The inseparable act that is Callista and Newt Gingrich stepped onto the stage, in Tampa, Florida, to deliver a tribute to Ronald Reagan, at the 2012 Republican National Convention. You’d have had to see it to believe it. Here are the duo’s rehearsed comments:
CALLISTA: Thank you for that warm welcome. What a wonderful tribute to President Reagan, and the spirit of the American people.
NEWT: It’s fantastic to see so many friends here: Friends from decades of service to the party, service in public life, and those who have helped us over the past few years. And we’re delighted that tonight we come together to once again renew the American spirit, and put real leadership back in the White House this November.
CALLISTA: The election of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will decisively move America to a better future. Remembering President Reagan reminds us that the choices we make matter, and this year is as important as the choice we made in 1980.
NEWT: Over three decades have passed since Ronald Reagan was first elected to the White House, yet the impact of his leadership is still evident today. While in office, President Reagan had three major goals: To restore the economy; To revive the American spirit; And to defeat totalitarianism, spreading democracy throughout the world.
CALLISTA: By remaining true to his convictions, through his belief in the American people, and with tremendous optimism, President Reagan achieved these goals.
NEWT: It’s striking how President Carter and President Obama both took our nation down a path that in four years weakened America’s confidence in itself, and our hope for a better future.
CALLISTA: Both weakened the respect for America abroad; Both increased government programs, filled with waste and inefficiency that failed to produce results; Both made promises they couldn’t keep … AND, as a consequence of ineffective policies, both were unable to revive our economy and create jobs.
NEWT: For example, both crippled American energy production when there were better ways to develop and use our abundant energy resources. … The Romney plan for North American energy independence is exactly the kind of bold, visionary leadership Reagan believed in, and it’s what we need now.
CALLISTA: The Reagan Presidency also teaches us that there is a better way to put Americans back to work, create millions of jobs, and help every American achieve success. The Reagan program of tax cuts, regulatory reform, and spending controls worked.
NEWT: Reagan’s belief in small business owners and entrepreneurs is a remarkable contrast with Obama’s class warfare rhetoric, massive deficits, and a passion for taxing those who create jobs. The Romney plan for a stronger middle class has deep roots in Reagan’s approach.
CALLISTA: Reagan’s commitment to reform welfare and to create a work-requirement was a major achievement when he was Governor of California. His pioneering work led to the historic welfare reform bill Congress and the President passed 30 years later. This bipartisan legislation reduced the size of government, made our country more competitive, and put millions of Americans back to work.
NEWT: Tragically, President Obama gutted this achievement. And, like Jimmy Carter, over four years he produced little effective legislation that brought the two parties together in the interest of the nation. Obama’s waiving of the work requirements in welfare reform is just one example of his direct repudiation of President Reagan’s values. Obama’s proud of what he’s done, and of his politically motivated partisanship, but he should be ashamed for putting politics before people.
CALLISTA: Governor Romney will return America to work, and to the principles that are at the core of President Reagan’s legacy. … This year the American people will once again have an important choice to make.
NEWT: Now each of us must commit ourselves in the tradition of Ronald Reagan to come together. President Reagan said, “There is no substitute for victory.” And this November, we cannot settle for anything less. … This is the most critical election of our lifetime. Each of us must do our part now to insure that America remains, in the tradition of President Reagan, a land of freedom, hope, and opportunity.
Thank you and God bless.
UPDATE I: And Jeb Bush rehabilitates his brother, George Bush. Judging from the loud applause, that character (“W”) needed no rehabilitation.
Ron Paul: “You have to be like Santa Claus and give them something; I want to give them their freedom back.”
“Ron Paul changed the conversation. Ron Paul was right. If we had 435 Ron Pauls in Congress, we would not have a national debt of $16 trillion.”
These, above, are excerpts from the 2012, RNC tribute to Congressman Paul.
The ghoul McMussolini is speaking now. He is calling for perpetual war under the guise of nation building and democratization, and for war in the cause of democracy as the obligation and hallmark of American greatness and justness.
Turn the sound off and on, off and on. You won’tmiss a beat, as McCain beats the tom-tom for war, war, and more war.
What a crazed creep.
Rand Paul preceded McMussolini. Here is the text of his speech, courtesy of the Washington Post. Have at it on Facebook:
RNC 2012: Rand Paul delivers speech to GOP convention (Full Text)
Wednesday, August 29, 4:32 PM
Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) remarks to the Republican National Convention on Aug. 29 in Tampa, Fla. , as prepared for delivery.
“When the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, the first words out of my mouth were: I still think it is unconstitutional!
The leftwing blogs were merciless. Even my wife said — can’t you please count to ten before you speak?
So, I’ve had time now to count to ten and, you know what — I still think it’s unconstitutional!
Do you think Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas have changed their minds?
I think if James Madison, himself — the father of the Constitution — were here today he would agree with me: the whole damn thing is still unconstitutional!
This debate is not new and it’s not over. Hamilton and Madison fought from the beginning about how government would be limited by the enumerated powers.
Madison was unequivocal. The powers of the federal government are few and defined. The power to tax and spend is restricted by the enumerated powers.
So, how do we fix this travesty of justice? There’s only one option left.
We have to have — a new President!
When I heard the current President say, “You didn’t build that,” I was first insulted, then I was angered, then I was saddened that anyone in our country, much less the President of the United States, believes that roads create business success and not the other way around.
Anyone who so fundamentally misunderstands American greatness is uniquely unqualified to lead this great nation.
The great and abiding lesson of American history, particularly the Cold War, is that the engine of capitalism — the individual — is mightier than any collective.
American inventiveness and desire to build developed because we were guaranteed the right to own our success.
For most of our history no one dared tell Americans: “You didn’t build that.”
In Bowling Green, KY, the Taing family owns the Great American Donut shop. Their family fled war-torn Cambodia to come to this country. My kids and I love to eat donuts so we go there frequently.
The Taings work long hours. Mrs. Taing told us that the family works through the night to make donuts. The Taing children have become valedictorians and National Merit Scholars.
The Taings from Cambodia are an American success story, so Mr. President don’t you go telling the Taings: “You didn’t build that.”
When you say they didn’t build it, you insult each and every American who ever got up at the crack of dawn. You insult any American who ever put on overalls or a suit.
You insult any American who ever studied late into the night to become a doctor or a lawyer. You insult the dishwasher, the cook, the waitress.
You insult anyone who has ever dragged themselves out of bed to strive for something better for themselves or their children.
My great grandfather, like many, came to this country in search of the American Dream. No sooner had he stepped off the boat then [sic] his father died.
He arrived in Pittsburgh as a teenager with nothing, not a penny. He found the American Dream: not great wealth, but a bit of property in a new land that gave him hope for his children.
In America, as opposed to the old country, success was based on merit. Probably America’s greatest asset was that for the first time success was not based on who you were but on what you did.
My grandfather would live to see his children become doctors, ministers, accountants, and professors. He would even live to see one of his sons … a certain Congressman from Texas … run for President of the United States of America.
Immigrants have flocked to our shores seeking freedom. Our forbearers came full of hopes and dreams. So consistent and prevalent were these aspirations that they crystallized into a national yearning we call the American Dream.
No other country has a Dream so inextricably associated with the spirit of its people.
In 1982, an American sailor, John Mooney, wrote a letter to his parents that captures the essence of the American Dream:
‘Dear Mom and Dad, today we spotted a boat in the water, and we rendered assistance. We picked up 65 Vietnamese refugees. … As they approached the ship, they were all waving and trying as best they could to say, ‘Hello America sailor! Hello Freedom man!’ It’s hard to see a boat full of people like that and not get a lump somewhere between chin and bellybutton. And it really makes one proud and glad to be an American. … It reminds us all of what America has always been — a place a man or woman can come to for freedom.”
Hung and Thuan Tringh are brothers and friends of mine. They came to America on one of those leaky, over-crowded boats. They were attacked at sea by pirates. Their family’s wealth was stolen. Thuan spent a year on a South Pacific island existing on one cup of rice and water each day until he was allowed to come to America. Now both of these men and their families are proud Americans. Hung owns his own business and Thuan manages a large company. They are the American Dream.
So, Mr. President, don’t go telling the Tringh family: ‘You didn’t build that.’
When the President says, ‘You didn’t build that,’ he is flat out wrong. Businessmen and women did build that. Businessmen and women did earn their success. Without the success of American business we wouldn’t have any roads, or bridges, or schools.
Mr. President, you say the rich must pay their fair share. When you seek to punish the rich, the jobs that are lost are those of the poor and middle class.
When you seek to punish Mr. Exxon Mobil, you punish the secretary who owns Exxon Mobil stock.
When you block the Keystone Pipeline, you punish the welder who works on the pipeline.
Our nation faces a crisis. America waivers. Unfortunately, we are one of a select group of countries whose debt equals their gross domestic product.
The republic of Washington and Jefferson is now in danger of becoming the democracy of debt and despair. Our great nation is coming apart at the seams and the President seems to point fingers and blame others.
President Obama’s administration will add nearly $6 trillion dollars to our national debt in just one term.
This explosion of debt is unconscionable and unsustainable. Mr. President, we will not let you bankrupt this great nation!
Republicans and Democrats alike must slay their sacred cows. Republicans must acknowledge that not every dollar spent on the military is necessary or well-spent, and Democrats must admit that domestic welfare and entitlements must be reformed.
Republicans and Democrats must replace fear with confidence, confidence that no terrorist, and no country, will ever conquer us if we remain steadfast to the principles of our Founding documents.
We have nothing to fear except our own unwillingness to defend what is naturally ours, our God-given rights. We have nothing to fear that should cause us to forget or relinquish our rights as free men and women.
To thrive we must believe in ourselves again, and we must never — never — trade our liberty for any fleeting promise of security.
Author Paul Kengor writes of a brisk evening in small-town Illinois. Returning home from a basketball game at the YMCA, an 11 year old boy is stunned by the sight of his father sprawled out in the snow on the front porch. “He was drunk,” his son later remembered. “Dead to the world…crucified.” The dad’s hair was soaked with melted snow, matted unevenly against the side of his reddened face.
The boy stood over his father for a minute or two. He simply wanted to let himself in the door and pretend his dad wasn’t there. Instead, he grabbed a fistful of overcoat and heaved his dad to the bedroom, away from the weather’s harm and neighbors’ attention.
This young boy became the man – Ronald Reagan – whose sunny optimism and charisma shined so brightly that it cured the malaise of the late seventies, a confidence that beamed so broadly that it pulled us through a serious recession, and a faith that tugged so happily at all hearts that a generation of Democrats became Republicans.
The American Dream is that any among us could become the next Thomas Edison, the next Henry Ford, the next Ronald Reagan.
To lead us forward, away from the looming debt crisis, it will take someone who believes in America’s greatness, who believes in and can articulate the American dream, someone who has created jobs, someone who understands and appreciates what makes America great, someone who will lead our party and our nation forward.
I believe that someone is our nominee: Governor Mitt Romney.
As Reagan said, our freedom is never more than a generation away from extinction. If our freedom is taken, the American Dream will wither and die.
To lead, we must transform the coldness of austerity into the warm, vibrant embrace of prosperity.
To overcome the current crisis, we must appreciate and applaud American success. We must step forward, unabashedly and proclaim: You did build that. You earned that. You worked hard. You studied. You labored. You did build that. And you deserve America’s undying gratitude. For you, the individual, are the engine of America’s greatness.
Unlike these representatives, I was speechless. I didn’t know that these politicians stood for smaller government, fiscal responsibility, sound money, individual freedom, and fewer regulations.
My God! Where have these freedom fighters been all my life?
Back on terra firma, last I looked, the repugnant “W” Bush and his band of merry bandits had pushed the unconstitutional campaign finance-reform bill and “Sarbanes-Oxley Act” (a preemptive assault on CEOs and CFOs, prior to the fact of a crime); various trade tariffs and barriers; a Clintonian triumph of triangulation on affirmative action; they colluded with Ted Kennedy on an education bill; sponsored a prescription-drug benefit that would add trillions to the Medicare shortfall, and approved the Kennedy-initiated New New Deal for New Orleans, for which there was no constitutional authority.
Bush handed Obama “almost $11 trillion in Treasury debt, and deficits of more than $1 trillion.” “W” also looted at least $1 trillion from the insolvent Social Security trust fund. His contribution to the mortgage meltdown cannot be overstated. Under “W”, the right to pursue happiness became a right to happiness and a home.
Then there was the perpetual warfare into which Genghis Bush plunged this country.
I am well aware that the GOP is the party of promiscuous, indiscriminate immigration. Bush issued gold-embossed invitations to illegals which he and the McCain-Kennedy-Specter unholy trinity camouflaged as amnesty (where illegals are born-again as “guest workers” and then placed on a fast track to permanent residence).
Ironically, for their more or less open-borders policies, the GOP will get no return at the ballot box. Perception is reality. Democrats have been successful in painting Republicans as xenophobes.
Besides, as hard as they try, Republicans cannot beat Democrats in the art of robbing Paul to pay Pedro.
Republicans are the drag queens of politics. Peel away the pules for family, faith and fetuses and one discovers either, what economist and political philosopher Hans-Hermann Hoppe calls “neoconservative welfare-warfare statists and global social democrats. Or, conversely, national socialists of sorts, who fuse economic protectionism, populism and support for the very welfare infrastructure which is at the root of the social rot they decry.”
They can’t expect freedom-loving Americans to believe them. Unless they repent, publicly.
Ron “Paul’s quick tour of the convention floor was evidence that his supporters aren’t exactly the type to give up easily,” reports Kevin Glass, Managing Editor of Townhall.com.
These supporters are being made to cede to RNC bosses:
Rep. Ron Paul’s delegates are trying to mount a floor fight over new GOP rules designed to limit the ability of insurgent presidential candidates to amass delegates to future Republican conventions.
They are getting help from other delegates, though it is unclear whether they can rally enough support to challenge the rules on the floor of the convention Tuesday.
Mitt Romney, the party’s presumptive nominee, has plenty of delegates to win any floor fight. Nevertheless, party officials agreed to ease the new rules on Monday in an effort to appease some disgruntled delegates. Still, the dispute could provide an unwanted distraction for party leaders who would rather focus on promoting Romney and defeating President Barack Obama.
“It’s so heavily scripted. This is not the forum in which they want to air the proverbial dirty laundry,” said Juliette Jordal, a Paul delegate from Minnesota.
