The Democratic National Convention took place in Charlotte, North Carolina from Sept. 4 to 6, and the differences between our hopeful president Obama and our conservative Mitt Romney have never been so apparent. A painfully long speech from our former president Bill Clinton led to a stumbling attempt at speaking from our current vice president Joe Biden. Yet both of these speeches topped that of President Obama.
Clinton’s speech was just too long. The crowd’s exuberant cheers toward the beginning slowly declined to obligatory yells as his speech dragged on. Although Clinton did make a few important points about the economy, his only argument for Obama’s reelection was that “America just doesn’t feel it yet,” referring of course to the many policies he instated these past four years. He also made the bold statement that “No president could’ve fully repaired the damage Obama inherited” and that he just ran out of time. How is this supposed to make voters feel better? He couldn’t do it, so no one can? If anything, this proves a level of incompetence and a lack of accomplishment.
Biden surprisingly kept the ramblings to a minimum. The Democratic Party is full of good public speakers, but Biden is not one of them. The second half of his speech included misleading statements he probably won’t be able to back up, such as Romney and Ryan “betting against the American people.” Besides this, there really isn’t much I can say about Biden’s speech. He stood up there for almost an hour and didn’t say anything, which is all I can really expect from our current vice president.
Finally there was President Obama’s address, filled with promising goals and hypocritical statements. In past conventions from either party, there is usually a strong argument entailing everything the current president has accomplished during his term; something that was absent in Obama’s speech. He clearly couldn’t talk about the economy or how the unemployment rate is incredibly high, which left him with only the unnecessary auto industry bailout to discuss. For which he took full credit for. All of the money spent on these companies was a complete waste in the first place because it did exactly what bankruptcy was going to do anyway.
There was reinforcement of the saying “We didn’t have enough time,” becoming quite repetitive as the speaking came to an end. Obama called out Romney for not giving the people a concrete plan on how he was going to fix our country and stated that because of this, his claims were empty. However, throughout Obama’s entire speech there were quite a few goals with no clear statement of what their plan was going to be either.
Essentially the message I got from this convention is that if you’re rich, you’re evil. In his speech, Biden claimed that Romney’s plan is to have a “tax cut for the very wealthy” because he believes it’s “OK to raise taxes on the middle class.” According to a fact-check by USA Today, Romney actually promises to lower middle-class taxes and also cut income tax rates by 20 percent. There was also a shrewd focus by both Biden and Obama on the military and how Romney didn’t mention the troops in Afghanistan in his speech, even though it was mentioned by countless other speakers.
Overall, this greatly anticipated address was hollow and disappointing, lacking the stuff to make America believe that we are actually going to achieve anything. It seems the president’s supporters, like Clinton, care more about this election than the president does. I give Obama an ‘A’ for showing up, even though it didn’t seem like his heart was really in it. Yet, as to the content of his speeches, he failed to reach me personally as to why he should be reelected. There was no assurance that the promises he made at this convention are to be any different than those unfulfilled promises from 2008. Our country needs someone reliable rather than someone who just ran out of time. These are the things voters today should be thinking about before they go to the election booths.
all the time i used to read smaller articles or reviews that as well clear their
motive, and that is also happening with this article which I am reading here.
Either you just didn’t want to listen or you didn’t understand Clinton’s speech because although it was long it was the most informative speech of either convention. And yes Romeny does promise to lower middle class taxes but if you give the wealthy and middle class a tax cut how is he going to balance the budget?
Oh! And Lauren Richey, the author of this article-
You should second-guess your statement about Clinton’s speech being “too long.” The man is right up there with JFK and others. There’s not one American that you’ll meet, in this world, who doesn’t wish for another chance of Clinton taking office. Many would be proud to hear him speak again.
Don-
This article was an obvious attack on Obama with critism about his speech being dull! If that isn’t similar to a republican’s “anti-obama” opinions then I don’t know what country you’re living in.
At least Obama had relavant things to say about what he needed to do when he continues the next four years! Most of Romney’s speech was about his family. What about what you’re going to do when you’re president? Obama actually spoke about his plans to improve the country, the economy, etc. Obama’s speech had actually invovled us, the people. Sorry for the republican minds who believed it was dull. Really though Romney, no offence, but who cares about your family? Talk about what you’re going to do for America!!!
Clinton took every* shot
Clinton took ever shot that Romney threw at Obama and counteracted it with facts and the truth. Sorry if Clintons speech took “painfully long” for your liking, however it takes a while to sort through the BS that Romney calls the truth.
This article which you wrote is a one sided argument which “lacks luster” in my opinion. There are conservative Republicans who are coming out in the past weeks claiming to support Obama over Romney. Reasons are Romney has a “secret” plan which is suppose to solve our economic problem. He claims he is a business man who will save our economy if we just “trust” him. Like the millions of workers he laid off from Bain Capital when he sent their jobs overseas (which is one of reasons we are in the crisis in the first place). But we all should “trust” Mitt to do the right thing! We are suppose to trust a man who won’t release his own tax information, mainly because it proves he is one of the only few Americans (%1) who have flourished in the past four years.
Mitt wants to lower taxes when the economic equation which will help stimulate the economy clearly states raising taxes is inevitable. Romney doesn’t care what he adds on the to the debt bomb of America, he cares about one thing and one thing only, personal gain.
It’s amazing when people sit back and see the problems with the economy & the war oversees and immediately relate it to Obama’s fault. Are we forgetting the about the man (Mr. GWB) who ran this country into the ground for eight years before Obama? Even FDR couldn’t fix this economy in a four year term.
I’d personally choose to vote independent if I didn’t feel it be a wasted vote in this two party system. However I can’t stand to see Americans be blinded by Romney’s lies and propaganda. Obama is not perfect, although please name me one person/president that could fix and 8yr + economic crisis in one four year term.
What it boils down to is the FACT we need a President who judges SUCCESS by not how much non-taxable money he sends to the Cayman Islands, but by how many peoples’ lives he/she has changed.
Don: examples, or congrats you’re the owner of a brand-new Straw Man.
Why is it when someone wants to discuss accomplishments instead of vague concepts like hope and change they are considered a right wing conservative? The DNC was lackluster since there has been little to boast about and provided very little details about what they would like to accomplish in the next 4 years.
@ Jane
1) Pandering: birther crap, healthcare flips of last weekend, changing pro-life stance to match his political race, “I hunt varmints.”…really, does any honest broker need me to go on?
2) Sociopathic: you do know how he made his fortune, correct? I don’t mean what the pundits, on either, side tell you either. I mean real research, with actual facts and figures. As an economist, I’d be happy to provide a few; though, I must say, Tiebbi just did a very decent job (thus I would likely just steal from him). As icing on the cake, contrast his business decisions with the good works he has done for his church, and the unbelievable difference points strongly to sociopath.
3) Cardboard cutout: if you can’t see it yourself, I’m afraid I can’t help you (you may already be 90% crushed pulp; seek help!). Seriously, though. I don’t hold it against a guy that he has no empathy, and cannot connect with a crowd (especially a guy with such a vastly different background); however, the fact remains, he is stiff and awkward. Who let the dogs out, really? REALLY? Is that how Mitt relates to a black audience? Awkward.
I live in NH; as does Mitt (among 3 other states). I am a five minute drive from the Mass border- you know, the state where Mitt pretends that he was never governor- and well do I know the record of Mitt Romney.
After reading half this article, it is obvious that you are a right wing conservative. I also stated that I could only read half the article because I really didn’t want to bare myself into reading what was, “trash-bashing” upon the Democratic convention. To me, the whole convention was a relief compared to having endured the Republican’s very boring convention. Not to mention, Obama did succeed in his speech. It was emotional and he is absolutely dedicating himself to not giving up but to restore America for the people.
Clinton’s message that the country ‘just hasn’t felt it yet’ was perhaps the most honest and rhetoric-free statement of the night. There was no quick fix, no magic bandage that could repair the economic problems that Obama inherited. Recovery from that magnitude of debt and damage takes time- anyone who claims otherwise is either selling something, or incompetent.
In his speech, Obama reminded us that he has already raised fuel efficiency standards for cars, doubled our use of renewable energy, cut oil imports by 1 million barrels a day (last year alone), and opened millions of acres to exploration for oil and natural gas. Continuing on with these policies could cut our oil imports in half in the next 8 years, not to mention create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the natural gas industry. Is this hollow? Abstract? Do the research, all the information is out there- continuing on a path he has already started down will see a vast economic improvement for both citizens and industry alike. And this is just one area, one part of what he’s done to turn our economy around.
Full transcript of his DNC speech can be found here:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/transcript-president-obamas-democratic-convention-speech/story?id=17175575#.UFHGrZY3ByI
Read through it, at your own pace and without all of the flashing lights and crowd cheers to distract you, and maybe you’ll find something you missed.
@Kris…you refer to Romney as a pandering, sociopathic cardboard cutout, yet YOU provide no examples to support your claim. A little of the pot calling the kettle black?
“the differences between our hopeful president Obama and our conservative Mitt Romney have never been so apparent.”
Way to make a statement you never back up. Romney was a pandering, sociopathic cardboard cutout, gushing generalities and platitudes, yet all you really write about is one side of your “apparent” difference (you know, the side with the engaged audience).