Previously on Mittsterpiece Theatre

There are innumerable lists of the lies in Ryan's speech already posted since Wednesday night, but as usual, Chait, who wrote the definitional article on Ryan the defining article on Ryan gets the big picture as well as the small details.  

Money quote: Incredibly, the larger theme of Ryan’s speech was to assail Obama for failing to take full responsibilities for this state of affairs — Obama is “shifting blame,” “blaming others.” It is the single largest motif of Ryan’s speech. Let’s review: Ryan helps to create a massive structural deficit, repeatedly and almost single-handedly prevents a solution, then runs for vice-president, blaming Obama for the structural deficit and further blaming him for his unwillingness to agree that this is all his own fault. The really amazing thing is that it could possibly work. Paul Ryan's Large Lies and One Big Truth nymag.com 

Hertzberg masterfully deconstructs "We Built It." Republican Convention Slogan www.newyorker.com

This video is so funny I nearly choked on my own vomit. Cool Ad Watch andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com  

Kinsley breaks down how the Republican platform endorses the execution of women who have abortions. Republicans and Abortion: A Brief History  www.bloomberg.com   

Romney's Sister: It's safe to vote for my brother because he's a liar. Jane Romney: My Brother Won't Ban Abortion www.nationaljournal.com   

Though an Obama supporter, nine year old Dybbuk is not a partisan: "Abraham Lincoln was a Republican; it's possible they could change again."  

However, Wednesday night during Rand Paul's speech he turned to me and said "that guy's a dick, right?" 

THE SON ALSO RISES

Craig Romney is wheeled out to prove that Mitt's son speaks Spanish.

That's true, and Mitt's dad was born in Mexico.

Maybe we do need to see Mitt's birth certificate   

The Gingriches 

Newt and Callista sound like they are introducing the award for best Cinematography. 

God they are going on --someone strike up the band, please!     

Jeb 

It's nice that someone at the convention acknowledged Dubya, even if it was his brother. 

Jeb's been on education for a while now, and hasn't said anything that couldn't be said by Arne Duncan.  

And now the pitch for “school choice” finally comes by talking about choosing milk.

Having watched to many kids come out of NYC parochial schools barely functional in English because the non-religious curriculum is treated like gym class, all I can say is that milk is one thing--but I subsidizing Gatorade is quite another.  

The Personal Narrative   

Mitt’s former pastoral assistant sounds a lot like Ned Flanders without the moustache.

Bor-diddley--oring. 

The parade of Mormons is now followed by the fans of Bain Capital 

And now a brief acknowledgement that he was once a Governor—no mention of health care.   

The Good, The Bad and The Peculiar 

Someone should tell Clint that the empty chair tactic is usually used when you invite someone and they don't show up. But Mitt says it's wrong to crash the other guy's convention.

Clint also makes fun of the President for going into Afghanistan after the Russians had such a disaster there.

Though I think we had to go, I have to ask which President he's talking about.  

Clint makes fun of lawyers being pols; he doesn't seem to know Romney has a law degree too. 

Why is everyone on MSNBC, including Schmidt, getting so outraged over a vaudeville show; although, to be fair, if the Dems did the same thing with Bill Maher, they'd be excoriated.   

Marco Rubio   

Rubio: Obama plays too much golf.

Do they really want to make an issue of vacations? Compared to whose?

Apparently people come to America to get away from the tyranny of universal health care

Democrats are divisive and are trying to impose the flaws of the rest of the world upon us.  

If you don't believe in G-d, you're not a real American  

And Now, The Next Leader of the Free World  

He's chosen man with a big heart as his running mate.

Was Ryan dropped from the ticket?  

Romney: Americans come together after elections

Someone should have told Mitch McConnell.   

Immigrants are all right, as long as they are Cubans.   

Romney criticizes the disaster wrought upon us by Dubya, and pledges to address it by reinstating his policies.  

Romney talks nostalgically about the great days of America during the years of Johnson and Kennedy, whose legacies he proposes to toss into the dust bin of history (along with those of Ike and both Roosevelts).  

Family section:  Mitt's dad was a great man -- the policies he proposed as HUD Secretary would today put him in the left wing of the Democratic Party.  

Romney's Five Point Plan:

1) Drill Baby Drill.

2) Planned Shrinkage of public education.

3) More free trade and more protectionism.

4) Cutting the deficit, while…

5) lowering taxes (Sort of like losing weight while eating ice cream) and denying health care to 30 million people.  

Mitt: Unlike Obama, I understand that America has freed other nations from dictators

Khadafy might dissent.  

I will stop abortion, abolish same sex marriage advance Christianity and deny the existence of climate change.  

I think he's just promised another war.

Foreign policy promise most likely to be broken: being tough on Putin.  

Mitt promises a return to a bi-partisan foreign policy

Which party, pray tell, is at fault today for our current lack of a bi-partisan foreign policy?