Republican National Convention, Part 1

Well, I watched the second night of the Republican National Convention and now you will be subjected to my thoughts. You will most likely get one of these for each night of viewing so be prepared. This may be rather long so bear with me.

First off let me suggest that if you want to get the pure flavor of the Convention, without all the talking heads and endless commentary then you need to watch the Convention on CSPAN There are no commercials, there are no talking heads giving you pithy little comment and talking over the people on the floor. This is the only way to go. If you watch on CSPAN you will have to make your way through the less than polished speeches but you will also be able to see some gems. It was very moving to hear the speech given by the man (whose name I didn't catch) who adopted one of the little girls that Cindy McCain brought back from Bangledesh when the McCain's adopted their daughter. If you watched CNN, MSNBC or FOX you didn't see it. You also didn't see the acknowledgement of the 23 former POWs who had been in the Hanoi Hilton with John McCain or the 5 Medal of Honor recipients who were in attendance. You also did not see the moving tribute to MOH recipient Michael A. Mosoor who, in September of 2006, gave the last ful measure of devotion so that other Marines could live.

Another general observation: John McCain has a wealth of ordinary men and women who are willing and eager to stand up and tell the American public what kind of man John McCain is. The men who served with him, the people that he has interacted with in his long career in the military and in Washington. Ordinary people like you and I who know him and can tell you that he is exactly as you see him. Who has Barak Obama had to do that job? Who has stepped up to tell us what BO is really like? Dick Durbin? Give me a break. Anyone from his "Community Organizer" days? Nope. By the way, what the heck is a community organizer anyway?

Now, on to what I thought about the speeches themselves.
1. President Bush
He was good as usual. Humorous, serious, to the point. He communicated what he needed to, that John McCain is his own man and not another George Bush. That McCain has often gone against the establishment and President Bush and that he does what is right.

This was the "money quote"

If the Hanoi Hilton couldn't break John McCain's resolve to do what is best for America, the Angry Left NEVER will

2. Fred Thompson
He hit it OUT OF THE PARK!!!! I have always like Fred Thompson and I think if he had shown this same sort of enthusiasm on the campaign trail then he might have done better. Rather than flounder around with my own words I think that John Hinderaker of Powerline said it best, "Fred Thompson told John McCain's story the way McCain won't tell it himself: His early days as a rebel; his almost unimaginable heroism as a POW, and his principled career in Washington."
Senator Thompson was humorous, eloquent, and hard hitting. I think that the McCain camp should designate him their "Official Attack Dog" forthe last 60 days of the campaign. Release the hounds!!!!!

Just a smattering of my favorite lines from his speech. It is well worth going over to YouTube and looking at the speech in total. I won't post the videos here because you do have to do some of the work on your own!

Speaking about Sarah Palin:

A courageous, successful reformer who is not afreaid to take on the establishment and win. She has run a municipality and she has runa a state and I think I can say without fear of contradiciton that she is the only nominee of either party who knows how to properly field dress a moose. When she and John McCain get to Washington, they aren't going to care how much the alligatore get irritated, they're going to drain the swamp.

The heart of the matter on abortion

We need a president who doesn't think the protection of the unborn or a newborn is above his pay grade!

His jab on Obama's proposal to only tax the wealthies and businesses was excellent

We need a President who understands that you don't make citizens prosperous by making Washington richer, and you don'tlift an economic downturn by imposing one of the largest tax increases in American history.

Now our opponents tell you not to worry about their tax increases. They tell you they are not going to tax your family.

No, they're just going to tax "businesses"! SO unless you buy something from a "business", like groceries or clothes or gasoline....or unless you get a paycheck from a big or a small businees, don't worry...it's not going to affect you.

They say they are not going to take any water out of your side of the bucket, just the "other" side of the bucket!

And in the end it really comes down to this:

Two questions we won't ever have to ask ourselves about this man. 1. Who is this man? and 2. Can we trust this man with the presidency?

3. Joe Lieberman
I have liked Joe Lieberman for a long time. I admire his stance on the war in Iraq, on national security and on Israel. He is a man you is courageous and that was shown last night when he spoke in front of the Republican National Convention. The political impact that this will have on him will be enormous I am sure. The Democrats will make him pay. However, he is a man who acts with the courage of his convictions and that showed through in this speech. When you remember that just eight years ago HE was the Democratic nominee for VP then the speech is all that more remarkable.

I think this summed his speech up fairly accurately

I'm here tonight for a simple reason: John McCain is the best choice to bring the country together and lead America forward. And I'm here because John McCain's full life testifies to a great truth: Being a Democrat or a Republican is important. But it is not more important than being an American

Way to go Joe.

So, tonight it is on to Sarah Palin. I can hardly wait.