Romney strategist: Clint Eastwood ‘did a little improv’

Actor/directorClint Eastwood did not submit prepared remarks of his attention-grabbing Republican National Convention speech to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, a campaign adviser said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clint-eastwood-speaks-at-the-2012-republican-national-convention/2012/08/30/39108924-f314-11e1-a612-3cfc842a6d89_inline.html

He went out and did what actors do sometimes, he did a little improv, said Stuart Stevens, Romneys chief strategist. If someone wants to say this wasn’t Clint Eastwood’s greatest performance, have at it…Some people didnt like ‘Dirty Harry,’ some people didnt like ‘Gran Torino,’ thats okay.

Eastwood did not tell convention officials he would use a chair until moments before he took the stage, an adviser said, nor did they know until after his speech began that he would use the chair as an invisible Obama. Eastwood asked a stage hand to get him a chair, and the stage hand assumed he was going to use it to sit on.

Read full article >>

Nancy Pelosi Barney Frank John A. Boehner Paul Ryan White House

Failed Bombings in Thailand, India Indicate Weaknesses in Iranian Espionage

China Presidential Elections Republican Candidates Herman Cain Mitt Romney

Marco Rubio steps into national spotlight with GOP convention speech focused on how U.S. is ‘exceptional’ country

TAMPA — Among the rising stars who took the stage here at the GOP’s national convention this week, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida may have been the brightest of them all.

Rubio, a tea party favorite and national GOP luminary who first won election to the Senate in 2010, captivated the crowd at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on Thursday evening with a prime-time address in which he cited his parents’ journey from Cuba to the United States as proof that America is an exceptional country.

Read full article >>

John A. Boehner Paul Ryan White House Iran Iraq

Obama Camp Gets Facts Wrong Again

Gabriel Mayor, NY Daily News
The Democrats' least effective spokesperson said today that Republicans should have further reduced their convention plans out of respect for the victims of Hurricane Isaac. Within minutes, I was bombarded by delighted emails, tweets, and texts most of which expressed some variation of "she's done it again!"Look, there are things that -- as a person who simply does not have enough hours in the day -- I am not going to give serious consideration to no matter how much you want to talk about them: conspiracy theories, diet plans, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, atonal post-punk...

Republican Candidates Herman Cain Mitt Romney John Huntsman Rick Perry

Tampa locals, on the outside looking elsewhere

It might be possible to make it through the entire Tampa convention without seeing an actual Tampan. Office workers have fled the downtown as if from a plague. The Republican conventioneers come and go on shuttle buses. Geography is defined corporately, as in “Are you going to the Bloomberg party?”

Read full article >>

Herman Cain Mitt Romney John Huntsman Rick Perry Michele Bachmann

A Deeply Personal Speech

Charles Krauthammer, FOX News
Charles Krauthammer discusses Mitt Romney's acceptance speech.If he becomes president he will not be known as the "Great Connecter". He may be known for a lot of other things, but that's not what he does. But I thought he did try to the best of his ability, and I thought it worked out rather affectingly--the sort of very plain-spoken, prosaic review of his life--yet not trying to go over all those wonderful stories, leaving that to others.I don't think he had a high bar that he had to meet because of how badly he's been portrayed. I found the entire speech a very...

Joe Biden George W Bush Jimmy Carter Dick Cheney Bill Clinton

As Republican convention emphasizes diversity, racial incidents intrude

TAMPA — From the convention stage here, the Republican Party has tried to highlight its diversity, giving prime speaking slots to Latinos and blacks who have emphasized their party’s economic appeal to all Americans.

Read full article >>

Rand Paul John Kerry Harry Reid Barbara Boxer Dianne Feinstein

Live-tweeting the 3rd night of the Republican National Convention!

TAMPA — It’s here: The Republican National Convention concludes tonight with the acceptance speech of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney as the big moment of the four-day extravaganza.

And, if it’s another night of speeches, funny hats and awkward dancing then it’s another night of live-tweeting from the Fix posse. You can follow all of our thoughts below.

Read full article >>

Mitt Romney John Huntsman Rick Perry Michele Bachmann Newt Gingrich

Voters, Are You Bluffing?

George Will, Washington Post
Now begins the final phase of this cognitive dissonance campaign. America's 57th presidential election is the first devoted to calling the nation's bluff. When Mitt Romney selected Paul Ryan, Republicans undertook the perilous but commendable project of forcing voters to face the fact that they fervently hold flatly incompatible beliefs.Twice as many Americans identify themselves as conservative as opposed to liberal. On Nov."‰6 we will know if they mean it. If they are ideologically conservative but operationally liberal. If they talk like Jeffersonians but want to be...

Rand Paul John Kerry Harry Reid Barbara Boxer Dianne Feinstein

Unseen Class War Could Decide the Election

Joel Kotkin, New Geography
Much is said about class warfare in contemporary America, and there’s justifiable anger at the impoverishment of much of the middle and working classes. The Pew Research Center recently dubbed the 2000s a “lost decade” for middle-income earners "” some 85% of Americans in that category feel it’s now more difficult to maintain their standard of living than at the beginning of the millennium, according to a Pew survey.Blaming a disliked minority - rich business folks - has morphed into a predictable strategy for President Obama’s...

Jimmy Carter Dick Cheney Bill Clinton Hillary Clinton John McCain

Fact checking the GOP convention’s second night

The highlight of the second night of the Republican National Convention was Rep. Paul Ryan’s speech accepting the vice presidential nomination. (As a longtime Condoleezza Rice watcher, The Fact Checker was also fascinated by the enthusiastic response to her prime-time speech.) We will devote most of this column to analyzing claims in Ryan’s speech, but at the end we will also assess a few other interesting claims made by other speakers.

Read full article >>

Republican Candidates Herman Cain Mitt Romney John Huntsman Rick Perry

Politifact Lies About Janesville GM Plant

Stephen Gutowski, MRC
Last night Politifact Wisconsin issued one of the least factual and most skewed "fact checks" I've ever seen. Not only do they bend over backwards to provide cover to one of the most impotent promises President Obama ever made, they also simply lie about the key facts they use to label Paul Ryan's claim false. Here is Politifact's ruling:Ryan said Obama broke his promise to keep a Wisconsin GM plant from closing. But we don't see evidence he explicitly made such a promise -- and more importantly, the Janesville plant shut down before he took office.We rate...

Barack Obama Sarah Palin Joe Biden George W Bush Jimmy Carter

Ann Romney courts Florida voters after RNC speech

Ann Romney spent Wednesday courting voters at several events including a ‘Women for Mitt’ rally and a Latino Coalition luncheon. As Melinda Henneberger wrote:

If you liked Ann Romney in prime time on Tuesday, then you would have loved her on Wednesday. At a “Women for Mitt” event, her five daughters-in-law took turns praising her as a “real, modern feminist” who taught them to cook, “shop for heels,’’ and be the kind of wife who according to Laurie Romney, Matt’s wife, remembers “not to weigh him down with all the little hard things that happen during the day.” (Does your husband wish someone had given you that advice? Right; mine, too.)

Read full article >>

Jimmy Carter Dick Cheney Bill Clinton Hillary Clinton John McCain

At Republican convention, Eric Cantor stays in the background

The book’s title was bold, and its authors intended to outline a bold future.

As “Young Guns” went on sale two years ago, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) took center stage on its cover, with Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in the foreground of the iconic photo taken on a Capitol balcony. More toward the back was Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the policy wonk whose star had yet to shine as brightly as those of his two 40-something friends.

Read full article >>

Turkey China Presidential Elections Republican Candidates Herman Cain