After day 2 of the RNC

I had mixed observations as I watched the RNC last night.

First of all let me say that Laura Bush is an elegant, articulate, and very classy first lady. President Bush’s speech was pretty typical for him. I don’t think that he has ever been an impressive speaker and an even less impressive communicator, but for a cameo, he did fine.

Fred Thompson stole the show last night. I thought his speech was excellent and I thought he delivered it perfectly. If Fred had campaigned for president like he spoke last night, he would be the nominee right now.

There was also a huge contrast between Fred’s endorsement of McCain and either of the Clintons’ endorsement of Obama. The only time Senator Thompson brought up his own record was when he was referencing John McCain’s leadership, friendship, and example. His speech was exciting, humorous, inspiring, and dramatically delivered. I’ve heard John McCain’s POW story a number of times, but Thompson really made it hit home.

He took a few shots at Obama (but not by name) and some more shots at the Dem congress and explained their failed ideas in clear terms. His comments about Dem tax increases coming out of the “other side” of the bucket were excellent.

Personally I thought they should have ended the second night right there, or switched the order of Thompson and Lieberman. Not that Senator Lieberman is a bad guy or that his speech was bad. In fact, I thought it was pretty good. He tended to emphasize the things that conservatives despise about McCain, but then again he was obviously trying to appeal to Independents and Democrats. Unfortunately Joe Lieberman is a tiring speaker. His frowning way of talking is just hard to listen to and he smacks of Ben Stein on Ferris Bueler’s Day Off. Ugh. I just felt like the whole night would have ended on a more positive and uplifting note if it would have ended with Thompson.

I do appreciate the fact that Lieberman is endorsing McCain. It’s a bold move to slap your party in the face. Not that they have shown him any respect the last couple of years by supporting someone else in the Dem primaries, but still, I imagine they will do whatever they can to make it a little bit more difficult for him after this.

As a whole I was kind of disappointed at the convention itself (except for Fred’s speech). It seems like all of the delegates that are there are, well... older. They need more fresh faces. The whole thing seemed to be lacking a little bit of spunk and spirit. Let the delegates bring a friend. Fill the arena with cheering people.

I really hope we see a little bit more of that tonight when Giuliani and Palin take the stage.

Good bye, Fred

After a dissappointing third place finish in SC, Fred has announced that he is out. His mother is ill in Tennessee and, well , he was just never really into it.

Romney is in the lead as far as delegates are concerned. McCain is in the lead as far as polling is concerned.

Florida is going to be a huge deal and based on that, some interesting things could happen. Mitt could call up Huckabee (who after failing to win SC, will start to fade) and ask him if he would be willing to pull out in exchange for a spot on the ticket. McCain could do the same, but I just don't see him doing that. Either way, something has to happen. The whole scenario up to this point has followed pretty close to what Rudy was wanting... right up until he ran out of money. Bummer for him. Right now it is looking like Florida will go to either Romney or McCain.

My two cents is that if nobody cuts a deal and Romney, McCain, Huckabee and Rudy all go into Florida without Fred... Romney is the winner. If you look at all of the candidates the only 90% conservative was Fred (just no passion). The next one pushing conservative values is Romney, even if he hasn't always followed them himself. However, the economy has become issue number one and this is a great issue for Romney. He knows what he is doing and if he can keep the outright PANDERING down to a minimum, he will do well (what was that $20 billion promise to MI all about... come on!) He is also the only one that will still have a positive balance in his bank account after Florida. You can't discount that.

McCain has a good record for limiting spending, but he voted against the tax cuts that bouyed the economy after Clinton. This didn't sit well with conservatives. Neither did McCain-Feingold or the McCain-Kennedy boarder fiasco last summer. Some conservatives will stomach McCain if they have to, but most would just as soon vote against him as for him. He has done well up to this point, but in most of these races independents could vote. Not Florida. Most of them were also a split on who gets the delegates. Not the sunshine state. All or nothing. Republicans only.

Now, if Rudy can finish second that might be enough to hold onto a lead in his home territory of NY/NJ.

Quite frankly this whole thing could come down to the wire! Wow! That's pretty exciting.

I'm hoping for a move by someone to pair up as a team and build a ticket. This could do a lot to change the race, but... we'll see.

On the other side... well, it's just a slug fest. The beauty is that in this fight you don't have to worry about your guy losing. We win with each blow! I'm jumping out of my chair with each shot! BEAUTIFUL!!! And good old Bill is having a HARD time staying in the background. Of course he is having an even harder time staying awake. Barack is taking it too personal. He needs to stay above the pettiness if he wants to maintain his composure.

Ahhh! Democrats beating up democrats. It's a beautiful thing.

Hmmm... Mike, you're killing me!

No, not my brother Mike. Mike Huckabee. Sometimes the hardest thing for a politician to do is to keep their mouth shut, or their computer silent. The Huckabee surge could be followed by the Huckabee kaboom if he keeps being symptomatic of foot in mouth. First their was the whole Mormon statement during the NYT interview. I mean come on. The answer to all of the questions about differences in religion between himself and Romney is simply, "It has nothing to do with this race. I am a Christian man of morals and strong convictions that have shaped my character. I do not know what exactly Mr Romney believes, but that is between him and God." That's it. The end. Any more questions on it should be flatly refused. Stick to the issues. Stick to principles. This is not about a debate between Mormonism and Christianity.

Now it comes round to foreign affairs. Evidently not Mike's strong suit. I can tell you that "the base" of the party are the ones that vote in a primary. The base does not want to hear that we have been too rough with people like Iran. The base wants to hear that we are going to stop mad men in their tracks and we will do it alone if we have to. BTW this is one of the ONLY issues that we really LIKE GWB on, so don't harp on him for it. In this regard GWB should be honored and held up. If you want to get on him, pick something easy, like border enforcement (also popular with the base), pick fat government, pick entitlements, pick pork barrel spending, pick stupid moves like Harriet Myers, but then follow up with good things like John Roberts. Come ON PEOPLE!!!

I need to go look at Fred's site again. I hear he has some detailed policy issues up on his site and I like the smack down at the worthless Iowa debate.

Good piece in NRO on this.

Good post from Fred about the UN

Right now I'm still leaning Huckabee, but I haven't even had my morning coffee yet, so a lot of things could change. :)

But in the meantime I am staying up on the candidates and what they think and say. Fred, like several of the GOP candidates is at best distrustful of the UN, for good reason. This article on control of the internet is great.

Fred

I keep coming back to Fred. The more I research issues, the more he comes up consistently on the right side. I'm linking to his blog as one of the pages I keep up with.

I've been reading about Romney's solution for health care in Massachusetts from guys who actually live there and there are some things that are very concerning.

The right answer of course is that health care is NOT the responsibility of the government. Sorry. If YOUR health care and the health care of your family is important to you, then you should be either A) budgeting your money to pay for it, or B) finding a job that values you enough that they will kick in. Since when did it become the responsibility of the government to take care of my bumps, bruises, coughs, sniffles and infections?

More importantly people should be asking how they can solve their own problems. There use to be a time in this country where people would see a "problem" as an "opportunity".

Why should health care be any different? People need to stop looking to the government to make their lives better. That's not the purpose, design, or intent of the government. The government is there to protect us. To promote and defend the rule of law. To establish and support a federal currency and to keep government, federal and state from taking away the rights of the citizens.

It is not the government's job to feed us, cloth us, make sure that we have health check ups, or to guarantee that we see our piece of the American Dream. Their job is to stay out of the way so that you can go after it if you want it.

WHY?!!!!!

Okay, just a mental note for everyone. If you are ever running for the presidency of the United States, it's usually a good idea if YOU think that YOU should BE the president. After all, if YOU don't think, act and talk that way, why on earth would anyone else vote for you, let alone give you money for a campaign.

Not bright.

Read it here.