Republican Convention -- Night 1

I watched most of the first night of the Republican National Convention yesterday.  It is always exciting for me to hear speeches from some of the best and brightest political leaders around the country who also happen to largely share my values.  The two most significant speeches of the evening were the keynote address by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and the comments of Mitt Romney's wife of 43 years, Ann Romney.  Christie toned down the attacks on Obama more than I expected, and some criticized his speech for appearing to focus more on himself than Mitt Romney.  Still, Christie is a great speaker, and he seemed to see his role as highlighting the serious challenges that our country faces and drawing contrasts between the two parties and their approaches to these challenges.  Here was one of the high points of his speech:

We believe in telling seniors the truth about our overburdened entitlements.

We know seniors not only want these programs to survive, but they just as badly want them secured for their grandchildren.  

Seniors are not selfish.

They believe seniors will always put themselves ahead of their grandchildren. So they prey on their vulnerabilities and scare them with misinformation for the cynical purpose of winning the next election.

Their plan: whistle a happy tune while driving us off the fiscal cliff, as long as they are behind the wheel of power.

We believe that the majority of teachers in America know our system must be reformed to put students first so that America can compete....

They believe in pitting unions against teachers, educators against parents, and lobbyists against children.

They believe in teachers' unions.

We believe in teachers.

Ann Romney gave a great speech, especially when you remember that unlike most of the speakers she is not a politician.  She was clearly trying hard -- perhaps too hard -- to appeal to women, but she spoke from the heart and gave a beautiful tribute to her husband.  She pointed out that she and Mitt started out their life together in a tiny basement apartment and worked hard to earn their success.  She said he would "work harder than anyone" to turn the country around and drew loud applause when she said, "Mitt doesn’t like to talk about how he has helped others because he sees it as a privilege, not a political talking point.”  She also had this great line: "We're too smart to know there aren't easy answers. But we're not dumb enough to accept that there aren't better answers."

Bill O'Reilly had an interesting Talking Points Memo Monday night in which he compared the lineup of speakers between the Republican and Democratic conventions.  It seems a little hard to avoid the conclusion that the Democratic convention is highlighting more extreme political views than the Republican convention, and also that the Democratic convention is quite a bit less serious when it comes to substantive policy.  On the first night of the Republican convention, I was struck by the high caliber of the speakers throughout the evening.  In addition to Christie, there were several other governors who had compelling stories to tell about the success of conservative policies in their states: John Kasich of Ohio, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Bob McDonnell of Virginia, and Brian Sandoval of Nevada.  I enjoyed listening to constitutional lawyer Ted Cruz, a second generation Cuban immigrant and articulate Tea Party candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas.  One of my favorite speakers of the evening was Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina, who landed some of the most effective blows against Obama.  She pointed out that the Obama Administration had sued her state for attempting to enforce illegal immigration laws and also for its voter ID law, and that Obama's National Labor Relations Board had attempted to block Boeing from opening a new plant in the state simply because of its right-to-work laws.  There was tremendous ethnic diversity on stage throughout the evening (although MSNBC viewers would never know it, since that network made sure to cut away from live coverage of the convention at every point at which an ethnic minority was speaking with the exception of Haley). 

But I would have to say my favorite speech was Artur Davis, a former Democratic congressman from Alabama and one of the co-chairs of Obama's 2008 campaign.  Davis, the only politically moderate member of the Congressional Black Caucus, became disillusioned with Obama quickly, partially as a result of ObamaCare.  He has now joined the Republican Party and gave a rousing speech in support of Romney.  I think he did a great job appealing to disillusioned Obama supporters.  You can watch his 10-minute speech below.