MITT ROMNEY did not give the most compelling speech at the Republican National Convention, which ended in Tampa tonight. That honour goes to Marco Rubio, the fresh-faced young senator from Florida, who thrilled the crowd with a pitch-perfect tribute to his Cuban-American family, whose sacrifices and hard work had enabled him to live an “American miracle” of success. Mr Rubio—whose performance marks him out as a face to watch in a party desperate to increase its appeal among Hispanic Americans—carefully assured voters who backed Barack Obama in 2008 that they had not been fools four years ago, merely over-optimistic. “Our problem with President Obama isn’t that he’s a bad person,” Mr Rubio told the crowd, more in sorrow than in anger, before elegantly inserting the knife, adding: “By all accounts, he too is a good husband, and a good father, and thanks to lots of practice, a good golfer. Our problem is not that he’s a bad person. Our problem is he’s a bad president.”
The candidate’s wife, Ann, takes the prize of most touching speech by a member of the Romney family, with a lovingly-crafted address on the first full night of the convention in which she talked about the decency and generosity of the man who first wooed her at a high-school dance by making her laugh.
Mr Romney, who has in his day displayed a somewhat clunky, even alarming sense of humour, did not even give the oddest speech of the convention’s closing night. That palm was snatched in a rambling, ad-libbed surprise appearance by Clint Eastwood. The film director and actor at one point pretended to interview an invisible Mr Obama on stage, calling the unseen president “crazy” and mocking his record on national security, job creation and environmentalism. Mr Eastwood redeemed himself in the eyes of the crowd with a brutally effective dismissal, delivered deadpan: “When somebody does not do the job, you’ve got to let them go.”
Yet—to focus on what matters—Mr Romney did not need to set records for soaring oratory tonight. As Republicans at the convention argue, Americans have heard many fine words from Mr Obama over the past four years. Now they are ready for a little less poetry and a little more prose.
It is more important, Republicans argue, that voters head into the election season overwhelmingly convinced that the economy, and indeed their country, is headed in the wrong direction.
Mr Romney’s task was to persuade Americans, and indeed his own party, that he is just human enough to be trusted with fixing that mess while keeping in mind the problems and concerns of ordinary people. To achieve that, the presidential nominee had to overcome his natural reserve and explain who he is (and why his close allies insist he is a good and admirable man and inspirational leader). Before he could cross that threshold of likeability, Mr Romney had to rebut months of attacks from the Obama campaign about his lucrative career as a private-equity boss, which Democrats have portrayed as one long saga of ruthless predation and job-destroying short-termism.
Mr Romney did well enough on both fronts. There were clunky moments, notably a tribute to the recently deceased lunar pioneer Neil Armstrong, of whom he said: “The soles of Neil Armstrong's boots on the moon made permanent impressions on our souls.” But he talked well about his admiration and love for his father, the former Michigan governor George Romney, his voice cracking when he recalled his father’s death (revealed when his mother did not find her daily gift of a rose from her husband, waiting on her bedside table). Stepping away from his campaign’s usual talk of his sterling business career, he admitted to “too many long hours and weekends working”, while raising “five young sons who seemed to have this need to re-enact a different world war every night”. Travelling a lot for his job, he would try to call and offer support, he recalled. “But every mom knows that doesn't help get the homework done or the kids out the door to school.”
He also explained his career move from business consultancy to private equity investment with unusual clarity, explaining how: “My partners and I had been working for a company that was in the business of helping other businesses. So some of us had this idea that if we really believed our advice was helping companies, we should invest in companies. We should bet on ourselves and on our advice.”
Yet the effect was almost undercut by the strange amateurism of the convention’s stage management. By far the most powerful moments of the closing night involved personal testimonials from a series of old friends and fellow Mormons who had been helped by the Romneys. One elderly couple, a stout, unfashionable pair whose voices quavered with nerves and emotion, described quietly how their son had died from cancer aged 14, and how the busy, successful Mitt Romney had devoted nights and weekends to visiting the young man, at one point solemnly agreeing when he asked for help drawing up his will, so he could leave his skateboard to his best friend.
The normality and humanity of the couple, and the remarkable generosity they described, moved many in the convention hall to tears. Bafflingly, it was scheduled so early in the evening that it was not broadcast on prime-time television, throwing away a golden opportunity.
The crowd, made up of delegates from the states, activists and elected Republican officials, was also oddly muted at times, and streamed home from the convention centre in a business-like mood, rather than an ecstasy of excitement.
Mr Romney does not inspire passionate excitement, it is not who he is, even among a party that is now united behind him as their candidate after a bruising primary season. But he does not have to. Like a private-equity boss coming into the offices of a newly acquired company, he remains an outsider to many diehard Republicans, who do not trust his conservativism and frankly prefer his young vice-presidential running-mate, the Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan. But even tough, outside executives can win respect if they achieve success. Republicans leaving Florida want more than anything else to defeat Barack Obama who they believe is rendering their country un-American with too much welfare, government spending and defeatism about American greatness.
Mr Romney, a businessman, played up to the business-like ambitions of his party. In the most effective single swipe of the night, he recalled the impossibly grandiose promises of the 2008 election.
"President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet,” he told supporters, amid mocking laughter. “My promise is to help you and your family.”
It was not a transformative, race-changing convention, in short. But as attention now turns to the Democrats’ own gathering next week in Charlotte, it was more than good enough to keep Mr Romney in the race.
(Photo credit: AFP)
via Democracy in America http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/08/mitt-romneys-big-night?fsrc=gn_ep
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