GOP Convention Day 1: Optics, Platforms And Revisionist History

Here are a few observations from last night’s opening session of the Republican National Convention.

The first part of the session brought us a lesson in optics.  Delegates from US territories Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam etc. were awarded prime seating near the podium even though they will never cast a vote in this election.  You can't claim to be a party of "inclusion" if the TV cameras only reveal white faces on the convention floor.  Meanwhile the state delegations that dared to support Ron Paul in the GOP primaries found themselves seated in the nose bleed section.

Once the seating arrangements were decided a keffuffle ensued between Ron Paul delegates and those supporting Romney.  As the states proudly delivered their votes to the podium ("The Lone Star State of Texas casts 58 votes for the next President of the United States.. etc.)the person tallying the votes only announced the votes for Romney while ignoring the votes cast for Paul, santorum etc.  thsi incensed the ron Paul delegates who initiated a shouting match with Romney delegate.  Peace was restored but the animosity remained.          

The next part of the session dealt with the passage of the party platform.  The platform is supposed to document the core principles on which the party will govern.  This year’s platform:  calls for a constitutional amendment that would outlaw abortion with NO exceptions; extends 14^th amendment rights to the unborn child, supports replacing family planning programs with abstinence education, supports the repeal of the president’s health care act, supports the right to possess unlimited amounts of ammunition, supports the right to carry extended capacity ammunition clips, supports the right of individuals holding a concealed carry permit from any state to carry their firearm across state lines, affirms that lawful marriage is between one man and one woman, supports the extension of the Bush tax cuts and the elimination of the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax and supports moving Medicare to a “premium support plan” and Medicaid to a state run block grant plan.

Once the platform was passed by the delegates it seemed to develop plague like qualities.  Party leaders took great pains to distance themselves from its existence; dismissing any attempts by reporters to dig into the platform specifics.   “The platform doesn’t matter” said former New York Governor Pataki.  Then why have a platform?

Romney’s roll call victory was orchestrated in the afternoon so that prime time would belong to a parade of Republican governors.  We assumed each of these guys was going to regale us with wonderful tales of all things Romney and the conservative principles that he would bring to the White House.  Instead we were forced to endure a chorus line of self congratulatory revisionist history as each governor told us what a great job they had done since taking office.  Kasich, McDonnell and Walker gave rhyme and verse of their accomplishments while barely mentioning Romney.  Even the ever popular Chris Christie couldn’t resist the opportunity to blow his own horn.  Christie was half way through his self promotion keynote address before he even uttered Romney’s name.  “Look what I did in my state!  I’m great!  Oh yeah…support Mitt Romney.”  Christie may have been addressing the 2012 GOP Convention...but clearly he had one eye on 2016.

While all the governors cited the horrible financial conditions they faced upon taking office none of them mentioned the eight Bush years of unfunded spending that brought about those conditions.  In fact Bush was never mentioned.  Neither was Cheney, McCain or Palin.  Instead the governors talked about how they courageously made the hard choices to balance their budgets.  Naturally they left out the carnage of reduced benefits and lost jobs those hard choices brought about.  Also absent were any specifics about how they would move the country forward.  And noticeably absent was any mention of the war Afghanistan.

Ann Romney was very good.  It is easy to see that she loves her husband very, very much.  But she didn’t tell us very much about the candidate.  And her message of “love” conflicted with that of Chris Christie who told us that being “loved” wasn’t important…gaining “respect” was the goal.

Tonight, the real star of the Republican Party speaks.  Paul Ryan will have his national coming out party.

Let’s see if HE mentions Mitt.