What We Learned From the Republican National Convention.

We already knew the GOP is willing to tackle the tough issues that Obama and the Democrats refuse to deal with. This was reinforced by Paul Ryan at the Republican National Convention, but for most this is not new information. The convention speeches had attacks on President Obama’s record that were done in a tone of sadness about the damage done, rather than anger. Again we all knew president Obama is a disappointment. What we did get to see is more about who Mitt Romney is and we saw the many rising stars in the Republican Party.

President Obama in his advertising is claiming, sure Romney is a highly successful leader, but he is out of touch, he is evil, he outsourced jobs a Bain Capital, he hates minorities, and he hates women.  If you watched the convention I did, all of the above claims were proven beyond a doubt as false, except that it is true that Romney has been a highly successful leader at everything he has done.

Being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints it is laughable to suggest that Romney is out of touch and does not understand the problems of average people, given that he has served as a Bishop and Stake President. At the convention there were many opportunities to see clearly that Romney understands the needs of average Americans and that he is really good man. There were three great examples on Thursday in the non-primetime part of the convention. One opportunity to see this came when a firefighter and his wife talked about how Mitt had visited his son and helped his son as their son was dying. (1) Another was when Pam Finlayson talked about how the Romney’s helped when her premature baby was in the hospital. (2) Then Grant Bennett one of Romney’s assistants when he was a bishop spoke. He talked of the work Romney did as a Bishop, meeting many hours every week with people about the burdens of life including unemployment, sickness, financial distress, and loneliness. (3) These and more gave convention viewers a look at who Mitt Romney is, a really decent man who is not out of touch and does understand challenges the average American faces.

There were several speakers that discussed Mitt Romney’s true record at Bain Capital. The truth is that Mitt Romney’s record is that of turning things around. Bain capital took many struggling companies then reorganized them to give them a chance. Another part the Bain Capital story is that he helped new companies get a start, like Staples. (4)

President Obama is trying to divide America as Rubio said, “Hope & Change has been replaced with Divide & Conquer”. President Obama wants us to hate rich people, he wants women to hate men, and minorities to feel threatened. Truthfully what we need is leadership to improve the growth of the economy, reform entitlements, and cut spending to avoid debt crisis. These are things we all need done regardless of our wealth, sex, or any other way the Democrats seek to create division. This convention demonstrated that the Democrats are wrong in pursuing their war on women. They try to claim Romney does not support women.  One example of Romney’s commitment to diversity was that he had Massachusetts ranked # 1 in the percentage of women in top positions in the state. (5)

The last thing we saw is that the Republican Party has many rising stars that are having success with reform and improving their states, like Scott Walker has here in Wisconsin. It will be interesting who the Democrats have speak at their convention, given that they have no successful leaders following liberal principles. Even their best star and last big success story, former President Bill Clinton, big success involved cutting capital gains taxes, welfare reform ,and other conservative ideas. Maybe they will have Pat Quinn speak as he has followed the liberal playbook.  Or maybe have Pat Quinn and Jerry Brown get up and explain that they are leading their states to bankruptcy and President Obama is doing the same for our country.

The challenge for Romney, post convention, is to get the truth about his record, the need for reform, who he is, and his plan for America to a wider audience of voters. President Obama’s challenge is the opposite he needs to hide who he is, he needs to distract from his record, and confuse people into thinking Romney is somehow even scarier than a second term for a failed president that is in over his head. At this point I think the truth will prevail and Romney will win.

1)      http://www.c-span.org/RNC/Events/Ted-and-Pat-Oparowsky-at-the-2012-Republican-National-Convention/C3844139/

2)      http://www.c-span.org/RNC/Events/Pam-Finlayson-at-the-2012-Republican-National-Convention/C3844140/

3)      http://www.c-span.org/RNC/Events/Grant-Bennett-at-the-2012-Republican-National-Convention/C3844138/

4)      http://www.c-span.org/RNC/Events/Tom-Stemberg-at-the-2012-Republican-National-Convention/C3830821/

5)      http://www.c-span.org/RNC/Events/Jane-Edmonds-at-the-2012-Republican-National-Convention/C3806214/