Tag: 2012 Republican National Convention

Now I talk to the chairs. In a bizarre, unscripted rambling monolog Clint Eastwood spoke to an empty chair representing President Barack Obama.  That was not his best performance.

Mitt Romney probably hoped that surprise guest Clint Eastwood would make his day at the convention — instead, the 82-year-old gave a rambling speech that was as disastrous as the botched bank robbery that he stopped in “Dirty Harry” while playing a jaded San Francisco cop. [..]

Eastwood, who praised Romney as a “stellar businessman,” later said that he thought it was never a good idea for attorneys to be president, despite the fact that Romney has a J.D. from Harvard Law School. [..]

The otherwise prolific actor and director clearly appeared to be showing his age in what was meant to be a big coup for Republicans as their “mystery speaker.” [..]

The Romney campaign seemed to grasp how Eastwood’s bizarre, rambling, unscripted speech fell flat. “Judging an American icon like Clint Eastwood through a typical political lens doesn’t work,” was the campaign’s response. Aides winced backstage, according to the Associated Press.

Eastwood’s attacks on Obama didn’t faze the campaign. “Referring all questions on this to Salvador Dali,” Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said in an email to The Huffington Post.

It’s a bit hard to figure what the RNC organizers were thinking when they invited Clint to play such a prominent roll. After all he isn’t exactly a family values kind of guy or, for that matter, much of a 2012 Republican. This is what he said during an interview with GQ about his film J. Edgar that starred Leonardo DiCaprio:

GQ: Yeah, but maybe between the movies you have some political feelings. [to Eastwood] You’ve described yourself as a social libertarian. What does that mean to you?

Clint Eastwood: I was an Eisenhower Republican when I started out at 21, because he promised to get us out of the Korean War. And over the years, I realized there was a Republican philosophy that I liked. And then they lost it. And libertarians had more of it. Because what I really believe is, Let’s spend a little more time leaving everybody alone. These people who are making a big deal out of gay marriage? I don’t give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We’re making a big deal out of things we shouldn’t be making a deal out of.

Leonardo Dicaprio: That’s the most infuriating thing-watching people focus on these things. Meanwhile, there’s the onset of global warming and-

Clint Eastwood: Exactly!

Leonardo Dicaprio: -and these incredibly scary and menacing things with the future of our economy. Our relationship to the rest of the world. And here we are focusing on this?

Clint Eastwood: They go on and on with all this bullshit about “sanctity”-don’t give me that sanctity crap! Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.

Stick to singing, Clint

The economist has been a vocal critic of Ryan’s budget. On Wednesday, he appeared on Current TV to analyze the plan with Al Gore – who is hosting the network’s coverage of the conventions – and hosts Eliot Spitzer and Jennifer Granholm.

Krugman said that Ryan’s plan would leave “tens of millions” of people without health insurance. Gore said that his understanding is that it would take money from the poor and give it to the rich while increasing the budget deficit.

Krugman said that was indeed the case. “How can [Ryan] get away with this?” he asked incredulously. “World’s greatest nation falls for this flimflam?”

Paul Ryan’s speech Wednesday night may have accomplished one good thing: It finally may have dispelled the myth that he is a Serious, Honest Conservative. Indeed, Mr. Ryan’s brazen dishonesty left even his critics breathless. [..]

But Mr. Ryan’s big lie – and, yes, it deserves that designation – was his claim that “a Romney-Ryan administration will protect and strengthen Medicare.” Actually, it would kill the program. [..]

The Republican Party is now firmly committed to replacing Medicare with what we might call Vouchercare. The government would no longer pay your major medical bills; instead, it would give you a voucher that could be applied to the purchase of private insurance. And, if the voucher proved insufficient to buy decent coverage, hey, that would be your problem.

Moreover, the vouchers almost certainly would be inadequate; their value would be set by a formula taking no account of likely increases in health care costs. [..]

The question now is whether voters will understand what’s really going on (which depends to a large extent on whether the news media do their jobs). Mr. Ryan and his party are betting that they can bluster their way through this, pretending that they are the real defenders of Medicare even as they work to kill it. Will they get away with it?

You should realize you’ve screwed up when your own paid shills call out your lies:

According to Fox News columnist Sally Kohn, vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan’s speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday “was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech.”

“On this measure, while it was Romney who ran the Olympics, Ryan earned the gold,” Kohn wrote. [..]

In her column, Kohn called out four lies in Ryan’s speech. She critcized Ryan for blaming President Obama for the shutdown of a General Motors plant in Janesville, Wis., that actually was closed during the Bush administration. She also knocked Ryan for pinning the blame for S&P’s downgrade of U.S. debt on Obama, when Republicans in Congress helped precipitate the downgrade by threatening to refuse to raise the debt ceiling.

“The good news is that the Romney-Ryan campaign has likely created dozens of new jobs among the legions of additional fact checkers that media outlets are rushing to hire to sift through the mountain of cow dung that flowed from Ryan’s mouth,” Kohn wrote.

But they will continue to repeat this litany of lies and the people will believe. Hallelujah! Amen!

Message to Romney and Obama: Keep Your Hands Off Medicare

Well Ann Romney is still the best speaker overall with Huckabee clearly second and Rice and Ryan about tied.  Christie slides to 5th just ahead of Pawlenty.  Everyone else is reality show bad or worse.

Remember my points are given on presentation not substance so the fact that Ryan’s speech was such a comprehensive compendium of lies that even inoffensive little words like ‘a’, ‘and’, and ‘the’ were overwhelmed by the onslaught is immaterial to the score.

Of course tonight we have our special super secret guest speaker which rumors say will be Clint Eastwood.  I must say if true I consider this a mistake from 2 standpoints.  Firstly I’m not sure ‘Dirty Harry’ Callahan is sufficiently ardent for the Party at this particular stage and secondly he’ll make Romney look bad.  He’s already going to have competition enough from Jeb Bush who wouldn’t even be on the stage except for his institutional strength.

I think actually that will be the speech to watch tonight.  Jon is not kidding when he calls this a rehearsal for ’16 because no one with any brains (and I had to set the bar that low to include the Villager Idiots) thinks there is a path to electoral victory for Mitt.  What we have seen so far is the chaotic evil of the id raging anti-fairies (Fairly Odd Parents, I stand by my metaphor), Jeb is the face of the soul sucking pixies and they own this town.

There are reports that ratings are tanking and the enthusiasm among the delegates distinctly down.  Other factors are contributing (Isaac) and will no doubt be blamed by those looking for excuses, but what I’m feeling is a huge emotional black hole at the center of all of this and his name is Barack Obama.

Reagan was sunshiny optimism and hope on a hill.  He had goals, evil goals but still goals.  These guys have nothing but hate, resentment, and fear.  They won’t talk about their program for America because people justifiably don’t like it.  Huge majorities, even in their own party.

However Democrats are just as bad.  One of the reasons Paul Ryan is an evil hypocritical liar is that he voted against the Bowles/Simpson report.  We should be thanking him instead.

The politicians are afraid of democracy.  Since 2006 every election has been a “change” election and attrition has replaced many of the less firmly entrenched.  There is no reason not to expect this trend to continue until conditions improve.

I’ve been watching the action on CSPAN and I highly recommend it as complete and mercifully pundit free.

7:00 p.m.

• Convention convenes
• Call to order
• Introduction of Colors US Central Command Joint Forces Color Guard Team
• Pledge of Allegiance by Dylan Nonaka
• National Anthem sung by SEVEN
• Invocation by Ken and Priscilla Hutchins

• Remarks by U.S. Rep. Connie Mack (FL)
• Reagan Legacy Video
• Remarks by Newt and Callista Gingrich
• Remarks by Craig Romney

8:00 p.m.

• Remarks by Governor former Jeb Bush (FL)
• Remarks by Bob White, chairman of Romney for President campaign
• Remarks by Grant Bennett
• Remarks by Tom Stemberg

9:00 p.m.

• Remarks by former Massachusetts Lt. Governor Kerry Healey
• Remarks by Jane Edmonds, former Massachusetts Secretary of Workforce
• Remarks by Olympians Michael Eruzione, Derek Parra and Kim Rhode

10:00 p.m.

• Remarks by U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (FL)
• Remarks by presidential nominee Mitt Romney
• Benediction by Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan
• Adjournment

Madam Zelda!  Madam Zelda!

I don’t think anybody could have predicted that these people…would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile.

Debt of Honor (1994)

Ah, Condi the Pianist, how predictable.  And by ‘predictable’, I mean completely… um… dictable, I guess.  The point being that I hope all of you are finding this as excruciatingly boring fun and exciting as I am.

Call me when they say something factual.  It will be man bites dog.

Yesterday’s highlights in my estimation were of course the Ron Paul floor fight and Roll Call snub.  I also liked the ‘Parade of White Guys’ from the Afternoon session.  Of the evening program about all I have to say is that Janine Turner as a blonde looks like Julia Duffy and Neil Boyd in that hat looks like Sam Kineson.  Santorum was just creepy with the hands and family values thing and got chosen to deliver the big welfare work waiver lie.  Kelly Ayotte is in fact a poor public speaker and did need a crutch.  Kasich, McDonnell, and Walker are surprisingly bad for supposed heavyweights and established the “Me, me, me” meme (oh, and that Mitt guy too) that Christie epitomized.

I’m told by those who’ve seen more of him that this is the nice Chris.

I don’t have anything bad to say about Ann Romney at all except that her Nancified look was a little obvious.  If any of the men around her were half as good they’d be the nominee and Mitt would be strapped to the outside of his Gulfstream like Rafalca headed for a fun time playing Hot Wheels in his garage.  As it is he’ll have to wait until November.

Tonight’s highlights look to be Ron Paul hour at 7 (at least instructive).  I doubt McSame can come up with anything David Gregory hasn’t already slobbered over.  Jindal will be asking the evil Zionist Occupation Government for more money than he deserves and justifiably absent.  If Mike Huckabee is smart he’ll just play the banjo, but nobody has ever accused him of that.  When he does open his mouth he’ll show you why he’s now a pro instead of a politician, because he’s wacko insane but also that good.  Maybe he’ll jam with Condoleezza who should be hiding underneath her piano.

And then the big show, Ryan himself.

Conservative Humor.

7:00 p.m.

• Convention convenes
• Call to order
• Introduction of Colors by Amputee Veterans of America Support Team (AVAST)
• Pledge of Allegiance by Brigadier General Patrick E. Rea, US Army (Ret.)
• National Anthem sung by Ayla Brown
• Invocation by Ishwar Singh

• Ron Paul Video
• Remarks by Senate Republican Leader and Convention Temporary Chairman Mitch McConnell (KY)
• Remarks by Senator Rand Paul (KY)
• Remarks by Christopher Devlin-Young and Jeanine McDonnell

8:00 p.m.

• Remarks by Senator John McCain (AZ)
• Remarks by Attorney General Pam Bondi (FL) and Attorney General Sam Olens (GA)
• Remarks by Governor Bobby Jindal (LA) (Jindal will not be attending- ek)
• Remarks by Senator John Thune (SD)
• Remarks by Senator Rob Portman (OH)

9:00 p.m.

• Remarks by Governor Luis Fortuño (PR)
• Remarks by Governor Tim Pawlenty (MN)
• Bush 41, 43 Film
• Remarks by Mike Huckabee

10:00 p.m.

• Remarks by Condoleezza Rice
• Remarks by Governor Susana Martinez (NM)
• Remarks by vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan
• Benediction by Archbishop Demetrios
• Adjournment

The first day of the Republican Party Convention in Tampa, Florida was mercifully brief due to tropical storm Isaac. Isaac is now a hurricane and bearing down on the Gulf Coast as a eerie reminder of hurricane Katrina seven years ago and the disastrous Bush regime handling of the disaster. Today the convention hits its stride and was called to order by RNC Chair Reince Priebus at 2 PM. The afternoon covered adoption of the rules and platform. The rules have been changed to stifle other candidates like Ron Paul, who has been denied a speaker’s spot, and former vice presidential nominee, Sara Palan who was not invited.

Tonight’s highlight will be the keynote speech delivered by New Jersey’s own bully-boy governor Chris Christie and the speech delayed from possible future First Lady, Ann Romney with Mitt close by to cheer her.

To fit all of these folks into the 4 hours, all the speakers were told to edit their addresses to fit the time they were allotted, in the case of the first hour that’s less than 10 minutes. That will be quite a feat.  

Here is a list of speakers and the times they are supposed to appear with my take on what they’ll say:

7 p.m.

• House Speaker John Boehner: The Orange Smoking Man wants to throw Obama out of the bar. Then he’ll cry
• RNC Chairman Reince Priebus He’ll reenforce the litany of lies
• Video and Mayor Mia Love (Saratoga Springs, Utah), U.S. congressional candidate: She is the first black woman to run on the Republican ticket. Her roll will be to appeal to black women. Good luck with that one, honey.
• Janine Turner: Actress turned tearless activist who will no doubt insist that Obama was born on Mars in Kenya or someother milder form of birther bs.
• Former Sen. Rick Santorum: Rick will focus on attacking welfare. He still Googles well.
• Host, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers: House rep from Washington with a Down Syndrome child will end the  firsthour with coffee and donuts.

8 p.m.

• Sen. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), accompanied by Jack Gilchrist: She need a “crutch”?  Gilchrist is the businessman who insists he did it all by himself despite the millions federal assistance and contracts he received.
• Gov. John Kasich (Ohio): Will talk about the great job he’s done trying to suppress workers’ rights.
• Gov. Mary Fallin (Okla.): Looks like she’ll be touting “Drill, baby, drill” theme.
• Gov. Bob McDonnell (Va.), accompanied by Bev Gray: Gray is an architect. I doubt they’ll be talking about transvaginal probe design but that would be a more interesting speech.
• Gov. Scott Walker (Wis.): [Another anti-union speech about how collective bargaining rights destroyed the economy]

9 p.m.

• Gov. Brian Sandoval (Nev.): He’ll attack Obama’s Welfare Waivers after requesting flexibility.
• Sher Valenzuela (small-business owner, candidate for Delaware lt. governor): Another GOP candidate that built her business with 17 million in federal loans & contracts.
• Senate Republican candidate Ted Cruz (Texas): He has the delusional notion that the Hispanic community is conservative & opposed to amnesty.
• Former Rep. Artur Davis: Former Democrat now Republican who claims voter ID laws do not violate civil rights or suppress voter turn out.
• Gov. Nikki Haley (S.C.)

10 p.m.

• Mrs. Lucé Vela Fortuño: Puerto Rico’s First Lady who will introduce Ann Romney
• Mrs. Ann Romney: The “Queen of Equestrian Mean” will deign to address “you people” with hubby Mitt leading the ovation
• Gov. Chris Christie (N.J.): Certainly the highlight of the night will be this blustering buffoon who would love to have you believe he saved New Jersey.
• Benediction by Sammy Rodriguez: Finally, a rousing “amen” from a Hispanic Evangelical. So far no Mormon Tabernacle Choir

“I am not a number.  I am a HUMAN BEING!”

Below the fold lies painful, hurtful snark.  For those who may object on issues of taste and decorum, all I can say is “I warned you”.