Convention Round UP
It's become full on political high season. The Republican candidates expressed to the American viewers the many months of campaign strategy,
policy advocating, donation soliciting and podium rhetoric that has positioned Romney as the chosen contender and running mate, Paul Ryan, to face the ultimate political test. It took two election seasons for Mitt Romney to stand where he is now, like an Olympic athlete who missed opportunities in his first go around to now be in the race hoping to capture the ultimate trophy, the American Presidency. The road to get here in this year’s election began its public debut in Iowa as all primaries do where the playing field was filled with aspiring hopefuls.
Michelle Bachman, the Minnesota congresswoman who touted an early IRS accounting background before entering state office and leaning upon the colloquial persona as a house hold American who possessed the pragmatic will to take office. Her display though of public flightiness and under developed experience preempted her early exit. Herman Cain, a local state politician from Atlanta unknowingly gained popularity early in the race based on a digestible tax plan from the former restaurant executive turned politician. Yet when word broke about sexual improprieties with coworkers, his position took a turn for the worse. Tim Pawlenty another Minnesota politician poised early hopeful contention but failed to gain traction and quickly cast support behind Romney. One of the more accomplished of the primary candidates John Hunstmann, a former Utah governor and current ambassador to China, a role that seems to show presidential potential, gained slim percentages and cut his losses early. Rick Perry foreseeing presumptive national support for his conservative ethical stance and Texas modesty flubbed several moments during the debates. Public gaffes fell hard on him after he forgot the name for one of the three government agencies the Federal Reserve, Social security and TSA that he and other republicans intended to cut as a budget balancing agenda. Of course Newt Gingrich, a self-proclaimed sagacious old Republican who from his decade of stardom as speaker of the House during the 1990’s couldn’t let go of his credibility in hoping to make it all the way to November. But his inevitable withdraw occurred in early May. The last to cede the spot for the Republican nomination was the convincing figure who displayed compassionate rhetoric of a staunch conservative, social agenda. Rick Santorum had kept himself at a neck and neck distance with the two time electioneering competitor, but discouraging poll numbers and a child’s illness ended his attempt to the White House in June.
So since then it has been a decreased burden for Mitt Romney who demonstrated admirable eloquence along the early campaign trail, speaking about his go getter ability within the corporate world at one of the top Private Equity firms of its day, then a changed role as the one term governor of largely democratic Massachusetts, to now vying for the country’s leading job. During this election it has shown to command attracting overwhelming support from hardline Republicans who have most often grimaced and avoided anything unaligned with their narrow ideology of tax breaks, less government and finger pointing at what they perceive as symptoms of democratic mishandling in the economy and budget.
So having now advanced to stand in front of the party’s supporters in a political demonstration that every four years meets to gather energetic hope as a unified base of party loyalists show their true colors and cast favor for a nominee while deriding the opposition. So goes politics.
During the Republican National Convention that lasted from Tuesday to Thursday, many Republicans politicians took the stage to convey their support of the pronounced agenda of criticizing obstacles for small businesses owners by Obama policy and lagging employment numbers. All this was mostly boiler plate statements and redundant accusations that were void of much specificity to Obama’s policy. The list of speakers included most notably, Romney’s choice for vice president, Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin governor who is seen as a fiscal hawk and not afraid to accuse fellow party members of balking at his supposed tough stance on budget policy.
New Hampshire senator Kelly Ayotte spoke of bureaucratic hurdles in government that Republicans contend to eliminate.
An upbeat town mayor from Utah, Mia Love, who is the first African American Republican female to compete for a seat in the state’s congress delivered a public address to the tone of the “American Dream.” While seemingly captivating it may do most good at garnering more personal publicity for her upcoming state election.
Romney’s wife Anne, much to no surprise, delivered the supportive message expected of a wife on the campaign trail suggesting big praise for her husband’s strength and conviction to perform the job as president.
Republican New Jersey governor Chris Christie took the podium right after Anne. His fiery five minutes conjuered the challenge of taking a different turn for the country and leadership.
And a special guest speaker Clint Eastwood aroused great fanfare from the audience in a carefully worded speech that reiterated values in America and cut a few jabs at the economic performance under Obama’s watch. Some Twitterers had funny things to say.
The consensus from both sides of the media during the RNC was the lack of policy talk during the three days of events. The omission of such relevant talking points may simply represent a relaxed side of the presidential nominee who steered away from nuanced particulars with anticipation of bringing his policy fully to light in the coming weeks. Or some cast this as being an indication of a candidate who has ambivalence in policy and indicates having pandered to the voters to get to where he his is without solidifying a defendable platform. That question will soon be answered in the weeks and months ahead as tough questioning and talk time will gain media attention.
For the Democrats, the kickoff to the pinnacle of election season will start tomorrow in Charlotte, NC for their National Convention. During this time, motivating priorities will be laid out by the president and his top aides to impress upon the supporters the certainty of victory given the party’s support. So as one might expect, in both conventions, conference hall rallies, eventful performances and thousands of attendees with jubilant optimism were all on display to carry their nominees forward into the next three months of action. It will take 270 electoral votes to secure victory on November 6. Three major debates are set to occur in October with the first to begin in Colorado, a historically Republican state but now among those on the swing that Obama has made five trips to this year and has strategized with the state's recently elected democratic senator to gather support. Other important undecided states that will have a big impact are Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Nevada Iowa and New Hampshire. Obama took North Carolina in 2008 and will be aiming to reclaim lost ground with the voters there on Wednesday to sway them back to the blue. As the democratic convention gets under way on Tuesday a keymark speaker, Julian Castro, the San Antonio mayor is scheduled to be among the first to present.