Some Thoughts on Last Night's Closing of the 2012 Republican Convention

Last night at the DBQ Republican HQ there was a pizza party to watch the coverage of the closing session of the Republican Convention. We were watching it on C-Span as it was the only way to watch it without all the talking heads. I would like to share a few thoughts about what I saw.

I was impressed with how they handled presenting Mitt Romney. The Democrats have attacked him as being uncaring, willing to destroy jobs to make money & very anti-woman. Many of the speakers answered that, members of his Church who shared how he helped them in times of need; his lieutenant governor, Kerry Healey; Jane Edmonds, former secretary of Massachusetts' Department of Workforce Development; Olympic athletes from the 2002 Olympics that he took over & saved from disaster & people helped by Bain Capital, something Romney pointed out in his speech that he helped start out as a small business.

Romney's speech was 1 of the best I have heard. He did a good job  of telling about himself & his family. While he is a Morman, rather than focusing on the differences he emphasized the common values they share with Catholics & Protestants. He emphasized faith in God, family values & what made America great & how it can return to that greatnest. His best line was “As president, I will protect the sanctity of life. I will honor the institution of marriage. And I will guarantee America’s first liberty: the freedom of religion.” No speech is perfect, but this was about as good as it can get from a candidate.

Clint Eastwood is starting to show his age, but after last night's appearance, he could start a new career as a stand-up commedian. At times he did appear a bit rambling & a few lines didn't come across to well over the mic. But overall, I thought he was funny while getting across the message, it is a time for a change. As I listened to it, I knew that the talk heads in the Main Stream Media would rip him apart. & from what i heard this morning, they did. My advice to them, get over it.

My favorite part was where he said "I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we -- we own this country. We -- we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.

And -- so -- they are just going to come around and beg for votes every few years. It is the same old deal. But I just think it is important that you realize , that you’re the best in the world. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican or whether you’re libertarian or whatever, you are the best. And we should not ever forget that. And when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go."

I could see that sound bite being used in an ad. At the end a group of our Founding Fathers & Mothers ( John Adams, Abigail Adams, Sam Adams, George Washington, Martha Washington, Tom Jefferson, John Hancock, Molly Pticher, Betsy Ross, Ben Franklin) appear & say "We approve of this message!"

Fla Sen Marco Rubio's speech was another good one. I would say he is one to watch in coming years. He shared his story about being the son of Cuban immigrants &the struugles of his family to make it so he was able to be where he is today. The part about his relationship with his maternal grandfather, who escaped from Cuba in 1962, especially hit home with me. It sounded exactly like that with my maternal grandfather who had immigrated from Italia. I could see his sitting & talking to his grandfather the way I did with mine. (PS both our fathers were bartenders as well.)

Finally, a comment about Archbishop Dolan's closing prayer. Perfect. I was not surprized to hear that the networks & cable news cut away from him. After all, what he prayed for isn't exactly what they want to see happen. He prayed for religious liberty & God's blessing of those unborn. I predict that at next week's Democratic convention, many of the delegates won't stick arround because they know they won't like what he will pray & those who do will mostly be unhappy because it will likely be similar to the prayer he said here.