Paul Ryan found himself at 10:25 p.m. last night with an all-but-impossible act to follow — an address to the convention by Condoleezza Rice that will rank as one of the towering political speeches of our time.
Rice knit together themes of American purpose abroad and American determination at home in an entirely new way — suggesting that America’s weariness about its role as world leader threatens the nation’s global safety in the same way that “lax standards and false praise” in a declining educational system threaten America’s economic primacy.
In her hands, the much-debated term “American exceptionalism” became not only a description of this nation’s unique founding principles but also a charge to keep, a calling to fulfill — as it was fulfilled by the story of her life as a child born in segregation who rose to become secretary of state.
The oratory was dazzling, as was the delivery — her voice trembled with nerves but she spoke her words with the fluency of a classical pianist playing octave runs. Most important, the speech was elevating, a call to national purpose — and a clear indication that Condoleezza Rice will soon re-enter public life in a big way.
There was no way Ryan’s speech could match Rice’s for dramatic effect. Fortunately for him, Ryan wasn’t aiming for uplift and he wasn’t swinging for the fences. This was a painstakingly designed effort to plant the flag of the Romney-Ryan ticket as close to the political center as possible.
He sought to make his conservative Republican political approach resonate with the undecided and independent voters who are clearly willing to give Mitt Romney a chance.
At the speech’s start, he made it clear he understood and sympathized with those swing voters who thought voting for Obama in 2008 was a good idea.
His hometown of Janesville, Wis., was on the verge of losing a GM plant, and they all knew it. “Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said, ‘I believe that if our government is there to support you . . . this plant will be here for another hundred years.’ That’s what he said in 2008. Well, as it turned out, that plant didn’t last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day. And that’s how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight.”
Ryan was speaking to the sorts of workers who voted for Obama in 2008 and haven’t seen their lives improve — and telling them to give the other guy a chance to make things better.
The central charge against Obama was that rather than focus his presidency on job creation, he turned away from it after his stimulus passed, and spent a year fighting to pass ObamaCare — a program that cuts $700 billion from Medicare specifically to pay for other aspects of the bill. It was, he said, “the biggest, coldest power play of all. . . The greatest threat to Medicare is ObamaCare, and we’re going to stop it.”
Just as with the speeches of Ann Romney and Chris Christie on Tuesday night, Paul Ryan sought to broaden the political conversation to reach those who won’t simply vote Republican by force of habit or who hate Obama so much, they’ll drag themselves over broken glass to get to the polls. The Romney-Ryan ticket needs those who aren’t with them yet, or who don’t particularly dislike Obama, to feel comfortable voting a different way in 2012.
This convention has two purposes. First, it must rally the faithful and send them into the final two months of the campaign charged and inspired. Second, it has to make Mitt Romney not only an acceptable but a palatable choice.
That’s something Romney must do for himself tonight. But last night, like the night before, he got exactly the help he needed to lay the groundwork.