I spent last night in Gloucester County watching the Republican National Convention with a great group of county committee people and party leaders like Freeholder Larry Wallace.
Armed with a projector and a big, blank wall, we all sat around the room watching some of the freshest faces in the Republican Party, many of whom seem to be Governors, rally the troops for what is sure to be political war this year.
The headliners of the night were Ann Romney and our very own Governor Chris Christie.
A few thoughts…
Ann Romney was sent out to humanize her husband, a man who is sometime criticized for being a bit robotic. She knocked it out of the park. There are no better words to describe Ann Romney (at least politically) than “secret weapon.” The Romney campaign has largely kept her under wraps for most of the campaign. She has been there for each of Mitt’s primary victories to introduce him, but rarely has she been given the floor to present herself, and her husband, as the relatable and wholesome couple that they truly seem to be.
That strategy better chance, right now. Ann Romney should be sent on her own speaking tour. Her message was clearly being sent out to women everywhere to combat the phony “War on Women” being pushed by the Obama campaign. Somewhere in Chicago, David Axelrod was perched in front of a television set, watching Ann’s speech, and crying over his talking points. He is going to have to rewrite them. If the Romney campaign can get a repeat performance out of Ann Romney in front of crowds all over the country, the gender gap is going to shrink. Ann Romney gets an A.
After Ann Romney came the big moment we in New Jersey have been waiting for. Once it became clear that Christie would not run for President himself, the worst kept secret in politics was that he would either be Vice President or the keynote speaker at the convention. The latter, which was far more likely from the start, came true, and it was worth the wait.
Governor Christie’s speech, which you can read in its entirety here, is going to be hard to top, even by the nominee himself. Some in the media have been saying that the speech was too Christie-centric and not focused enough on Mitt Romney, I would submit that they are missing the point.
Christie mentioned Mitt Romney seven times in his speech, mostly toward the end when he began to wrap the themes into a neatly packaged endorsement of the Romney-Ryan ticket. He mentioned President Obama zero times, at least not by name. The reason for these low mention numbers? He did not need to bring them up.
Since the selection of Paul Ryan, this campaign has changed directions to be one about big ideas rather than personalities or referendums. Christie’s speech was a big ideas speech. He laid out the stark differences between the values of a future Romney administration and a continuing Obama administration, and he did it over and over again. Yes he mentioned New Jersey and his recored an awful lot, but why not? This is a prime time slot on the national stage. Governor Christie has great numbers here in New Jersey and his reform policies are working as intended to fix our failing government.
If voters across the US, who generally have a positive view of Governor Christie and the job he is doing here in New Jersey, make the connection between the result Christie is getting with the agenda Romney wishes to pursue, how could that be a bad thing for Mitt Romney? The fact is, the better Chris Christie does, and the more people know about it, the better off Mitt Romney will be, because Christie is one of Romney’s biggest and best cheerleaders on the stump.
That all being said, Christie has given stronger speeches. However, I may not be the best judge because at this point I have heard so many Christie speeches that I am just used to his style. I give our governor an A- for his speech tonight. The grade would likely be a bit lower since I have heard better out of the big guy, but most people across America were likely seeing him for the first time, and this was a great introduction. It was a great speech and almost perfectly fit its purpose. Now its time to run with the seeds that Christie planted and make this big idea campaign a winning campaign.
I was surprised as well by the Christie-centric remarks in the beginning, but he did wrap it up as a "big idea" position for Romney.
Unfortunately, ABC jumped on it and ran "Christie fails to mention Romney until 17 minutes into speech" as their headline and in the scroll banner during GMA this morning. And that was Diane Sawyer's first comment on the speech last night before they went to break.
I also wasn't sure what was going on with the Romneys' reaction to his speech. Their body language was reserved, and Ann looked a bit put out — I'm guessing because immediately after her speech about "love," Christie said "the heck with love, we're going for respect." I wondered if both speeches had been vetted by someone who could've prevented such a glaring contrast.
I didn't get to see comments from others in the MSM…
Chris gets a C+ tops if he was attempting to get Romney elected. Had very little theme to his speech, and mentioned Romney as an afterthought. His delivery was rushed and too aggressive at many points. As someone who is pretty independent, I was shocked to see him so off-kilter.
I thought Ann Romney and Christie balanced one another nicely — sort of a Yin/Yang. male/female balance. Think of how stupid it would have been if they reversed themes! However, Ann clearly won a lot more friends for the ticket — not just among women, but among men, too. Christie's "tough love" approach was more distancing and would have been benefitted enormously from a lighter touch and more humor. People would rather be made to laugh at something than sit there listening to a scold. Christie's bare knuckle approach is more effective in a head-to-head confrontation than in a convention speech.
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