RNC 2012: Christie’s speech was better than the reviews it’s gotten
TAMPA — The consensus around here seems to be that Chris Christie might have been Tuesday’s keynote speaker, but Ann Romney stole the show from the New Jersey governor. I agree, and will have more thoughts on Mrs. Romney’s speech later. But Christie delivered exactly what I expected, and was quite good at doing so.
Christie built on a key theme developed earlier in the night by a series of Republican governors, most of them elected since Barack Obama entered the White House. Ohio’s John Kasich, Virginia’s Bob McDonnell, Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, Nevada’s Brian Sandoval and South Carolina’s Nikki Haley talked about how they’d gotten their states’ finances on track without abandoning their conservative principles, and Christie offered maybe the most dramatic examples of that:
They said it was impossible to cut taxes in a state where taxes were raised 115 times in eight years. That it was impossible to balance a budget at the same time, with an $11 billion deficit. Three years later, we have three balanced budgets with lower taxes.
We did it.
They said it was impossible to touch the third rail of politics. To take on the public sector unions and to reform a pension and health benefit system that was headed to bankruptcy.
With bipartisan leadership we saved taxpayers $132 billion over 30 years and saved retirees their pension.
We did it.
“We did it” offered a clear contrast to the untested Obama promise from 2008, “Yes, we can,” and the examples of the kinds of tough decisions he and the other governors have made offered a clear contrast to the unfulfilled promise of the three and a half years of Obama’s presidency. What Obama has been unable to do — balance, or in most years even pass, the budget; reduce both current and future obligations on taxpayers; create better conditions for the private sector to flourish — they have done. And then they all took that thought to the next step: Mitt Romney can make it work, too.
Or, as Christie put it, “if we can do this in a blue state with a conservative Republican governor, Washington is out of excuses.”
Christie has become a YouTube legend for the zingers he’s flung, off the cuff, at vocal detractors during public events. In a setting like a national convention, that opportunity wasn’t likely to present itself, and didn’t. (A few protesters were removed much earlier Tuesday evening for trying to shout down speakers from the rafters.)
But that fame hasn’t come strictly because he has a quick wit and sharp tongue. It’s because he packs principled truth into those one-liners, and he had several such moments Tuesday night:
- “They believe in teacher’s unions. We believe in teachers.”
- “You see, Mr. President, real leaders don’t follow polls. Real leaders change polls.”
- “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my children and grandchildren to have to read in a history book what it was like to live in an American Century. I don’t want their only inheritance to be an enormous government that has overtaxed, overspent and over-borrowed a great people into second-class citizenship. I want them to live in a second American Century.”
- “This is the American way. We have never been victims of destiny. We have always been masters of our own. I won’t be part of the generation that fails that test and neither will you.”
The delivery was a little rushed — Christie had to speed up toward the end to fit it all in before the networks cut away to local news at 11 — and it wasn’t quite the kind of performance that people will still be talking about even after Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney deliver their messages the next two evenings. But it had all the elements that remind us why Christie has become a conservative champion, and why 2012 is unlikely to be the high-water mark of his influence in the party.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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230 comments Add your comment
Hillbilly D
August 29th, 2012
6:04 pm
I knew a guy who was in his 90’s who could stand up and give an hour long talk without so much as an index card……….Of course, unlike most politicians, he knew what he was talking about.
@@
August 29th, 2012
6:06 pm
My bark is worse than my bite!
Yes, AmVet…your frequent charges of racism have no bite. They’re merely convenient when you have nothing else with which to fight.
You’re toothless.
ODD OWL
August 29th, 2012
6:07 pm
Apparently the Romney/Ryan Repblicans have thrown Sarah palin under the their campaign bus or worst, they’ve strapped her arse to the roof of the bus… Be as it may, we can all agree that the Romney/Ryan Republicans have placed a prophylactic raincoat on her tongue…
Humpty
August 29th, 2012
6:08 pm
Rafe
Cable news is more opinion than anything. People on all sides should be smarter than to think that they are getting much more than opinion. There is some news on those channels, but not much compared to the opinion disguised as news.
Some like to cry about it. It is useless. Just don’t watch it
@@
August 29th, 2012
6:12 pm
Hillbilly:
This may come as a surprise, but I have no problem with public speaking. I’ve been told I’m quite good at it.
The secret?
I’m not the least bit concerned with how it’s received. Politicians have to worry about that stuff. With today’s media, it’s understandable.
Hillbilly D
August 29th, 2012
6:15 pm
Humpty
Excellent point. Anybody who talks on TV is selling something and everybody has an ax to grind or an agenda to push. It’s basically just a more polished version of Live Atlanta Wrestling with Ed Capperal and promoter Paul Jones. (Let’s see how many get that reference)
@@
August 29th, 2012
6:16 pm
Sarah Palin is doing what she’s good at. She’s promoting Tea Party candidates and winning.
’twas her calling.
Hillbilly D
August 29th, 2012
6:16 pm
@@
Why, I always pictured you as the shy and retiring type. (IWH)
JamVet
August 29th, 2012
6:18 pm
Lulu, sarcasm runs rampant.
And to your point, those that follow right behind the Centennial State?
Washington DC
Connecticut
Massachusetts
Hawaii
Vermont
I too do not love what has happened to our government.
Washington DC is now corproate owned territory.
The sovereigns in this country – the supreme, independent authority over government – is NO longer we the people.
It is JP Morgan, Citigroup, Bank of America, United Health Group, Aetna, Kaiser, ExxonMobil, WalMart, Chevron, GE, the US Chamber of Commerce, et al, ad nauseum.
They have an ARMY of 10,000 lobbyists on K Street! Who actually write the legislation that protects them because they are the “experts”!
How many do you and I have?
And Mitt Romney and Barack Obama and virtually all of those weasels in Washington take their marching orders from them.
Not you and me.
Hell they are so bribed and emboldened that they no longer even make the pretense of being public servants.
And when Americans finally get fed up and try to stand up to this shenanigans and take to the street sin their patriotic right to protest and redress grievances, what happens?
The neocons go apesh*t berserk and make up endless wholesale malicious lies about decent, hard working, taxpaying American people, just like themselves.
Incredible…
Humpty
August 29th, 2012
6:18 pm
HillBilly D
I like Gordon Solie. Watched him in the 70s and 80s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQXwSTh93o8
JamVet
August 29th, 2012
6:20 pm
Save your pathetic excuses and tell us some more about how we need more men like Rand Paul in Washington, the guy who pals around with and accepts the money from some of most slimy racists around.
Sick…
Humpty
August 29th, 2012
6:21 pm
Actually Sarah is not in the best of moods today. My prediction; her star is fading much faster than her fans even realize
“I’m sorry Fox cancelled all my scheduled interviews tonight because I sure wanted to take the opportunity on the air to highlight Senator John McCain’s positive contributions to America, to honor him, and to reflect on what a biased media unfairly put him through four years ago tonight. Granted, our honored and esteemed war hero has gone through much more than the liberal media can ever do to him in their efforts to harm this patriot. I look forward to hearing his words to his fellow Americans tonight more than any of the other convention speeches. God bless John McCain. Thank you for everything. And happy birthday, my friend.”
Humpty
August 29th, 2012
6:22 pm
Palin was wanted at the Republican convention as much as Obama was wanted there.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
August 29th, 2012
6:25 pm
If you want to get businesses out of Washington, get Washington out of everyone’s business.
We do have a Constitutional right to petition the government, so don’t be surprised that a government that seizes so much power gets lobbied quite a bit.
The government is the problem.
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
August 29th, 2012
6:28 pm
Did any of Rand Paul’s friends stand outside voting places with nightsticks, intimidating voters who didn’t look like them?
T.V. Guide
August 29th, 2012
6:33 pm
Is tonight the night when George Bush, Larry Craig, and Sarah Palin give their keynotes? Will Ted Haggard be giving the invocation to start off the events? Did anyone find David Vitter yet or is still at the strip clubs?
JamVet
August 29th, 2012
6:37 pm
You tell us, BB.
I know that there was one infamous incident in Kentucky where a jackbooted fan of his stomped a harmless, unarmed woman’s head onto the sidewalk.
Maybe you saw it. It was all over the Internets!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPFBL8dGMDU&feature=related
@@
August 29th, 2012
6:37 pm
And when Americans finally get fed up and try to stand up to this shenanigans and take to the street sin their patriotic right to protest and redress grievances, what happens?
The neocons go apesh*t berserk and make up endless wholesale malicious lies about decent, hard working, taxpaying American people, just like themselves.
And liberals call them blue-haired racists…i.e. The Tea Party, who quickly separated themselves from the OWS anarchists.
@@
August 29th, 2012
6:41 pm
AmVet:
I would never want you sitting on my jury or any jury for that matter.
The guy said he never had a MySpace page. With all the hacking that goes on, it presents a case of reasonable doubt.
Lulu
August 29th, 2012
6:44 pm
WOW T.V. Guide-
Wow….I suppose Weiner will be the Keynote for the Dems huh? And Clinton will give a speech too, but we might have to wait….for the appropriate…..moment……and a good dry cleaner.
JamVet
August 29th, 2012
6:46 pm
Anarchists????
Where do you come up with this stuff??
LOL!
Just admit that your pals here and around the country called those people every disgusting lie imaginable. Even the housewives, nuns, school teachers, firefighters, cops, middle aged employees, college students, veterans, etc.
They did not care.
They lumped everyone of them into their hateful diatribes about them ALL being jobless parasites and rapists.
It was FAR, FAR, FAR beyond anything that was rational and civil disagreement.
A little intellectual honesty won’t kill you…
JamVet
August 29th, 2012
6:47 pm
What in the name of Allah are you talking about now?
MySpace pages??????????????
@@
August 29th, 2012
6:48 pm
AmVet:
The anarchists killed your OWS movement.
@@
August 29th, 2012
6:55 pm
AmVet:
What in the name of Allah are you talking about now?
A few days ago, ou offered up Hightower as evidence of Rand Paul’s racism.
Liberal blogs first posted allegations that Christopher Hightower had racist remarks and pictures on his MySpace.com Web page. Hightower originally disavowed any connection to the Web page; hours later, Paul’s campaign manager announced that Hightower had stepped down.
Only you and the huffers were interested in this Hightower fella. Most Americans never heard of him.
Humpty
August 29th, 2012
7:03 pm
@@
I confess to knowing the guy either and have not looked at all the facts. With that said just because you, me or anyone else doesn’t know someone, doesn’t say what Jamvet posted is untrue.
If a tree fell in the woods today and no one saw it, does that mean it didn’t fall?
Again I do not know the facts of this issue, but your rebuttal is ridiculous to say the least.
JamVet
August 29th, 2012
7:05 pm
More anarchists claptrap? Must be the new flavor of the month for the McCarthyites!
You do not know what you are talking about, so you just make up stupid stuff like that.
Wake up!
White Supremacist groups and websites such as Stormfront regularly raise “money bombs” for Rand Paul and link directly to his site. He has also taken money from white supremacist William Johnson, who his father nominated for a judgeship and Carl Ford who is a member of the league of the South. His opponent Jack Conway has demanded he give back the money but while his campaign has issued statements, he hasn’t returned the money.
And quit endorsing racists…
curious
August 29th, 2012
7:41 pm
Little Barry,
You’re smart and according to you, I’m stupid.
So, what is the county seat of Neshoda County, MS?
@@
August 29th, 2012
7:41 pm
Humpty:
With that said just because you, me or anyone else doesn’t know someone, doesn’t say what Jamvet posted is untrue.
I said it was a case of reasonable doubt.
AmVet:
To the substance. Do you disagree with what Rand Paul said?
Lil' Barry Bailout - Vote American
August 29th, 2012
8:47 pm
curious, do you still think the 1980 cpaign began in August?
Too funny!
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 29th, 2012
11:36 pm
New Orleans drowns and obozo fiddles.
Karma.