Thunderbolt and Lightfoot: What wasn’t said at the RNC and will be said at the DNC – Part 1

Word leaked out early last week that the identity of the “mystery speaker” at the Republican Convention was Clint Eastwood.  Clint at the convention would bring a Hollywood atmosphere to an otherwise beltway geek-fest. Liberals were hoping the theme would be A Fistful of Dollars or For a Few Dollars More. MSNBC, who selectively refused to air any speaker whose pigment was darker than Narnia’s White Witch, did their best to convince their dozens of viewers that they were witness to White Hunter, Black Heart, but what we saw was The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The Bad: 

It was the perfect moment; the kind of morning that would have Lt. Col. Kilgore smelling victory; the kind of day that would start with Marines hoisting a make-shift flag and end with a sailor leaning in to kiss a nurse amidst a ticker tape snow globe.  Babe Ruth was coming to the plate.  The crowd breathed as one in anticipation. A fevered child leaned forward in his sick-bed and strained to hear the call over the radio.  Ruth taps his cleats with his bat, stares down the pitcher, rolls his neck and then steps into the batter’s box and points to the center field wall. 

This was the feeling surrounding the most anticipated speech at a Republican Convention since Sarah Palin’s in 2008.  The Republicans were about to open a 400 lb. can of New Jersey whoop-ass named Chris Christie; Mitt Romney would release the Kraken in Prime Time.  But when the curve ball was delivered at the Republican Convention; The Sultan of Swat bunted.

Expecting Babe Ruth, we got Casey at the bat and it wasn’t a hurricane that turned Tampa into Mudville, it was Republican “handlers”.  Within 24 hours, Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Byron York and Mark Levin responded in disappointment ranging from bewilderment to outright frustration.  Expectations had settled somewhere between Churchill’s “fight them on the beaches” to Deniro’s Al Capone, “baseball is about team” speech. We didn’t get Churchill, we got McFly. 

Levin tweeted, “Christie said election about big ideas. Wish I heard one from him. I don’t remember much of what he said …” and “Has word come down from on high at the Republican convention that the speakers cannot mention Barack Obama by name?” 

Rush pointed out that the bumbling John McCain would not allow anyone to mention the  middle name “Hussein” and it appears that Romney won’t allow anyone to say “Barack” or “Obama”. Even Ann Coulter wondered what happened to her Great Bambino.  Coulter, who has poured it on so thick lately that Christie’s wife, his first love and his 3rd grade Sunday School teacher had to throw together an intervention and tell her to “get real” and “dial it down”. 

Not all were a disappointment. The majority of speeches were well done, but the majority, like most convention speeches, went unseen.  The really bad part of this convention was not what went unseen but who went unheard.  This is the first convention in my life time where you didn’t see the Republican Party come together in one voice to take on a mutual enemy. 

In 1992, after a vicious primary between George H.W. Bush and Pat Buchanan; the gracious Bush afforded Buchanan a prime speaking slot.  In 2012, the RNC shunned some of the Republican’s most effective voices.  I’m no fan of Ron Paul but there certainly should have been a concession made for him to speak about the Fed and the debt.  No Sarah Palin or Allen West and a Neutered Gingrich speak volumes.  It’s not a mere slight to those who should be welcomed as allies and reinforcements; it’s an insult to all who donated time and money to other campaigns.

Sarah Palin, whose glasses can raise more money and turn out more volunteers than Mitch McConnell, John McCain and John Boehner combined, was not only black-balled from the convention but somehow disinvited from Fox News: “I’m sorry Fox canceled all my scheduled interviews tonight because I sure wanted to take the opportunity on the air to highlight Senator John McCain’s positive contributions to America, to honor him, and to reflect on what a biased media unfairly put him through four years ago tonight.” 

Are establishment types so fearful of Palin that they are willing to manipulate the one news agency that has any credibility left? To quote Marco Rubio, “he’s a good man; he’s just a bad president”; that is the agenda of the Republican campaign but it’s just not true; he’s not a good man, that’s a talking point built on a falsehood.  He’s not the blundering Jimmy Carter or the savvy, triangulating Bill Clinton.  He’s accomplished exactly what his mentors had hoped for and what Rush hoped would fail.  He’s not a keystone cop; he’s the result of Cloward-Piven, Gramsci-Alinsky indoctrination. 

What was not said at this convention speaks much louder than what was: little to no talk of immigration, no talk of the war, of abortion, of the homosexualizing of the military and the schools, of the abuse by Czars and by executive orders. 

The conservative documentary 2016 does not present a guy who is misled but a guy who has been led his whole life by Communists bent on destroying a Capitalist America.  And that is the reason that you didn’t hear from a Sarah Palin or an Allen West. They won’t dance to the party drums like it appears Rubio is more than happy to.  Allen West calls a Marxist a Marxist and recently said of the President’s job so far, “Serving a crap sandwich with a smile is still a crap sandwich.” 

Not having Sarah Palin speak means that the new Republican agenda is willing to sacrifice Uriah for their own perceived benefit.  For the sake of what they deem is a winning strategy, they are willing to concede the left’s agitprop against our own valiant warriors.

However, if you read Sarah Palin’s speech of 2008 you’ll find that it was not only the best speech of the 2008 convention but it was the best speech of 2012.  Both Artur Davis and yes, even Mitt Romney borrowed heavily for their most applauded lines from the hockey mom.

Artur Davis, “Maybe we should have known that night in Denver that things that begin with plywood Greek columns and artificial smoke typically don’t end well.”  Mitt Romney, 

“President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans … and to heal the planet.  My promise is to help you and your family.”

Sarah Palin, “But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed… when the roar of the crowd fades away… when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot — what exactly is our opponent’s plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he’s done turning back the waters and healing our planet? The answer is to make government bigger… take more of your money… give you more orders from Washington… and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world.”

Anticipating Thunderbolt, we got Lightfoot and the confirmation that the Romney campaign sent in its “prevent defense”.  

Next Column we tackle The Good and The Ugly; from Paul Ryan and Condi Rice to Debbie What’s-her-name Schultz.

Image: Sarah Palin addressing the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul; courtesy of T toes from Decatur, USA