Why the RNC Convention Proves Romney Should Not Be President

For Republicans, today is a day to come down from the high of a few days of giddy pandering, dishonesty and watching Mitt Romney exceed low expectations (Woo hoo! That’s what we want in a President! Exceeding low expectations!!!).

For Democrats, today is a day to be able to watch news networks again without cringing at the aggressive and obvious propaganda fest that was the Republican National Convention.

The pundits are making the rounds today on news shows assessing Romney’s speech and on QVC selling a dining room set with extra empty chairs out of the Clint Eastwood collection.

Though they focus mainly on the narrow picture of whether the final night succeeded in humanizing Romney, it is the big picture of the RNC that voters should consider.

So, here are some of the key takeaways that seemed to stand out.

1. The GOP is the party of white people which tries to continue as such by fooling independent voters that they’re not.

If you watched the RNC, whenever there was a pan of the crowd it was an exploration of how many different shades of white there could possibly be. It was not at all a representative sample of America…unless you lived in a 1950’s whites-only community. Like playing an ethnic version of Where’s Waldo, if you watched long enough, you could occasionally spot a token minority delegate. In fact, Fox News would get so excited when they spotted a minority, they’d cut back repeatedly to a close up of them throughout a speech.

Then you had the Republican Parade of Racist Denialism, a cavalcade of their “thou-protest-too-much” non-white politicians who sound identical and march lockstep to the white-superiority majority in the GOP and are out of step with the majority of those of similar ethnicity. The oblivious racism here is that Latinos and blacks will vote against their own interests merely because they see a Latino or black person saying they’re Republican? And those same people are working tirelessly to harm people of their own ethnicity?

Many Republicans are so shallow and so accustomed to following others because they’re white like them and fundamentalist Christian like them, they assume everyone else is just as shallow and lacks critical thinking like they do. The reality is that those who have been mistreated because of the color of their skin see political issues with far more import than “I know, I’ll vote Republican even though they are prejudiced against me because I just saw they have a few Latinos in their party!”

2. The Republican Party is a party of lies and empty promises that will say anything to win.

In response to a universal condemnation of the lies in their ads about President Obama ending the work provision in Welfare, the Romney campaign has said flat out that it doesn’t care what fact checkers say, as long as what they say is working to poison the minds of voters against Obama, they don’t care that they are lying.

Lies about Obama were repeated without interruption throughout the convention, including that he said people didn’t build their own businesses (he actually said they didn’t build the government-built infrastructure they use to be able to run their businesses), that Obama cut the work requirement for welfare, that Obama is taking away billions in money from Medicare benefits, that he has weakened our military, etc.

There are many legit criticisms to make about Obama but you couldn’t find many of them in the speeches of those tossing red meat out to the rabid base. They lie and lie then invest energy in trying to justify their lies, with no shame at being caught, just using the opportunity to attack whoever had the audacity to point out their lies.

Paul Ryan, the alleged “policy genius” (just as warranted a title as Newt Gingrich being “The Brain of the GOP”…apparently, like Michael Jackson dubbing himself “The King of Pop”, in the GOP you just have to call yourself want you want to be called and everyone just accepts that you are that thing), gave a very strong and forcefully presented speech but it was wholly devoid of specifics about his and Romney’s plans and anything resembling the truth.

One of the most outrageous lies that the Republican Party promotes was center stage at their convention. Namely, that Obama hasn’t done enough to turn the economy around. This Republican Party vowed upon the inauguration of President Obama, to do everything they could to block him from getting anything passed through Congress. It was their primary agenda to be The Party of No and then in 2012, blame Obama for not accomplishing as much as he should have.

Many Americans have expressed in polls that they are aware that the Republicans in Congress have tried to restrain economic recovery. Voters should think about that for a moment. The Republican Party has acted to cause loss and suffering for millions of Americans over the past three and a half years…as part of a political strategy to blame Obama for it and take back power…so they can make things even worse for 99% of Americans.

It will be interesting to see if Democrats dispel the cloud of BS from the RNC by reminding Americans at their convention of the actual deeds of Republicans in Congress, the misogynist and racist planks of their party platform and such views expressed by many of their members.

As to the breathtaking absence of any specifics about what Mitt Romney would do after he controlled the Presidency, that is very telling and should be a bit frightening to voters. What we do know that Mitt Romney has pledged to do is take away health insurance from those who got it under the ACA, cut the taxes of the wealthy and raise them on the poor and middle class, remove restrictions on oil companies and Wall Street, and end Medicare as an entitlement and force seniors to pay $6,000 more a year for what they have now.

No wonder they don’t like specifics, they’d lose the election if voters knew what they planned to do so their solution is to simply hide their destructive plans and get elected so they can work against the will of the people.

Add to all of this, Romney’s and Ryan’s economic plans have both been exposed by many sources as being incomplete and unworkable, both making general assumptions that unnamed cuts in spending and vast tax cuts for the wealthy will create balanced budgets…though the amount of cuts actually needed would devastate the nation.

Dishonesty is the best policy of the GOP.

3. Mitt Romney is a failure at running things.

The RNC had difficulties from the beginning, after making the brilliant choice to have their convention in Florida during hurricane season. They have claimed it was an unforeseen problem but anyone who has been alive in America during the month of August knows that tropical storms and hurricanes can hit Florida and the gulf at this time. Bad planning, even though the purpose was to try and go after winning Florida this time around, they damaged the impact of their convention and lost a whole day and a number of speakers.

That decision can’t be blamed on Romney but everything else that happened at the convention can…and there was a lot that went wrong.

Ron Paul was locked out of the convention which caused a backlash by his supporters. Romney led the charge of passing a new rule smothering the democratic process in the GOP primaries of the future by letting the nominee throw out delegates earned by his opponents.

The keynote speaker was Chris Christie whose ego-driven, self-serving speech which only occasionally mentioned Romney, was an embarrassment and a failure. What was amusing and telling is that the day after his uninspiring speech, Christie criticized the attendees for not being more energized and cheering more. Er…that was because you failed at your job of inspiring them to do so, Christie.

As mentioned above, Paul Ryan’s speech was strong but consisted of lies and misrepresentations so the next day, instead of praise for Ryan, the MSM was surprisingly in sync (even Fox News!) on slamming Ryan for his dishonesty.

As for Romney’s big night, though his speech was regarded positively by many, it was fully overshadowed by Clint Eastwood’s genuine Republican style of rambling incoherently. Romney’s camp was so incompetent, they didn’t even vet Eastwood’s speech. And that’s the kind of incompetence we want in the White House, dealing with critical issues?

A very slick and effective video about Romney and how human he is didn’t run in the prime network hour but instead, Romney’s camp made the decision to have Clint Eastwood appear instead. This was Romney’s choice, going for the most superficial and flashy thing instead of the thing that was of more substance. And like many of his decisions, it proved to be a poor one. Eastwood’s deranged monologue tarnished the night and has sucked up all the air out of the room in the MSM today.

A President has to manage a lot of operations and make a lot of quick and crucial decisions. I would suggest that the many failures of the RNC belies that Romney is very poor and incompetent at managing a big operation and making good decisions.

The man and speech Romney selected for his keynote speaker was a failure.

The man and speech Romney selected for his VP was a failure.

The most important night so far in Romney’s political life was severely marred by his poor decisions.

What does this say about the kind of President Mitt Romney would make? How would he perform running all the programs the Executive Branch manages? How would he perform when needing to make quick decisions on urgent matters?

When the nation is faced with a critical moment, instead of Obama-like cool reasoning, will we instead witness a conversation with an empty chair?

Clint Eastwood’s misfire couldn’t have been more reflective of the GOP and Mitt Romney’s candidacy. They have been deluded, dishonest and irrational in attacking an imaginary Obama for being things he isn’t and doing things he hasn’t. They are indeed arguing with an empty chair, not the real President and they look like they’re a bit out of their mind. They talk down to this black President, they put words in his mouth which are obscene, they treat him as if he is beneath them.

What Mitt Romney proved in running this convention is that he is incompetent and unworthy of becoming President. His convention lurched from pandering to gaffe to pandering to gaffe, a rickety roller coaster ride that could hardly be called a success. Yes, some of their pandering was effective but the gaffes constantly interrupted any momentum. Every morning after a night of speeches, though there may have been positive comments about Ann Romney’s speech (“I love you women! How’s that for naked pandering!”), there were more negative comments about Chris Christie’s egotism, Ryan’s speech brought charges of dishonesty the next day, Romney got decent props for his speech last night but Eastwood’s The Old, The Senile and The Empty Chair is getting most of the attention today.

The convention that Mitt Romney ran was not well run or a real success. He has proven once again that he is not such a capable person. America can indeed do better. And will.