RNC Convention - Day 2 - snoozefest

So the other day I gave the RNC Convention a grade of D when it came to PR.

Day two was a tad better, but not enough to move the needle and change my view of the convention so far from a PR perspective.

The three big speeches the other day were Rand Paul, Condolezza Rice and Paul Ryan.

Condolezza Rice Keynote: C

Rice's speech was fine all in all. It's the standard a strong military means a strong America speech.

I thought it was a bit absurd that she argues, as do the Republicans, that Obama has a weak, unclear foreign policy. Of all the things to knock Obama on, foreign policy is not one of them (at least not from Republican perspective, from a Democrat perspective it would be).

I mean, Obama:

• Passed NDAA
• Kept Guantanamo open
• Has kept all the wars going
• Was fine getting involved in new wars 
• Has done nothing to broker peace with Iran and Israel
• Has not cut military spending

I mean, Obama has done everything a Republican president would do when it comes to the military and foreign policy.

So the Republicans look pretty silly when they knock him as weak on foreign policy. 

Rand Paul keynote: C

Rand did his typical constitutional lecture about freedom and liberty. Once again, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't all that moving either. The big issue is that the Republican party is not about freedom and liberty, they are mostly about corporatism and militarism. 

So Rand's words and impact on viewers or the GOP base are almost a non factor.  

Paul Ryan keynote: C

So Paul Ryan is a mixed bag. His speech was very good, he ripped in to Obama's failures as a president.

He talked about the lack of job creation, of the USA's financial downgrade, of Obama increasing the national debt from $10T to $16T in just four years, etc. 

So on that front he pretty much gets an A. 

However, the reason I've rated him as a C overall is that while he attacks Obama he failed to explain his role in all those failures. 

As the HuffPost points out, on so many of the things Ryan bashes Obama over, Ryan himself was part of the problem. 

• The Republicans voted for the stimulus that raised the national debt.
• The Republicans helped create the stalemate over the debt ceiling that caused the US financial rating to be lowered.
• The Republicans created the situation of high unemployment (that Obama may have failed to solve, but he didn't create it). 
• The Republicans are just as much in the back pocket of Wall Street and the military industrial complex as Obama is
• The Republicans engage in dirty politics and lobbying just as much, if not more so, than the Democrats

So the problem with Ryan's messaging is that it's myopic and shows little to no willingness to acknowledge that both sides, Republicans and Democrats, have collectively run America in to the ground. 

He's doing exactly what he is accusing Obama of doing (ie. always pointing the finger at someone else).  Obama blames everything on Bush and the Republicans. And Ryan is blaming everything on Obama and the Democrats. 

So ultimately, Ryan's speech was like listening to one thief tell you that you can't trust the other guy because he's a thief. Overall it's absurd. 

So while Ryan's messages are bang on, the fact that his past actions make those messages hypocritical, ultimately give the value of his speech an F. 

So combine the A and the F and overall I'd give his speech a C. 

Overall: Still a D

From a PR perspective, I'd still give the convention a D overall. We'll see what today holds with Romney speaking. Maybe he'll pull this thing from the fire. 

But if this is the best the Republicans have to offer up, I'm beginning to think that Obama is going to win his second term. Which is mind boggling given his horrible performance and the fact that he's broken almost every election promise he made.