OPINION:
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
TAMPA, Fla. — Forget the rapier ripostes of Chris “Red Meat” Christie. If you want passionate partisanship, look no further than — Alex Schriver?
“We’re out of jobs, we’re out of ’hope,’ and we’re out of ’change.’” BAM!
“We need to be out making our mark on the world. Instead, our generation is having a mark made on us.” POW!
“Half of my generation didn’t get up and go to a job this morning.” WHAM!
The young Mr. Schriver, chairman of the College Republican National Committee, came out of the chute breathing fire as the Republican National Convention kicked off in earnest Tuesday. Hours (and hours and hours) before the feisty New Jersey governor served up his own spicy dish of GOP talking points, Mr. Schriver was already ladling out bowlfuls of acerbic soup.
He wasn’t the only one. While the day outside was sunny, with a warm breeze blowing across the waters of Tampa Bay, inside the GOP arena there was a steely sense of reckoning in the air — a chill draft ruffling the red, white and blue bunting.
One after another, members of Congress (and those seeking the job), Republican leaders, GOP women’s advocates and young party activists took the speaker’s podium to lash President Obama for four years of failure. Over and over, they hammered out-of-control spending, unemployment, high taxes, the failed Solyndra — and especially Obamacare.
“We have more despair. For 42 months, unemployment has been above 8 percent. We keep waiting for it to improve — and waiting and waiting and waiting,” said John Archer, a GOP candidate from Iowa.
“At this critical hour in our nation’s history, we can’t afford to re-elect Barack Obama — a man who believes that America is the problem,” said David Rouzer, a congressional candidate from North Carolina.
“Like a man who is lost but won’t ask for directions,” joked Rep. Tim Griffin of Arkansas, “President Obama has no earthly idea how to solve this country’s problems, yet he beams with confidence in his cluelessness. And who’s his navigator? Joe Biden?”
Richard Hudson, another congressional candidate from North Carolina, succinctly ripped the president’s signature health care reform law. “You can’t support Obamacare and say you’re saving Medicare.”
As to Democrats’ (and the mainstream media’s) contention that Republicans are waging a “war on women,” Rae Lynne Chornenky just scoffed.
“Well, which women? Is it the 850,000 women who have lost their jobs under President Obama? Or the women whose family household income has dropped by $4,300 since the president took office?” asked the president of the National Federation of Republican Women.
“If there is a war against women, it is President Obama who has waged it.” WHAP!
Republican National Committee Co-Chairwoman Sharon Day waxed poetic. “In 1775, our Founding Fathers rose up to establish our liberty. Today, we need to defeat a president whose actions threaten our liberty!”
And Lisa Stickan, chairman of the Young Republicans, made a case for support from her peers.
“There’s a war on young people, a war on paychecks and a war on our ability to succeed. We’re working to build our own businesses, struggling to pave our own way, only to learn that, according to this president, we didn’t build it,” she said.
Wife and mother Deb Fischer, a Senate candidate from Nebraska, cut deep with a single line: “We’re on track to become the first generation that passes on fewer opportunities to the next.”
Fathers also got in a word edgewise — and lamented their children’s plight.
“Today, record unemployment is dashing the dreams of our college graduates. Instead of moving onto their dream jobs, they’re moving into their parents’ basement,” said father of six Rep. Sean Duffy of Wisconsin. “The debt we’re passing off to our kids is a shameful legacy.”
Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah said the president’s solution to all problems is “more government and more taxes.”
“This isn’t the American Dream. Our nation isn’t just one good tax increase away from prosperity,” he said.
As the sun lowered over the river, still hours before the main speakers would take the stage, Rep. Tim Scott of South Carolina summed up the dreams of the throngs in the Tampa arena. “Our only ’hope’ is to ’change’ the current resident of the White House.” BLAM!
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at jcurl@washingtontimes.com.
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