Message From Day One GOP Convention: America There is a Better Way!

And they said it with grace and civility!

Plus: New rising GOP stars face specter of racism, FROM DEMOCRATS!

There are so many good moments from Tuesday night's GOP convention it's hard to choose. But here are few.

First, Ann Romney wowed the crowd with her gentle humor and loving personality. She spoke about "love" and not just the love she shares with Mitt and her five sons but the love Mitt has for America and how Mitt would help to bring the lessons of his success home to a nation clamoring for leadership after the last four years. She never mentioned Obama by name or even Democrats. The contrast with her soft words and the harsh rhetoric coming from the other side is enough. Still, the New York Daily News called Ann Romney's speech a "brutal attack" wrapped in a blanket. If that's an attack, what do they say about Obama's attacks on Romney?

Earlier, GOP Governors, all newly minted in the last 3 years came forward to talk about their success in creating jobs, getting deficits under control and all without raising taxes. It's story that Keynote Speaker, Governor Chris Christie drove home in his address. Christie pointed out that in New Jersey, like the other states with new GOP Governors they told the truth to the voters and confronted the hard fiscal realities and overcame the entrenched special interests like the Teacher's Union. Christie pointed out that "if we can do this in a blue state with a conservative Republican governor, Washington is out of excuses."

But the night was also a success for the new faces and rising stars that were welcomed to the podium. Memorable among them were Mia Love and Artur Davis. Both African-American they represent a new and growing movement of upwardly mobile minority voters able to think for themselves and willing to stand up and say so despite the vile racist attacks launched against them.

Ms. Love is the Mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, and the daughter of Haitian immigrants. She talks about the promise of the American dream from a deeply personal perspective:



"Mr. President I am here to tell you we are not buying what you are selling in 2012."

MIA LOVE: "Let me tell you about the America I know. My parents immigrated to the U.S. with ten dollars in their pocket, believing that the America they had heard about really did exist. When times got tough they didn’t look to Washington, they looked within.

So the America I came to know was centered in personal responsibility and filled with the American dream.

The America I know is grounded in the determination found in patriots and pioneers, in small business owners with big ideas, in the farmers who work in the beauty of our landscape, in our heroic military and Olympians. It’s in every child who looks at the seemingly impossible and says, “I can do that.” That is the America I know!

The American Dream is our story. It is a story of human struggle, standing up and striving for more. It’s been told for over 200 years with small steps and giant leaps; from a woman on a bus to a man with a dream; and the bravery of the greatest generation, to the entrepreneurs of today.

This is our story. This is the America we know because we built it."

 

Then there was Artur Davis, a former Congressman from Alabama who was a co-Chairman of the Obama 2008 campaign and gave one of the nominating speeches for Obama at the 2008 Democrat Convention in Denver. Like so many voters from 2008 Davis has had a change of heart. His full speech is here [text, video]. Here are his five best lines:

1. “Maybe we should have known that night in Denver that things that begin with plywood Greek columns and artificial smoke don’t end well.”

2. “Remember the president saying of negative politics and untrue ads, ‘not this time.’ Who knew “not this time” just meant “not unless the economy is still stuck and we can’t run on our record.”

3. Remember, too, when he said, ‘this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.’ Who knew the plain English version of it was “Middle America, get ready to shell out 60 bucks to fill up your car?”

4. “This time, instead of moving oceans and healing planets, let’s get our bills in order and pay down the debt so we can control our own future.”

5. “This is no dark hour, this is the dawn before we remember who we are. May it be said of this time in our history, 2008 to 2011, lesson learned, mistake corrected.”

Meanwhile, Democrats were reduced to bemoaning the fact that Hurricane Isaac didn't hit Tampa after wishing it would kill delegates to the convention. Democrats may even be disappointed that Isaac barely touched New Orleans with only one reported fatality. This after a reporter at the GOP Convention suggested Mitt and Ann Romney "are happy to have a party with black people drowning.'' Ever hear any reporter express concern when Obama was throwing a party while hundreds of blacks in Chicago were being gunned down in the streets?

And of course many of these same Democrat lovers of civility are also attacking Mia Love  including the use of the "n" word for her part in the convention. Artur Davis is called an "Uncle Tom" with violent knife wielding imagery in this video. But somehow, that behavior by Democrats is not racist? It will be interesting to see the reaction to former Secretary of State Condi Rice's speech this evening. Will we see the old "Aunt Jemima" racial clownery