RNC Wrapup

I went to a party for the prez last night. We watched an RNC promo video on John Kerry’s considerable flip-flopping. We watched Retired General Tommy Frank's endorse the president. Zell Miller was a great topic of conversation, not spewing venom like John Edwards claims, but showing righteous indignation at his party’s support of those who represent the extreme left of Democratic party. We also dicussed our local Republican Candidate for U.S. Congress, Brian Hamel. He is running against Mike Michaud (Democrat). I’ll have more on Mr. Hamel in the weeks to come.

The President delivered an excellent speech last night, and the video intro was amazing. Watching the president get rigged up with body armor and then deliver the opening pitch of a Yankees game was classic, and a good reminder of how the tragic events of 9/11 brought us together as Americans, united, not two Americas as some would have us believe. The speech was a good combination of domestic issues (I bought a house during President Bush’s term) and his firm resolve in defending this country and eliminating terror, which face it, has defined his first four years in office. You can get the specifics on the President’s plan for America at GeorgeWBush.com.

Kerry’s tactless response was a wild-eyed (well, maybe not) rant at a special midnight rally in Ohio. After not having an extended interview with a reporter on camera in over a month, he comes back with this speech?

Hugh Hewitt’s thoughts on Kerry’s response speech:

And the combination of that reliability with the generally repellant qualities of John Kerry may make the NOvember 2 Bush win even larger. Could Kerry have given a more off-key, bitter, and self-destructive speech than the one he delivered last night in Ohio? The collapse in Kerry's standing in his internal polling must be total to have triggered such a melt-down.


I discussed the options available to Kerry on yesterday's program with John Podhoretz and Terry Eastland --very smart guys who have been around presidents and campaigns for dozens of years. We all agreed that Kerry would never embrace the "Michael Moore option" of running on anger and paranoia because it is a recipe for electoral disaster. But that's what Kerry grabbed on to last night, in a speech that may go down in American history as the worst ever delivered by a nominee. It is reason enough, I think, to reject debates with this fellow, whose apparent problems and insecurities about the past are every day becoming more apparent. Wild accusations that every responsible memebr of his party's leaqdership know to be false must be sending shock waves through that group this morning. Can you imagine Joe Lieberman reading Kerry's remarks? Or even Bill Clinton? Kerry's lost it, and that he did so on a night when George Bush reminded America why our enemies fear his leadership.


Even a bad jobs report this morning wouldn't have changed the fundamentals of this election, but a rebounding number and the continued solid expansion of the economy has put Kerry in a box. Kerry could have chosen to lose with dignity, running a Bob Dole race. Instead he has decided on a march through the fever swamps. It will be an ugly 60 days as a result, but perhaps on the other end, the Democratic Party will get the jolt it needs to exile the Moore nuts from its midst. The GOP is in a commanding position, but the country needs two responsible parties, and right now, the Democrats have become unhinged. When Kerry colklapse and takes Daschle, Murray, Boxer annd others with him, perhaps the message will get through that the country will not tolerate this nuttiness in a time of war.

Overall I felt that the GOP convention was a great success. I enjoyed watching all the events and would love to go to the next big one. I am encouraged. And I know that John Kerry can’t become the president of this great country.

On separate note, I just read a great article about Chris Matthew’s by Andrew McCarthy.