Saturday, August 11, 2007

Mitt's Show   [Rich Lowry]

Right after the candidates had lined up on the stage and they all had to leave again so Mitt could stay and give the first speech, they filed off and Mitt shook each of their hands like he was thanking them for coming to his party—which, in a sense, they had. Mitt's presentation walked the fine line, as he campaign often does, between the endearingly hokey and the off-puttingly cheesy. Not surprisingly, he's very, very, very fond of Iowa. I'm not sure whether I want to hear about whether he's in his wife's "wildest dreams" or not, but, in general the more he highlights Ann the better. His speech was solid, standard-issue conservative fare, hitting on the three legs of the stool—the military, economy, and families. He talked about them all in terms of "strength" (also a Giuliani theme, of course). I was favorably impressed, as I have been before, by his forthright talk on illegitimacy; he's one of the few major politicians who will talk about it. By the end, he was beginning to rush and his voice got a little hoarse and it was hard to keep up with the gusher of hope, optimism, and freedom. Then, he launched into one of his staples—the uplifting Salt Lake Olympics story. I had heard this one before, but it's still a good one. Bringing up Ann when he was done was SOP. Bringing up the Olympic athlete was a bit much. Bringing up his entire family was overkill. But it's his show, so why not?

08/11 02:44 PMShare