The last night of the Republican convention focused, of course, on Mitt Romney's acceptance speech. I thought it was a good speech. It did not have the ideological focus that Paul Ryan brought the night before. Nor did it have the soaring rhetoric of a typical Obama effort from 2008. What it did was show Mitt Romney for who he really is: a direct, no nonsense problem solver, someone who can see the difficulties that we face and actually do something to help fix them. The contrast with president Obama was stark; Obama, after all, is a man who thinks that rhetoric is more important that accomplishments. After four years of talking about fixing the economy, Obama has done nothing to help. Perhaps the entire speech could be boiled down into one line that Romney spoke in which he said that four years ago, Obama promised to stop the rise of the seas and to heal the planet; after a pause Romney added that his promise was to "help you and your family." In other words, the pie in the sky rhetoric may have sounded nice, but now we need someone who knows what has to be done and who can actually do it. This ought to resonate with millions of folks across America who need hope right now.
Earlier in the evening, there were perhaps the most emotional section of the program, but a section that none of the networks televised. I had to watch it on C-span because even the cable channels cut away from it for the most part. I am speaking about the statements from two different families about how Mitt and Ann Romney had helped them deal with personal problems. One speech came from a couple who lost their 14 year old son to cancer about 25 years ago. They explained how Mitt Romney of their church had come to visit the boy repeatedly, how he had arranged an outing that the boy really wanted (in between hospital sessions), how he had drafted a "will" for the boy at the boy's request, and how, also at the boy's request, Mitt had delivered the eulogy at the funeral. Even after the boy's death, Mitt Romney kept checking on the parents to see how they were faring. It was an incredibly emotional story of a truly good man. The second speech came from a mother who related the tale of her daughter who was born three and a half months prematurely. Again, Mitt Romney was there to help; he did more than just visit in the hospital. On Thanksgiving, with their daughter still in the hospital, this family had not focused on the holiday. On Thanksgiving morning, the Romney's arrived with an entire Thanksgiving meal that they had cooked for the family. The baby survived and grew to be a woman. She suffered through her life, however with the aftereffects of her birth ordeal. She died at 26 in 2011 in California where she had moved with her parents over ten years ago. Here's the clincher: when she died, the Romney's took time out from the presidential campaign to come to California to comfort her parents.
These are amazing stories that we had never heard before. I could not help thinking about the contrast with Obama. Obama's past was built up into mythical proportions even though he really had not done much. Obama has a brother who lives in a hut in Africa in complete poverty. Recently, when the brother needed $1000 for medical treatment for his child, Obama did not help. Obama's aunt lived in Massachusetts, also in total poverty. Again, Obama did not help. The president of the United States gave the cold shoulder to his close family members. But the press told us what a great man Obama is. On the other hand, Mitt Romney lived his life actually helping others. The stories above are not about close relatives; these were folks in his church, nothing more. How many men would do what Romney did? But, being humble, Romney never publicized these stories. Instead, he had to withstand attacks from the Obama machine claiming that he is a cold and heartless plutocrat. Well, now the truth is out. The cold and heartless one is Obama, the man too busy campaigning to help his brother in need. Romney is the good man.
I hope the true story get out to America.
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