The governor dedicated a short block of his keynote to the Romney-Ryan ticket, saying “we have a nominee who will tell us the truth and who will lead with conviction, and now he has a running mate who will do the same.”
But the bulk of Christie’s speech was the GOP superstar’s game plan to reform business as usual.
“There’s only one thing missing now. Leadership. It takes leadership that you don’t get from reading a poll,” he said. “You see, Mr. President – real leaders don’t follow polls. Real leaders change polls.”
“Now it’s our time to answer history’s call. For make no mistake, every generation will be judged and so will we,” Christie said. “What will our children and grandchildren say of us? Will they say we buried our heads in the sand, we assuaged ourselves with the creature comforts we’ve acquired, that our problems were too big and we were too small, that someone else should make a difference because we can’t? Or will they say we stood up and made the tough choices needed to preserve our way of life?”
“I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my children and grandchildren to have to read in a history book what it was like to live in an American Century,” he continued. “…Standing strong for freedom will make the next century as great an American century as the last one.”
As Christie wrapped up his speech, he urged the crowd to jump to its feet.
“If you’re willing to stand up with me for America’s future, I will stand up with you,” he said. “If you’re willing to fight with me for Mitt Romney, I will fight with you.”
“Tonight, we finally and firmly answer the call that so many generations have had the courage to answer before us,” Christie said. “…And, together, we stand up once again for American greatness.”
Y’know, it was pretty good, BUT I can see the sharp rat teeth of the Democrats work away at it, because Christie’s language did not reach out and grab EVERYONE’S collar and pull them into it, it can be read by those who want to, as being addressed only or mainly to rich white guys. He did NOT say, “Join us, join your neighbors, EVERYONE let’s all DO THIS!”
Needs some pros on his speechwriter team.
Let’s see — what were the predominate themes of Christie’s speech?
Respect over love. (After Ann Romney spoke positively about love.)
No.
Sacrifice.
Leaders are the key to American greatness.
Find me ONE thing that is inspiring there. Trashing love, saying no, burdening people more, and failing to see that American greatness comes from her people, not leaders. None of that is inspiring.
Looking at the speech from an objective view, rather than as a political cheerleader, this was a horrific speech (and that’s not even mentioning how Christie-centric it was).
@bender
Don’t agree with you — and I’m not Christie’s greatest fan, though I do believe he’s on the side of the good guys.
Respect, sacrifice and leadership are all central themes on the road ahead. We need all three: there’s no way out of today’s mess that won’t involve pain.
You may be correct to imply that delegates can’t handle reality and need pumping up (many look like they already have one foot in the grave), but If you’re suggesting fluffybunny platitudes about love, togetherness and the bluebird of happiness are the tools to restore our country, you’re dead wrong. Also, if you try to be all things to all voters all the time, you’ll be tossed aside — and rightly so.
Agree Christie was less than ecstatic about Romney — which is heretical behavior to Romney robots, but to nobody else. I also believe voters aren’t nearly as dumb as most of the delegates, so there’s no need to pander to the lowest common denominator.
There’s lots of room for adult behavior, and Christie did OK.
I thought it was a damned good, even great speech. It was about leadership.
You missed the most important part: yes we can.
It was Christie-centric, but I’m OK with that, Christie has worked miracles in New Jersey and if that’s a model for Romney in Washington, so be it.
So Christie gets an “A” on the teaching component, but a “B-” on the tub-thumping component of a campaign speech and keynote. The Republicans are offering competence and preservation, good conservative values, but there is no reason they cannot INVITE everyone to join the battle. They tend to just assume people will want to hire the competent. But the opposition offers free skittles and beer, and that gets a LOT of votes. Counter it with inclusiveness, with teamwork. The knock against Republicans (and the rich, etc) is that they are exclusionary – and there is some truth to this. Being exclusionary is no way to win *elections* even if it’s necessary to maintain quality. There’s the rub. The Democrats attack on this front every day. Their alternative – does not work! Yet, it’s not bad for winning elections.
At least Christie keeps saying “we” where Obambus is always just saying “I”.
I think you are missing the point and it is a HUGE one.
He is not saying you shouldn’t love.
He is saying that you should not seek to be loved by others but to be “respected” by them.
And he’s right.
And most Americans are sick to death of pandering politicians and those who seek to curry favor from the in crowd.
Christie, btw, has a pretty decent approval rating in big blue New Jersey.
Chris Christie: “Tonight, we choose respect over love.”
I think Christie was also taking about America’s place in the world. Obama seems to believe that because America elected his awesome self, the world will love America.
I prefer that the world respects America than love us. Today, most countries do neither. Obama has sucked up our enemies and pissed off our friends.
I think the response to Christie’s speech is no better exemplified that the look on candidate Romney’s face when Christie was giving it. Christie didn’t even give Romney a passing mention until the end. It was really all about him and 2016. Romney had the look of a candidate who knows he’s being set up to lose.
If only he weren’t an anti-gun nut…
I am not overly fond of Christie(his bizarre stance on guns, and his cozying up to certain Islamic elements too), but he has two good positions-the belief in personal and fiscal responsibility, plus honing in that RESPECT is the ticket – LOVE – not so much.
Meaning, in geo-politics the way to disaster is THROUGH seeking LOVE. The way to STRENGTH is THROUGH RESPECT.
And, this dovetails with much of my blog commentaries at http://www.adinakutnicki.com. For example -
http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/08/25/barack-hussein-obamas-toxic-brew-of-radical-leftism-third-world-fixation-and-devotion-to-islam-addendum-to/,
http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/08/21/the-paradox-pitfalls-of-liberal-democracies-in-a-time-of-immoral-relativism-the-havoc-wrought-by-leftist-academia-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/,
http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/08/20/americans-hope-to-change-the-occupant-of-the-white-house-an-anti-american-potus-runs-an-un-american-campaign-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/,
http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/08/15/america-could-lose-the-fourth-world-war-byprofessor-paul-eidelberg-no-commentary-warranted-adina-kutnicki/.
What all these commentaries have in common – plus many others at my site – is the realization that leftism via collectivism is sold to the public on ‘hope/change/love’, but is nothing more than power grabs by brutal, thuggish leaders.
In other words, to remain a viable, leader in the free world, there is NO other way than to remain very strong in the opposite beliefs, and to make sure ones opponents RESPECT & FEAR you at all times.
My main blog commentary today will skewer the RINO’s, and their part in the above. Stay tuned.
Many of my blog commentaries deal with the wreckage wrought by leftists in control of US power centers – http://www.adinakutnicki.com
Therefore, they invariably cut the US down to an indefensible size, chiefly through its military prowess and the general economy.
See ‘Barack Hussein Obama’s Toxic Brew of Radical Leftism…Third World Fixation…& Devotion To Islam’,
‘The Paradox/Pitfalls Of Liberal Democracies In Times of (im)Moral Relativism….’,
‘Americans Hope To Change The Occupant Of The White House..An Anti-American POTUS Runs An Un-American Campaign’,
‘America Could Lose The Fourth World War’ and so much more.
It goes without saying, leaders of nations who choose love, over respect AND fear, seek nothing more than the destruction of their nations.
Simple as that.
I wouldn’t say his views on 2A are mine but he did get a guy out of jail who was looking to do hard time on a perverse interpretation of the state’s gun laws by an anti-constitution judge.
‘Stand and fight with me, and I will stand and fight with you.’
Updated version of a Feudal Lord’s promise to his vassals:
http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_normansaxon.htm
Christie takes on the government worker unions. That theme plays well even in CA, where the powerful unions lost two major elections during the last go around. The real class warfare is between the government worker class and the rest us.
Christie did a great job all the while keeping in mind that Romney is the candidate not him.
I think its “Exhorts” not “Extolls”
Thank you! Sloppy use of language leads to sloppy thought patterns.
Ok, considering what he should & could have said, I’d give his speech a D+ at best. Where is the fight???
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Ok, considering what he should & could have said, I’d give his speech a D+ at best. Where is the fight?
Thought he was terrifici! A good first night.
Bridget Johnson, the word ‘extol’ (correct spelling) means to praise and doesn’t convey what I think you mean in your headline. I think the word you’re looking for is ‘exhort,’ which means to urge or to inspire.
Great speech.
I listened to the speech last night and I thought it was inspiring but not necessarily over the top. Why? If you think what would have happened if Governor Christie had taken the gloves off and speak in the language he has used in New Jersey the media TV stars like George Snuffleupagus would have criticized it even more than he did. If he was direct like he has schooled New Jersey news people, police officers and school teachers I would have been cheering but the bad press would be, bad. How do does a man like him tone it down and not appear to be less than the real Governor? He did not upstage Ann Romney which I thought was also important. As far as his gun control stance, he is as naive as New York, Illinois, California and DC to think that his state’s streets ARE safer to walk because law abiding tax paying citizens are defenseless. But it is not about safety, is it.
Christie seemed to be laying out the ground rules for reforming the GOP and business as usual bankrupting Washington D.C.. He seemed to be challenging Romney and the gathered to take on the tough issues, raise the tone and standards of electioneering, departing from the vindictiveness and collusion of the past (“there is plenty of blame to go around”), and putting a cork on the notion that a president should be concerned with the ever elusive ‘popularity’. The president is the commander-in-chief, and chief executive officer who can be fired, not a mega-promising rock star. “Respect” and the big ideas are a great theme.
Just listened to Chris Wallace on F&F deriding Christie’s speech, his main complaint being he did not mention either candidate by name much. I got something completely different, and quite positive, from the speech. This election more than any other needs to be about opposite ideologies, and in that respect Christie hit it out of the park. The fundamental question for November is, Entitlement focused HUGE Government Vs. Individual responsibility and much smaller, less intrusive government. Or to put it more succinctly, Traditional American values Vs. European Socialism. Take a good, long look at what socialism has done to Europe. Choose wisely, this may be your last opportunity.
Juan Williams got the Christie speech, much better than Chris Wallace did. Juan offended his fellow Foxies with the “corporate wife” tag for Ann Romney, but, hey Juan, corporate wives are human too. Wallace was just out to lunch on Christie.
I watched it and I wasn’t ‘over the moon’ but I liked it a lot, especially when he called for ‘another American century’. My husband OTOH thought it was one of the best speeches he’d ever heard. It was a speech for grown-ups. Competency. Integrity. Strength. Honesty. Keeping faith with America and what makes her great. It was a speech for patriots and a call to courage. It was a battle-cry, and if you did not hear that, then you weren’t listening.
Want to know if it struck a blow? Just listen to how roundly it is being criticized by leftmedia. Howard Fineman said it was “mean”. BWAHAHAHAHA. Cristie’s speech did just what it was supposed to do. Cristie is “bad cop” and he relishes the role. Ann Romney gave us the distaff, the “good cop” role.
Nicely done.
not good.
Ryan has a better way to tell people that we have to bite the bullet.
I don’t dispute the truth of the core message at all, but the framing lost votes. It plays great on utube when he’s pointing out the stupidity of a heckler, but on the big stage, the delivery doesn’t sound that good. The frame should be that the future will be brighter when we recognize problems and address them responsibly. The founders did and we must as well. The other guys are either in denial or fools. We love our kids to much too fool ourselves or take the easy way out by doing nothing or playing tricks on people with lawyer language and false bravado.
Well, it would be interesting to figure out what “big stage” sensibility Christie offended, because some of you, who are otherwise sympathetic obviously felt it. About the only thing that bothered me was that he got into some boilerplate exceptionalism stuff, but then, he knows his audience. The irony for all you exceptionalists is that for our whole history some Americans have been exceptional, and some haven’t (as many here would acknowledge when the wind is blowing from a certain direction) and the ratio has varied from one era to another. THAT would be the truth, but banging that big bass exceptionalist drum, is essentially meaningless, except that it works for a lot of you. I guess we will take hope in whatever form we can get it.
Army colonel ignites firestorm with article on crushing a ‘tea party insurgency’ TEA PARTY AUGUST 5, 2012 BY: ANTHONY MARTIN
http://www.examiner.com/article/army-colonel-ignites-firestorm-with-article-on-crushing-a-tea-party-insurgency
As long as Christie doesn’t dissociate himself from his Islamic friends this speech was just HOGWASH. His speech might have been great – but so were Obama’s. Hot Air from both of them. And in the same way, no one vetted Obama, Islamie… uhh.. Christie doesn’t get vetted by those who are now cheering like 13 year old girls when they see Justin Bieber. People need to get informed about this guy. He is NOT what they think he is! Every stupid celebrity from Hollyweird can give a good speech. They get a script, they memorize it and play their character. Islamie…uhh.. Christie did just that. He’s not better than the unborn nowhereman. He said, what the people wanted to hear and most of the people fall for it and think he’s the best guy on the planet. Don’t be foolish!!!!
Murray Rothbard Origins of Progressive Regulation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62rI8OYFzGg
Christie was a good choice for the keynote, a dynamic speaker with a compelling message. It seemed to me however that the speech wasn’t so much about the current occupant or even why Romney, but more about positioning himself for 2016. With friends like these… Anne Romney was terrific though.
Remove his horn and he’s a still moselm-loving RINO. Why pretend he’s relevant?!
;-/
It’s the same thing parents tell their wayward teenagers all around the world and all through history. If nothing else alludes to the immaturity of “Democrats”, this speech is it. Being “cool” is and always will be several rungs below being adult.
The original Repect over Love was said by Caligula. It was next used by Machiavelli. I’m glad nobody noticed.