Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland was on fire tonight in his convention speech. Here’s a key passage …
Mitt Romney has so little economic patriotism that even his money needs a passport. It summers on the beaches of the Cayman Islands and winters on the slopes of the Swiss Alps. In Matthew, chapter 6, verse 21, the scriptures teach us that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. My friends, any man who aspires to be our president should keep both his treasure and his heart in the United States of America. And it’s well past time for Mitt Romney to come clean with the American people.
CNN caught up with outgoing Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) this evening. And Frank made an argument I hadn’t heard before, not specifically contrasting the Obama years with the closing months of the Bush administration …
George Bush came to us on the Democratic side in late ’08 and said, we’re in a crisis, we need your help — and we gave it to him, very openly, very fully. Then Obama comes in to try to deal with the terrible situation he inherited from bush and the republican media went into full partisan attack.
Former Gov. Strickland (D-OH) sets crowd on fire with anti-Romney jeremiad.
Extra Note: Gov. Patrick’s speech struck me as very strong, makes me think he may have more national elected potential than I might have realized. We’ll have a report on that speech soon.
It’s hardly a surprise that Democrats would return to one of Mitt Romney’s most visible, symbolic liabilities: the overseas bank accounts. But man, it’s with a vengeance. And with a very hard edge.
This just now from Gov. O’Malley of Maryland …
Governor romney, just because you bank against the united states of america does not mean the rest of us are willing to sell her out. We are americans.
10:20 PM: Chuck Todd said the Obama campaign had to scrape the barrel to come up with Julian Castro as a non-white Keynote Speaker. I’m not sure about that. This strikes me as a pretty inspired delivery.
10:27 PM: I think this guy’s got a future in front of him. Julian Castro, 37 years old.
10:30 PM: Four very powerful speeches tonight: Strickland, O’Malley, Patrick and Castro. I’m not part of our team down in Charlotte. So I know that leaves a bunch of folks out. But I’ve watched through the prism of television coverage. On their own merits, I thought these were each strong speeches. But what strikes me most is their coherence as a set. Common set of themes, full-throated endorsement of a second Obama term and a common, thematically united set of knocks at Mitt Romney. All of this is what made this evening seem very different from the RNC last week. Quite simply, it lacked any coherence. It was a jumble. A number of the talking heads tonight have noted how infrequently most of the Republicans speakers mentioned Mitt Romney and how many seemed to talk mainly about themselves. Very different.
10:55 PM: A good reminder that Romney-speak seems to assume that success is only about your salary and bank accounts. Even your domestic ones.
Our report on Julian Castro’s keynote address taking on “You Didn’t Build That”.
TPM Reader ML likes what he’s hearing …
This is my first convention so I dont know if these are always like this …. But I doubt it. It’s as if someone in the Obama campaign has read your theory of bitch slap politics.
I often wonder: how is it that political spouses often end up being such good speech makers? This was an amazingly good delivery. But Ann Romney’s was pretty good too. Giving a lengthy speech in front of millions of people is really, really hard. It takes a number of skills wrapped into one — timing, a good speaking style, coolness under pressure. It’s no secret that most politicians can do it reasonably well. That’s why they’re politicians. Baseball players are good athletes. Well, that’s how they became baseball players. But again, it doesn’t necessarily follow that the spouse is good at it too.
But man, that was pretty good.