Some political speakers notable

Thankfully the political conventions are over.

I watched both conventions. The Republicans featured many new faces and they all handled themselves nicely, but what will be remembered the most will be the speeches of Ann Romney, who put a face on her husband that many haven’t seen; Condoleeza Rice, who in my opinion was the most effective speaker of all (in either convention); Marco Rubio, the senator from Florida and a rising star; Paul Ryan, who is probably the smartest guy in the race; and Clint Eastwood, who introduced some much needed levity to the proceedings.

In time, I’ll wager that Eastwood’s schtick will be remembered more than any of them, in either party. The "analysts," whatever that means, seemed disposed to criticize him but polls indicate that us "ordinary folks" liked it. While funny, it made two salient points: We, the people, own this country and the politicians work for us, and two, when someone isn’t doing their job we have to let them go.

The Democrats took much the same approach. Notable were Michelle Obama who gave a beautifully delivered speech, extolling the virtues of her husband; twins from Texas, well educated and articulate Hispanics, one the Mayor of San Antonio and the other a state legislator, espoused the Democratic dogma very well; Eva Longoria, who looked stunning (I couldn’t concentrate on what she was saying) and read her script flawlessly; and John Kerry, a partisan hack void of character and someone we can’t look to for the truth.

Then we saw Joe Biden, an Obama sycophant au fait, who gave an emotional testimonial to his boss, much of which will be greeted with a cocked eyebrow by the fact finders.

And then came Bill Clinton. Ah yes, Bill Clinton, who gave the kind of speech we have learned to expect from him - smoothly delivered, too long, and fodder for the fact finders - but in this case had all the earmarks of CYA, not for him but for Hillary.

If Obama gets re-elected, a scenario the Clintons prefer, she can run for his office in 2016, that is if he doesn’t mess up even more. If Romney wins, and doesn’t do well, she can run against his re-election. If Romney wins and does a good job, she can simply stay out of the fray. Smart. Clinton is one of the most accomplished politicians of our time and he knows what he’s doing. He doesn’t even like Obama.

The presidential candidates were in sharp contrast. Obama gave a speech that wasn’t up to his usual standards and was remarkably void of "meat." It was the same old promises and dreams, but if he didn’t keep his promises of four years ago, why should we believe him now? Promises and dreams don’t pay the bills - jobs do - and we have fewer people working now than we did when he took office. He hasn’t done a very good job but he wants four more years to keep doing what he has been doing. HUH?

Romney’s speech, while a little better than usual, won’t long be remembered either, but at least he provided us with a five point outline of what he proposes to do. Obama gave us nothing.

Gene Lemon

Yuma