Apologies, but not from Tampa

I apologize for the anemic posting here of late. The Republican National Convention, well, was information overload, and I needed a few days to digest.

Between the events in Tampa and the holiday, I feel like I've been run over by a triptophan truck. I fully intended to post a series of the best RNC speeches courtesy of YouTube. But I'm assuming by this point, almost everyone who has any interest at all has seen them.

I'll briefly say this: Probably my least favorite speakers at the event were the Romneys themselves. Ann and Mitt's turns at the podium were the Lifetime Movie Network equivalent of political speeches. They were too soft and squishy. They were all potatoes and no meat.

I know the goal of both speeches was to introduce the pair to America. That's why we had to hear the heartwarming stories about Mom Romney's daily roses from Dad Romney. That's why I was forced to hold back my gag reflex when Ann said, "Tonight I want to talk to you about love.I want to talk to you about the deep and abiding love I have for a man I met at a dance many years ago."

That's not what I needed or wanted to hear. I wanted hell-fire and brimstone speeches with specific details about how to turn this ship we call America around. I wanted to hear how Mitt plans to take control of this ship's rudders and pulls her from the brink of an iceberg. Their speeches weren't re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. They were discussing the china patterns of the dinnerware.

Unfortunately, I think that's the kind of garbage America wants to hear -- some lovely music by which to drown. And before the George W. Bush and Barack Obama presidencies, maybe it's what I needed to hear as well.

But not anymore. I fully recognize what Obama has done and continues to do to our country. While we're debating whether Robert Pattinson should get back together with KStew, Obama is issuing executive orders. With a swipe of his pen, he's giving himself control over all private communications in the country. He's requiring vehicle emissions standards that will essentially put us all on bicycles.

And when his pen isn't busy, quietly robbing Americans of any semblance of freedom, he's elevating our national debt to unsustainable levels while promising the world to everyone.

So, I don't really care about Mitt's childhood. I don't want to hear it from the media: I don't care that he bullied a kid once a million years ago. Or from him. I want to hear that he recognizes this country's problems and that he has a plan to address them. And then, I want SPECIFICS. Don't tell me you're going to lower the national debt -- tell me what you're going to cut and give yourself a deadline.

That said, because Obama is such a disaster, I don't need to be sold on Mitt at all. The Republicans could've put forward a monkey for the nomination, and he'd get my vote. If Bonzo was good enough for Reagan back in the day, he's certainly better than Obama now.

Paul Ryan's speech was much more to my liking, because it came a tiny bit closer to being about issues instead of personalities.

A word or two about the Kansas delegation:

Every night after the convention closed down, the Kansas delegation would have a reception at the hotel complete with speakers and mingling. These kept the delegates up all hours of the night. Many of the after-hours events lasted well into the next morning. The get-up-and-go-go of some of the delegates was truly inspirational. Apparently to be a mover and shaker in the Kansas GOP, one must be able to go long hours with very little sleep!