Mona Charen @ NRO:
We’ve all heard the objection that political conventions have become empty kabuki theater. The high drama of multiple ballots is dead and gone. Uncertainty about the outcome is no more. “Today,” laments political guru Mike Murphy, “delegates are bound through the application of TV ad ratings points, not machine deals. They sit in the convention hall like the background actors in a TV show, milling about to the director’s orders, wearing costumes and denied a single line. It seems a shabby ending to a great tradition. It’s time for a mercy killing.”
Mike Murphy is an astute observer of all things political, but I think he’s wrong about this. Sure, conventions have lost their drama (though, even in the old days, very few actually featured any suspense about the eventual nominee). And yes, like so much else in American life, they have become shows. But at least they are shows about public policy and about democracy — each party getting an extended opportunity to make its best case. Political conventions are one of the only shows Americans watch collectively that are about important matters like the direction of the country rather than about Snooki or Monday Night Football. (Not that there’s anything wrong with football . . . )
The Republican convention is particularly important this year, because if the polls are to be trusted (an open question), the voters are quite dissatisfied with the leadership of Barack Obama, yet unconvinced that Romney is an acceptable alternative.
As Jack Kemp was fond of saying, “People want to know that you care before they care what you know.” Voters are uncertain about Romney because they don’t yet perceive him to care about their problems. Funny how that can happen when your opponent spends hundreds of millions of dollars presenting you as a villain — a corporate raider, felon, tax cheat, and murderer.
But there’s another reason as well. Romney himself — unlike the sort of candidates we’ve seen in the past several cycles, particularly Clinton and Obama — has a kind of old-fashioned reticence. He doesn’t have a story about paternal abandonment, like Obama (quite the opposite), or posthumous birth, like Clinton. He comes from the kind of loving and supportive family that he now heads with Ann. But even if he did have a hard-luck story, one senses that he wouldn’t be comfortable retailing it. Yes, he can tout his accomplishments as a businessman or governor or savior of the Olympics, but he cannot tell stories about his personal kindness and decency — about how often he has dropped everything to help others.
There is no shortage of such accounts — and the convention is the place (the only place) where they can be told to a large audience. Romney surrogates can highlight the striking number of instances of kindness and generosity in Romney’s life. The Dailyoffered these examples:
I just hope that Chris Cristi doesn’t go off on a rant, and scare away the independents that will tune in to get to know the Republican candidates.
CURT
yes, MITT ROMNEY IS THE OPPOSITE PERSON, OF OBAMA,
ON ALL SIDES, HE WON’T TALK OF HIS PERSONAL PROBLEMS, his mind has not linger to his hurts
and pain he stood up after those feelings to rise above it and seek to achieve by him working hard and him keeping himself out of trouble like there was many offered to him just as the many other who succombed to taking drugs and prostitute their self in vicious behaviors which alter the brain when their future awaited them at the door to become ready to be a mature human clean of body and mind,
he is ready to now answer yes to the call of AMERICA IN GREAT NEED OF THE ONE WORTHY TO BECOME HER PRESIDENT, THE PEOPLE CAN ADMIRE AND FIND MANY GOOD SIDES TO USE THEMSELVES AND TEACH TO THEIR CHILDREN, THE WAY TO THE TOP POSITION IS NOT WITH LIES
AND FALSE PROMISES, BUT WITH REALITY AND ABILITY TO SOLVE THAT REALITY’S PROBLEMS OCURING IN THESES LAST YEARS TROUBLE TIMES, ONE WHO HAS NAME THE ONE WHO WILL BE CLOSE TO HIM, SO TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE BY KNOWING THE WAY, NOT BY RUNNING AWAY FROM IT.
I have some optimism regarding Mitt. Rather than labeling him a flip-flopper, a more charitable description would be to call him the ultimate pragmatist. If you want to know what’s really in his heart of hearts, though, look to George Romney (Mitt’s campaign bus has a huge portrait of George, prominently displayed).
Mitt learned a lot of positive lessons from his father, but Mitt also learned from George’s political failures, at the national level. Say what you want against Mitt, he did get the GOP nomination, which is something his father never did, and the Presidency is within his grasp, if not a sure thing.
I think that, if Mitt gets into office, he could actually be good for the country (I say this as an Obama supporter). If it took Nixon to open up a relationship between the USA and China, it may be Romney’s opportunity to re-introduce bipartisan compromise back into governance, if ever so slowly. Obama tried to do this, but failed, because the GOP did everything possible to oppose him on virtually everything.
I think that the Dems would be more open to working with Romney than the GOP would ever be open to working with Obama. I’ll predict that, if Romney is elected, he’ll pretty much be forced to toe the Tea Party line for the first two years. But the GOP will then suffer badly in the 2014 mid-term elections. This will give Romney the freedom he needs to follow his own natural inclinations, which are much more aligned with the politics of his father than with the politics of the Tea Party.
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach CA
@openid.aol.com/runnswim:
I call BS on this, Larry. If anything, it was Obama’s insistence that everything be done exactly as the liberal/progressives wanted, with no input from the GOP needed, that heightened the combative atmosphere in DC.
John,
As much as I my natural inclination would be to debate this point with you, I don’t want to distract either of us from the more important work of mental preparation for the upcoming events at 2000 Hrs, GMT – 5, 01-Sep-2012, at Cowboys Stadium, in Arlington.
– Larry
openid.aol.com/runnswim
MITT ALREADY JUMP OVER THE NUMBER OF DELEGATES,
needed to win, he got way over,
he will indeed be a very good PRESIDENT, and not lie to AMERICANS AND TO AMERICA EITHER,
the AMERICANS CANNOT REELECT SOMEONE JUST BECAUSE OF HIS PROBLEMS,
this is not a pity for thee, or a fear to offend a black men as OBAMA PUT THE RACIST CARD SO MANY TIMES, AND IT’S NOT A CARD OF UNELECTABLE MITT ROMNEY BECAUSE HE IS TOO RICH TO UNDERSTAND THE POOR, AS OBAMA SAY, BUT HE DID NOTHING HIMSELF FOR THE POOR,
HE ONLY GAVE HIM MONEY WHICH HE TOOK FROM THE PEOPLE,
BUT IF MITT ROMNEY WOULD NOT BRAGG ABOUT, YOU NEED TO KNOW, HE IS KNOWN TO GIVE FROM HIS OWN POCKETS, HOWS THAT FOR A DIFFERENCE OF BETWEEN HIM AND OBAMA/
A BIG MOUTH? OR A PERSON WHO ACT, INSTEAD OF INFLATING HIMSELF.
MITT WILL WINN.
a fewer words but much action
CURTWHY THE CONVENTION MATTER?
I am absolutly so proud of AMERICANS like what I’m listening to, JOHN KASICH, AS I turn on the tv
a big wow, and BOB MCDONALD another wow, now SCOTT WALKER SPEECH WOW AGAIN,
THEY ARE UPLIFTING THE CROWD, AND I ALSO,
I am so happy to have followed the CONVENTION, WHICH MADE MITT ROMNEY WINN WAY OVER
THE EXPECTED,
I AM seeing the real AMERICA EXPRESS THEIR LOVE SO BRILLIANTLY,
YES THAT’S WHY THE CONVENTION MATTERED FOR ME
THANK YOU FOR THIS. IT BROUGHT TEARS FROM ME, AND WAKE UP THE PEOPLE,
BYE
and ANN ROMNEY WAS FABULOUS THE WAY SHE DELIVER,
she said also, MITT see the help he give to many, is a PRIVILEGE,
THAT’S WHY HE DOESN’T TALK ABOUT IT.
CHRIS CHRISTIE, DELIVER A STRONG SPEECH ON THE POWER OF AMERICAS TO CHANGE THE SYSTEM
and how he had to make decisions they told him where impossible to succeeds,
and choose respect over love will be a better choice to love,