there was Clint's Invisible Obama speech. He just killed his career.
Romney says that he will create 12 million jobs when he takes office and pulled out some warmed over conservative chestnuts. I was actually sporting some warm feelings to the guy, after watching home videos and listening to testimonies by friends. Then he undid all that good stuff by being boring. Boring and wrong.
So, what did Republicans do well? What messages should Democrats steal?
Many of the Republicans speeches featured the themes of family and community. My mom's demographic especially loves that stuff. Couldn't Democrats do the same thing?
The economy is going to be Obama's weakness in this election. It still sucks and will suck for a long time. He's not to blame, but the state of the economy often tips an election. I think he should talk about how things have improved and what his new plans are.
The Republicans took the student loan debt issue and ran with it. The Democrats should not let them have it. They have take that issue back.
My blogging window has shut. Back later.
Apt. 11d 
Nearly 1/3 of the kids I went to high school with were from families with double-digit numbers of children. People just did that. My dad’s sister had ten kids.
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I listened to the tail end of Rubio & the beginning of Romney on the radio (accidentally, when I turned on NPR while waiting to pick up my daughter from sailing).
I didn’t get to see, only hear, and I am extremely partisan, so my impression only reflects me (and maybe others of my ilk).
During Rubio’s speech, I expect expecting him to say, and so, I’m supporting Obama. The rhetoric, of dreams, hopes, opportunity, the country (the only one) where “In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope . . . .” was too derivative. My impression was pretty much like watching the Windows store at the mall, across from the Apple store (where, when we walked by today, it looked like a desperate salesman was standing at the door hoping that anyone, anyone would come in, while the Apple story has apparently turned into a place where people come to hang out).
Romney speech, yes, boring, and, also, I thought, borrowing a story that didn’t feel true. I don’t actually think that there’s anything wrong with being rich, except when you try to argue that you’re the common man at the same time. And, really, when the group of scrappy young people decided that since they ran a business that helped other businesses, that they knew a lot about business, and they should start a business that would invest in business that would help other businesses the text got a bit oddly convoluted.
I didn’t see the personal testimonials, and I believe them. I think that Romney seems to have had both the inclination and opportunity to do mitzvahs (or whatever other people call them). The stories I’ve heard do to me have a bit of the flavor of the lord of the manor, the giving of help to unequals (rather than the sharing of burdens and the acceptance of help), but, I admit to being biased.
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I haven’t been watching, only listening (like bj). And I’m from wisconsin, so have a particular difficulty with Ryan. What the two of them share (and share with Obama) is a kind of inhuman level of impassiveness (our governor, Walker, seems to share it, but he always appears to be on some narcotic that was designed to make people seem thoroughly unpleasant when impassive). Boringness is Romney’s best strategy — if he ends up seeming interesting he’s buggered.
I don’t see how this can turn on anything other than the economy, unless either one of the campaigns screws up in a major way or Obama can somehow turn Romney into Ryan. Not saying who’ll win — maybe the economy is just good enough for Obama as it stands.
Nothing is better designed to make all the candidates seem repulsive than a US presidential election.
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Stoicism is out of favor, but I admire it as a philosophy. Lack of expressiveness does not equal lack of feeling to express.
Romney’s deeds strike me as more noblesse oblige than has been seen in a very long time, but perhaps I am construing them more favorably than is true.
Have been trying to listen to opposing viewpoints and figure out how that is true for the person expressing them in hopes of learning more empathy.
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I don’t follow American politics that closely as we have enough going on in our own country to keep track of, but one of our leading news magazines had this hilarious overview. I think you might appreciate it: http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/08/30/republican-national-convention-the-wednesday-session/
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