Most analysts in the national media
criticized Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s acceptance
speech for failing
to give the American people more details about what he would do as
president. Others panned earlier remarks by motion picture
actor and director Clint Eastwood. And the Democrats said there
was “no big idea here.”
Republicans, on the other hand, who attended their national nominating convention in Tampa, Fla., gave Romney rave reviews.
Are we supposed to be surprised at any of
this? Isn’t that pretty much what political life has been like in this
country for
the last four years? The two major political parties have been at
odds during all of President Obama’s term. With a few exceptions,
Congress has done nothing major since 2008.
Passage of the controversial Affordable
Health Care Act, which is called Obamacare by its critics, is that one
exception.
However, most people in this country, including a majority in
Congress, couldn’t tell you exactly what it did when they passed
it. The popular features of the health care law are already in
place, but the tough parts (taxes, budget cuts, etc.) won’t
become effective until 2014.
Eastwood did ramble a bit, but give the 82-year-old a break. He had some good lines. Besides, Obama has his legion of Hollywood
actors in his corner, and Eastwood gives some balance to the campaign’s celebrity support.
As for Romney’s speech, critics should remember that political party conventions are designed to fire up the faithful. Romney
and earlier speakers achieved that goal. We learned more about Romney during the convention, and that will help undecided
voters make up their minds before Nov. 6.
I wasn’t looking for too much detail. How many times have you listened intently to a president’s State of the Union address?
Those updates do go into detail, and they are often quite boring and hard to follow.
The Washington Post in an editorial said
Romney’s speech was “a better indictment than sales pitch.” It said
Romney did a
good job explaining why Obama doesn’t deserve re-election and
presenting himself in human terms. However, the newspaper said
he was “least persuasive” in outlining his goals for the country.
An analysis in Politico, which covers
national political news, was titled, “No silver tongue, but Mitt Romney
gets job done.”
Jonathan Martin said Romney helped himself with swing voters in
two important ways. Viewers learned a lot about his personal
side and his attacks on Obama hit home.
The Associated Press said, “The whole night was orchestrated to help Romney tell his story. Speakers and videos introduced
Romney as a businessman, Olympic savior and deeply religious family man. And the testimonials were intensely personal.”
Mackenzie Weinger in Politico talked about Romney’s “12 most rousing lines.” My favorite was, “In America we celebrate success,
we don’t apologize for success.”
David Gergen, senior political analyst at CNN, said, “It (the speech) had a lot of heart. It needed more soul. It needed more
poetry.” He added that Romney described a “Norman Rockwell America” that doesn’t represent America today.
Maybe so, and perhaps that is an elusive
goal. However, that is what many Americans want to see glimpses of
again. They long
for the days when hard work, devotion to duty, respect for law and
order, a quality education and a higher morality made for
a better America and improved the lives of its citizens.
No one articulated that better than U.S. Sen. Mark Rubio of Florida, who introduced Romney. The Washington Post called Rubio
a “rising star” in a story about his address to the convention.
Rubio talked about his parents coming from
Cuba to the United States in the mid-1950s. He also mentioned his
Cuban-born grandfather.
“The dreams he had when he was young became impossible to achieve,” Rubio said. “But there was no limit to how far I could
go, because I was an American.”
Rubio talked about his father working as a bartender and his mother’s jobs as a cashier, maid and Kmart employee.
“A few years ago, during a speech, I noticed
a bartender behind a portable bar at the back of the ballroom,” Rubio
said. “I
remembered my father who had worked so long as a banquet
bartender.... He stood behind a bar in the back of the room all those
years so one day I could stand behind a podium in front of a
room.”
Of Americans, he said, “We’re special because dreams that are impossible anywhere else, come true here.”
Many of us born in the post-Depression years are living testimony to what Rubio is talking about. We were poor, but didn’t
know it because so many people were just like us. Nevertheless, we worked hard, got a good education, paid our civic dues
and gained a measure of success we never dreamed possible in those formative years.
I’m not sure whether either Romney or Obama
can help us recapture a more promising America and a brighter future,
but each
man has 64 days to make his case. You can be sure voters will be
tuned in after Labor Day to listen to the details and evaluate
their proposals.
Jim Beam, the retired editor of the American Press, has covered people and politics for more than five decades. Contact him at 494-4025 or jbeam@americanpress.com