Yesterday was noteworthy primarily as a reminder that having basic competence in speech delivery is no greater a hindrance to a political career than having basic policy competence might be, a lesson amply demonstrated by intensely awkward performances by Perpetually Crabby John McCain, Official Senate Turtle Mitch McConnell, and a host of lesser Republican luminaries. We saw George W. Bush's budget director dispensing budget advice with absolutely no mention of how that worked out the last time around, and George W. Bush's National Security Adviser give us a speech on various foreign policy that proved she had not really learned anything in particular about foreign policy since about midway through Bush's first term; I am fairly certain that is the time frame she cribbed her current speech from, merely pasting in a Mitt Romney here and there to make it fit the mood of the day. Kudos for an excellent delivery, however.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — They seem to be on every street corner. Police officers riding bicycles, horses and golf carts that look like baby Humvees. Metal barricades surround all of Tampa’s government buildings. State police, FBI, the Secret Service — some in riot gear — throng the city’s streets surrounding the Republican National Convention.
Some, from visitors to downtown business owners, wonder if the convention security is all a little too much.
“I think it’s overwhelming,” said Ellen Brown, the owner of a bookstore in downtown Tampa. “It seems oppressive to me.”
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