Republicans and Democrats have wrapped their presidential nominating conventions, and they couldn’t have been more different.
From the staging to the messaging, and even the entertainment, the Democrats and Republicans put on display two very different visions of America. In fact, the one thing the two confabs had in common was that both were focused squarely on President Barack Obama.
One of the conventions was animated by anti-Obama fervor, and an almost angry rallying cry to turn him out of the White House at all costs. The other was more festive, and the delegates were united around Obama, and his call to keep the country moving forward, even if the pace of change is slower than everyone, including the president and his administration, hoped.
At the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida last week, speaker after speaker lambasted the president over the state of the economy and jobs. They excoriated him as unprepared, incapable and clueless when it comes to job creation. They drew roars of approval from the crowd every time they derided the evils of “Obamacare.” There were no specifics as to what Republicans would do differently — pointedly, no mention of vouchers replacing Medicare. And positive statements about their candidate drew only muted applause.
In many ways, Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, was an afterthought. He was the primary subject of one gauzy video presentation (an actually well crafted piece about his family) and just a handful of speeches — a few by parishioners of his Mormon church, talking about times Romney has helped others, a speech defending Bain Capital, which was at least tangentially about Mitt, and the opening night speech by Romney’s wife Ann, during which she repeatedly lauded “that boy who brought me home from the school dance.”
Other than that, Romney was barely mentioned, including most notably, by Tuesday’s closing speaker, New Jersey governor Chris Christie. Even Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s highly-anticipated speech seemed more like an audition for the 2016 election than a send-up to the current nominee. And of course, there was former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whose speech provided a rare reminder that at one time in history, there existed something called “the Bush administration.”
Overall, the Republican convention, with its almost entirely white, older, more well-heeled crowd, seemed like a three-day journey back in time. There were waves of nostalgia about Ronald Reagan. Large, black and white photos of the Romneys as a young couple in the 1950s served as the backdrop when Ann Romney spoke. Onstage were Olympic athletes from the 1980s, former American Idol contestants from seasons it’s hard to recall, and of course, octogenarian actor Clint Eastwood talking to a chair.
This was your grandfather’s convention, and its message, in essence, was “that guy in the White House is to blame for all of America’s problems, and we don’t like the looks of his America. This country was meant to be ours, not ‘theirs,’ and we’re taking it back.” There was no mention of America’s wars (and pointedly, Romney left the wars and the men and women fighting them, out of his acceptance speech).
Democrats focused on Obama, too, only their message was: “we love this guy.”
The Democratic convention in Charlotte survived rain hazards, a platform fight over the mention of God and just what is the capital of Israel, and a move on the final night from a large stadium to the smaller venue used on the first two nights (smaller meaning a capacity of just over 20,000).
But with superior stagecraft (the gargantuan screen behind the speakers displayed unique motion graphics depicting their home states, and the set design had a cinematic quality, compared to a pretty clumsy red, white and blue get-up in Tampa for the Republicans) even Republican political watchers agreed the Dems put on a better show.
The feel was younger, and more racially diverse. The delegates rocked out to the Foo Fighters, were mellowed by singer James Taylor, heard a video narrated by Tom Hanks, and were treated to a mini-show by soul singer Mary J. Blige.
But it was in the speeches that you truly saw the difference between the two parties’ approaches. The Democratic speakers attacked Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to be sure, accusing them of wanting to take the country back to an era few Americans recall fondly. (Civil rights legend John Lewis may have spoken most poignantly to that point, when he spoke about the denial of access to the polls through voter ID laws.)
Former President Bill Clinton put it the most plainly, summarizing the GOP message as: “We left him a total mess. He hasn’t cleaned it up fast enough. So fire him and put us back in.”
But while Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, former Ohio Sen. Ken Strickland and others offered thundering broadsides against the GOP, the Democratic convention was unified by each speaker’s expression of fulsome support for Barack Obama the man. He was not an afterthought, and encomiums to him were not limited to Michelle Obama’s deeply personal speech, or Joe Biden’s expression of deep loyalty to his president.
And the Democratic convention was conspicuous for its embrace of the military men and women who are fighting in Afghanistan, and those brought home from the fight in Iraq. In a dramatic moment on the convention floor, the crowd waved American flags and signs saying “thank you,” repeatedly chanting “U-S-A! U-S-A!” while members of the armed forces were assembled onstage. It was a reminder that sadly, the far right today finds it difficult even to celebrate the defeat of al-Qaida, or the killing of Osama bin Laden, or the ending of an unpopular (and most believe, unnecessary) war in Iraq, so long as those things were accomplished by a Democratic president.
It was the mark of a significant shift for a party not typically seen as the pro-military faction, but which has staked its claim on the care of those who have come home, while Republicans, including Arizona Sen. John McCain, used their stage time at the RNC convention to spoil for war with Iran, and renewed conflict with Russia.
When it was Obama’s turn to speak on the final night of the Democratic convention, he made a plaintive call for more time, saying it was his supporters, and not him, who had pushed the country toward slow but real change over the last four years. He riffed over and over: “you did that!” — seeking to invest those who voted for him in 2008 in his past accomplishments and future success.
Obama called the election the starkest choice in a generation: when Americans must choose whether to lurch backward to a bygone era that set this country up for the 2008 collapse, or go forward as a unified nation.
Backward or forward? The two conventions seemed to agree: that is the question.
Follow Joy Reid on Twitter at @thereidreport.