Thursday, August 30, 2012

The Wednesday Evening Speeches

I listened carefully to the Rice and Ryan's speeches last night.  Rice's remarks about our weak foreign policy positions during the current administration were serious and disturbing.  Especially interesting was her comparison of our government's lack of activity in negotiating free trade agreements during the last four years with how busy and effective China has been in that activity.  I would like to know more about that.  I knew some of her story of growing up in the South and achieving such a remarkable level of success in our country, but it was good for her to describe it and very encouraging.

I liked Ryan's speech too.  He is winsome, fresh, but seems so young to me.  That's the way that the President seemed to me four years ago.   Obviously Ryan and Obama come from strikingly different backgrounds and Ryan aspires to being the VP not to the Presidency.  But my mind jumped to that comparison.

Like Obama, Ryan promised big in his speech.   Although the promises are different, are Ryan's similar to Obama's in being so naive?  If R and R are elected and we get a Republican Congress, will  this gigantic ocean liner of a government be able to answer a helm turning away from its relentless, malignant growth?  Can they move America away from the grip of its self-indulgence.  Will we tolerate the sacrifices to which Christie referred the night before?  What does the American character really look like right now?

The first clue will be whether the R&R ticket will even be elected.  If so, that will be a good start, but the Republican version of hope and change has a perilous future as well. 

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