So I finally had to do it. Had to watch an entire speech by Mitt Romney. I realized I had only heard the little sound bites that they throw out on the news, but I had never listened to an entire speech from him. Here's the one I listened to:
Things I liked:
- We will stop the unfairness of politicians giving taxpayer money to their friend's businesses.
- The part where he talks about getting to know us and what we care about (I genuinely thought this sounded genuine).
- Being American means something different to each of us, but it means something special to all of us.
Things I didn't like (note that Democrats can be just as guilty of these):
- The implication that as president he could control the economy. I generally don't think the president can control the economy - he (or she, someday!) can tinker at the margins, but a lot of the economy depends on larger trends beyond the President's reach.
- He spent most of his time bashing President Obama instead of expounding his own ideas. A subset of this is that he continually implied that President Obama's views were anti-American. It really really REALLY bothers me when politicians of any stripe accuse the other side of anti-American views.
- Running for government office while disparaging the role of government! I mean, you are going to be the most visible member of the Federal government, yet you don't think it can do anything good?
All in all, I didn't think he was as stilted and stuffy as the media make him out to be - sure, he's not the most charismatic guy EVER, but I thought he did a pretty decent job of getting his points across without sounding like a robot. So, have you all watched an entire speech of someone who you disagree with?
(Note: I realize this speech was short, only 15 minutes. But, it's better than a 30-second sound bite. I'm baby-stepping it to a full blown speech someday, maybe)
Things I liked:
- We will stop the unfairness of politicians giving taxpayer money to their friend's businesses.
- The part where he talks about getting to know us and what we care about (I genuinely thought this sounded genuine).
- Being American means something different to each of us, but it means something special to all of us.
Things I didn't like (note that Democrats can be just as guilty of these):
- The implication that as president he could control the economy. I generally don't think the president can control the economy - he (or she, someday!) can tinker at the margins, but a lot of the economy depends on larger trends beyond the President's reach.
- He spent most of his time bashing President Obama instead of expounding his own ideas. A subset of this is that he continually implied that President Obama's views were anti-American. It really really REALLY bothers me when politicians of any stripe accuse the other side of anti-American views.
- Running for government office while disparaging the role of government! I mean, you are going to be the most visible member of the Federal government, yet you don't think it can do anything good?
All in all, I didn't think he was as stilted and stuffy as the media make him out to be - sure, he's not the most charismatic guy EVER, but I thought he did a pretty decent job of getting his points across without sounding like a robot. So, have you all watched an entire speech of someone who you disagree with?
(Note: I realize this speech was short, only 15 minutes. But, it's better than a 30-second sound bite. I'm baby-stepping it to a full blown speech someday, maybe)
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