A liberal view of the RNC: Day two

I could sum up day two of the RNC as, long on flair, dangerously short on truth. Unpacking the content of the speeches, and indeed the entire misleading theme of the convention, willl take some time so for now I’ll just give this proud liberal’s general impression of the speeches I listened to last night.

Not sure I’ve ever seen an entire speech given by either Rob Portman or Tim Pawlenty. Now having sat through their efforts of last evening, I can see why they didn’t make the final cut for the VP slot.

Huckabee was pretty good. He made a suprisingly strong defense of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. Didn’t expect that. And I saw more than one reference on the social nets to his lost opportunity at the nomination this go round. Many believed he could have won had he chosen to run.

Paul Ryan is getting rave reviews, at least for style points. I didn’t find him all that dazzling myself. Of course, my reaction may be influenced by my knowledge that nearly everything Paul Ryan said was pretty much a bald lie, but that aside, I just didn’t feel the energy so many others apparently found in his delivery.Still Mr. Ryan did his job quite efficiently. He stayed on script. He told the convention delegates what they wanted to hear. And in the end all conventions are about drumming up enthusiam in the troops. He did that well enough.

But as far as I’m concerned, Condi Rice stole the show last night. She’s a brilliant speaker. She lit up the room. Electrified the crowd. It was like the disaster Ms. Rice helped preside over during the Bush years never happened. They loved her.

To the extent that these convention speeches are seen as a sort of tryout for the next presidential election I’d say Condi Rice won — hands down. And this closer to Condi’s speech leaves me wondering, though she’s long denied it, whether she wants to be the next in line:

And on a personal note– a little girl grows up in Jim Crow Birmingham – the most segregated big city in America – her parents can’t take her to a movie theater or a restaurant – but they make her believe that even though she can’t have a hamburger at the Woolworth’s lunch counter – she can be President of the United States and she becomes the Secretary of State.

Sounds like a subtle declaration of candidacy to me.