RNC speeches

[teaberryblue]

So, I didn't get Mitt Romney's speech at all. Especially when he says things like "We need Big Ideas, not Big Brother."

Which I know what he meant by it, but when the Bush administration has been accused of spying on people and killing our rights as much as they have, it doesn't get across the message I think he was intending to make.

Another thing that weirded me out about Romney's speech-- he talks about how the Democratic party wants to take our rights away and then two minutes later is talking about keeping pornography out of homes. I generally think that on that count, the Republican party is much more interested in stepping in and regulating freedoms than the Democratic party is-- the only one that the Democratic party really cares about is gun control. And I realize that that is really super important to a lot of people, but no one is trying to take away hunting rifles.

Huckabee, on the other hand, man. I wish he didn't have so many crazy Fundamentalist leanings, because man, he's brilliant. And he's such a great speaker. I didn't agree with everything in his speech, but when he's not talking about his religion, he's fabulous to listen to and so smart.

Rudy is being Rudy-- I think he's too vitriolic to be going right before Sarah Palin...they should have had him go early to warm up the crowd, I think. I love Rudy and I kind of wanted him to get the nomination, and then have Bloomberg run independently...just because the Black, Jew, and Italian running for President jokes would have been awesome.

Except for this Islamic terrorism thing? Umm, who are they insulting? How about Muslims? And we're not mentioning September 11th because that was seven years ago and we need to move on. Jesus, Rudy, I know it was your time in the sun, but please get the hell over it.

Okay, now he just got nasty. Rudy, stop making New Yorkers look bad. This is exactly what the rest of the country already thinks we're like. I want to listen to Huckabee again.

Okay, Sarah Palin. I think this will be interesting because it's really our first time hearing her, even if the speech was written before she was selected.

I remember when Bill Clinton first started running for President and I kept wanting to slap his hand down. It would drive me nuts watching him because he kept making hand motions while speaking. Sarah Palin needs to learn not to roll her lips while she's on national TV; that surprises me because of her TV experience.

This speech so far seems perfectly decent but kind of bland?

Ooh, actually, she has a nephew on a carrier in the Gulf-- one of my cousins is doing that now; I want to find out which one he's on.

Also her youngest daughter is adorable.

This whole speech is a little weird, because it feels more like a biography/introduction than a real speech? I know this is the first time many people have heard her, but I feel like I would rather they'd gotten Rudy to coach her. She's not even delivering her vitriolic lines with vitriol, which makes her just sound like a lecturey professor.

And she really, really doesn't want to attack the media in her first major speech on the national scale? Is this to throw people off when the media criticizes her so she can be all "well, the media's criticizing me because I won't pander to them?" Because I am honestly starting to believe this is a strategic thing.

Okay, eBay joke? Funny. Actually, that whole section was funny and as a big fan of Mike Bloomberg, I appreciate people in positions of privilege who refuse luxuries they don't need.

Why is she still misrepresenting her fiscal history, though? She shouldn't be talking about that when she's been called out on it as many times as she has.

The energy talk is a good move, though. This is obviously where her expertise is, although I'm not sure I feel comfortable with it coming from someone who is known for earmarks to her own town-- is she just going to be giving more money back to her home state at the expense of other states? She went from highlighting everything well to turning this back into Alaskan interests.

I like all the talk about things being produced by American workers when she wants to pay Canada for that.

Okay, and she just likened Obama to...Moses? And it's weird that she's not using his name.

I haven't had any more comments since then because I think I'm going back to my earlier statement that it's not a BAD speech, but it's not a super impressive one and I feel that it's kind of canned. She's repeating things that previous speakers already said or things we've heard from McCain himself before and I'm a little disappointed because I was hoping we'd get more of a sense of her own individual identity from this.

I think if I were rating that speech like a movie? I would rate it about a 2, maybe 2 1/2 stars-- not offensively bad, but nothing new and kind of bland. The half is because it's her first one. In relation, I think I'd give Romney and Giuliani both 1 1/2-- Romney was just really off, and Giuliani is a good speaker but it was not a likable speech and poorly positioned. Huckabee wins with definitely a 4-star speech and the best of the night.

Comments

[kikithepirate.livejournal.com]

Actually, the Moses comparison has already been made by the McCain campaign.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I totally missed that. I thought we were still supposed to be comparing him to Jesus and Hitler.

[kikithepirate.livejournal.com]

Well, I think the video pretty much does those things, too. Except maybe the Hitler part, unless you really want to stretch your imagination.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, watching the video, it's really only Christ imagery, not Mosaic imagery, up till the part at the end? That's a little weird; I'm left thinking it was easier to secure the rights to The Ten Commandments than to a Jesus movie.

[kikithepirate.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this one that they did for the convention was actually funnier and had more Moses footage.

I get their point though, that he comes across sometimes as more of a religious figure than a politician. However, I'm really not too sure how well the "bitter cynicism" schtick is going to work for them, though it must work with some people - campaigns are never going to waste their money making an ad if the polls don't say that the message is effective.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

That will definitely work with people who don't like politicians who use fancy speech and such, too, I think. And people who don't like Obama's image and see him as being too self-aggrandizing. Which he does come off as cocky sometimes, so I can see that.

And there are the people who are afraid that changing things will mess them up worse than they already are-- I think Palin's speech was the one that mentioned that. But again, it's been used already. I didn't feel like they said much new tonight.

[kikithepirate.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's sort of ironic how much Palin said that Obama actually said, too. It's like, hey, if we say it to our supporters and make it sound like the other side wants to do something different, they'll totally buy it.

I'd like to see someone cut together the parts of Obama's and Palin's speeches where they talk about other energy sources - it was almost verbatim the same. Clean coal, wind, safe nuclear energy, and other renewable energy sources. I think they might have even listed them in the same order, too.

I actually have something to add about the self-aggrandizing/cocky part, but won't because I have a rule about getting too opinionated in unlocked posts.

[kikithepirate.livejournal.com]

**so I'll just tell you over AIM sometime, is what I was going to end that with. And now I am going to sleep.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Haha, no problem. Nighty!

[dootsie.livejournal.com]

I sort of completely see why Rudy was before Palin--there was no way she could've had any of them on their feet and cheering. She made good jabs, but few of them were particularly on-your-feet fist-pumping. I was totally with you, wondering why he was directly before her, but I think that it was just purely to get the audience used to jumping, laughing, and participating.
Did you notice how desperately she was attempting to get people to pipe down so she could start? "Thank you very much-- *looks lost, mouths something* Thank you, Thank you." Maybe that's just me?
Tom Brokaw of all people totally called Palin out on the Congress "bridge to nowhere" project. He said something to the effect of "She was previously in support of the project, but changed her mind when Congress said that Alaska would have to foot half the bill".

[buttfacemakani.livejournal.com]

Romney's speech just reminds me of the problem and hypocrisy of the Republican party. They are the ones who supposedly lay claim to "small government", but they advocate government intervention in private issues that don't really affect anyone else. Democrats want to control your financial descisions, and Republicans want to control personal social decisions. And that is why I am more or less Libertarian lol.

I agree totally about Huckabee. He's not only smart but he's fun to listen to too. He is an example of why I have such huge respect for preachers. But of course at the same time, I don't necessarily think that preachers should govern if they're not going to separate their faith from values in governing people of many different faiths :|.

Except for this Islamic terrorism thing? Umm, who are they insulting? How about Muslims?
I'm sorry, but the terrorism was prompted at least partially by these people's Muslim faith. I wouldn't get offended at people calling like, Westboro Baptist church "Christian terrorists" because their hatred is prompted by Christianity. It is a warped Christian faith, just like Islamic terrorists follow a warped Islamic faith. I don't think anyone who is of at least average intelligence is saying "Islamic terrorists" and referring to every Muslim everywhere (admittedly I have had to defend Muslims from some older members of my family 9_9 but they would be close-minded asses about it whether or not the government called them Islamic or not). If it were up to me I would want to oust Westboro's sect of Christianity, but unfortunately I don't know if we can unless they actually start physically harming people.

I like Palin alright as a speaker, really, and I think if anything she did a good job showing she's tough and has common sense (which unfortunately is kind of what all women in politics have to apparently prove to people). But having her go right after Guliani.. just made me want to write in vote for Guliani even more haha.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's one of my biggest problems with a lot of Republicans, too-- it's not small government just because you're not spending the money on social initiatives if you're still spending the money. Most of the Democrats' social initiatives I go back and forth on, but since we've tried the privatized health care thing three different ways and it hasn't worked, and there are lots of countries with socialized health care models that do, I think that's our next best bet for getting it right. It works for most of Europe and Canada, so I think it's worth a try. There's some other stuff I would be happy to throw out, though.

And that's exactly how I feel about Huckabee, too, I really liked the way you said that.

I think it's different for Christians because we are the majority in this country. When you have people always saying "Islam" before "terrorism" when most people in this country don't even know anyone Muslim, it definitely causes people to cast aspersions on those people. And the idea that this is religious hatred and not political hatred is a major simplification of the issue. Osama bin Laden himself is not a Muslim extremist; he's just playing on people's religion to get them to sacrifice their lives, which is very sad. Muslims get their religion insulted every day, and while that happens to Christians, too, there are a lot more of us to stand up for each other.

I really would have liked them to give Palin more leeway with the speech-- parts of it just felt like canned campaign rhetoric and while I thought she delivered it well, it was just kinda boring. I think I would have liked it more if she'd done something a little different.

[deathrockboy.livejournal.com]

She's the Vice-President nominee. Her job is to say all the things McCain wants to say, but cannot afford to lose face over. She will be puppet number one for the McCain campaign.

I kind of feel bad for her in a way, as she might have views that totally oppose McCain on certain points, but she can't say anything because this is the opportunity of her lifetime, and she's not about to throw it away. Puppets!

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I know that that's a lot of the VP's role in the campaign...but can you imagine if Biden had been force-fed a speech? I just felt like it was so devoid of any real personality; it's like they're playing her too close to the chest, they're afraid of her actually showing any real opinions or saying anything that hasn't already gotten a stamp of approval on it. I was kind of mystified at how little she's spoken publicly since McCain named her last week-- I've never seen that happen with a candidate for such a high-profile position before.

[deathrockboy.livejournal.com]

Palin makes me angry. She's just so snarky and holier-than-thou in her "every woman" facade. I just worry that America might fall for it. We live and die by our beauty queens.

If only Mitt Romney was talking about real conservatism and not SOCIAL conservatism. That would have been nice. I mean, I do understand that he's Mormon, and those folk live by pretty strict guidelines, so the pornography statement didn't surprise me. Three-fourths of the fuckers in there were full of shit when they cheered that line, however. I just wish people would understand that suppressing natural urges is the root cause of fucked up shenanigans.

I agree with you one-hundred percent about Huckabee. He's just such a nice, funny, charming dude. However, he is also a former minister, and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, but underneath that charm lies an angry southern bastard, all fire and brimstone. The secret to a Southern gentleman/woman is that all of that nicety and proper social graces are being used to make fun of you to your face, and that the reason those from the south have a southern drawl is because if your mouth was filled with such bitter stuff, you'd talk funny too.

I know this because I deal with these people everyday. It's all glory glory hallelujah till someone starts burning crosses.

SPEAKING OF BURNING CROSSES, HOW ABOUT THAT GIULIANI? HE JUST MIGHT AS WELL CRUCIFY HIMSELF ON THAT BIG ONE THAT'S SHAPED LIKE TWO TOWERS!

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Romney's speech just seemed so cobbled together randomly-- it didn't make any sense.

I think that being an angry bastard who can appear cool and charming in public can be a hell of an effective person-- I just wish he weren't the kind of person who feels his religious views are that necessary to his political mandate.

I AM SO SICK OF THE GODDAMN 9/11 SHIT.

[siadea.livejournal.com]

You simply don't understand our Southern charm. <3

Actually, you've almost got it. To be directly rude to someone is unthinkable; to insinuate and to make everything very clear underneath a veneer of civility is what you do. You know, and they know, and everyone else knows, but nobody is actually going to say anything directly about it because that would make a scene, be inexpressibly rude, totally burn bridges, and destroy the veneer of civility that makes coexistence and shreds of cooperation possible. This is politeness. My jaw drops in sheer horror and flabbergasted shock when people up here do things like fight in public or in front of company. I just. I. No.

(Anyway, Yankees talk funny, and they don't have a plural form of the word 'you' either.)

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

deathrockboy is Southern.

See, and here, it's considering inexpressibly rude to imply things without coming right out and saying them. You either tell people what you really think, but you had better not pretend nicey-nice when people know something is wrong. It doesn't help coexistence, because it merely means that everyone maintains a simmering-pot level of anger all the time rather than actually dealing with problems and getting on with life. It's not polite to not tell people when you have a problem-- it's dishonest.

[siadea.livejournal.com]

See below; in my mind, there's a bit of a difference between living somewhere and being from somewhere. (I am damn sure not a New Yorker, as our conversation shows. *laughs*) I don't know where deathrockboy's from, but saying 'these people' and stuff led me to believe he wasn't.

And hence the vast levels of culture shock currently happening to yours truly. It's not that people don't tell people what they 'really think,' it's that it doesn't happen directly in front of other people. It happens in private if necessary - parents chewing out their kids et cetera - but never in front of, say, a guest. (That happened to me once up here, and I was just frozen in place. What do you DO in that situation? Can it not wait until you aren't in front of company?)

But even when being polite about it, thinking that "pretending nicey-nice" means that no communication or fighting is going on isn't accurate. It definitely is, but it just doesn't involve blatancy. Two people exchanging pleasantries and barbs are definitely fighting, and they know it; no 'simmering-pot level of anger all the time' results. Thinking that 'dealing with problems and getting on with life' must perforce involve a good scream at someone in public is self-justifying and inconsiderate of those around you.

(That last sentence was deliberate. I managed to explain my perspective without attacking yours; would you mind doing the same for me and not using words like 'dishonest' and 'pretend nicey-nice'?)

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Attacking and describing something from the general perspective of people here aren't the same thing? I used those words deliberately to get across an accurate depiction of a New Yorker's perspective.

This is my journal, and I'm going to use the kind of words I like to use. If you don't like the way New Yorkers address people or problems, then don't complain about how you don't like the way New Yorkers handle things in a New Yorkers' journal. Because I'm going to address things like a New Yorker.

[siadea.livejournal.com]

Ideally, they're really not. It's the difference between "okay, this is how we do it here; I know y'all do it differently there" and "the way you do it is wrong." The one is not necessarily the other, though the two are commonly linked. I like to think I didn't link them in my previous comments; I may have inadvertently. In fact, upon rereading, I think I did, for which I apologize. It wasn't my intent.

As I don't believe you're wildly interested in apologizing in turn, though, we should probably let this go at that.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I might have apologized if you weren't intentionally being passive-aggressive now? What was the point of saying that?

[siadea.livejournal.com]

I didn't think you were, since instead of doing so, you said you were perfectly justified to do so. New Yorker talking like a New Yorker, after all. The point of saying that was the (apparently feeble) offer to now stop talking on this thread.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

If you really meant the apology, you wouldn't have been making accusations or trying to get the last word in. If you really want to apologize and stop talking, the appropriate way to do that is pretty obvious-- apologize, and stop talking.

Frankly, I don't think you said anything that's really worth an apology over, either, and I wasn't expecting one. It's not really that big a deal. I was just surprised by your response-- I can understand someone taking offense at 'dishonest,' although it was the best word to describe what I was talking about, but it never occurred to me in a million years that anyone would think 'nicey-nice' is a word to get offended over. I'm not upset with you or even really mildly annoyed-- I'm just surprised, but it also explains why you're not comfortable living here a lot better than I understood it before. I wasn't even aware that Oklahomans considered themselves Southern, since it wasn't even opened to non-Native settlement until almost twenty years after the Civil War. I honestly figured you more for Texans, who are a lot more like us than most Southerners.

[siadea.livejournal.com]

I did and I do apologize for inadvertently knocking the North when I was only trying to describe the South, but that doesn't mean I didn't find your comments to be provocative in turn. Hence a sincere apology combined with 'trying to get the last word.' You seem to have skipped the apologizing part entirely and gone straight into trying to get the last word, rather than accepting the apology and leaving it be, which is what I would have considered appropriate.

I think at this point I am simply going to try and convince myself that we're having a miscommunication over what would be considered offensive. For instance, I cannot imagine in a million years using 'pretend nicey-nice' in any way other than derogatorily.

...yeah, no, Oklahoma is most definitely Southern. I don't know quite why you'd think it wasn't; it's mostly the Southeastern states that focus so very much on the Civil War. Then again, that might be why in and of itself, as y'all're in much closer proximity to the Southeast! I myself draw the definition more along the lines of current culture and language patterns; I find it to be more accurate.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Yes, I skipped the apology because everyone over the age of six knows that an apology isn't sincere if the person apologizing deliberately insults you immediately after apologizing. It wasn't appropriate for you to make that comment at all, and pretending it was is just silly. You just don't say shit like that to people. I'm not accepting that that's miscommunication, because no one does that, and that's not a cultural thing. That's not normal or nice and you're old enough to know better.

[siadea.livejournal.com]

Deliberately insult you? By saying that you weren't intending to apologize, which you say you "might have" [emphasis mine] if I hadn't said you likely wouldn't? That's not quite as blatant an insult as saying someone is being "passive-aggressive" and should be "old enough to know better." You corrected my apology; I corrected your acceptance of my apology. The one's as fair game as the other, so you may as well dismount your high horse and have done with it. Lord knows I'm finished here.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

I love how you're still being passive-aggressive.

[deathrockboy.livejournal.com]

I live in Mobile, Alabama. I think Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is based on my neighbors. I know the South.

Snowbirds suck.

[siadea.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I'm from Oklahoma; snowbirds know better than to come here, but my mom's from Florida, so I know a bit about the phenomenon.

I do have a question, though, if you don't mind - zia_narratora says you're Southern, but you kept using the word 'they' when talking about Southerners. So, ah, where are you from? I mean, I'm living in New York, but I'm not a New Yorker, if that makes sense.

[deathrockboy.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am very much of the South. I've lived here my whole life. I just don't necessarily consider myself a part of the whole society. I don't have much of an accent (most people think I'm from Canada for some reason), though friends that are actually from the North have said that I do in fact have an accent.

I do feel separate from it, however, and maybe that's why I refer to "them" as "they". I'm not a Christian for one thing... that's at the heart of the culture here, it seems. I utterly despise the culture of niceties in public, but smears of shit talk in private. I'm very upfront and bluntly honest, and that's kind of looked down upon in this society.

I don't know. I've never really thought about it. I just know as a kid growing up, there was a lot of "me" and "them".

[siadea.livejournal.com]

Ah! Okay - I'm sorry for the confusion! You have my sympathies on the 'not quite fitting in' thing; I'm neither Christian nor conservative myself, and - well, you know how well that fits down here.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, that could not have been better if they had tried!

[cinediva.livejournal.com]

Sadly, she didn't even write her own speech. Though either she threw in the pitbull-lipstick joke on her own, or she totally sold it because she pwned that line. I find it hard to judge her when she just read the teleprompters. Though quite competently at that.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I really would have liked to see her give her own speech that wasn't written before she was even chosen for the position and then rewritten because it was 'too manly'? That really irked me. I was like, what are you trying to say about female candidates? "We want you, but only if you just let the men do the talking?"

[cinediva.livejournal.com]

We want you... to be our attack dog, but if you could wear some lipstick, and make it so that people don't think you're too grating like that other female candidate... and still convince them to think of you as a America's Hockey Mom? Yeah, that'd be greeeeeat.

We'd hate your skills to go to waste. Like the good looks and great TV reading skills.

Ugh.