RNC Speakers Schedule LIVE: Chris Christie and Ann Romney Celebrate Ronald Reagan
As the Republican National Convention gets underway on Tuesday, it is important to remember that only one side of the story will be presented on the airwaves.
This live blog serves the purpose of keeping the Republican message in check as the Grand Old Party rages this week.
The Convention's theme this year is "We Built It." The choice to use this sentiment as the slogan of the Republican platform which is now officially backing Mitt Romney is vital. Everyone knows that Romney's qualifications rest heavily on his business experience. If he can prove that "We Built It" and that he will continue to support business people in America to build more of "it," he may stand a chance to win this election.
We should expect to see restated several times that wealth begets wealth and that President Obama's "socialist" (I am curious to see if anyone uses that word) policies have failed. The question of which economic philosophy voters believe more effective will not be answers until November. However, we will know beyond the shadow of a doubt what the Republican philosophy is after these few days.
PolicyMic will be covering the events at the RNC LIVE, as well as live updates on Isaac. Bookmark and refresh this page for our most recent updates and analysis.
UPDATES:
Aug 28, 8:36pm -- Gov. John Kasich (before flat out calling Joe Biden a liar) claims that job creation is the single most important thing in America and Mitt Romney is the man to do it.
Aug 28, 8:39pm -- Rand Paul defends his fathers decision to refuse to endorse Romney siting fundamental disagreement on things like drones. He also claims that the GOP must embrace Libertarianism or risk losing a vital support structure. Rand claims he supports the Romney - Ryan ticket because the United States may not survive another four years of the Obama administration.
Aug 28, 8:46 -- Newt Gingrich "Ron Paul has run on an ideological platform his entire adult life...I am a party loyalist...a team player."
Aug 28, 8:47 -- FIRST USE OF TERM "SOCIALIST" Newt gets the honors of being the first person to bandy the Socialist term about in an interview with CNN.
Aug 28, 9:00 -- Rick Santorum to address RNC. The expected message is one of party unity. Keep refreshing for a breakdown of his speech.
Aug 28, 9:24 -- Santorum speaks. "Thank you Pennsylvania" (I hope this is a joke that I missed...)
Aug 28, 9:25 -- Santorum claims that President Obama has turned the American dream into a nightmare through overdependence on the government. Freedom was the only government program available to Rick's immigrant grandfather.
Aug 28, 9:28 -- Apparently only traditional families are capable of escaping poverty in the U.S. This is a classic example of selective data analysis. There are many other factors (like class, race, gender) that link non-traditional families to poverty. If anything, this backwards logic calls for more government intervention to right the societal wrongs that make some more likely to be poor than others.
Aug 28, 9:34 -- Santorum goes off on "hands" tangent. Transitions to a moving story about his daughter.
Aug 28, 9:37 -- Thanks God that one party holds out its hands to all of God's children: born and unborn. (But not if they're a burden on the taxpayers...oops...)
Aug 28, 9:40 -- Santorum wraps up and places abortion front and center. Romney has been trying to skirt tackling this issue head on. This might come back to bite him.
Ok now that we have a moment to catch our breath, lets reflect quickly on Santorum's speech. As expected, he appealed to family values and conservative principles. He made an important point of promoting the GOP as a party of human rights. This was vital due to the fact that many see the Democratic party as more in line with the principles of social justice. Santorum turned this argument on its head with the abortion comment. Very sneaky. While he may have been a little more hardline than Romney would have liked, he was there to let evangelicals know that they should vote for Romney. In that regard, he did his job.
Aug 28, 10:06 -- Ann Romney to address the crowd soon. Will she be able to humanize her husband?
Aug 28, 10:16 -- We're off to a super awkward start as Ann takes the stage!
Aug 28, 10:17 -- Ann, speaking at the REPUBLICAN National Convention, talks about love. What a hippie!
Aug 28, 10:20 -- Women's issues start to emerge in Ann Romney's speech. Women work harder. That's the point. We'll see where this is going, but right now it looks like winning women over is far more important than humanizing Mitt.
Aug 28, 10:23 -- Ok now we're getting into the personal details that voters need to relate to Mitt. "He made me laugh." That's hard to imagine...
Aug 28, 10:26 -- Ann seems to be promoting rushing into marriage and having children...
Aug 28, 10:29 -- Ann engages in a little bit of a straw man argumentation, suggesting that the Democratic message tells our children to try to be mediocre. No one on the left ever made this claim. Obama has repeatedly said that he respects hard work. There are those who are not multi-millionaires like Mitt who work hard too. You, Ann, are demonizing the poor just as you say that the left demonizes your husband.
Aug 28, 10:34 -- Ann takes advantage of her position as the nominee's wife by bragging about her husband. A wise and appropriate move.
Aug 28, 10:35 -- Ann says "He still makes me laugh" for the third time. It seems like she is trying to convince herself too...
Aug 28, 10:37 -- Ann finishes up her speech assuring that you can trust Mitt.
Aug 28, 10:40 -- Gov. Chris Christie begins delivering the keynote address in his usual casual style.
Aug 28, 10:43 -- Gov. Christie continues "American Dream" theme with rags to riches story of his mother.
Aug 28, 10:44 -- Christie claims that Obama administration (although the President has not yet been referenced by name) has worried about being popular and not about what is best for America. Curious considering how unpopular the President is in the room Gov. Christie is addressing...
Aug 28, 10:46 -- Christies says the GOP must choose repect over love (completely contradicting Ann's message...)
Aug 28, 10:48 -- Christie takes opportunity to list his own credentials. Are you running for President or endorsing someone else?
Aug 28, 10:51 -- Christie spells out his vision of the differences between Republicans and Democrats:
-- GOP tells people the truth about gravity of financial situation while Democrats prefer to live lie (GOP, the party of financial responsibility, is responsible for our billions of dollars a day on interest for two foriegn wars, Chris. Hindsight's 20/20 Chris.)
-- Dems believe in teachers unions, we belive in teachers (No. Dem's believe that Teachers need unions to protect themselves against Governors like you who would cut their wages and benefits despite how hard they work.)
Aug 28, 10:56 -- Christie mentions Romney-Ryan ticket for the first time.
Aug 28, 10:57 -- "Romney will tell us the hard truths we need to hear." We couldn't have come futher from "hope and change." This highlights how different this campaign is from 2008.
Aug 28, 10:59 -- "You see Mr. President, real leaders don't follow polls, real leaders change polls." Wow. I don't even know where to begin on that one. The hypocrisy is just... wow. Romney was the king of changing his opinions based on polls to get the far right to support him as the Republican nominee. I'll just leave it at that.
Aug 28, 11:01 -- Christie calls for "A second American Century." This is definitely inspirational, but the international community surely scoffs at statements like this one. Maybe it is wiser to start tailoring our policies to a multi-polar age instead of living in the post-cold war past.
Aug 28, 10:04 -- Christie wraps up. His energetic and insightful speech makes republicans whistful for what could have been. It is going to be hard for Romney to follow that spectacle.
Alright. That's all I've got. Keep your eyes on my page and I'll have some sort of analysis peice up soon. Thanks for following along with me! Goodnight.
