Romney: Throw out the liberals UPDATED
By Lisa Wangsness, Globe staff
ST. PAUL -- Mitt Romney delivered a harsh broadside against Washington in his speech to his party's convention tonight, painting the nation's capital as a left-wing outpost ripe for recapturing this fall.
Although a Texas Republican has held the White House for eight years, Romney told his party that Washington "has been looking to the Eastern elites, to the editorial pages of the Times and the Post, and the broadcasters from the coast" and that it was time to look to two Western conservatives, John McCain and Sarah Palin, for deliverance.
"Is a Supreme Court decision liberal or conservative that awards Guantanamo terrorists with constitutional rights? It's liberal!" he said, as the crowd joined him in response. "Is a government liberal or conservative that puts the interests of the teachers union ahead of our children? It's liberal! Is a Congress liberal or conservative that stops nuclear power plants and offshore drilling making us more and more dependent on Middle Eastern tyrants? It's liberal!
"....We need change all right, change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington!" he said.
Romney's speech underscored the difficulty facing the Republican Party as it tries to speak to a deeply dissatisfied electorate, a challenge he tackled in his own campaign for president with a good deal more nuance than he did last night. But the convention crowd, hotly indignant over the controversy swirling around Palin, was in a red-meat mood and embraced Romney's rhetoric with enthusiasm.
"He was awesome!" said Ken Leonard, who like his fellow Texan delegates wore a straw cowboy hat and cheered mightily after the speech. "The pride in our country just exudes from the man. He is just an awesome leader for our country."
Romney, who had been considered a top prospect for vice president, was consigned to the role of warming up the crowd for Palin cq, McCain's surprise pick. But the scheduling turmoil created after Hurricane Gustav threw the convention off-schedule, forcing Republicans to cram four days of speakers into three nights. It was not clear earlier this week whether he would get a prime-time slot.
As he spoke, not everyone in the hall was paying attention. He went onstage at about 8:15 p.m. Eastern time, before the major television networks began broadcasting, and many delegates were still milling around the floor, socializing.
He did get the crowd's attention, though, when he took an oblique swipe at Michelle Obama cq, who has drawn harsh criticism for saying in February, after her husband fared well in a string of primaries, that she was proud of her country for the first time in her adult life. She later clarified the remark.
"Just like you, there has never been a day when I was not proud to be an American," Romney said, as the crowd burst into deafening cheers and then chanted, "USA! USA!"
At another point, he said that he had another recommendation for solving global warming: "Let's keep Al Gore's private jet on the ground." The crowd roared.
A press release put out by the Republican National Committee before the speech suggested that Romney would also address McCain's "ability to repair Washington's partisan environment." That would have been in keeping with the convention's overall theme, "Country First," and with last night's topic, "reform." That didn't happen -- he stuck firmly to railing against Democrats.
"That's what surrogates are good for," said Kerry Healey, Romney's former lieutenant governor, a top Massachusetts supporter of his presidential campaign and a delegate to the convention. "Senator McCain needs to strike a non-partisan tone, but this is a convention and it's entirely appropriate to point out differences between the parties as Mitt did."
In at least one case, however, Romney seemed to venture too far, saying that liberals want to "grow government and raise taxes to put more people on Medicaid." Dependency, he said, "is death to initiative, to risk-taking and opportunity."
The Massachusetts health reform law, which Romney took credit for helping to create and signed into law in 2006, depends on expanding the Medicaid program to extend health insurance to more people. Since it was implemented, Medicaid rolls have increased by 72,000, and 176,000 people have obtained insurance partially subsidized with Medicaid money.
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Of course he won't speak during the hour the broadcast networks are airing coverage. The McCain team is terrified of the comparisons voters would make between Romney and its insane VP pick of Palin.
Everyone knows that Romney was the one that should have been at the top of the ticket. McCain's ego wouldn't let him pick Romney as VP because Romney makes Mccain look feeble and he certainly won't give him a prime-time speaking slot.
It's time for us to amplify our opinions into action--since even longtime McCain hater Rush Limbaugh has hung up his conservative mantra to toe the party line. We need to organize our efforts to thwart McCain's chances in the election. I'd love to write-in Mitt Romney's name (and that's exactly what I plan to do), but since I'm in Florida the race here may be too battleground and I may be forced to vote Obama. Ideally we'd have enough voters willing to write-in Romney where it wouldn't matter how they vote depending on what state they are voting in. So I suppose we need to establish a meetingplace online to evaluate the effort. I have no experience in web-design or blogging, so perhaps some here can be of assistance. Or at least we should treat this comment area as a discussion of how best and where to set up shop.
McCain never had my vote in the first place. I would've voted for him had he picked Romney. I wasn't surprised he didn't pick Mitt Romney because I know what kind of person John McCain is. Never did I seriously think I'd vote against McCain though. Sure I thought I'd sit one out, or maybe write-in Mitt, but watching McCain trash Romney, then use him, then deny him, then brush him off at the convention has prompted me to work for McCain's defeat. If it means I vote for Obama, then I vote for Obama. It's time for us to collect ourselves and become the maverick to John McCain and send his liberal a-- back to Arizona.
I mean, honestly, what's he ever done for Republicans anyway? He doesn't deserve the nomination. He doesn't deserve the Presidency. He doesn't deserve my vote. No degree of Supreme Court nomination scare tactics or doomsday what-if this national security scenario happened attempt to frighten me into voting for McCain will convince me that he's worth settling for. It's one thing if it's Bob Dole, but McCain isn't even close to being Bob Dole.
Instead I think it's time to take a knee. Throw the game. The Republicans need to be out of power on the federal level. The state of the party would be in total panic mode disarray, and there we have Mitt Romney waiting in the wings to rebuild the totalled Republican brand. Mark Twain couldn't fictionalize a more ideal person to lead such a task. He'd be an ace foil to Obama on TV for his first term, all the while conceptualizing, proposing, articulating, and advancing practical solutions to our present ills as well as measures against future ones in the grand return of pragmatism to the Republican party.
WakeWashington -
Right on! You hit the nail on the head. Romney is tough to beat in dynamics, intelligence and charisma!
Didn't a complete lack of government regulation require some major financial institutions to "depend" on taxpayer bailouts?
Romney's speech: War! Fighting Evil! Big government bad! Liberals want big government! God bless!
He even brought back the "Axis of Evil" reference.
Isn't this the exact same platform they ran on last time around? Wasn't McCain going to differentiate himself from Bush and present fresh ideas? All I've heard is the same good v. evil stuff we heard last time around.
How can he even talk about "family values" when he'd deny millions of Americans the right from joining together and forming their own family?
I bet Romney was offered the VP and turned it down. He's crouching down to pounce in 2012 and taking notes feverishly on Obama's moves.
That will be a good election.
Mark Twain is excellent (that is, in destroying) pomposity, grandstanding, hypocrisy. He dissected Romney's kind long ago -- it's there for the reading. He also tore apart religion, of a kind, in a book called ROUGHING IT, which recounts his life in Utah and Nevada.
Twain would have had a blast writing about Romney: a character more strange than fiction. He could have Bain'd the country good. Thank gawd he'll never have the chance as more of tonight's speeches reveal him as a total opportunist, with no substance or integrity whatsoever.
ROMNEY - so you want to send McCain's liberal a-- back to Arizona by voting for a liberal Democrat?? that makes about as much sense as all those Hillary supporters that would rather vote for McCain than another Democrat. care to elaborate? I'd love to hear it....
as for the original Romney, it's quite disheartening to hear him speak so negatively of all us liberals here in Massachusetts - you know, those liberals that elected him to Governor. As a liberal who was slated to work for his Senatorial campaign vs Ted Kennedy, I am deeply troubled to see our former Governor further pimp himself to the right wing so that he might ascend higher in the future. You might recall that he had pimped himself to the liberal majority in MA by declaring himself pro-choice in that Senatorial campaign.
I'd be interested to see how McCain would return a spirit of bipartisanship to Washington while simultaneously "throwing out the liberals". Romney's such a joke.
Romney conveniently forgets that under Republican control, the federal government spending, size and deficit is the largest in history... yet he wants us to give them another 4 years?
Want more borrowing from the Chinese to float their spending habits, vote Republican, vote Democrat and be fiscally responsible... oh the irony.
I have a friend who works at the Roxbury Boys & Girls Club. When Romney was campaigning for governor here, he stopped by the club and spoke to the kids. Afterward, my friend asked the kids what they thought of Senator Romney.
The first response was "He's kind of fake."
Trust the mind of a child, folks.
chiver17,
"All us liberals here in Massachusetts - you know, those liberals that elected him [Romney] Governor?" ...
Half of Bay Staters are registered "Independent"...don't assume all are liberals.
Wow. So...According to Romney, there should be no habeus corpus - I'm sure our forefathers (the ultimate patriots I might add) would agree with that. Denying folks constitutional rights is very patriotic.
And children should dictate what is best for them in the school system. Um. Okay. Yeah, don't listen to the teachers. What do they know?
And, yeah, it is so smart to bank on nuclear and oil based power when these are expendable resources and they will run out. Oh, yes, they mine uranium Romney. Nuclear power doesn't just come from thin air. As a geologist, let me tell you that unless we ramp up the alternative sources of power, it's not going to matter who holds the oil (or uranium for that matter). Anything that anyone else tells you is a joke. There's nothing political about that. It's a fact. Only certain conditions lead to oil deposits and the areas where you can find oil are running out. We can rip the earth to shreds looking for those last deposits, or we can do something smart and create a new industry around other sources of power.
Mittler.
You could have had pretty attractive blue-eyed brunette with shoulder length hair running your state.
This is what you've thrust onto the national stage. Satisfied, morons?
Liberal??? You mean like ...the US COSTITUTION??? Oh no! We can't have that now can't we.
WHAT IS SO BAD about being a liberal? Liberalism is what this country was BUILT on!!! In fact, you could say anyone saying bad things about liberalism is a TERRORIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Definitions of Liberal:
1. favorable to progress or reform, as in political or religious affairs.
2. (often initial capital letter) noting or pertaining to a political party advocating measures of progressive political reform.
3. of, pertaining to, based on, or advocating liberalism.
4. favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible, esp. as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of civil liberties.
5. favoring or permitting freedom of action, esp. with respect to matters of personal belief or expression: a liberal policy toward dissident artists and writers.
6. of or pertaining to representational forms of government rather than aristocracies and monarchies.
7. free from prejudice or bigotry; tolerant: a liberal attitude toward foreigners.
8. open-minded or tolerant, esp. free of or not bound by traditional or conventional ideas, values, etc.
9. characterized by generosity and willingness to give in large amounts: a liberal donor.
10. given freely or abundantly; generous: a liberal donation.
To WakeWashington, you must truly be eating your words tonight!
He told Andrea Mitchell that MA voters could relate to Sarah Palin because she hunts moose.
Except in MA, everyone is to busy hunting for cock!
ROMNEY? You would really vote for Obama over McCain? You're a fool. Don't you understand that both parties could care less about its voters? You have to vote for the lesser of two evils...always and that clearly is McCain over Obama. I guess it doesn't matter for you anyway since Florida will go Republican this election...peace!
HM? You are a typical Liberal moron! Constitutional rights are for American citizens not terrorists you stupid moron! Honestly, what is wrong with you Liberals? You really can't be that stupid, can you?
Having witnessed the trampling of the American Constitution und GWB's pack of parochial, religio-fanatics, I think it behooves voters, conservative and liberal alike, and all in between, to remove the government from the hands of the lunatic fringe. I would have thought that the GOP had figured that out, for the good of the nation at least. But it is only interested in power, unopposed, unadulterated. The neocons virtually pushed the opposition off the map by, among others, launching the war in Iraq, which is a disaster, even if things have calmed down there.
All this done in the name of a minority of Americans, who, the more they are wrong, the louder they scream. Now, reading Romney's babble, my ear adds a German accent, and I hear a speech by another fellow, as cynical as Romney, asking his people if they wanted total war.
America has lost its Constitution under the GOP, which has turned Washington into a trough for anyone wanting a buck and packing away their scruples. Under GWB, America has become a laughing stock and worse yet, has taken huge steps towards irrelevance as a nation standing tall among nations. The only concern for the world at large is if the country, run as it is by ideologues, is going to continue on its path of destabilization, start a war, launch a nuclear warhead or unnecessarily provoke say, Russia, not because there is a need to defend, but rather to maintain some silly boogeyman out there to unite the Great Unwashed behind the Party.... Don't let the Euro-trashers in the media brainwash you that Europeans are bashing Americans. They are concerned (I live in Europe), because a lot of them are fairly well educated when it comes to the daily news. Vote for the GOP this time around, and the USA will loose its last remnants of dignity.
Samuel Johnson's famous saying "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel" is evidenced by these venal, cynical and power-hungry wolves.
Unfortunately Romney will forever be the candidate that anyone with an education and work ethic will talk about at parties as the guy that should be president. The real problem with Romeny has always been that he just makes too much darn sense. I mean seriously, how can you win an election talking in details and making locgical sense all day. If you really think you will win an election with facts, common sense and asking people to roll up their sleeves you are nuts! Wake up Mitt...either push unions, handouts, and higher taxes or find a new profession in MA.
Time for Mitt to go back to the private sector where intelligence and worh ethic are rewarded. Either that or change your party affiliation, stop working and start being a community organizer with no real job in life. Then my friend you may be qualified to be my president!