Free Republic

The 40th Republican National Convention is now history, and political strategists and pundits are poring over the poll numbers to see whether Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are getting a post-convention bounce in what have been very closely divided polls. Romney's convention managers made some correct and some interesting decisions. First, don't relitigate 2008, as some conservatives would love to do. Romney and Ryan both acknowledged the hopes for change motivating so many erstwhile Barack Obama voters. They looked back on his record in office more in sorrow than in anger. Former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis eloquently described his own...

Ann Romney said on Wednesday that she felt welcomed and energized when she stepped onto the stage here at the Republican National Convention to introduce her husband, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, to millions of Americans watching on television. The most important reviews of the speech came moments later from her five sons and daughters-in-law and their 18 children, who greeted her with tears and hugs. As she detailed the night before, family came first. “You know that kind of love and support that you get from your family? Well, it was that kind of reaction,” she said during...

It had the air of a debut. The 42-year-old out of the world of conservative ideas was stepping on stage at Tampa as his party's nominee for vice president of the United States. And you could tell he was happy to be there, and would be even happier once the bell rang for the main event, which will be this fall's presidential campaign. ("We can do this!") Contrary to the accepted caricature of his running mate as an over-cautious type out of the East, Mitt Romney took a flyer on this young congressman from the Midwest. He may still be...

Among the most stirring moments in an effective convention came during Condoleeza Rice's speech. She delivered (beautifully) a number of well-chosen one-liners that hit bull's-eyes with Republicans and conservatives, warning, for example, that "when a nation loses control of its finances, it eventually loses control of its destiny." She touched on the problem of failing schools and the challenge they represent to the American dream. "The crisis in K-12 education is a threat to the very fabric of who we are," she said, to thumping agreement. But when she mentioned her own story, the hall erupted. "A little girl grows...

His "whole life has prepared him for this moment – to meet serious challenges in a serious way, without excuses and idle words. After four years of getting the run-around, America needs a turnaround, and the man for the job is Governor Mitt Romney." When Paul Ryan declared this last night he reiterated what Ann Romney had declared the night before. Together these two speeches have prepared the ground for Mitt Romney to accept the nomination of the GOP and to make his opening argument to the American people: That he is ready to take over for this failed president...

This week when Mitt Romney strides to center stage to deliver his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, he might draw inspiration from an unlikely source: the song "I Am What I Am" from the musical "La Cage Aux Folles." One of the chief complaints from voters about politicians is that they too often package themselves disingenuously to get elected, only to reveal their real agenda after they've won. That is what President Obama did in the 2008 campaign when he styled himself as a unifier who wanted to bridge the partisan divide by saying, "...we are not a...

We've all heard the objection that political conventions have become empty kabuki theater. The high drama of multiple ballots is dead and gone. Uncertainty about the outcome is no more. "Today," laments political guru Mike Murphy, "delegates are bound through the application of TV ad ratings points, not machine deals. They sit in the convention hall like the background actors in a TV show, milling about to the director's orders, wearing costumes and denied a single line. It seems a shabby ending to a great tradition. It's time for a mercy killing." Mike Murphy is an astute observer of all...

Republican Party operatives, who wasted no time indicting their Missouri Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin for his interview faux pas on abortion, may bear more responsibility than Akin himself for the mess that has been created. Akin’s statement, suggesting low probability of conception in cases of ‘legitimate rape,” was barely coherent and was said with neither force nor conviction. He said it was a view he “understood from doctors.” And soon after, he apologized. Akin has served six terms in Congress with a consistent, unblemished conservative record. The fact that leaders of his own party joined hands with liberals, thereby...

Todd Akin’s grossly irresponsible remarks about “legitimate rape” and conception have received much media attention. As well they should. The sheer weirdness of the remarks calls into question both his intelligence and his personal integrity. How could someone conclude logically that a rape victim’s body has the capacity to prevent conception in the wake of sexual assault? And why would someone assert that the conclusion had been supported by doctors with whom he had spoken? Clearly, Akin contrived the idea on the spot and then contrived the claim that there were doctors who had informed and/or supported his assertion. All...

When I asked Paul Ryan Wednesday night for his reaction to the news that the major television networks won’t carry a minute of the opening night of the GOP convention, he responded that he wasn’t surprised and that this is just the media terrain the GOP faces in the 2012 election cycle. (The transcript of my interview is posted at HughHewitt.com) Ryan is right not to be surprised, and while he doesn’t have time to be angry, every American –left, right, center, undecided or simply indifferent—ought to be furious. The hypocrisy of anyone bemoaning the loss of civility in American...