The GOP's Opportunity

The Foundation

"[A] wise and frugal government ... shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." --Thomas Jefferson

Editorial Exegesis

"[I]n Tampa, the Republicans have an opportunity to make stark the contrast between fear and facts, by making their convention -- and the Romney/Ryan candidacy -- about something good. The convention not only needs to give an attractive picture to the country of who Mitt Romney is, and who Republicans are, but also of who conservatives think Americans are and aspire to be. Aspiration is the key. The Democrats have a habit of presenting Americans as passive victims of tragedy in need of government succor. Some people do need government assistance, of course, but most Americans do not see themselves as powerless in the face of forces beyond their control. They have goals and ambitions. They don't need help from the government so much as they need obstacles removed, and institutions reformed so as to facilitate rather than frustrate or threaten their plans. In making the case that America is on the wrong track and in need of new leadership, it will be tempting -- sorely so -- to emphasize the incumbent's failures. But it is crucial that Republicans point out that the obstacles and dysfunctional institutions standing in Americans' way precede Obama, even if he has in some cases made them worse and in others failed to do anything about them. This account will be more plausible for voters than one that implicitly or explicitly blames Obama for everything bad in American life, or that could be read to suggest that rolling back the Obama years (and thus returning to those of you-know-who) would simply fix everything. As much as it is said that the election is a referendum on Obama, the American people will not deliver a mandate to a negation. [This week] in Tampa, Republicans have a singular opportunity to demonstrate what they are for. It should not be wasted." --National Review

Upright

"[Ann] Romney succeeded in conveying to the audience in the hall -- and, the campaign hopes, to the millions watching on television -- her love for her husband, her belief in his essential goodness, and, perhaps most importantly, her implicit faith in his abilities. 'This man will not fail,' she assured the audience near the end of her speech. 'This man will not let us down.' Mrs. Romney clearly believes that if she were flying in a plane, and the pilot died from a heart attack, Mitt Romney would find a way to land the plane safely. She wanted to communicate that faith to the audience, and she did." --Washington Examiner's Byron York

"When politicians said anything that suggested women working outside the home were neglecting their children ... they bristled with anger. 'Choice!' they screamed. Abortion must forever and ever be not only legal but celebrated and endorsed. Ann Romney presented a different view, one that I suspect makes a lot more sense for women under 50 and those over that age who never became advocates of the 'choice' movement. She showed that she shared the everyday experience of mothers, married and single, pro-choice and pro-life. An illuminating picture, one worth reflecting on for all of us." --political analyst Michael Barone

"[Chris] Christie's speech ... I thought was a mild disappointment. It was clearly rushed at the end and felt undisciplined and self-indulgent throughout (it took a very long time to mention the nominee). I loved the themes of the Christie's speech, however, and I think that the Romney campaign wanted different things from these speeches than I was looking for. Both Ann Romney and Christie seemed to be working harder at bolstering the Republican brand than the Mitt brand. Perhaps the target audiences they're going after need to be seduced into feeling okay to vote Republican before they can be convinced to vote for Romney. That's a good ambition, it seems to me, and if these speeches worked to that end that's great. Mildly disappointing those ... looking for more red meat is a small price to pay." --columnist Jonah Goldberg

Insight

"The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian state is a matter of time." --author and philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

"Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons and gendarmes at the service of the plunderers, and treats the victim -- when he defends himself -- as a criminal." --French economist Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850)

Demo-gogues

Depends on the meaning of "forward": "[The Republican National Convention] should be a pretty entertaining show. And I'm sure they'll have some wonderful things to say about me. But what you won't hear from them is a path forward that meets the challenges of our time." --Barack Obama

Depends on the meaning of "extreme": "I can't speak to Gov. Romney's motivations. What I can say is that he has signed up for positions, extreme positions, that are very consistent with positions that a number of House Republicans have taken." --Barack Obama

The president's lament: "I don't have as much time to campaign this time as I did in 2008, so this whole thing is riding on you making it happen." --Barack Obama in a letter to supporters, setting them up to take the blame for his loss

"Now, over the next two and a half months, the other side will spend more money than we have ever seen -- ever. I mean, they got folks writing $10 million checks, $20 million checks. They should be contributing that to a scholarship fund to send kids to college." --Barack Obama

Narcissist-in-Chief: "It is very rare I come to an event where I'm like the fifth or sixth most interesting person. Usually the folks want to take a picture with me, sit next to me, talk to me. That has not been the case at this event and I completely understand." --Barack Obama during his "NBA heroes" fundraising event

The BIG Lie: "We helped millions of families modify their mortgages so they could stay in their homes, and we helped more than a million refinance their mortgages saving $3,000 a year, but guess what? We could do it for another 12 million if the Republicans would just get out of the way, just get out the way. ... And it won't cost the government a penny." --Joe Biden

Policy difference or sickness? "There is a sickness out there in the Republican Party, and I'm not kidding. Maybe they don't like their moms or their first wives." --Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

Dezinformatsia

As if it's horrifying: "[T]he Republican Party has become a faith-based party. Starting with Ronald Reagan, there was a marriage between the Bible Belt of the south, fundamentalist Bible Belt of the south. ... [Paul Ryan] starts every consideration of public policy, not from the standpoint of science, but from the standpoint of faith. That's who Paul Ryan is. And they're not going to shut him up if he gets into the White House, I assure you." --Huffington Post editorial director Howard Fineman

Tolerance: "Paul Ryan ... may look young and hip and new generation, with his iPod full of heavy metal jams and his cute kids. But he's just a fresh face on a Taliban creed -- the evermore antediluvian, anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-gay conservative core." --New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd

Downplaying bias: "I've always believed that the real media bias is geographic. I've always believed that. It is because the media-industrial complex is located in New York City. That's why there are cultural biases built into the media. I've always believed that, but it's less political than people think it is." --NBC's Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd

Race bait: "More than a dozen states have changed their voting laws to make it harder for Obama's base to vote. ... And there really was no problem of voter fraud in 2008 or in any previous elections that required these kind of laws. What required these kind of laws from the Republican Party's perspective was the election of Barack Obama and the fact that ... the country was changing, becoming more diverse. Rather than courting those voters, the GOP has decided, 'Let's just make it harder for them to vote in the next election.'" --The Nation Magazine's Ari Berman

Exactly backwards: "Actually, it would be better if energy prices went up because we need to develop alternative sources [of energy]. ... [Republicans are] doing the 'Drill, baby, drill' thing. They're trying to make a complicated issue emotional, and demagoguing it for the campaign." --Politico's Evan Thomas

Fantasy: "By the time voters go to the polls in November they'll be saying 'Praise the Lord' about ObamaCare." --Newsweek's Eleanor Clift

Newspulper Headlines:

Questions Nobody Is Asking: "Has Obama Made the Job Situation Worse?" --The New York Times

Out on a Limb: "Grim Report on Economy Gives Mitt Romney an Opening to Shift Back to Economic Message" --ABCNews.com

We Blame George W. Bush: "Jeb Bush: Stop Blaming My Brother" --Politico.com

We Fault George W. Bush: "6 Hidden Fault Lines in President Obama's Campaign" --Politico.com

Good News for Adults: "Only Children More Likely to Be Overweight" --Today.com

Longest Books Ever Written: "Why Government Needs a Diet" --The Washington Post

Bottom Story of the Day: "Biden Tells Detroit Rally GOP Favors Rich Over Middle Class" --Detroit News

(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto)

Village Idiots

Make believe numbers: "Well, I think that worker probably has a good understanding of what's happened over the past four years in terms of the president coming in and seeing 800,000 jobs lost on the day that the president was being sworn in, and seeing the president moving pretty quickly to stem the losses, to turn the economy around. And over the past, you know, 27 months we've created 4.5 million private-sector jobs. That's more jobs than in the Bush recovery (or) in the Reagan recovery." --Obama campaign adviser Stephanie Cutter

Belly laugh of the week: "If you're a conservative woman and you believe in small government, then Barack Obama is your candidate." --line from the latest "Republican" Women for Obama ad, in which the women are registered Democrats who just play Republicans on TV

Hardly: "I think Biden is like a sunny day to the middle-class families across this country who are looking for someone who is going to fight for them in the White House." --Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki

Straw woman: "White men should not have the power to tell women what our rights are. Period." --author Terry McMillan

Dependency nation: "Given that only 15 percent of you turn to government assistance in tough times, we want to make sure you know about benefits that could help you." --USA.gov

Tolerance II: "Ideological purity, compromise as weakness, a fundamentalist belief in scriptural literalism, denying science, unmoved by facts, undeterred by new information, a hostile fear of progress, a demonization of education, a need to control women's bodies, severe xenophobia, tribal mentality, intolerance of dissent and a pathological hatred of the U.S. government. ... They can call themselves the Tea Party. They can call themselves conservatives and they can even call themselves Republicans, though Republicans certainly shouldn't. But we should call them what they are. The American Taliban." --HBO's "The Newsroom"

Hot air: "[E]very night on the news now, practically, is like a nature hike through the book of Revelation." --Al Gore in a preview of his latest climate scare-mongering slideshow

Short Cuts

"President Obama is angry at Mitt Romney for suggesting that college students should 'borrow money from their parents.' Right. You should do what Obama does -- have them borrow money from their future children." --Fred Thompson

"Personally, I'm on a quest [at the Republican National Convention] to find all of these racist Republicans everyone at MSNBC keeps saying dominate the party. I thought I saw a Klansman, but it turned just to be someone with a totebag on their head to fight the rain." --columnist Jonah Goldberg

"Yeah, the Democratic National Convention goes second and has a chance of upstaging the Republicans, but I'm not sure how. Is there anything more tiresome than the thought of Obama giving another speech? I mean, the one Biden gives might be some comic relief, but they'll force him to stay on script and it will probably just be boring. But they have fake-Indian Elizabeth Warren! Won't American respond to yet another rich person whining about rich people? And then there is the dynamically unlikable Sandra Fluke taking on our nations greatest problem: how annoying it is to go to Walgreens and buy your own birth control." --humorist Frank J. Fleming

"President Obama passed up the chance to play golf in Washington Sunday to attend church at St. John's Episcopal with his family. It was an emotional experience for him. He felt the pain that all politicians feel when a collection plate goes by and it's not for them." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"They [were] worried that Tropical Storm Isaac [w]ould hit Florida during ... the Republican convention. But Florida [was] ready for it. Thanks to President Obama's economic policies, many businesses down there [were] already boarded up." --comedian Jay Leno

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team