First Night Notes

by Ruth A. Sheets

This blog entry will be a bit different.  It contains real-time reflections on the first night of the Republican Convention 2012.  The following are some of my observations.

1. There are a lot of women speakers.  These women don’t have much to say about Romney and why they support him in particular, but they are pretty strident and very negative regarding President Obama, often repeating the lies that are going around.

2. The people interviewed by NPR have very little original to add to the Republican position.  No one challenges anything they have to say and they do ramble on.

3. Nikki Haley of South Carolina bragged about having the most tires manufactured in America, yet the Republicans were opposed to the assistance for the auto industry.  Who needs those tires?  

4. There is a lot of God talk, more of a formulaic mention of God rather than any meaningful inclusion of God in the proceedings.

5. Anne’s breathy emotionalism is a bit much, like a teenager who just has to over emphasize everything.  It is like a not-too-good actress in a not-too-good play.  Her talk about women is a bit disingenuous.  Her little laugh after her saying “I hear your voices.” is a bit much too.

6. Anne Romney’s tribute to mothers is insulting.  Save it for Mother’s Day.

7. The convention’s parade of children of immigrants was lovely to hear, well, not really.  The hypocrisy is overflowing.  Somehow, these descendents of immigrants are opposed to immigrants who come here “illegally.”  None of the speakers mention whether their families came here “legally.”  I wonder . . .

8. Anne Romney’s description of her and Mitt’s first apartment, a basement apartment, was pathetic.  She lies easily, just like her husband.  She claims she knew nothing of his financial situation.  Not possible!  They grew up in the same town.  Her emotional claim that “No one will work harder or care more than Mitt Romney” when he is president is  ridiculous.  She can’t possibly be shocked that Mitt has been “attacked for his positions" (and the way they keep changing).  Unbelievable.  In the next days, we will hear how wonderful her speech was and what a lovely person she is.  Her speech was typical Republican nonsense and she may be a lovely person; it’s hard to tell when you are reading someone else’s words.  Again, the claim that he built what he had all by himself.  Gag!  Her claim that he struggled so hard with his business, big deal!  He certainly made enough money at it.

9. Christie’s self-righteousness was a bit hard to take, but for some reason, a little easier than Anne Romney’s simpering emotionalism.  I am not sure why.

10. Christie talks about how he did so much for New Jersey, but doesn’t mention the desertion of the parts of New Jersey that don’t back him or have economic power, like Camden.

11. Then there’s the teacher union bashing.  Union bashing was one of the themes of the night, of course.

12. What a stupid line “Our ideas are right for America and their ideas have failed America.”  I guess that is about all they can say.  It is so vague that it means nothing.

13. The hypocrisy that Republicans claim to care about older Americans is reflected in their Medicare plans.  The party of fantasy is accusing the Democrats, the party of some reality, of not being realistic.  What a joke.  I expected more from him, but look at the company he keeps. 

14. Again Mr. Christie is making teachers be the fall guys for things that fail.  “They believe in unions, we believe in teachers”  What a batch of bull!   Unfortunately, a lot of the less-thinking among his followers will believe it.  Gag again!

15.  Christie accuses the Democrats of wanting to divide, yet the Republicans have done everything they could over the past 4 years to divide the country.  Amazing!

16. Christie claims that Mitt Romney will “tell the truth."  That is another joke since Romney has done a lot of lying so far.  Christie says Romney will tell us the hard truth.  Maybe he will tell his truth, which of course, will be hard on everyone except the wealthy and Republican powerful.  Everyone else suffers.  I guess that is what makes it a “hard truth.”

17. Of course, Christie must say “It’s now our time” (how soon they forget which party got us into this mess and did everything they could to make sure we didn’t get out of it during the past four years).  He is counting on the short attention spans of most Americans.