NPR: Romney: Throw Out the Liberals!

Romney: Throw Out the Liberals!

Mitt Romney, the conservative darling during the primary season, received a warm welcome from the RNC crowd tonight. His prepared remarks (quoted below) were packed with exclamation points, but not with subtlety. The word "liberal" appeared 14 times in the course of a less than 500 word speech, as Romney demanded regime change in Washington:

We need change all right - change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington -- throw out the big government liberals and elect John McCain!

Romney provided a lengthy explanation of what he sees as the liberal agenda, complete with call-and-response with the crowd that helped raise the energy level in the room. He capped off the liberal-bashing section of the speech with this:

Liberals would replace opportunity with dependency on government largesse. They grow government and raise taxes to put more people on Medicaid, to take work requirements out of welfare, and to grow the ranks of those who pay no taxes at all. Dependency is death to initiative, risk-taking and opportunity.
It is time to stop the spread of government dependency to fight it like the poison it is!

It's time for the party of big ideas, not the party of Big Brother!

Romney also merged criticism of McCain's Democratic opponent with a nod to the national security issues that are a central theme of the McCain campaign's argument that Barack Obama is not prepared for the presidency.

And at Saddleback, after Barak [sic] Obama dodged and ducked every direct question, John McCain hit the nail on the head: radical violent Islam is evil, and he will defeat it!

The crowd responded to that line with a big cheer and chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!"

And Romney didn't miss a chance to swipe at Obama's wife Michelle:

Just like you, there has never been a day when I was not proud to be an American.

Romney's rhetoric wasn't nuanced, and it wasn't original. But it was good old-fashioned GOP red meat, and the crowd devoured it, rewarding him with raucous cheers and a series of standing ovations.

-- Evie Stone

9:06 PM ET | 09- 3-2008 | permalink

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What preposterous nonsense!! (Please imagine other more fitting words) Conservatives have had all 3 branches of government and they have totally screwed up. Romney is one of the biggest phonies in the party. I will give McCain credit for realizing that and not choosing him as VP.

Sent by Mike Fleissner | 10:24 PM ET | 09-03-2008

By January 2009, the entire corrupt,disgusting, RNC of liers, thieves, and destroyers of the Contitution of the United States will be sent packing to the outhouse basements from where they all originated and learned their trades of filthy politics.

Sent by Doug Burger | 11:07 PM ET | 09-03-2008

Romeny has a point when referring to this, as the Democratic party holds the majority in the House and Senate. Republicans have control of the Executive Branch and the Judicial Branch, but not the Legislative Branch, aka Congress. The Democrats have failed to use their power in Congress, and its time for a change. If a Democratic Congress is not willing to do anything, lets go back to a Republican Congress. Or better yet, an American Congress, one thats not obsessed with Party affiliation but with doing good for America.

Sent by Joshua Collins | 11:32 PM ET | 09-03-2008

Hmmm ... it seems odd (ludicrous, stupid) that the Republicans are blaming "Liberals" for everything that is wrong in Washington. Talk about denial! They have been in power for 8 yrs now, as Mike F has pointed out, and every effort by liberal Democrats to straighten things out have been obstructed by conservatives. Do they really think people are that dumb? and maybe many are, from the looks of the cheering crowds at the RNC. Palin's beating of the dead horse of anti-FDR era policies was ridiculous ... pounding away at the old drum of how Democrats want to take all your money, they want to raise your taxes, and are all for big govt (what a boring scare tactic). The Reagan /Bush people have stolen and squandered more tax-payers money than any cartel in history.

Sent by emelia berol | 1:23 AM ET | 09-04-2008

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