Mimsy Were the Borogoves

Editorials: Where I rant to the wall about politics. And sometimes the wall rants back.

A tale of two speeches: Condi Rice and Paul Ryan

Jerry Stratton, August 30, 2012

These are two must-watch speeches from the Republican National Convention. They should be available on the RNC YouTube channel, but I couldn’t find them. Had to go to someone named Martin Winfield for tapes from television. [Update: they are now available on the GOP YouTube channel.]

Condoleezza Rice

First, a strong speech from Condoleezza Rice.

We have seen that the desire for liberty and freedom is indeed universal, as men and women in the Middle East rise up to seize it. Yet the promise of the Arab Spring is engulfed in uncertainty. Internal strife, and hostile neighbors are challenging the young, fragile democracy of Iraq. Dictators in Iran and Syria butcher their people and threaten regional security. Russia and China prevent a response. And everyone asks, where does America stand?

This is the Condoleezza Rice I remember, the one I wanted to run for president in 2008. She is a strong advocate for freedom at home and abroad.

It does not matter where you came from, it matters where you are going.

Yes, that little girl can become president of the United States if she wants to.

Paul Ryan

Paul Ryan’s speech is justifiably being lauded.

Maybe the greatest waste of all was time. Here we were, faced with a massive job crisis, so deep that if everyone out of work stood single file, that unemployment line would stretch the entire American continent. You would think that any president, whatever his party, would make job creation, and nothing else, his first order of economic business. But this president didn’t do that. Instead, we got a long, divisive all-or-nothing attempt to put the federal government in charge of health care.

Obamacare comes to more than 2,000 pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees, and fines, that have no place in a free country.

The president has declared that the debate over government-controlled health care is over. That will come as news to the millions of Americans who will elect Mitt Romney so we can repeal Obamacare.

Note that I’ve embedded part 1; you need to follow through to part 2 to get to the economic meat.

In this generation a defining responsibility of government is to steer our nation clear of a debt crisis while there’s still time. Back in 2008, candidate Obama called a ten trillion dollar national debt unpatriotic. Serious talk from what looked like a serious reformer. Yet by his own decisions, President Obama has added more debt than any other president before him. And more than all the troubled governments of Europe combined. One president. One term. Five trillion new debt.

He created a new bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing. Republicans stepped up with good-faith reforms and solutions equal to the problems. How did the president respond? By doing nothing. Nothing except to dodge and demagogue the issue.

All we have heard from this president and his team are attacks on anyone who dares to point out the obvious.

And small business owners didn’t build that:

These didn’t come out of nowhere. A lot of heart goes into each one. And if small business people say they made it on their own, all they are saying is that nobody else worked seven days a week in their place. Nobody showed up at their place to open the door at five in the morning. Nobody did their thinking and worrying and sweating for them. After all that work, and in a bad economy, it sure doesn’t help to hear from their president that government gets the credit. What they deserve to hear is the truth: yes, you did build that.

Leadership and courage can make the impossible look inevitable in retrospect. “That is why this is an election of consequence.”

“Without a change in leadership, why will the next four years be any different than the last four years?”

“We’re a full generation apart, Governor Romney and I, and in some ways we’re different. There are the songs in his iPod, which I’ve heard on the campaign bus, and I’ve heard it on many hotel elevators. He actually urged me to play some of these songs on campaign rallies, I said, look, I hope it’s not a deal-breaker, Mitt, but my playlist, it starts with AC/DC and it ends with Zeppelin.”

In response to Election 2012: The Long Hot Summer: For election blogging outside of California.

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