Rand Paul up now.  I think it’s a mistake for the GOP to invite him.  More on this in a minute.

Rand opens by talking about Obamacare being unconstitutional.  Now moving back into last night’s dead horse, “You didn’t build that.”

Rand is now talking about Tang… or something.

Pundits were speculating as to whether Rand would try and branch out to bring his father’s supporters into the GOP.  Absolutely none of that so far.  Just standard talking points about how Obama hates the free market.

Rand now talking about the debt.  That’s good I suppose, of course, it’s not like Romney has a serious plan to reduce it…

“Republicans must acknowledge that not every dollar spent on the military is necessary or well spent.”  MUCH BETTER!

Camera just found a guy in the crowd with a Ron Paul Revolution t-shirt.  Pretty sure that cameraman will be fired within minutes.

Now time for some standard GOP Reagan-worship.

Rand now becomes the 47th speaker to say “We did build that.”

“You, the individual, are the engine of America’s greatness.”  Not a bad closing line.  Too bad Romney probably doesn’t agree.

A pretty boring speech by Rand’s standards.  Virtually all of them have been.  If the GOP’s goal is to put people to sleep, they’re succeeding wildly.

So, the coverage I’m watching is on Glenn Beck’s online network, The Blaze, they’re asking if this speech “puts to bed any concerns that Ron Paul’s supporters won’t support Mitt Romney.”  LOL.  NOBODY in the media understands the Ron Paul movement.  A lukewarm endorsement from Rand changes nothing.

Rand did absolutely nothing to reach out to libertarians and/or encourage his father’s supporters to vote for Romney.  His speech was only marginally different and more interesting than Scott Walker’s…

Waiting for that Ron Paul tribute video so I can turn this off for awhile and go do something more productive…

A couple wounded warriors are now talking.  “We need leaders who will invest in defense and not abandon it.”  Right, that’s the problem our country has right now, not enough investment in defense.  What a joke.

John McCain now up.  I honestly can’t believe this guy was even allowed in the building, much less invited to speak.  What are these people thinking?

Seriously, why would you want anyone to associate you with this failure?  All it will do is remind people of the similarities.  McCain and Romney are both big government progressives.  They are both Keynesians.  They both favor military aggression and wars of choice.  And they are both losers who are going to get destroyed by a socialist.

“It is our willingness to shape world events for the better that has kept us safe.”  Yeah, sure John.  All those military bases in the middle east sure kept people in New York safe didn’t they…

Now he’s talking about helping prevent disease and poverty.  Is that code language for foreign aid?  Yeah, that’s another thing that we certainly need more of…

I honestly don’t know what Republicans dislike about Obama’s foreign policy.  He hasn’t ended the wars.  He hasn’t closed Gitmo.  He hasn’t repealed the Patriot Act.  McCain is speaking in generalities but won’t name a single specific thing Obama has done that’s supposedly so terrible for national security.  Presumably because he can’t.

Now he’s complaining about the potential future cuts.  That’s not Obama’s deal.  That was due to Congress completely failing and setting up the unconstitutional “super-committee”  Congress, you know, where John McCain works?

Now he’s complaining about Syria.  What does he want exactly?  A ground invasion by the US military?  If that’s what you want John, just say so.  Stop skirting the issue.

This speech is a disaster.  I’d say that it’s going to cost Romney in the polls, but fortunately for him hardly anyone is watching this crap…

If people in the audience don’t like the fact that Obama is President, they should be booing this man out of the building.

Rand did nothing to convince Ron Paul supporters why they should vote for Romney. McCain then came in to remind them why they absolutely shouldn’t.

How many decades have politicians been insisting that government has to “live within its means just like Americans do.” And yet, if you propose a budget that balances the budget IN 20 YEARS they call you a dangerous extremist. The more they say it, the further from reality it gets. When will people wake up?

Okay, I’m done waiting for this video. I’ll catch it on Youtube later. Taking a break from this for a bit…

John Thune was surprisingly good. Kept it simple, promoted individualism, bashed Obama, stayed very personable.

One of The Blaze’s pundits just described Obama as using “the fatal conceit.” I don’t think anyone else on the panel got the reference.

So apparently the Dr. Paul tribute video aired while The Blaze was having their pundits talk about nothing. Remember that the next time Glenn Beck describes himself as a libertarian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ1aXD3_cVw – Why would you air this at a Romney party? To remind us of all the greatness we COULD have had?

If the GOP was really interested in courting former RP supporters, they’d be better off not inviting Rand and not mentioning Ron at all. Their best hope is that all the RP supporters just plain forget who he is. Any and all references to him will instead, just remind them how much better he is than Romney, and motivate them to NOT support Mitt, but stay home, write in Ron, or support Gary Johnson. They don’t understand that we’re actually serious about this, and that we won’t be won over by some little video or by throwing a bone to Rand.

Apparently Tim Pawlenty is next, so feel free to take a break and do something more interesting for the next twenty minutes, like bang your head against a wall.

And now we have Mike Huckabee. Yet another reminder why lovers of freedom are not welcome in the GOP.

It’s incredibly appropriate that tonight, with a speaking lineup that highlighting John McCain, Tim Pawlenty, Mike Huckabee, and Condy Rice, the theme is “We Can Do Better.” Yes, we can. It’s called Paulfest.

Huckabee complaining about the national debt. What’s Romney’s plan to fix it? Is he going to balance the budget? Did Bush? What are we talking about here?

Just in case John McCain wasn’t enough to remind you of the failures of the Republican party, here’s a Bush stooge!

This speech by Condoleeza isn’t even worth commenting on.

Condy is complaining about how China is signing many trade agreements and the United States is not. You do not need a treaty to have free trade. In fact, the exact opposite is true.

“Energy Independence” is a nonsensical goal. Global division of labor is good. Nobody is demanding food independence or clothing independence, are they?

Also, that pink dress is really not very flattering…

What hard decisions? The Patriot Act? The Iraq war? What? Why are these Republicans who are supposedly so proud of their achievements refusing to name them? Why not stand by them with pride?

Enough about the Hurricane. Totally immaterial to these events. Stop trying to prove how compassionate you are.

Okay, the New Mexico governor earns points for referencing concealed carry…

This lady actually seems pretty decent. Keeping it simple, not saying anything ridiculous.

“He did build that” (in reference to the national debt). One of the better spins on a tired theme!

Here comes Paul Ryan. Actually in a suit.

“Opportunity for the young and security for the old” are conflicting goals. The only way the government provides security for the old is by stealing from the young.

“I’ve never seen opponents so silent about their record,” Well I can certainly agree with that.

Too many applause breaks. Really interrupts the flow of the speech.

Here comes the promises of job creation. Government does not create jobs. This is a false premise perpetuated by both parties and the media.

Ryan keeps harping on the stimulus. I’d like to see him promise that the Romney administration would never engage in stimulus spending. He won’t, because they won’t.

I was wondering when Ryan was going to get to professing his undying love for medicare, a socialist ponzi-scheme.

“The greatest threat to medicare is obamacare” then I guess we should keep Obamacare!

“Medicare is a promise and we will honor it.” Remember, this is the RESPONSIBLE guy who is going to balance the budget.

“It ends with a housing crisis they didn’t correct.” And how exactly is the government supposed to “correct” the housing crisis, Mr. Ryan?

More boring cliches. Hate on Palin if you want, but at least she was interesting.

“Our rights come from nature and God and not from government.” 100% true. But do Romney’s policies reflect this?

“We can make the safety net safe again.” No you can’t. It’s a ponzi scheme. It will collapse.

I was pretty unimpressed with that speech. It offered little besides the standard GOP talking points.

Well folks, that’s it for tonight. See you all back here tomorrow for Mittens himself!