No One Heard at All, Not Even the Chair
So, here we are, after a week of the Republican National Convention and I didn't cover all of it. Sadly, after watching a night or two, I knew each night wouldn't be quite enough to make in and of itself without getting nitpicky, so we go with the overall. And I'm glad I waited. Clint Eastwood provided what can only be called the touchstone moment of the entire convention, and indeed the entire campaign, when he spent eight minutes snarking at an empty chair. The empty chair supposedly had Obama in it and Eastwood would pretend he was talking to him and only he could hear what Obama was saying, but at the end of the day, it was just an old guy yelling at a chair. Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, gave a speech that didn't mention Romney. Condolezza Rice gave a speech that was cheered in a parts and met with odd silence when she mentioned Jim Crow. Susanna Martinez, governor of New Mexico, was met with cold applause when she tried to bring in Latino/a issues, but cheered loudly when she mention what weapons she carried in her youth. Paul Ryan gave a speech that has been excoriated by factcheckers. Romney, in his acceptance speech, said a lot of things that some people liked but skipped over some facts. Note, not lied, just skipped over some parts. It was also, sadly, not the speech he needed to win people over to his side. In baseball terms, he hit a solid double when he needed a home run. In golf, he needed a birdie and decided to lay up and putt from the green. In layman's terms, it was a solid B/B- of a speech. Nothing bad, but nothing great. So the image we have left to us is an old white guy yelling at an empty chair, the most fitting symbol.
Romney really needed a better speech. He gave it well, he speaks well and the delivery did help him look presidential and not just like an angry candidate. However, the speech was not all that he needed. It went into more background about his personal life, which until now he has been loathe to do. He talked about his parents and how they helped him form the ideals and dreams he has today and the ones he wants to share with the country. He just didn't say, in any way, how in the name of fuck we were going to get there. There is no doubt he loves America, that was never in doubt and never could be in doubt. What can be doubted is how much of it he is connected to. He spoke about we are a nation of immigrants who came here for freedom, opportunity and all the usual good stuff. He didn't mention slavery, or any other nastiness not because he doesn't care, but because he really does see every American as trying to do better, wanting more and in some way, like him. He tried to share the great love he has for his family, which was also never really in doubt. He thinks the world of his wife and is very proud and fond of his sons. It made him look a little more human, but not in a new way. After all, we tend to assume most fathers love their children and the mother of those children. It showed he could effectively talk about his emotions, and that was something, but it just wasn't ENOUGH. And if there were a theme for the speech, that would be it. Pretty good, but not great, and if you weren't already a fan, there was nothing to bring you over to his side.
As a political speech, it sucked. Apparently, he really wanted to work with Obama when he was first elected, as did every Republican. This would likely come as a shock to Mitch McConnell who declared his number one job in the Senate would be to make Obama one term president. Not fix problems, not represent his state and not run the country, just stop Obama. There was a lot of vitriol aimed at Obama on day one and it kept going, and the problem is, everyone kinda remembers that. Whether they were all for it or getting pissed off at it happening, we all remember it. Romney can try to claim he was hopeful for Obama to do well and bring the country out of problems, but he ran in 2008 and as soon as McCain lost, he was looking to run again. Honestly, he does want America to do better and be all that he hopes it can be no matter who's in charge, he just really wants that to be him at this point and he wants it really badly. For most of his life, he has been a capital investing consulting, which means he comes in with a shit ton of money and tells you how to run your failing business and he gets profit when it does well or when he can sell off the parts. These are guys used to separating out their personal feelings from the business practices. He doesn't enjoy putting people out of work, he enjoys making money and sometimes for that to happen, people have to be put out of work. He's also used to selling his theories for how business could be run and his expertise, not his personal story. He never had to convince a board of directors to do what he says based on what his dad taught him. They were getting Mitt Romney Uber-Consultant, not Mitt Romney Family Man. The problem is, being president is a personal job and people want to know more than good ideas, they want a better sense of the person running. He knows better than many think since he's going after Obama himself so hard.
And go after him did they ever. Ryan probably leads the pack on that score with his speech on Wednesday night. To say it was unkind would be an understatement. To say it got a few things wrong would be very kind. To say it was exactly the kind of speech the convention goers liked to hear would be dead on the money. It referenced the now famously misunderstood "You didn't build that" quote of Obama, but it's an attack that lands, so they'll stick with it. This was also a big speech for Ryan, who also didn't hit it out of the park like he might have needed to. The problem is, he's now known as a guy who made a lot of misstatements in his first real big speech, and conventional wisdom is like concrete: once it hardens it can't be changed. Ryan made a lot of mistakes/lies/factually incorrect statements, so much so that the media have started taking themselves to task about how much they should be policing truth in politicians. When you're getting the modern media to re-examine themselves, then you know things are bad. This is a little sad since Ryan had been known for being a straight shooter. Far right and a hard wonk, but honest about it. Ryan speech was off enough that Fox News slammed him for it.
Truly, the crowning moment of the convention was the Clint Eastwood speech that was set specifically for the primetime audience. They moved the movie about Mitt Romney and speakers who also would have humanized the candidate in favor of having A-List Hollywood celebrity Clint Eastwood speak. He made a few good comments at first about how not all of Hollywood is as nasty liberal as many think, but then he launched into a speech addressing the chair. It was an empty chair that Eastwood had asked for without telling anyone why. He just wanted a chair and the organizers assumed he would be sitting in it in an attempt to be more folksy, but instead, he started pretending Obama was in it. It was a fitting image not just for Eastwood but because the chair was representative of how Republicans have been seeing Obama: not reality but a projection only they can see and hear. All the cries of Marxist (despite nothing resembling proof of anything about Marxism), born in a foreign country (now with the birth certificate released, many are now asking to see his college transcripts to see what he put down for race and country of origin) and generally "not real American" are not actually based in anything real, but they have remarkable staying power. Republicans have not just set up a straw man, they have set up a whole imaginary Obama to run against. Then again, considering that running against the actual Obama is pretty damn hard, one can see the appeal. The problem with this entire strategy is that most people have a sense that Obama isn't a Marxist, socialist secret Muslim Kenyan and most people actually like him.
And an old white guy yelling at an empty might be entertaining, but changes no one's mind.
So it is written, so do I see it.
Romney really needed a better speech. He gave it well, he speaks well and the delivery did help him look presidential and not just like an angry candidate. However, the speech was not all that he needed. It went into more background about his personal life, which until now he has been loathe to do. He talked about his parents and how they helped him form the ideals and dreams he has today and the ones he wants to share with the country. He just didn't say, in any way, how in the name of fuck we were going to get there. There is no doubt he loves America, that was never in doubt and never could be in doubt. What can be doubted is how much of it he is connected to. He spoke about we are a nation of immigrants who came here for freedom, opportunity and all the usual good stuff. He didn't mention slavery, or any other nastiness not because he doesn't care, but because he really does see every American as trying to do better, wanting more and in some way, like him. He tried to share the great love he has for his family, which was also never really in doubt. He thinks the world of his wife and is very proud and fond of his sons. It made him look a little more human, but not in a new way. After all, we tend to assume most fathers love their children and the mother of those children. It showed he could effectively talk about his emotions, and that was something, but it just wasn't ENOUGH. And if there were a theme for the speech, that would be it. Pretty good, but not great, and if you weren't already a fan, there was nothing to bring you over to his side.
As a political speech, it sucked. Apparently, he really wanted to work with Obama when he was first elected, as did every Republican. This would likely come as a shock to Mitch McConnell who declared his number one job in the Senate would be to make Obama one term president. Not fix problems, not represent his state and not run the country, just stop Obama. There was a lot of vitriol aimed at Obama on day one and it kept going, and the problem is, everyone kinda remembers that. Whether they were all for it or getting pissed off at it happening, we all remember it. Romney can try to claim he was hopeful for Obama to do well and bring the country out of problems, but he ran in 2008 and as soon as McCain lost, he was looking to run again. Honestly, he does want America to do better and be all that he hopes it can be no matter who's in charge, he just really wants that to be him at this point and he wants it really badly. For most of his life, he has been a capital investing consulting, which means he comes in with a shit ton of money and tells you how to run your failing business and he gets profit when it does well or when he can sell off the parts. These are guys used to separating out their personal feelings from the business practices. He doesn't enjoy putting people out of work, he enjoys making money and sometimes for that to happen, people have to be put out of work. He's also used to selling his theories for how business could be run and his expertise, not his personal story. He never had to convince a board of directors to do what he says based on what his dad taught him. They were getting Mitt Romney Uber-Consultant, not Mitt Romney Family Man. The problem is, being president is a personal job and people want to know more than good ideas, they want a better sense of the person running. He knows better than many think since he's going after Obama himself so hard.
And go after him did they ever. Ryan probably leads the pack on that score with his speech on Wednesday night. To say it was unkind would be an understatement. To say it got a few things wrong would be very kind. To say it was exactly the kind of speech the convention goers liked to hear would be dead on the money. It referenced the now famously misunderstood "You didn't build that" quote of Obama, but it's an attack that lands, so they'll stick with it. This was also a big speech for Ryan, who also didn't hit it out of the park like he might have needed to. The problem is, he's now known as a guy who made a lot of misstatements in his first real big speech, and conventional wisdom is like concrete: once it hardens it can't be changed. Ryan made a lot of mistakes/lies/factually incorrect statements, so much so that the media have started taking themselves to task about how much they should be policing truth in politicians. When you're getting the modern media to re-examine themselves, then you know things are bad. This is a little sad since Ryan had been known for being a straight shooter. Far right and a hard wonk, but honest about it. Ryan speech was off enough that Fox News slammed him for it.
Truly, the crowning moment of the convention was the Clint Eastwood speech that was set specifically for the primetime audience. They moved the movie about Mitt Romney and speakers who also would have humanized the candidate in favor of having A-List Hollywood celebrity Clint Eastwood speak. He made a few good comments at first about how not all of Hollywood is as nasty liberal as many think, but then he launched into a speech addressing the chair. It was an empty chair that Eastwood had asked for without telling anyone why. He just wanted a chair and the organizers assumed he would be sitting in it in an attempt to be more folksy, but instead, he started pretending Obama was in it. It was a fitting image not just for Eastwood but because the chair was representative of how Republicans have been seeing Obama: not reality but a projection only they can see and hear. All the cries of Marxist (despite nothing resembling proof of anything about Marxism), born in a foreign country (now with the birth certificate released, many are now asking to see his college transcripts to see what he put down for race and country of origin) and generally "not real American" are not actually based in anything real, but they have remarkable staying power. Republicans have not just set up a straw man, they have set up a whole imaginary Obama to run against. Then again, considering that running against the actual Obama is pretty damn hard, one can see the appeal. The problem with this entire strategy is that most people have a sense that Obama isn't a Marxist, socialist secret Muslim Kenyan and most people actually like him.
And an old white guy yelling at an empty might be entertaining, but changes no one's mind.
So it is written, so do I see it.