Ann Romney, Chris Christie address the RNC: panel verdict

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/29/ann-romney-chris-christie-rnc-panel-verdict

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Jim Geraghty: 'You would love to have the Romneys as neighbors'

With Ann Romney, there was a danger it would come across as too saccharine. The political press will look at the soft voice, the perfect appearance, the unnamed examples of struggling Americans, the punctuating giggles, and just roll their eyes and conclude it must be some 1950s television image reheated and served up for today.

But for the millions of Americans who'd had little or no exposure to Ann Romney before Tuesday night, it was a home run: a warm, personal speech and an extremely effective introduction. The vast majority of the electorate hits the channel-changer at the first string of numbers and percentages, but when Ann Romney says, "the price at the pump you can't believe … School sports are now an extra fee. Everything has become harder …" it's on a personal scale and extremely effective.

You would love to have the Romneys as neighbors. She would be having you over all the time. He might seem a little stiff, and the dinner parties never had any booze, but you knew you could trust them and she would always seem happy to see you.

In other news: sometime in the not distant future, former Alabama Congressman Artur Davis, a Democrat-turned-Republican, is going to run for office – perhaps one of the House seats outside Washington in northern Virginia, probably the seat of Representative Gerry Connolly. Based on how intensely, humorously, and powerfully he made the case for Romney to disappointed independents and Democrats, he will have a lot of Republicans eager to help him out, from high-dollar donors to grassroots conservatives.

The opening of Christie's speech was more "Jersey" than eating a pretzel with giant salt crystals while coming out of Giants Stadium after watching the Jets lose a late-season game, hearing Bruce Springsteen blasting from a Camaro driven by a long-haired guy smoking a cigarette, seeing the Secaucus swamp beyond … I'm sorry, I got a little lost on memory lane there. Bottom line: it was really, really New Jersey.

The line and theme "respect over love" was an interesting angle to take. If Ann Romney's speech was about love, Christie's was about tough love, about demanding more from politicians. One of the most effective lines was declaring that any suggestion from a politician that problems can be solved without sacrifice is a lie. Obama talks about his tax hikes on the richest Americans, but insists that all of his agenda – his jobs plan, enacting Obamacare, debt control – will not ask more of Americans.

Of course, now Romney's convention address is forced to acknowledge some of these hard truths that voters are reluctant to hear.

You know which two words didn't come up very often in Christie's speech? "Mitt Romney". I counted five references, all towards the end. It was an OK speech for the interests of the nominee, a solid speech for the interests of the party … and a fantastic speech for the interests of Chris Christie.

Jim Geraghty is a contributing editor to the National Review

Ana Marie Cox: 'Christie wanted to evoke the GOP as the enforcer'

The Republicans counter-programmed themselves tonight: the speeches of Ann Romney and Chris Christie bore superficial resemblances to each other (hits on Obama, plaudits for moms), but taken together, they suggest the dissonance that's haunted the GOP since the primaries began.

Ann Romney's speech asked people to consider Mitt as a family man and private person. She told us, "Tonight, I want to talk to you about love."

Chris Christie took tenderness and crushed it in one meaty paw, delivering a sideways knock at Obama's perceived neediness at the same time:

"I believe we have been paralyzed with our desire to be loved."

Ann Romney wanted us to think about the Republican party as empathetic to the needs of working people, for whom "the last few years have been harder than they needed to be." (True enough, though her evocation of a golden time when school sports "used to be free" had me checking the calendar to see which decade I was in for this convention.)

Christie, meanwhile, wanted to evoke the GOP as the enforcer: it is become Death, destroyer of unions! Most notably, Ann Romney talked about Mitt. Christie … not so much.

Of the two, it was Ann Romney's speech that may prove to have the less sustainable narrative, in part because of its internal inconsistencies. She can reference college days filled with tuna bake and desks made out of sawhorses all she wants, but now, she has a car elevator and all her horses do dressage. That isn't an American success story, it's privilege finding its own level.

Christie's speech, Romney-free as it was, presented the GOP not just as it wants to be seen, but as it is right now: brusque, glib, in love with the sound of its own voice and talking about tough choices from the cushiest seat in the house.

Ana Marie Cox is US political columnist for the Guardian

James Antle: 'Christie's speech seemed like an audition for his own presidential campaign'

When the candidate's wife is introduced at a fundraiser, many superlatives are applied. Sometimes, they're jokes – she's my campaign treasurer! In Ann Romney's case, top campaign surrogate shouldn't be a punchline; it should be her full-time role.

Mitt Romney comes across as cold and robotic. His wife is warm, charming and skilful at a difficult task: humanizing the Republican nominee. Her delivery was effective, her frequents bouts of laughter made it seem like she was having fun, and she subtly pushed back against the "war on women" narrative favored by the left.

If the speech had downsides, it was probably overdoing the tuna noodle casserole bit – Romney did indeed build that, but he never was exactly poor – and the conclusion, which seemed to compare electing a president to going out on a date.

If Ann Romney was maternal, Chris Christie was paternal – despite his moving tribute to his mother. He also appeared to contradict Mrs Romney's emphasis on love, saying it is better to be respected. But he rallied the troops well and made the case for difficult budget cuts in layman's terms.

His attack on leaders who want to be cool and popular, always saying yes, when the right answer is no, was a not-too-subtle slap at President Obama. But the speech went on too long and started to lose focus toward the end. Ultimately, with its focus on his record in New Jersey, Christie's speech seemed more like an audition for his own presidential campaign.

In other news, remember the name Mia Love.

James Antle is editor of the Daily Caller News Foundation

Michael Cohen: 'Consistency or truth were not much in evidence at Tampa'

So, in the primetime hour of Tuesday night's Republican National Convention, there was something of an odd juxtaposition. Ann Romney began her treacly, pablum-filled valentine to her husband with the simple declaration that "tonight I want to talk to you about love." A generous sentiment and one that spoke to a desire among Republicans to soften their negative, combative image and humanize the party nominee.

Yet, half an hour later, the combative governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, told the cheering crowd in an "eat your medicine"-style address, "we choose respect over love."

Huh? Not a lot of consistency there, but then, fealty to consistency or truth were not much in evidence last night in Tampa.

Indeed, the first two hours of the convention began with speaker after speaker riffing off President Obama's statement "you didn't build that" – a sentence that was uttered in reference to how government can help entrepreneurship prosper, but has become, in the hands of Republican partisans, a shorthand for the president's supposed assault on the free market in America. Quite simply, it's a lie; but it's one that Republicans seem intent on repeating for all that it is worth.

Yet, the "you didn't build that" line, while the most repeated and most stunningly dishonest, was hardly the only misleading statement of the evening. Instead, a cavalcade of misinformation defined the first day of the 2012 RNC. Republicans trotted out the charge that Obama had gutted welfare (he hasn't); that Obamacare puts government bureaucrats between patients and doctors (he doesn't); that Obama called Americans "bumps in the road" (he didn't); that he is responsible for creating $5tn in debt (Congress and the recession also had something to do with that).

And yet, none of this stopped Christie from describing the Republican party and its nominee, Mitt Romney, as the ones who will tell the American people honest truths about the challenges facing America.

Bottom line: it's gonna be a long couple of days here in Florida.

Michael Cohen is a US political columnist for the Observer and Guardian