Calling Out

Ryan Express
“So our opponents can consider themselves on notice. In this election, on this issue, the usual posturing on the left isn’t going to work. Mitt Romney and I know the difference between protecting a program and raiding it.” (NYT, 8/29/2012)

Best line from Ryan's acceptance speech.

“College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life,” he said midway through his speech,” eliciting laughter and delighted applause. (NYT, 8/29/2012)

...Or maybe this one was.

After School
Wednesday night, Rice endorsed another would-be president unschooled in world affairs – conspicuously, embarrassingly so – and this one is already seemingly in thrall to the hard-liners. (Bill Keller, NYT, 8/29/2012)

One would have to go back and read Keller's previous columns to learn what he said - or didn't say - about candidate and community-organizer Obama's foreign policy experience. But that would be cruel and unusual punishment. Here is what we know about said foreign policy experience: once nominated, Obama gave a speech in Berlin.

Meanwhile, as a business man and governor, Romney traveled the world and met with world leaders. He has maintained a close relationship for years with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, one of America's closest allies...whom Obama privately (and publicly) derides. 

Hold The Pepper
The two speeches — peppered with statements that were incorrect or incomplete — seemed to signal the arrival of a new kind of presidential campaign, one in which concerns about fact-checking have been largely set aside. (NYT, 8/30/2012)

Loved this one. About twenty-six paragraphs on Republican "inaccuracies" about Obama's record. One mention, one, of Obama distortions. And no mention whatsoever of Obama campaign assertions that 'Romney is a felon...a tax cheat...a murderer.' Just another day at the New York Times. 

Bouncy
Romney’s was not a great speech, but it did at least familiarize its hearers with aspects of his personal journey of which they were unaware. He is likely to get some bounce out of his convention, but it will be short-lived as media attention shifts abruptly to the Democrats’ conclave in Charlotte right after Labor Day. (E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post, 8/31/2012)

Best comment from a reader about Dionne's predictable Liberal analysis of Romney's speech: "E.J....you scared, bro?"