I was going to comment on that bit too.Don’t get me wrong, I thought Mitt Romney himself gave the speech of his life in Tampa, Fla. But it was not enough to ignite a Republican electorate that never saw at a decent hour Herman Cain (duh, an African-American conservative who can wow crowds), or Newt Gingrich (alone, and as the firebrand he can be) or Donald Trump, who could have electrified the crowd without talking to an empty chair. The Hermanator, Neutron Newt, and Trump the Donald would have certainly put an electric face on the convention. Sort of like when you touch something with a short circuit in it. Herman might have been ok if they had control of his speech, or he might have been another Eastwood moment, who can say? Newt would have fit right in with the post-truth thing Romney is working. Maybe the Donald could have enthralled the teabaggers, who were so proud to be flirting with default last summer, with tales of how cool it is to throw a chapter. He could have rebooted the birther thing again while he was at it.
I think Towery missed a few, though. It was unfair of him to leave out the rest of the clown-of-the-month club from the Republican primaries. Michelle Bachman could have enthralled the crowd with tails of black helicopters and blue helmets swooping down after the election. Rick Perry could have done a warmup for Eastwood in the "Go ahead, make my . . . What day is it?" department. And Rich Santorum's "every sperm is sacred" thing certainly should have been featured more prominently.
To round it out, they should have brought back Pat Buchanan to make sure everybody understood this ain't your "kinder, gentler / 1000 points of light / compassionate conservative " GOP no more.
I think Towery is right about Marco Rubio, though. Saw him on Colbert or maybe Stewart a couple weeks ago, thought he was pretty affable and confident and able to hold his own without making a bunch of crap up. Seemed a lot more genuine than reformed Randinista Ryan. And Florida + the Hispanic vote is a much bigger prize than my poor beleaguered home state.
Which the Romney campaign is maybe backing out of anyway? It'd be nice, we've already had more that a general election's worth of superPAC crap over the airwaves during the Walker effort, we deserve a break. |
