[Dear Readers, before we turn to last night's GOP Convention hero, Paul Ryan,
just a quick daily sample of our Australian commentator during GOP Convention Week]:
A couple of hours earlier, the Republican campaign to make Mitt Romney President had been launched by speeches from Ann Romney and New Jersey governor Craig Christie. On the original schedule, they would have been on separate nights, which would have been a good idea, as Ann Romney's speech was about "love" and why it matters, and how the country would fall in love with Mitt the "way that I did when I was 15" -- gaaack -- while Christie came out swinging and said "we don't need love, we need to talk about respect".
Weird. Christie was aimed squarely at Obama and the perception of touchy-feelyness, but it turned into a side-swipe against Ann. Her speech was soft, personal and OK as far as it went -- it was hugely overrated by the pundits -- while Christie addressed the convention like he was asking it to step outside and settle this like men.
What all pundits noted was the absence of any warm endorsement of Romney from all Tuesday's speakers, Ann, of course, excepted. Christie mentioned himself more than 20 times in his speech; Romney only a handful of times. Even at the heart of the convention, there was a lukewarm quality, a near lackadaisicalness.
_________________________
NOW, Paul Ryan's "Biggest Mistake," in the eyes of one of his most prestigious fans
-- the moderate NYT columnist David Brooks [who FAVORS Ryan's Medicare solutions over Obama's]:
"A few years ago, President Obama established a debt commission that was led by
Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles and had a group of eminences, including Representative Paul Ryan.
"When that commission came up with its proposal [to make serious inroads on our huge $14+ trillion national debt], some conservative Republicans, like Tom Coburn and Judd Gregg, voted yes,
but Ryan voted no. This was a devastating blow. If Ryan and the other House Republicans had voted for the Simpson-Bowles proposal, it would have gone to Congress for up-or-down votes, regardless of how President Obama reacted. We would have had national action on debt reduction."
[For the rest of Brooks's friendly 2nd-guessing of his semi-hero Paul Ryan, read the remaining
15 paragraphs of Brooks's short column:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/opinion/brooks-ryans-biggest-mistake.html?_r=1
No comments:
Post a Comment