GOP's Big 3: bizarre Eastwood, lyin' Ryan, Uncle Mitt
Yael T. AbouhalkahThe Republican National Convention is over. Ah, the memories.
This was an event that many Americans didn’t watch; just look at the TV ratings. More than likely, the Democratic National Convention will suffer the same fate.
A review of the GOP’s festivities:
- Thursday night brought a bizarre - but refreshing - skit from 82-year-old actor Clint Eastwood.
The liberal media (and some on the conservative side) roasted Eastwood for his meandering discussion with an empty chair, supposedly inhabited by a feisty President Barack Obama.
Sure, it was offbeat. But it was also something the entire GOP convention was not: a little entertaining. You wondered what the heck Eastwood was going to do next. And he did his job of getting the crowd revved up, and into the night’s action.
He also zinged Obama for a few of his failures, especially along the “hope and change” lines.
The Eastwood skit will be one of the most remembered pieces of the convention, although probably not fondly by the straight-laced handlers of Mitt Romney.
- On the previous night vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan brought his fresh-faced perspective to America.
And it was (mostly) lies.
I get why Ryan is beloved by the far-right. He says the right things: I’m against big government. I’m against big deficits. I will make the tough calls.
Unfortunately for America’s future, Ryan has almost no real experience in accomplishing anything that he boasts about.
He’s been on the government dole almost his whole adult life. He hasn’t successfully brought down the size of government. He voted for all the expensive, debt-crushing proposals in Congress, especially the Bush tax cuts.
Finally, as for tough decisions, take a look at his speech from Wednesday night and see how many of the nation’s problems Ryan talked about in detail, with even remotely detailed solutions to them.
That’s right. They aren’t there.
- Finally, the big speech by Romney Thursday night - while also short on specifics on how his administration would save the country - succeeded in one of its stated purposes.
It made Romney look like more of a human being.
Sure, he was still stiff, still smug, still not exactly the kind of lovable president some Americans might want to have.
But he also came across as someone who cares about the country. You could see why he is far ahead of Obama in the polls among men: He looks like a decider.
Unfortunately for women and much of the rest of America, though, Romney’s actual decisions wouldn’t be very positive for them when it comes to abortion, women’s rights, and the plight of low- and middle-income voters.
Romney’s continued insistence on tax cuts being one of the major solutions to what ails America is dangerous policy.
After Nov. 6, we’ll see if he gets a chance - along with Ryan and others - to do what all of them have been preaching.
William R. Nelson
9 months, 3 weeks agoClint Eastwood spoke to an empty chair intended for an empty suit.
But the real star of the convention was the media:
Stephen Platt
9 months, 3 weeks agoLying Ryan? OMG with Yael that now make 3 star reporters in two days - At the risk of repeating myself, here’s my Midwest Democracy post about the same point -
The Star is on a campaign. First it was Barb Shelly August 30 th calling Paul Ryan dishonest and now Dave Helling on Aug 31 st. Please read Obama’s speech he gave in front of the plant. He promised to spend government money to retool the plant so it will run for 100 years. He also said he would create 5 million new jobs without adding to the deficit. Same speech in 2008, no lie. The plant was scheduled to be closed in 2010. Obama gets elected in November, GM speeds up the closing, last car rolls off the assembly line in April 2009. Same blame game with Romney running the Olympics in 2002 and saying he closed the GST (Armco) plant at the same time. Oh, and then killing the steel workers wife with cancer in 2006. The democrat way of fact checking is a big lie. The Big Lie (German: Große Lüge) is a propaganda expression coined by Adolf Hitler, when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, about the use of a lie so “colossal” that no one would believe that someone “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.” What is appalling is this article (Helling’s)sits on the same jump page for the convention story in today’s paper. It is as if the Star intentionally wants to taint the convention coverage with more outrageous and negative statements from Democrats in a not so subtle way. I can’t wait to see the sugar-coating on the DNC.
Brandon Lewis
9 months, 3 weeks agoRomney pollster Neil Newhouse said, “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers.”
facts are irrelevant to this party. I see…but I digress!
Dan Miller
9 months, 3 weeks agoIt’s no wonder this paper is going under
Kent Mueller
9 months, 3 weeks agoBut Brandon, who fact checks the fact checkers? They need it, too.
Brad Hampshire
9 months, 3 weeks agoWill all of the DNC coverage require Facebook accounts as well?
Yael doesn’t feel the least bit compelled to hide his liberal bias. This attitude is why newspapers are dying and Fox News prospers.
Kent Mueller
9 months, 3 weeks agoBrad, Yael is supposed to be biased. He writes opinion, not news.
The Star’s op/ed page needs to only reflect the Star, since it is the Star’s opinion they express. And that opinion is undoubtedly moving further and further to the left. Much further left than their readership. But there is nothing wrong with that. It’s their paper.
But what I find interesting is the noticeable increase in the shrillness in which they write. The letters to the editor have also taken to being more shrill than typical and much more skewed to liberal letters than even just a month or so ago.
I wonder why that is. Is the left feeling the pressure that Obama doesn’t have anything to run on besides demonizing Romney?
Brandon Lewis
9 months, 3 weeks agoBrad, Fox News prospers because they are not compelled to hid their conservative bias and newspapers are dying because they are not compelled to hid their liberal bias?
Did I get that right?
Brad Hampshire
9 months, 3 weeks agoKent, good point. But it’s four against one IF we classify Tom McClanahan as a “conservative”.
Brandon, I couldn’t have stated it more succinctly than you did. One side prospers while the other side fails.
George Hunsucker
Northland
9 months, 3 weeks agoBrandon,
the star is dying because they insist on being liberal when their readership is decidedly not. I cancelled our subscription years ago because the star refused to be at least balanced. Why should I support a bunch of libs with my paltry few dollars????
Why they pursue this death-wise mentality is beyong me, but I am not a smart lib thankfully!
Brandon Lewis
9 months, 3 weeks agoUnbiased news coverage would be the ultimate goal, giving viewers information, facts and data, allowing each to make an intelligent, informed decision.
In reality, both sides fail.
George Hunsucker
Northland
9 months, 3 weeks agoAgreed Brandon, both sides hyperventilate a tad…..
In the case of the star however, I truly thought they were just sticking their finger in my eye from the editorials to the numer of lib columnists vs. conservatives and of course the make-up of the Editorial Board. I just decided my dollars were better spent someplace else….
At least they generally let me rant on this blog, so they must be making money off of me on this…..
Steven Ward
9 months, 3 weeks agoAnd this is the same paper that did not say a word about Cleaver’s awkward defense of Biden’s ‘put y’all in chains’ remark. Their only lip service to his stammering was a link to an AP article on their website 3 days later. (OK maybe it was 2, but fact-check it yourself, if you can do it to yourself)
Woody Pfister
9 months, 3 weeks ago‘When someone isn’t doing the job, we’ve got to let him go’
Brandon Lewis
9 months, 2 weeks ago…but then do we go back to the failed policies of the Bush administration by electing a Romney?
George Hunsucker
Northland
9 months, 2 weeks agoNo Brandon…
We follow the Ryan budget and do meaningful entitlement reform and get spending under control. Bush spent like a drunken sailor, sorry to insult the sailors, by not vetoing the wild spending bills…..
Lower taxes, closing loopholes and harvesting the higher revenue from a growing economy. It really isn’t rocket science….
George Hunsucker
Northland
9 months, 2 weeks agojimmy II’s presidency put to music….
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tE0M9R1YXH0