Willard Mitt Romney has waited his entire life for this moment. This one juncture in time may end up being the crowning achievement of his political career.
Mitt Romney accepted his party’s nomination for president on the stage of the Tampa Bay Times Forum to a rousing crowd of Republican delegates and voters.
He then entered into the final stage of his political pilgrimage by giving a speech laced with war venom, negativity and pointed attacks.
Romney spoke of Obama’s inability to slow Iran’s nuclear ambitions and gave a stiff warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin, stating that he will show the cold Russian leader more backbone.
Oddly, Romney took off on a foreign policy excursion to talk Iran and Russia when the theme of the RNC seemed to be jobs and a working America. Before even taking office, Romney is already isolating world leaders by giving a very brief peek at how rigid his foreign policy will be if he gets to the Oval Office.
He then turned to President Obama and how he disagrees with Obama’s leadership.
In talking about Mr. Obama, Romney gave one of the best lines of the night.
“I wish President Obama had succeeded because I want America to succeed,” he said. “Obama’s promises gave way to disappointment and division.”
What Romney did with that one line was strike a tone which Republicans have failed to do in the four years since Obama has been in office: Togetherness.
Senator Mitch McConnell said quite famously that his top priority was to make President Obama a one term president.
While Romney cannot turn around that type of negative rhetoric from his party, he at least attempted to connect with those outside of his own political circles.
Mitt also spoke very well of his upbringing, his family, his mom and dad’s marriage and the love he has for his country. In essence, he humanized himself. He gave a different narrative about who he is as a man and what he stands for politically.
The talk of Romney being made of wood and his robotic nature eased a little with his convention speech. We got an opportunity to view him through a more humanistic lens and it seemed to work.
Yet he threw away some of that goodwill away by wallowing in negativity and blaming Obama for the country’s problems.
Talking about the enthusiasm gap for President Obama, Romney asked a very pointed question of the night’s audience.
“If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn’t you feel that way now that he’s President Obama?”
Even for Democrats, that question had to sting a little.
Romney personalized himself, appeased the crowd on the convention floor and attempted to reach to a small swath of swing voters.
But he did nothing to raise his profile or make voters change their minds about him as a politician.
His speech had its good and bad parts but overall, it was fluffy and lacked any political substance. Romney mentioned creating 12 million new jobs but failed to give details on how this would be accomplished.
Romney spoke of making North America energy independent by 2020 and gave no text regarding his road to energy success.
Lastly and maybe most importantly, Romney mocked Obama’s ambition to tackle the earth’s changing climate.
“President Obama promised to stop the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family.”
A mocking turn regarding Obama’s commitment to climate change. For Independents and those so-called “Reagan Democrats” that Republicans are always chasing, his buck toward climate change did nothing for inclusion.
As I stated in my previous, biased observations about Romney and the RNC, his party does not believe in his ability to win.
Romney’s speech read and heard was more of a fantasy tale, filled with would-be ambition and dream-like jaunts.
A well dressed convention saw their four-day negative tirade end with the demise of the once-promising political career of Mitt Romney.
He seems to be a great family man with bedrock values. Loves his family, got choked up when talking about his parents and has a genuine concern for the well-being of American families.
So for Mr. Mitt Romney, take this as your going away party.
From this biased columnist, your ending is already written.
-JH
What should we expect from a Democrat?
Romney’s speech absolutely sucked and so did Ryan’s. That was pathetic.