There were many great speakers at the RNC Wednesday, among them Condi Rice and Tim Pawlenty (who should have shown that same passion before he ended up dropping out of the primaries), but the star of the night was, of course, Paul Ryan
(Fox News) Paul Ryan rallied the Republican convention audience Wednesday night as he formally accepted his party’s nomination for vice president and made an urgent plea for the country to get to work turning around its economy and finances.
“We don’t have much time,” Ryan said, but claimed: “We can do this.”
Teeing up the stage for Mitt Romney’s nomination speech Thursday night, Ryan repeatedly accused Democrats of falling down on the job. The acerbic speech accused the president of leaving his legions of voters with little more than a record of squandered opportunities and broken promises as they stare at “fading Obama posters” and look for work.
“It all started off with stirring speeches, Greek columns, the thrill of something new,†Ryan said. “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.â€
From start to finish, the speech was an unceasing assault on Obama’s record. By the end, he drew thunderous cheers and applause from the convention crowd. And as he has in the past, Ryan tried to draw a sharp contrast throughout.
Many have complained and/or noticed that attacks on Obama’s policies have been mostly missing during the first day. Paul Ryan didn’t hold back, highlighting how much Obama has failed, and contrasting what he and Mitt Romney intend to do if elected to get this country back on the path to prosperity.
Of course, the Typical Useless Leftist Idiots were out immediately “fact checking” Ryan’s speech, highlighting his “lies“, calling it the “most dishonest speech ever.” The Washington Post called the speech “misleading“. I’m sure we’ll get the same type of checking when Joe Biden and Obama speak in Charlotte, right? Right? Anyhow, Ed Morrissey fact checks the fact checkers.
It all comes down to vision: do you want a vision of massive central government planning and control, with obscene debt and deficits, with class and race warfare pushed constantly, business denigrated, and America reduced to just another nation? High unemployment, people dropping out of the jobs market in despair, beholden to the central government for their very subsistence? Or, do you want an America that can get it done, that looks to increase the size of the workforce, to see people make it on their own, to limit federal control over our personal lives, which is the top country in the world, one with a big GDP, one that succeeds?
Tonight it is Mitt’s turn. Don’t expect a lot of talk about himself, Mitt offers a sharp contrast to the Narcissist In Chief. Expect a lot of the vision of how Mitt sees American exceptionalism, and where he wants to take the country. How he wants to expand the private sector, and put the power back into the hands of the people. I don’t expect many attacks on Obama, I expect a forward looking speech which will also explain just why Mitt is the person for the job.
Oh, and one of his best parts was, as Ace points out, a shout out to Obama’s “Life Of Julia”
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.
Again, it’s a vast difference in vision: Obama’s stagnation and government dependence, or having a chance to do it on your own. Freedom.
