◼ Day one of the Democratic Convention - Michael Barone/Washington Examiner
Amid the storm squalls that occasionally pelted rain on Charlotte, the Democrats in their opening day sent squalls of rhetoric toward Mitt Romney and the Republicans. Delegates heard from one speaker after another who massaged the politically erogenous zones of the party’s various core constituencies. Anyone listening heard over and over the Obama campaign’s talking points: 29 months of private sector job creation, the need to “invest” in education, Mitt Romney got rich by backing the original out-sourcers and has a Swiss bank account. There was plenty of material for mainstream media fact checkers if they haven’t decided to go on vacation this week. The Romney-Ryan Medicare plan doesn’t cost seniors $6,000 a year, for example.
There was an awful lot on “choice,” for example, the most since 1992. And the platform went to the extreme position of abortion at any time and with government financing. The Obama strategists are evidently eager to rally single women. Former Gov. Ted Strickland delivered a loud denunciation of the Republicans with some really good lines. But he is a former governor of a key target state (Ohio) for a reason: he lost in 2010.
◼ Michelle Obama’s Speech in Word Cloud – Guess What Word She Used Most? - Sooper Mexican
I have some simple observations about the speeches tonight. I noticed that the Democrats focused very tightly on social issues, and barely mentioned any economic plan at all. This is smart, because it’s not Obama’s strong suit. However, going on the defensive is what a campaign does when it thinks it’s losing – Obama is shorting up his crazy extremist base, and not going after the middle.
To further corroborate this, notice also that nearly all the speeches were attempting to explain away Obama’s “you didn’t build it” gaffe. Nearly every speech. This is not a campaign that is confident in it’s chances to win, this is a campaign that fears losing.
◼ Krauthammer On Michelle Obama's Speech: "I Didn't Buy A Line Of It" - Real Clear Politics
Charles Krauthammer: Her whole task was to say why. And her answer was, “Why? Because essentially he's a saint.” Because of his upbringing and because of his emotions and because of his humanity. He does of this because he cares. And the brilliance of it is this: It drained Obama of any, either, ideological motivation, or any having to do with self interest or ambition, which I think is sort of a more plausible explanation.
He's a man highly who is liked and highly ideological. A man of the left who sees the role of the government as ordering, the reorderering, of society in a way to make it more just, as he understands it . And also, extremely ambitious. A self made man who makes himself out of nothing, rises out of nowhere. But all of that, in her telling, doesn’t even exist. The only reason he does what he does, he cares about women, he cares about immigrants, he cares about the poor. He cares about the unemployed. He cares, he cares, he cares.
She told the story of a Gandhi. And, you know, looking at the scene, looking at how he's conducted himself in the presidency and particularly in the campaign, with ruthlessness and determination and drive, it’s not quite a plausible story. I’m sure in the arena, it was a plausible story. I saw the tears, but I’m afraid, I thought it was a great speech, but I didn't buy a line of it.
◼ Hey, Fact Checkers! - Mickey Kaus/Daily Caller
It’s all about the fact checking in 2012, according to the Obama aides (Cutter, Messina, LaBolt) interviewed at the ABC News/Yahoo!Newsmakers Live event this morning in Charlotte. … One of the aides–Cutter, if I remember right–then cited Obama’s claim that, after the government-engineered bailout, ”GM is Number One” again. … The only problem with this is that the claim is … how to put it … not true. Toyota has now re-passed GM to become the No.1 auto maker in the world. You could look it up. … P.S....
