tv Republican National Convention CNN August 30, 2012 7:00pm-12:00am EDT
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>> with a deep awareness of the responsibility conferred by your trust, i accept your nomination for the presidency of the united states. >> this is america, a brilliant diversity, spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky. >> i call on every american to rise above all that may divide us. >> they had their chance. they have not led. we will. >> fight with me. fight with me. fight for what's right for our country. >> announcer: this is cnn. >> this is the night mitt romney's been working toward for years. >> it certainly is, the republican national convention is about to declare him the party's nominee for president. >> announcer: a child of politics and privilege. >> there are better days ahead when we get a better leader in washington. >> a man of faith and family.
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>> we will do everything in our power to keep america strong. >> a life in business and public service. >> it is not government that makes us great, it is the people of america. >> it all leads here to this place, this stage, this moment. >> tonight, we stand up for mitt romney as the next president of the united states. >> in tampa tonight, mitt romney accepts his party's nomination. >> if there's an outsourcer in chief, it's the president of the united states. >> -- make sense to release your tax returns. >> obama-mics is not working. >> will romney do what it takes tonight to help seal his presidential dream and help deliver on his promises? >> mr. president, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to chicago and let us get about rebuilding and
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reuniting america. >> now, cnn turns to one of the biggest platforms in politics. this is the republican national convention. this is mitt romney's night. >> he and i will be the next president and vice president of the united states. >> this is america's choice. we'd like to welcome our viewers in the united states and, indeed, around the world, to this republican national convention in tampa, florida. we're counting down to the most awaited moments of the week. tonight, one of the gop's rising stars, senator marco rubio, will introduce the republicans 2012 presidential nominee.
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then mitt romney steps into the spotlight for the most important speech of his political life. here inside the convention hall, they've changed the stage for romney's acceptance speech. they've extended and lowered it so romney will be even closer to the audience. i'm wolf blitzer along with anderson cooper. it's going to be an important historic night for not only these republicans but for all of america. >> and this is the night the republicans have been waiting for all week. tonight's session will be carefully crafted. a carefully kraccrafted build-ur mitt romney's address. during this hour, we'll hear from mitt romney's running mate congressman paul ryan. new york city mayor rudy giuliani will join us. and we'll sit down with senator john mccain. >> our correspondents are in position throughout the arena here in tampa. candy crowley, she's over at the podium right next to tonight's speakers. she has a preview of tonight's
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big, big speech. go ahead, candy. >> wolf, this speech, at least the excerpts we've seen of it that were provided by the romney campaign do run the gamut as we expected it might. there is some talk of his business successes. there is talk of his time as governor. there is personal talk about his community, including his religious community. i hear a couple of the things that struck me. the first is this is not just for the folks in this room. we have to presume that everyone in this room is going to vote for mitt romney. this is a reach-out for those very important voters who say they have not yet made up their minds. to them, this is what romney has to say about president obama. hope and change had a powerful appeal. but tonight, i'd ask a simple question. if you felt that excitement when you voted for barack obama, shouldn't you feel that way now that he's president obama? you know there's something wrong with the kind of job he's done as president. when the best feeling you had
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was the day you voted for him. there is also, as well, some outreach to women. simply by putting forward some things that romney has not had put forward about his resume. he starts with the personal. my mom and dad were true partners. a life lesson that shaped me by everyday example. when my mom ran for the senate, my dad was there for her every step of the way. i can still hear her sing in her beautiful voice. why should women have any less say than men about the great decisions facing our nation? he then goes on to say, as governor of massachusetts, i chose a woman lieutenant governor, a woman chief of staff. half of my cabinet and senior officials were women. and in business, i mentored and supported great women leaders who went on to run great companies. so obviously a very big push for that very important female vote. wolf. >> candy, stand by. our correspondents are throughout this convention hall. they're watching everything
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that's going on. jim acosta, dana bash, erin burnett, they're down on the floor among the delegates, the vips. jim acosta has a very special guest. >> that's right, i'm joined by josh romney, 37-year-old son of the gop nominee. we were talking a few moments ago before we got started that you've been out on the campaign trail. you've been to events. you've seen this before. but this night is different. why? >> you spend a long time on the campaign trail and you don't think about these moments till they're here. and so for me i haven't really given this moment much thought but now, you know, looking at this stadium filling up, the balloons up there, this is a neat moment for me and for my dad and we're really happy to be here. >> and, bob, if we can point up to the ceiling right now, there are roughly 100 to 120,000 balloons. josh, we did check that number out, it has been confirmed by officials. all of those balloons will drop down on top of us if i understand correctly when mitt romney says "god bless america,"
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that's when those balloons will come down. are you pinching yourself, is this surreal? >> it is, it's hard to really take it in and, you know, i remember being here four years ago and it was much more real watching senator mccain going through it then it is watching my dad go through it. for some reason, it's hard to fathom. i think it takes a while for everything to settle in and realize how momentum and how big this is. >> he's going to talk about your grandfather, your grandmother who were both in politics. your grandfather ran your grandmother's campaign when she ran for the senate. >> my dad ran my grandmother's campaign. >> your dad. so it's in the family blood. what do you think they would think of this moment right now? >> you know, they would be incredibly proud. it's one of the great tragedies my grandfather's not here. help was so proud of my dad. was really helpful to him when he was running for senate against ted kennedy. was a big part of that campaign. i think my grandfather would be incredibly proud of my dad. and really just, you know, have -- we have very tender
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feelings about my grandfather. these are moments where you really miss him a lot. >> as you know george romney, mitt romney's father, ran for the presidency, didn't work out for him. we'll find out what happens when mitt romney gives his speech later tonight. back to you, wolf. >> looking forward to that obviously. jim acosta's on the floor for us. to the sky box. anderson has made his way up there. you got a bird's-eye view from up there. >> it's one of the great views in this hall. with cnn chief national correspondent john king, chief political analyst gloria borger and political analyst, former presidential adviser david bergen. also republican strategist alex castellanos, democratic strategist donna brazile. let's talk about what mitt romney needs to do tonight. what are you expecting? what does he need to do for america at large? >> i talked to a senior romney adviser who said very simply he needs to convince people he cares about them, he understands their problems. if you look at all the polls, there's a 14 point differential between barack obama and mitt romney on this.
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and what he said to me, look, everybody knows that mitt romney is a wealthy man. what they have to understand tonight is that he doesn't see their problems through that prism. that he sees their problems because he understands them. >> can they do that in one speech? he's been running for six years. >> right. it's hard. >> i think one of the things that's happened that paul ryan raised the bar last night for the romney speech and he does not want to be overshadowed by his own vice presidential candidate so he's got to give a very good speech. i think you cannot do too many things in one speech. this is the last time he will have a chance to have a conversation with the american people that goes for half an hour, not interrupted by the media, not like a debate. very different from a debate. this a time when he has to convince him those who are disappointed with where we are, that you can trust him to get us to a better place. that's the single most important thing. >> he has a challenge not terribly unlike president obama,
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then senator obama's, four years ago. the country needs to go in a different direction. it's a harder case to make. the economics are on romney's side. no incumbent period of any party has been re-elected with an economy like this. but people are slow to change things they like and they like president obama personally. so he needs to make the case you might like him, he has failed, and then he has to make the case, and i have a plan to make your life different and better. >> and they're talking to people who voted for president obama in 2008. those are the persuadables that they feel can make the difference in this election. it's a very fine line. >> this is a man who does not like to talk about himself as we've seen on the stump. >> not at all. he's a very private man in a public world. and that's a liability. he's not as accessible. but it's also a strength that gives him a certain stature. we're talking about somebody being president of the united states. and so it helps in a way. when you're in a campaign like this, you're not looking just at what the you have to do. what has to change at this convention for mitt romney to
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win, he has to get the spotlight on the economy and off things like medicare. we saw him through ann romney's eyes last night. tonight he has to let us see him through our eyes. he has to up a little bit. and that's going to be a big challenge for him. the big problem is the economy. he has to convince us that the next four years are going to be better than the last four years if we vote for him. >> there are a lot of factual inaccuracies in paul ryan's speech last night that he received criticism for today. do you expect a level detail like that from mitt romney tonight? >> i don't think mitt romney should repeat those misleading statements that caused paul ryan to get into so much trouble with fact checkers today. you know, ann romney convinced me that mitt romney can make us all left, that at the end of the night, we should go out and want to have a dance with him. i want to see if there's another side of mitt romney. the mitt romney that she introduced to us the other night, if that mitt romney shows up -- >> you think he needs to --
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>> she absolutely raised the bar. >> she raised the bar. >> they believe in the campaign that likability isn't -- it's not what they're after tonight. sure, they'd like you to like him. but they really want you to think that he can make things better for you and your family. >> how do you earn my trust if i don't like you? >> they go hand-in-hand. they do -- >> that's the question we'll take a break on. former new york city mayor rudy giuliani down on the convention floor. we'll talk to him shortly. erin burnett will ask him what he wants to hear from mitt romney tonight. also ahead mitt romney opens up about his faith and his time as a leader in the church. [ male announcer ] the perfect photo... [ man ] nice! [ male announcer ] isn't always the one you plan to take. whoa, check it out.
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we're here in tampa. tampa bay times forum. the republican convention getting ready for this important night here for the united states history understood folding right now. we're going to be speaking with rudy giuliani shortly. "american idol" winner taylor hicks is getting ready to sing. he's down with dana bash on the floor now. let's see if he sings a little bit for us. >> taylor hicks is here. thank you very much. you won "american idol" in 2005. you're here tonight. this is your first convention, right? >> and i'm performing. what an honor. >> you're going to be one of the musical acts right before the big speeches, marco rubio and mitt romney.
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how did that happen? >> i got the call a couple of weeks ago. it was one of those calls that you just -- as an entertainer you only dream about. to be a part of the political process in america, whether you're republican or democrat, you got to jump at the chance. and hopefully get out and vote and make a difference in this political election. >> are you a romney supporter? >> well, you know, i'm an american supporter. both candidates are running neck and neck. i think it's a wonderful election. >> so you're here performing right before mitt romney gives his acceptance speech. and you're not necessarily voting for him. come on. >> i've open eed up for james brown a couple of times -- >> but he's not running for president. it's a big deal to be involved in entertainment event. usually entertainers when they come, it's because they're supporters. >> it's going to be a great night. >> you're not going there at all. when you won "american idol" you won with 64 million votes,
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right? >> yep. >> president obama won with 65 million votes. so pretty close. give us a little preview. ♪ >> should be a fun night. >> is that what we'll hear up there? >> taking it to the streets. what we got to do, get out the vote this year. >> thank you very much, taylor. a preview for you, wolf. we don't know how he's going to vote. >> i like the music, the temptations a little bit and "my girl." this is g.e. smith, formerly the "saturday night live" band. another guest, former new york city mayor rudy giuliani, erin. >> i'm here with the mayor. you had a little bit of the runaround getting over here, huh? >> finding my way to the new york delegation took a while but i've been sitting there the last couple of nights so i'm very comfortable. >> we are at the new york delegation. i had a chance to look through the excerpts of mitt romney's speech. five pages of them.
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i didn't see anything in there about -- much about personal life. maybe it's -- he's keeping that part to himself -- >> about? >> about personal life or -- >> well, i don't know, that's really probably something you can ad lib more than you'll have in the prepared remarks. most important -- >> you think he's going to ad-lib? >> well, or maybe it isn't in the remark he's giving out to all of you. >> right. >> but actually i'm not so concerned about that. what i'm concerned about is, is he going to lay out a policy direction that says to the american people there's a way out of this mess we're in. because i actually think this whole thing about touchy feely and is he personally and is he likable enough. i think that's overdone. i've been around america. i think americans want a competent leader who can get them out of the problem we're in. if he can make that sale, he wins. if he can't, then it's anybody's ball game. >> how does he make that sale? he said things like, i'm going to create 12 million jobs. those numbers may not be reasonable but he put that out there. he said we're going to be energy independent by 2020 --
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>> i think paul ryan gave him a good sort of road map to it. here's what it's called. investing in people rather than government. start reducing government expenditures. start reducing taxes. start putting money back in the hands of these people. because they'll spend it a lot better than government will spend it. i found as mayor of new york city, the best jobs program was the tax reduction. i put money back in your pocket. you're going to spend it. this lady's going to have a job. that's how america works. obama's working on a different model. it's not the way america has generally succeeded. >> have you gotten to know him well? you were running against him -- >> i got to know him really well. he's a tough guy. he was a very tough competitor. very smart. i don't envy president obama debating him. he's going to be very tough. i don't envy him debating president obama. one thing about president obama is he's one very smart guy. it's going to be a heck of a race. >> i'm curious, i stand here as a woman and i look at challenge, the party's going through with the social issues, and obviously
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you've got a lot of women speak and mitt romney's going to talk about women but you have this platform which if it got what it wanted, a constitutional amendment against abortion would mean no one can have an abortion in this country in any case. you're a pro-choice republican -- >> you assume that all women feel the way you feel. they don't -- >> i'm not saying how i feel but i know 75% of americans say that they support abortion with the ex emptions for rape or incest. >> a lot of women want to see life respected. that's an enormously important part of it too. those polls depend on how you ask the question. if you say, do you want abortion, with only a few exception, you get a big answer. you say, you want to have abortion and no control, it comes out the other way. most americans want to see fewer abortions. >> that's right, most people do. >> most americans think that the ending of a life at waver stage is a consequential thing. >> yes.
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>> so it goes back and forth. it depends how you talk about it and it depends who you're talking to. >> i'm talking to you, and you're a pro-choice republican. >> i'm very comfortable in a party that has a different view. i understand and respect their viewpoint. maybe having grown up as a catholic i understand their viewpoint. i don't think women in large numbers are going to vote on abortion this year. i think they'll vote on whether they have a job whether their husbands have a job, whether their children have a job. i have children. i know exactly what paul ryan was talking about, about that picture of barack obama looking pretty bad right now on their wall because they can't get a job or they have a job for half of what they thought they were going to make. women are very affected by that. men are -- and children are. so i think there's a lot more to this election than these social issues we've been fighting about for 30 years. >> all right, we'll see if it will close the gender gap. good to see you, mayor, appreciate it. back to you guys. >> erin, thank you very much. john and cindy mccain spoke with
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our peers morgan. he asked them if the republican party is anti-woman. also ahead, a rare moment for mitt romney. he opens up about his faith and his time as a mormon church leader. there are a lot of warning lights and sounds vying for your attention. so we invented a warning you can feel. introducing the all-new cadillac xts. available with a patented safety alert seat. when there's danger you might not see, you're warned by a pulse in the seat. it's technology you won't find in a mercedes e-class. the all-new cadillac xts has arrived, and it's bringing the future forward.
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been waiting for the big speech. you're looking at live pictures inside the convention hall here in tampa. we're watching what's going on. so is piers morgan. he's here with me. you had a chance, you caught up with the man who was the republican presidential nominee four years ago and his wife cindy. >> he's the perfect guy to talk to. he beat mitt romney and he lost to barack obama.
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as he said to me, no one knows more about how to lose to barack obama than i do so i'm not the right guy to ask but actually he is the right guy to ask. he know exactly how mitt romney will be feeling today. when mccain made his speech at the same event four years ago things weren't going too badly. then sarah palin gave him this huge impetus. it was only afterwards the huge financial crash began. a fascinating encounter. he's a great character. i think it brought back bittersweet memories for him. senator mccain, mrs. mccain, welcome. >> thank you. >> unfortunately, just before the hour, we let you have beer in the cnn grill i'm afraid. >> actually i think that's gin. >> you're in a unique position because you beat mitt romney in the presidential campaign and you lost to barack obama. there's no one better to talk to at this stage of the campaign than you. what is your take? >> i think he's in pretty good
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shape. obviously i have enormous bias in this judgment. but he had a very good speech by his vice presidential candidate selection. which i think surprised some people. that paul ryan would be as forceful and as convincing as he was last night. his wife, ann, did a very good job on opening night. and so tonight it's kind of up to him. but what he's got to fight is the unfavorables that are the result of hundreds of millions of dollars of attack ads by the obama campaign where he was heavily outspent. he won't be after the convention. and also, i think the -- the americans are very unhappy with our economy but they want to see a path forward. and i think that paul ryan last night kind of laid that out. >> were you pleased to see the issue of faith being openly discussed now by the hierarchy? paul ryan, i thought it was a
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very smart thing to say. i'm not a mormon but we share common values and morality. i thought it was a very clever way of actually killing the mormon issue as a problem. >> exactly. it's about the strong values. strong american values. which we all share. it's about two men and their wives of course that could possibly be the top tier of this government being not only strong in what they believe and strong in their faith but believing in what's best for the country and moving forward. not putting their personal interests first. >> i think also that there is questions about the mormon faith. as you know. and i think that ann talking about it and i am convinced that mitt will talk about it. and to tell people that his faith is part of his life and -- that's what's made him the person he is today. because, you know, the mormon faith has come under significant scrutiny and attack from time to time --
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>> i think a lot of that is the fact he's refused to discuss it. i thought if he talked about it openly more often, the kind of cut cult element stigma might be dissipated. it's one of many religions in america. it didn't have to quite be the stigma it's been allowed to grow into. >> and the mormon faith requires that people go on motionissions. now, he has said in the past his mission was one of the important phases of his life. it's really remarkable. they take these young men and women and send them to a foreign country. they're kind of on their own. their job is to recruit people for their faith but it broadens them enormously. >> last week, the todd akin blowup, and to me it's still strange you have mitt romney who clearly has moved around on, say, an issue like abortion. paul ryan has move toward mitt romney sort of compromise
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position. the gop platform still resolutely insists there cannot be any abortions even in the cases of rape, incest or health to the mother. as a republican, how do you feel about that? >> i'm sorry for that. as a woman, i'm sorry for that. we don't agree on that issue. i mean, clearly john and i take a different stand on that. but it's also not the most important issue that is driving this campaign. i think outside sources are driving it. but that's not what -- as a woman and as, you know, people here, we're concerned about the economy. >> i suppose the problem is what it does, it lends something to the argument that the republican party is andy woman. >> i agree with you, it was h m harmful to our party. the platform -- at one point, it's what you stand on during the convention and run away from during the campaign and the fact is people care what mitt
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romney's position is, which is the exceptions for rain, incest and the life of the mother. that's what they care about more. the third thing is i think that's important to keep in mind that what mr. -- congressman akin was talking about was not abortion. it was about rape. and all of us find -- that's why all of us find that totally unacceptable what he said. we're offended that he should state such a thing. by the way, getting the nomination of your party for the senate or the presidency is a privilege. he has abused that privilege. that's why he should no longer be the candidate of the republican party in missouri. >> i agree. as mitt romney is sitting there in his hotel room no doubt stress, eating pizza, fending off his grandchildren. you pace the room at the same time, same importance for the same moment. what's your advice to him? as he's maybe making final amendments? >> i'm the loser, how should i -- how am i qualified --
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>> when you made that speech, you looked like you were going to be the winner. >> you know, it's hard to give advice. except that, you know, one thing that you get, the cheapest commodity in politics is advice and everybody's got the answer. i can't tell you the number of people -- if you want to win, senator mccain, all you've got to do is -- fill in the blank. >> and the next person says the exact opposite. >> exactly, exactly. >> senator, pleasure to see you, mrs. mccain. ♪ whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight ♪ ♪ o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? ♪ ♪ and the rockets' red glare the bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ gave proof
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>> coming up, the invocation. tonight, by a member the church of jesus christ of latter day saints, the mormon church. a number of people from different religions giving the invocations this week. mitt romney personally wanted the man who will be giving the invocation, a man who he has known for a very long time. we really have not heard mitt romney talk much about his faith on the campaign trail. let's listen in though to the invocation. >> we bow our heads in prayer at the beginning of this occasion and feel the wonderful blessings that fill our lives. the beauty of the heavens and the earth and all things on it that were created under thy hands. as a lasting testament to us, thy love for us. father, in a world of turmoil, where evil seeks evil, we humbly pray for those who suffer both
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physically and spiritually. we pray for the little children, father. those who are often left homeless and hungry and afraid. bless us to see with compassionate eyes and to have our hearts filled with the desire to reach out and provide of our substance, so that those who have lost their home, those who feel the ravages of disease and war and famine, might be filled with rays of hope and faith, that mortal life will prosper them and help them draw close to thee. we thank thee, father, for the healing gifts of the atonement of thy son jesus christ and his resurrection. we know it is by those sacred offerings that we, thy children, can be cleansed and made worthy to return to thee. we thank you for the gift of the holy ghost. the instrument through which we may have a spiritual witness of thee and thy son. now lift us, father, help us to have a joyous heart in our homes
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and our families and in this great land that was born of the kind of freedoms that bless us with the capacity to live and worship according to the dictates of our conscience. this is offered in the name of jesus christ, amen. >> that was ken hutchens, retired police chief from warpol, massachusetts. he's recovering from chemotherapy treatment. he has active lymphoma. you spoke to mitt romney about his faith, something we anticipate hearing some of tonight. >> yeah, a story he doesn't talk about a lot, but when he was in massachusetts for almost 15 years, hes what the leader of his con gra gation and the leader of the church in massachusetts and i asked him what that job entailed because the mormon church does not have a paid clergy so essentially mitt romney served as the
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pastor. so take a listen. what did that leadership role in the church mean to you? you had a lot of things going on in your life. >> well, it's an unusual part of my faith in that we don't have a full-time ministry. there's no one paid to be the pastor and to conduct services on sunday. and really no one who's in the full-time employ of the church to visit the sick and to care for the poor. and so the church comes and says, we'd like you to do that, mitt. and so for about ten years, i took responsibility for a congregation or a group of congregations and in that regard, i was like the pastor. that meant if someone was in the hospital, i needed to see them. if someone had lost their job, and couldn't afford to meet their rent payments and needed food or something of that nature, i was responsible for helping get them the financial aid they needed. if there was someone contemplating a divorce and they wanted counseling, just as some
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of other faiths go to their pastor or the priest, they come to me, and talk about a growing up experience and a learning experience. you try your very best to align yourself with the almighty and to know what god might say and of course you look to get direction from the church as well. but i served in that way. that obviously draws you very close to people of all different backgrounds. >> gloria borger talking to mitt romney. do you think this is part of him trying to open up more, be more of a fully rounded person? >> what surprises me, he hasn't talked about it earlier. >> really? >> me, too, believe me, it wasn't easy -- >> once you begin to take the mystery out of it and you sort of let the walls down and you let people see, there is much about mormonism -- i had the opportunity to go to salt lake and visit and ear things. it's a religion which puts a
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great deal of emphasis on self-relianc self-reliance. does it have some odd beliefs to those of us who are christians and jews? yes. >> the other thing that's important to have this conversation is because this is central to who mitt romney is. he has been a major figure in the mormon church. >> when you ask somebody to vote for you as president, you ask them to entrust you with enormous power. the most powerful office in the world. and they want to know who you are. they want to know they have trust in you. his faith and his family are deep anchors for him. i think he lost an opportunity not to talk about it earlier. >> when you talk to peep in top the mormon church about mitt romney, they describe him as a devout mormon. when you talk to members of his family, they say that is at mitt romney's core, that to know mitt romney you have to understand what he's done for the church. he tithes his income to the church for example. when he was 19 years old, he
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went to france for 2 1/2 years to convert the french -- >> so what was the thinking on not doing it sooner? afraid of turn off some evangelical voters? >> it's ghosts from prior campaigns. said and done in other campaigns and against other candidates who -- largely about fear of south carolina and the republican primary, other places where evangelicals have such power. i thought it was interesting last night mike huckabee, an evangelical pastor, directly referred to it. mike huckabee directly dealt with the evangelical question to people in this hall. he also is a very private person. so there are political reasons and then personal reasons. but part of picking a president is would you like this guy as your neighbor. and when you heard what mitt romney said, to david's point, he has lost some things by not sharing his experience. >> a lot more to talk about. let's go back to wolf for the
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latest. wolf. >> thanks very much, and the delegates are certainly getting ready for a tribute to one of their biggest heroes here at the republican convention. the former president of the united states, ronald reagan, a tribute to him. that's coming up. you're going to want to see it. [ male announcer ] does your prescription medication give you the burden of constipation?
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american revolution was reborn. when freedom gained new life and america reached for her best. as we continue our journey, we think of those who traveled before us. these are the boys of hope. these are the men who took the cliffs. these are the champions who helped free a continent. these are the heroes who helped end a war. and we see and hear again the echoes of our past. the song and the song echoes out forever and fills the unknowing air. it is the american sound. it is hopeful. big hearted.
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idealistic. daring. decent. and fair. >> the first woman ever nominated to the supreme court of the united states. >> that's our heritage. that's our song. we sing it still. for all our problems, our differences, we are together as of old. we raise our voices to the god who is the author of this most tender music. and may he continue to hold us close as we fill the world with our sound in unity, affection and love. >> everybody's looking forward to being able to help and that's what we're here to do. >> one people. under god. >> mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall.
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>> dedicated to the dream of freedom he has placed in the human heart. >> waving their new passports, they rushed forward, streaming across the border. >> called upon now to pass that dream of freedom on to a waiting and a hopeful world. >> mr. speak, the president of the united states. >> mr. reagan will speak in his first public appearance since the shooting. >> thank you very much. >> i have a letter with me. the letter came from peter sweeney. he's in the second grade in the riverside school in rockville center. and he said, i hope you get well quick. or you might have to make a speech in your pajamas. whatever else history may say about me when i'm gone, i hope it will record that i appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears.
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to your confidence rather than your doubts. in this springtime of hope, sunlight seems eternal. america is. thank you. god bless you. and god bless america. >> please welcome former speaker newt gingrich of georgia and his wife, callista gingrich. >> -- remains probably the most popular figure in the republican party -- >> he does, anderson. reagan is to modern conservatives what franklin roosevelt was for democrats. he's the iconic figure. who inspired this new generation that you're seeing with paul ryan. but he had an appeal that transcended the conservativism. we've come through a rough period. we had the turmoil of the '60s. we had vietnam. scandals. we began to lose faith in
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ourselves. he came back and talked about what we could be, that "on a hill" as he liked to say. going back to people that were not conservatives. this country has real nostalgia for what reagan stood for. >> earlier we were talking about mitt romney trying to humanize himself. reagan seemed to do that effortlessly. >> he did. when de gaulle died, people said de gaulle was great not because he was in france, because france was in him, and i think that many people felt that regular e reagan was great because america was in him. people disagree about his policies but there was something about him which gave you a greater sense of faith in the country. >> newt gingrich and his wife callista are speaking now about former president reagan. >> yet the impact of his leadership is still evident today.
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while in office, president reagan had three major goals. to restore the economy. to revive the american spirit. and to defeat totalitarianism, spreading democracy throughout the world. >> by remaining true to his convictions through his belief in the american people and with tremendous optimism, president reagan achieved these goals. >> it's striking how president carter and president obama both took our nation down a path that in four years weakened america's confidence in itself and our hope for a better future. >> both weakened the respect for america abroad. both increased government programs filled with waste and inefficiency that failed to produce results. both made promises they couldn't
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keep. and as a consequence of ineffective policies, both were unable to revive our economy and create jobs. >> for example, both crippled american energy production when there were better ways to develop and use our abundant energy resources. the romney plan for north american energy independence is exactly the kind of bold visionary leadership reagan believed in and it is what we need now. >> the reagan presidency also teaches us that there is a better way to put americans back to work. create millions of jobs. and help every american achieve success. the reagan program of tax cuts, regulatory reform and spending
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controls worked. >> reagan's belief in small business owners and entrepreneurs is a remarkable contrast with obama's class warfare rhetoric, massive deficits and a passion for taxing those who create jobs. the romney plan for a stronger middle class has deep roots in ronald reagan's approach. >> reagan's commitment to reform welfare and to create a work requirement was a major achievement when he was governor of california. his pioneering work led to the historic welfare reform bill congress and the president passed 30 years later. this bipartisan legislation reduced the size of government, made our country more competitive and put millions of americans back to work.
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[ applause ] >> tragically, president obama gutted this achievement and, like jimmy carter, over four years, he produced little effective legislation that brought the the two parties together in the interest of the nation. obama's waiving of the work requirements in welfare reform is just one example of his direct repudiation of president reagan's values. obama's proud of what he's done. and of his politically motivated partisanship. but he should be ashamed for putting politics before people. [ applause ] >> governor romney will return america to work and to the principles that are at the core of president reagan's legacy.
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this year, the american people will once again have an important choice to make. >> now, each of us must commit ourselves in the tradition of ronald reagan, to come together. president reagan said there is no substitution for victory. and this november we cannot settle for anything less. this -- [ applause ] this is the most critical election of our lifetime. each of us must do our part now to ensure that america remains in the tradition of president reagan, a land of freedom, hope and opportunity. thank you and god bless you and god bless america.
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[ applause ] >> callista talking about the legacy of reagan. john king is joined by a special guest here in the sky box. >> the ohio governor john kasich. i want to go through some of the midwest states. the '08 map, the map you don't like when obama won the election. something speaker gingrich just said. the welfare attack. they say it's not fair, that it is governors who asked for this waiver authority so they could come up with new more flexible ways to actually have the work requirement, not gut the work requirement. is the white house right? >> i'm not an expert on this. i was asked to sign a letter before i came down here and i didn't have a chance to review it. welfare law as it was written, if you're going to change it though and you're the president, you got to talk to the people who wrote it. because the change in welfare
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has really been very, very positive for the country and it's helped to move people off of generational dependence. so i'm going to dig into it when i get back. >> let's dig into this map. i want to circle this area here. your state, ohio, is here. you see all this blue. these are states the president carried in '08. it's a big area romney is targeting now. when the president said governor romney won't do well out here, here is what this says. unemployment when he took office, down a little bit. michigan, also a key battleground state. new poll out there shows a dead heat. the president will say here's where it was when i took office. it's a little better now. in your state of ohio, governor, let me move this one down, the president would say, here's what it was when i took office. here's what it is now. if he's to blame for everything, if republicans say he's to blame for most things, then doesn't he get some credit for this too? >> it's interesting, john, all three states have one thing in common. republican governors that have been very reform oriented.
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when i came in, we were taxed, we balanced our budget, we cut taxes, we've gone 122,000 jobs. they claim it's the auto industry. we're glad there's auto jobs there. let me tell you, it is 122,000, 1,200 are connected to the auto industry. ohio, compared to the surrounding states, we're outperforming all of them. the reason it's working in ohio is we set people free to create prosperity. i got to tell you, every month i worry about the head winds that come from washington it the indecision, the high tax, the high debt. it's paralyzing people's ability to create jobs. >> let me ask you something about the campaign. i'll circle up here. you know the state. here's the cleveland suburbs, hamilton county, cincinnati. that was blue in '08. shocked a lot of republicans. now back, george w. bush carries this state narrowly over kerry. can mitt romney make these
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places that barack obama was able to turn blue, if mitt romney is to win this state, and a lot of people think this is the deciding state, can he win in the suburbs? >> it's about the wallet, john. this debate is going to be does this wallet get fatter if mitt romney's president and can he show people that? because people are hurting in our state. we've reduced unploinemployment it's high. the old bread and butter issue of jobs. they're going to have a debate. obama's going to say things have gotten a little better. romney's going to say, i know how to really fix it. to give people an acceleration of some of the improvement that we've seen. i need a new partner down there. you've known me for a long time. everything in politics for me, i need to have a partner that's going to create stability, reduce debt and stop threatening big increases. it will help my state. >> we'll spend a lot of time in ohio. >> i'll look forward to seeing you there. >> big night ahead. mitt romney's big speech to
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accept the republican nomination. rising stars in the party including senator rubio. our coverage continues. a child of faith and politics. a man of family. >> we will do everything to keep america strong. >> a life in business and public service. >> it is not government that makes us great. it is the people of america. >> it all leads him to this place, this stage, this moment. >> tonight, we stand up for mitt romney as the next president of the united states. >> in tampa tonight, mitt romney accepts his party's nomination and begins the final round of a bitter fight for the white house. >> if there's an outsourcer in chief, it's the president of the united states. >> it would make sense to release your tax returns. >> obama-nomics is not working. >> will romney do what it takes
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tonight to help seal his presidential dream and deliver on his promises? >> mr. president, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to chicago and let us get about rebuilding and reuniting america. >> now, cnn turns the spotlight on one of the biggest platforms in american politics. this is the republican national convention. this is mitt romney's night. >> he and i will be the next president and vice president of the united states and america will be strong and prosperous and free. >> this is america's choice. welcome back to our continuing coverage of the republican national convention. live from tampa, florida.
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this is the night that all the delegates here, all the visitors here in this forum have been waiting for. we're waiting what really could be the defining moment of the presidential campaign for the republicans. mitt romney's acceptance speech here at the republican national convention in tampa. good evening, i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm wolf blitzer here on the convention floor. we'd like to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world to this republican national convention. we're watching everything that's going on during this hour. we'll ask the wisconsin governor, scott walker, why he was moved to tears by the vice presidential candidate paul ryan's speech last night. but right now, we're going to hear from congressman ryan himself. when we spoke just a little bit ago in "the situation room," representative ryan was in absolutely no mood to back away from some of the controversial comments in his acceptance speech last night. listen to this. >> how pumpbed are you about all of this?
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>> very. >> because it's been moving very quickly in your life. >> that's true. but i've been working on these issues for a long time. >> the issues but the fact that you're the vice presidential nominee. a few weeks ago, you didn't think that was in the cards. >> well, when you submit yourself to vetting which occurred a few months ago, i always had the thought in the back of my mind. then it got real so to speak. i'm excited because mitt romney's going to finish telling the story. he's going to introduce himself to the american people so they get to know the kind of man, the leader that he is. that we know. he's going to offer his solutions to get people back to work. >> is he going to go through specifics? >> he's going to go into his plan for a stronger middle class. he's going to go in more detail about these ideas to get people back to work. he's going to talk about how we need real leadership to make key decisions now before we have a debt crisis. before we lose grip of the american idea. and before we find ourselves in a situation like europe is facing. and he's going to introduce himself to the american people
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in a way so that they can get to know him like we do. i'm excited about seeing that. >> because the debt problem, the trillions and trillions of dollars didn't just start with the obama administration -- >> absolutely not. >> there's plenty of blame to go around. during the bush administration, it doubled. >> so i've been saying that for years. all i would say is president obama made it worst. the debt went up $5.5 trillion during the obama years. more to the point this crisis is coming closer. it's already hitting europe. and president obama has had four budgets and four times he avoided tackling the problem. the senate hasn't passed a budget for three years. that's the opposite of leadership and mitt romney's bog to provide the kind of leadership we need to get it under controlle. >> a couple of things from your speech. the bowles/simpson commission, you were a member of that, you criticized the president for saying he rejected the recommendations but you rejected the recommendations h s as well >> i said we offered
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alternatives. if you don't like this idea, then offer your own. that's what we did in the house. i took what we thought were the best ideas from bowles/simpson. president obama did none of that. he said, i don't like this plan and offered nothing in return. >> he did come close to a deal with john boehner -- >> that wasn't close to actually fixing the problem. it was a small or medium-sized deal. look, cutting a back room deal that gives you plausible deniability is not leadership. offering a plan, submitting a budget to congress that fixes the problem, that's leadership. and we haven't seen it four years from president obama. >> the plant in gainesville, you're getting some grief for that. to remind viewers, you said the president came there, he it come there in february of 2008. he said in the government takes action, you guys will have a plant here for 100 years. >> that's right. >> they announced that plant was shutting down in june 2000.
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that was during the but administration. >> well, it's still idle. the point is this the story of the obama economy. a man running for president in 2008 making all these grand promises and then none of them occurring. he got elected. he put his policies in place. and the plant still shut down. my friends who i went to high school with -- >> was a decision jegeneral mots made. >> well, he sells people on the notion he'll do all these achievements and none of them occur. empty promises that become broken promises. that's the story of the obama economy. he said he was going to cut the deficit in half in four years. we're nowhere close. he said unemployment would never go above 8%. it's been above 8% ever since. so what we have here are a man who ran for president with grandiose plans and promise, great rhetoric, none of the results. >> you were with him when he saved the auto industry though.
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you supported that legislation. >> i voted for the bill in the house which would have prevented t.a.r.p. from being used for auto -- this is under the bush administration. i didn't like the idea of t.a.r.p. being used so i voted for the bill that would have prevented t.a.r.p. from being used, which is open ended. we're now $25 billion and counting in lost taxpayer dollars. i voted for a bill that would minimize that. president obama and president bush used t.a.r.p. for it. >> how are you preparing for your debate with biden? >> by preparing. i'm studying. reading joe biden speeches. and just studying on all the various issues. >> he's pretty good. >> he's good but i've been in congress 14 years. this is what we do. especially in the house. the senate, they don't debate as often and as frequently. that's all we do in the house is debating. >> congratulations. >> thanks, wolf, appreciate it. we'll spend some time together. >> good to see you around, see you on the trail. >> paul ryan, the republican vice presidential nominee.
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speaking with me just a little while ago here at the republican national convention. anderson, i was impressed he seems very, very confident not only going forward with his argument, being criticized for some of statements he made last night. he's not backing away from any of that. but also confident about that upcoming debate in october against the vice president joe biden. >> he certainly energized the crowd last night, all day today, a number of fact checking organization, cnn included, have pointed out factual inconsistencies, misrepublic misrepresentations, incomplete arguments in his speech. let's talk about his speech last night and whether you think some of those same arguments are going to be repeated tonight. obviously paul ryan energized this crowd here last night. but there were a number of statement, he made which were just flatout misleading or wrong. >> he also said something that was shall we say "welcome to politics" where he criticized the president. the president did appoint a debt reduction commission. the simpson/bowles commission. the president did walk away from
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their findings. that was very factual. a lot of people were disappointed in the president for doing that. one member of the commission is a guy named paul ryan. the chairman of house budget committee. he voted against it too. >> he was instrumental in them not coming up with a recommendation. >> he says he has good reasons for that. don't you open the door to the president saying "i had good reasons too"? >> the debt commission was ridiculous for him to use in his speech because he opens himself up to that kind of criticism. >> he made it seem as if he was not on the debt commission and did not vote against their ideas. >> right. and he, you know, he was on the debt commission -- >> no -- >> alex. >> i think every republican -- a lot of voters out there the actually want to get something done would actually take this race all the way to the finish line and say, look, if the president didn't do anything and if ryan didn't do it, why did ryan take another step and put a proposal on the table afterward -- it isn't fair to say the president didn't do anything. the president's supporters would say the president did take a
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couple of ideas -- >> the president walked away and did not put a proposal on the table. paul ryan says, look, that's not good enough. put a better proposal on the table. somebody actually put something that got through congress and was a real proposal. the other guy walked away. >> there were republicans on that commission who voteded for that report. conservative republicans. i'm not saying that president didn't sort of disthe commission because he did. >> which is it, gloria, that paul ryan is -- is so extreme and radical that he wants to cut the budget and he actually wants to put a balanced budget proposal -- >> but it's not a -- >> because we're attacking him for both. >> also, his budget -- didn't balance. budget for 20 years -- >> president obama has put forward his plans. he has put forward plans to not only streamline the budget but bring us into balance decades before the republicans will even see daylight on the balanced
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budget. >> actually, he won't -- >> but the point -- >> this is the same president who said obama care wouldn't cost us what it did and it's shooting through the roof -- >> alex, don't be on defense when the truth needs to be spoken, as chris christie said. the hard truth is we're facing a very serious fiscal problem at the end of the year and what paul ryan last night presented whats a lot of misleading statements -- yes he did. on the $716 billion in medicare savings that is included in the ryan budget proposal. that helps us streamline medicare and extends the life of medicare. that's another proposal. >> you want to talk about the attacks on welfare reform that the romney camp has been saying. again, fact checking organizations just say -- point out what they are saying is factually incorrect. >> exactly. i said, hey, l what's up, the fact checkers are killing you on this this. they said, the obama people outplayed us on this. they are smart. technically, they didn't change
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the work requirement. they did something smarter. they changed the definition of the word "work." now, anything counts as work. excuse me, let me -- no, no, let me -- >> oh -- >> no, here's what they told me. john king just stood up there and said no, we gave the governors the flexibility they wanted. if that's true, the governments have complete flexibility to change anything including the work requirement -- >> can i -- >> i asked newt gingrich about this. he said after dodging and weaving factually yes, there is no evidence that they are trying to change anything or that he's trying to gut welfare reform yet. but he believe unless his heart that's the kind of guy obama is and that will happen. >> please tell newt gingrich for the first time in his whole life he could be wrong. that's the response that -- >> but you just heard the ohio governor saying he wasn't clear where he stood on this particular issue. and that he -- >> i want to ask john -- >> -- he wants to take another
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look, a republican governor -- >> can i just disagree with you, my good friend, on this one. i do think on this welfare issue the republicans are exploiting. it was republican governors who asked for the waiver -- >> well, wait a minute -- >> powerful, but it's wrong -- >> excuse me, one moment though, because what david said is right, that the governors asked for it and they got it, they got complete flexibility, then they have flexibility to waive the work requirement. it's one or the other. >> we're going to discuss this further. we're also watching a very tough senate fight in romney's home state.
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welcome back to tampa for the republican national convention. it's an outdoor shot. we're watching what's going on inside though right now. let's go to the floor. dana bash is standing by with the governor of wisconsin, dana, he got rather emotional last night. >> he did get emotional last night. i actually have one of the few republicans from massachusetts, mitt romney is one, i have another one, senator scott brown with me. thank you for coming. >> it is a couple more but yes. >> just a few. you served with governor romney, you were in the state legislature, he was in the governor's mansion. >> we don't have a governor's mansion but he was the governor. he came in at a time when we were in a fiscal mental and we had some very serious debts and through his knowledge and hard work and working really across the party lines. we were able to balance our
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budget and get our house in order and get our credit rating upgraded. >> it's kind of remarkable that throughout the campaign so far, he hasn't talked much about his record in massachusetts. why do you think that is? >> i think you'll hear more and more as we go along. obviously this convention i think will set the tone to where he's going from here. people at home know we were in deep trouble financially. our credit rating had been downgraded. he came in, not raising taxes, looking at things that hadn't been upgraded in decades and really did a good job. >> you've known mitt romney more a long time. worked with him on a state level. tell us something we might not know about him either personally or in terms of politics. >> fair, honest, hard working. we don't agree on everything. i'm more of a moderate on a whole host of issues. i overrode him on stem cell and other things but on the fiscal issues we're i think pretty
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solid. we understand the value of a dollar. we want to make sure people have a good value. >> it's neck and neck with the president. what do you think he needs to do to pull ahead? >> i think he needs to be himself and tell people what's at stake here. do we want to have this you didn't build it mentality or not demonize our small business owners for doing their jobs. >> senator scott brown was just here for one day, he says hi, because he was serving -- doing his service with the national guard for the past two days. >> thanks very much, dana. i want to go up to the podup now it the former florida governor jeb bush is speak, making the case for mitt romney. jud >> because he a former governor, mitt romney understands that states must lead this national movement. in massachusetts -- governor romney raised testing standards
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and put into place the john and on gail adams scholarship that give students four tuition free years at any massachusetts institution of higher learn. he is a champion for bringing hope to education. he intends to be a president who always puts students first. in this election, remember this, our future as a nation is at stake. fact this election is not just about one office. it's about one nation. if we want to continue to be the greatest nation on the planet, we must give our kids what we promised them. an equal opportunity. that starts in the classroom. it starts in our communities. it starts where you live. and it starts with electing mitt romney the next president of the united states.
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thank you. god bless you. god bless our excellent teachers and god bless the united states of america. [ applause ] >> the former florida governor jeb bush making the case for mitt romney. you know, anderson, at the top of his speech, he also said something rather provocative. listen to this, listen to what jeb push it said when he came up on that stage. >> something personal i'd like to share with you. i've been so blessed to be part of a family that has committed its life to public service. my granddad -- my grandfather and my father have been incredible role models for me and served our country honorably. and my brother, well, i love my brother.
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he is a man of integrity, courage and honor. and during incredibly challenging times, he kept us safe. so mr. president, mr. president, it is time to stop blaming your predecessor for your failed economic policies. [ cheers and applause ] you were dealt a tough hand. you were dealt a tough hand but your policies have not worked. in your fourth year of your presidency, a real leader would accept responsibility for his being ans and you haven't done
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it. >> tough words from jeb bush. not only defending his brother but going after president obama, anderson. most of his speech was on education. but i just wanted our viewers to hear that little portion of it right at the top. >> that theme is certainly one we've heard a lot during this week. people saying here in this hall that president obama is blaming the prior administration, not taking responsibility. a lot of critics disagree with that. one of the things we're going to talk to our panel about in just a moment. in 2004, president george w. bush attracted a record number of latino voters. john mccain couldn't keep up that momentum. we'll ask new mexico governor martinez what the gop can do. we'll also ask wisconsin governor scott walker what caused him to get tearful. great shot.
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they're excited here. listening to a little good music at the republican convention. john berman is standing by with the governor of virginia. john. >> wolf, tomorrow, when the dust settles here in florida, the first stop for the romney/ryan ticket is the state of virginia, with governor bob mcdonnell here. governor, virginia was ignored for 40 years, you were just telling me. nevertheless, paul ryan was announced as his running mate, they're going there tomorrow. >> it's a competitive state. we've had changing demographics in part of the state.
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i think that virginians are now very pragmatic. they're interested in jobs, in spending, in debt, in deficit. they care less about rhetoric and more about results. and i think, you know, look if the president ran a very good campaign to break the mold in 2008. a lot of positive uplifting rhetoric. it's now a fairly negative and small ball campaign. i think that's why mitt romney's going to win. he's come down from eight behind to making it even. the the momentum's on our side. >> conversions are very much about the present but they're also often about the future. you have said that imagine a kid who was raised in fairfax, virginia could have the same office as thomas jefferson. what about the presidency, ever think about it? >> no, i do think about winning virginia for mitt romney in 68 days. serious about that, the right man for the right time. >> every kid who plays baseball grows up imagining hitting a home run at fenway park. every kid who grows up to be a politician must think about giving a speech at the
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convention, accepting the nominati nomination. >> i never imagined being in the legislate under. i'm really not thinking about it. i've got 17 months left. a lot of big thing i want to get done. and i just think america and virginia would be a lot better off if we have a change of leadership. >> what's the one thing mitt romney needs to say to sway virginia? >> two things. one, that he follows up on what ann romney did for him the other night. say, listen, i didn't start successful, i worked hard, i dreamt big, i sacrificed a lot, and now i got 18 grandchildren. yes, i've been successful that's a good thing in america. humanize himself. number two is say, this is a big difference between romney's vision and obama's record. and there really is a positive change that he can make to do better. and it starts with lifting up the middle class. he'll hit heavy. those five points that he made. with small business focus. with workforce development. with education. debt reduction. and energy. he's going to hit those hard and show there are real solutions
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that contrast he and obama. >> governor mcdonnell, thank you. wolf. >> john, thanks very much. we're getting ready -- rubio's going to be speaking, introdu introducing mitt romney. right now, there's some other speeches. erin burnett is here with me. there are other speeches coming up that are unusual in this political context. >> interesting perhaps because everyone sees mitt romney having a problem talking about his own personal life. there are other people speaking for him. parents of a young child who had suffered from micancer that mit romney ministered to. and his faith, which is going to be really interesting. >> it's interesting because they -- the whole campaign, recent days, they really haven't emphasized his religious faith, being a mormon and all of that, but now it's beginning to come forward. they're speaking much more openly about it. it's something that seems to be a positive, a plus, especially
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at this convention. >> you laook at the pew poll, muslims and mormons scored the lowest, in terms of america's opinion of those religions. now it does seem to be a positive. >> who will we hear from? >> a man named grant bennett. he spent thousands of hours with mitt romney. they were at church together in belmont, massachusetts. let's listen to him talk about mitt romney. >> -- with a dear friend and a remarkable man named mitt romney. these wonderful even glorious hours together were spent in serving our fellow men and women. they were spent in service in our church. we embraced christ's admonition
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in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me. the church of jesus christ of latter day saints, of which we are member, has an unpaid lay clergy. while raising his family and pursuing his career, mitt romney served in our church, devoting 10, 15 and even 20 hours a week doing so. like all mormon leaders, he did so on his own time and at his own expense. i was mitt's assistant when he was our pastor. i had a front row seat and it
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was marvelous to behold. as we began working together, mitt asked, how early can i call you in the morning? i answered, 6:00 a.m. i regret my answer. mitt romney became my alarm clock. typical morning call. grant, it's mitt, i'm at the airport, hazel young tripped last night and bruised her hip. please visit her this evening, give her my love. i'll arrange for meals and i will visit her on my way home from the airport tomorrow. in our early morning call, mitt didn't discuss questions of theology. he found the definition of religion, given by james in the new testament, to be a practical
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guide. pure religion is to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction. so what specifically did mitt romney do as our pastor? for one or two evenings each week and several hours every weekend, week after week and year after year, he met with those seeking help with the burdens of real life. burdens we all face at one time or another. unemployment. sickness. financial distress. loneliness. mitt prayed and counseled with
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church members seeking spiritual direction. single mothers raising children. couples with marital problems. youth with addictions. immigrants separated from their families. and individuals whose heat had been shut off. to uphold the dignity and respect the privacy of those who came, he met with them in private and in confidence. he has upheld that trust. [ applause ] mitt's response to those who came was compassion in all its beautiful varieties. he had a listening ear and helping hand. drawing on the skills and resources of those in our congregation, mitt provided food and housing, rides to the doctor and companions to sit with those
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who were ill. he shoveled snow and raked leaves for the elderly. he took down tables and swept floors at church dinners. he was often the last to leave. years later, i became the pastor. only then did i understand the dedication this calling requires. and the clarity this service provides into the full range of our shared human experience. mitt challenged each of us to find our life by losing it in service to others. he issued that challenge again and again. the church itself was a marvelous vehicle for extending that challenge.
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mitt seldom delivered the sermon itself. he gave that opportunity to fellow church members. he sought to involve everyone so everyone could grow. mitt taught faith in god, personal integrity, self-reliance and service to our fellow men. and mitt did what he challenged us to do. he led by example. i treasure every minute we served together. i am grateful for my apprenticeship in the things that matter most under the hands
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of a deeply good man named mitt romney. it is my privilege to introduce two families from our congregation. first pat and ted. they will be followed by pam. >> evening, folks. my wife and i, people of modest means. i made my living as a professional firefighter for 27 years. prior to moving to randolph, vermont, he lived in medford,
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massachusetts. it was there we met mitt romney and his family. it's been over 30 years since we have lost our son david. the memories are still vivid and painful. but we wanted to share them with you because david's story is a part of mitt's story. and america deserves to hear it. back in the early 1970s, mitt visited our home numerous times. with his oldest son tagg tagging along. he was in the vanguard of our support system when we received the news that no parent is prepared to confront.
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you cannot measure a man's character based on the words he utters before adoring crowds, during times that are happy. a true measure of a man is revealed in his actions during times of trouble. the quiet hospital room of a dying boy. with no cameras and no reporters. this is the time to make that assessment. in 1979, tragedy struck our family. when our youngest son david was diagnosed with hodgekin's
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disease. a non -- it was a cancer. >> over a period of seven months, he was in and out of children's hospital of boston for treatment. throughout that agonizing period, mitt took time from his busy schedule to visit david. they developed a loving friendship. on one of his visits, mitt discovered that david was very fond of fireworks. he went out and bought a box full of fireworks that had to sit on a closet shelf because they couldn't be set off in the city. we waited till we were able to go to maine where we set them off on the sand dunes with permission from the fire and police departments. through that simple but thoughtful gift, mitt brought joy to a young boy who had experience experienced, who had not experienced any for too long. he also gave the rest of us a
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welcome release. on another visit, david, knowing mitt had gone to law school at harvard, asked mitt if he would help him write a will. he had some prized possessions he wanted to make sure were given to his closest friends and family. the next time mitt went to the hospital, he was equipped with his yellow legal pad and pen. together, they made david's will. that is a task that no child should ever have to do. but it gave david peace of mind. so after david's death, we were able to give his skateboard, his model rockets and his fishing gear to his best friends. he also made it clear that his brother peter should get his ruger .22 rifle. how many men do you know would take the time out of their busy lives to visit a terminally ill
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14-year-old and help him settle his affairs? david also helped us plan his funeral. he wanted to be buried in his boy scout uniform. he wanted mitt to pronounce his eulogy. and mitt was there to honor that request. we will be ever grateful to mitt for his love and concern. >> we humbly wish that god will continue to bless mitt romney and paul ryan in their efforts. in doing so, he will bless the united states of america. [ cheers and applause ]
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>> pat and ted oparowski for a convention in which they have been trying to show the personal side of mitt romney. i think that couple did the most effective job we've seen. this hall was completely silent. people stopped in their tracks listening to that couple discuss what had happened to their son. and, again, we've been talking about the desire on the part of the romney campaign to show the personal side of mitt romney. a man who does not like to talk about himself. they were extraordinarily effective. >> extraordinarily effective. the campaign apparently here tonight has opened the door to his faith. opened the door to all the good works that i think mitt romney's done over the years very privately. this is a man who's given away probably more money to good causes than anybody running for president that i can remember, and we're apparently going to
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get to see a lot of that tonight. >> anderson in doing the documentary, i spoke with a lot of these people and this isn't the only story like this that i heard. over and over again, it was mitt romney going to repair a sing mother's roof who had a leak -- >> his position in the church which was not a paid position -- >> no -- >> this was part of what he did in addition to his job. >> i was told by one of the men who served with him that this woman came in, she said, i have this leaky roof, can you help me repair it. mitt romney looked at everybody around the table and said, i don't have anything better to do after this meeting, do you? and so they all went and fixed the roof. >> john king had a special guest, john. >> governor susana martinez of new mexico. the crisis your party faces with latino voters. to the point you were listening, we kept you -- you were supposed to be on a few minutes ago, we kept you as we listened to this family. a lot of conversation about the
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church. in the eastern part of the country, if you look at this, you don't see this much. not too much in your state. if you go out west, it is much more familiar. is it striking to you in the west? people encounter mormons more frequently? >> it's a religion they have not laid much contact with but i think when you do the work for you religion and you do it quietly and do it privately, you're not -- you don't boast about those things. you don't brag about those things. you do it because you're serving your creator. i think that's interesting to see that mostly in the west and not in the east. >> another map, this one is fascinating when you take a look. this is hispanic americans across the country. texas in here, you heard from a voting, percentage of voters. you have the highest percentage of latinos in the country. you are latino. you spoke about being the first female governor. you know in your state. which could be a battleground state, it has been in the past.
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here's the most recent national poll. president getting 63% to just 28% for romney. you know results from '08. about the same, 67 % for the president. when the republican last won the white house, you had 44%, latino vote. is it policy,is it tone? what is the source of what should clearly be called a crisis for the party? >> i think in our state in particular, having a conversation with them, not rhetoric you hear all the time. the little short one liners. and not just visiting them during election time. but making a part of the process. making them part of the solutions. i went to every single county in the state of new mexico. and i never changed my message. and i was very clear about my vision for new mexico and what i had to offer. that's what has to happen now. >> you're from the community, it's easier for you to speak to them. when romney was talking about self-deportation, you essentially said that's nuts, what is he talking about?
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have you had a conversation with his campaign about changing the language? >> certainly about immigration reform, and he's talking about putting a caps on visa, talking about bringing the best and the brightest to our country. we embrace immigration. we embrace legal immigration. and reform has to take place but there has to be an honest discussion with hispanics included. we have 4.5 million people waiting to come into this country legally. what do we do with them by disallowing the 12 million that are here, saying they're here and the next wave comes through because we have not secured the border. >> do you think your state will be competitive? >> i do. i think the people of new mexico are very independent-minded people and they will vote for the best candidate that will bring and deliver on the promises made. not just making good speeches but actually delivering results, especially getting back to work. >> appreciate your patience, governor, thank you. >> during last night's acceptance speech by vice presidential candidate paul
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we'll be seeing and hearing from clint eastwood. right now, cnn's piers morgan is standing by with the wisconsin governor scott walker. >> governor, i was going to ask you about an emotional moment last night in paul ryan's speech. you were next to ann romney and some of the romney children, tearing up about the moving testimony we heard from an old friend of the romneys. >> my goodness to talk about their son, mitt romney not only gave the eulogy but helped him plan his will to make sure -- i'm an eagle scout. think about that, to be buried in your scout uniform. wow, i mean just another emotional night. i hope people at home get a sense of not just knowing mitt romney but knowing who he is. >> this is the kind of stuff we have not heard about mitt romney before. he's certainly embracing his faith. a number of things about his personal life.
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why has he waited till now? >> it runs contrary to who they are. they don't do this -- as mrs. romney mentioned, they don't do it for attention. i think enough people have said at this point america deserves to know. so they've set aside some of their humbleness in that regard. even the next one up, as i came over to talk to you, thinking about that mother up there and just the impact of that quiet charitable sense that he has. i think just shows you. >> last night ryan made a big speech. you got emotional at that. you both have come a long way. there were a lot of question marks raised about some of what he was saying, notably the gm plant story which by any real criteria was disingenuous to put it mildly. would you accept that? >> no, not at all. i grew up down the way.
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i know how important that plant is. he said in february of 2008 as a candidate barack obama said this plant will not close down -- >> unfortunately, it closed down under george bush -- >> announced -- it doesn't matter what date it is -- >> let me ask you a question. is there anything barack obama in all honesty could have done to stop that plant closing? >> he shouldn't have made a promise -- >> he didn't make a promise -- >> no, no, he made the promise that government would not let it shut down. whether it was in 2008, wherever it might be, that if you let government run things, the way he envisioned, plants like that would not close. the plant in kenosha for chrysler's closed. those are the broken promises in many ways that barack obama's made. it's why in our state we're part of that -- the 23 million that are either unemployed or underemployed. tonight what they're going to hear about is what mitt romney
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and paul ryan are going to do to fix it. >> you've got dirty harry and super clean mitt tonight. a brand issue going on there? >> we like that in the midwest. michigan roots, much like wisconsin roots, we like people who are tough, make tough decisions. >> to quote a phrase, do you feel lucky? >> i'm not going to say make my day but in the end i think we're going to hear some good things from mitt romney -- >> it will be the biggest speech of his life. good to see you, governor. >> thanks very much. you're absolutely right, we're all looking forward to seeing and hearing clint eastwood. yes, he's here. the so-called misery guest. stand by. ♪
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with a deep awareness of the responsibility inferred by your trust, i accept your nomination for the presidency of the united states. >> this is america. a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky. >> i call on every american to rise above all that may divide us. >> they had their chance. they have not led. we will. >> fight with me. fight with me. fight for what's right for our country. n >> announcer: this is cnn. >> we're just an hour away from the most anticipated moments of this republican national convention. >> that's right, tonight we'll see whether mitt romney can
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unite and inspire his party and convince the country he should be president. >> announcer: in tampa tonight, mitt romney's crowning moment as the republicans choice to replace president obama and lead the nation. >> we don't need more excuses. we don't need more blame. we don't need more small-minded attacks. what we really need is a new president. >> announcer: a rising republican star gets the honor of introducing romney, senator marco rubio will help romney appeal to crucial voting groups, latinos and residents of florida. >> mitt romney's an extraordinary person. i think at the end of this convention, that's going to be clear. >> announcer: will romney do what it takes to help deliver on his promises? >> i got a promise, there are better days ahead if we get a better leader in washington. >> announcer: now, cnn turns the spotlight on one of the biggest platforms in american politics. this is the republican national
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convention. this is mitt romromney's night. >> he and will be the next president and vice president of the united states and america will be strong and prosperous and free. >> announcer: this is america's choice. >> we'd like to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. to the republican national convention. that's ongoing right now in tampa, florida. we're counting down the minutes till senator marco rubio of florida introduces mitt romney for tonight's acceptance speech. i'm wolf blitzer along with anderson cooper. >> that's right, tonight, all eyes are going to be on the former massachusetts governor. it is not an exaggeration to say this will be the most important speech of mitt romney's life.
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>> our cnn correspondents are in position throughout the arena. they are here in tampa. candy crowley is up there on the podium right next to all of the speakers tonight. candy, give us a little preview of what's about to happen. >> well, what's about to happen is mitt romney -- i mean, it's not even just the most important speech of his life, it's probably the most important hour. it is not that even the romney campaign believes that this one speech will suddenly catapult him into a big lead, but they know that this is the beginning of the final chances in that fall campaign, to make your case. the biggest sort of unfiltered message he can give to the biggest crowd. not just in this hall but on the other side of the television camera. so he has a lot to accomplish with this speech. if you listen to the folks saying we want this and that on the floor. it almost doesn't matter what he
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says. they are here and prepared to vote for him. but what he needs to do tonight, so many people have said, show that he does understand the problems that americans are facing. we've seen some of these folks really kind of testifying for mitt romney from this podium tonight. talking about mitt romney, the person that you don't see, you know, with the cameras around, so he's got to define himself and define his agenda, so it's a tall order, very big hour, for mitt romney, wolf. >> big, big hour indeed. less than an hour or so from now, we'll be hearing from mitt romney himself. let's go to anderson up in the sky box. anderson, i think it's fair to say, this speech tonight will influence a lot of those undecideds or switchables one way or another. >> this is really probably the first and last time mitt romney will have a chance to speak to the american people uninterrupteded for some 30 minutes or so. we know the speech, in the
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speech, mitt romney's going after president obama, also offer an alternative vision for the country's future. while he also will talk about his life story, he probably won't get as personal as he did during an interview recently with our gloria borger. >> i asked him a question i think that's kind of mystified a lot of americans about who mitt romney is. take a listen to what he said. what do you stand for? what is mitt romney's -- what is at mitt romney's political core? >> at my core is keeping america the strongest nation on earth. with the best homes and values. the best schools. with an economy second to none. and the capacity to defend liberty with a military that's also second to none. i want to keep america strong. i love this country. i love the principles this country was based upon. those principles applied honestly and consistently will
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help families, will help working people, will grow a permanent middle class with better wages and better prospects. i want to do that for the american people and for this country which i happen to believe is an exceptional nation unlike any other on earth. it was founded on the principle that our rights come from the creator and that we can pursue happiness as we choose. this exceptional beginning leads to an exceptional role and mission. >> so the peep wople who say yo been on both side, of issues or you've changed too much what do you say? >> the president just changed his position on gay marriage. no one has any comment on that. that's fine because that's president obama. we all say that's fine, he changed his position, oh, that's fine. he changed his position on a lot of things. a lot of things he said he was going to do, he decided not to do. in my case, when i ran for office, i said, i'm not going to change the laws as they exist on abortion. i'm going to keep them the same. then a bill came to my desk which would have expanded
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dramatically the capacity of individuals to create embryos and then destroy them. and this was for scientific purposes. i said, i can't sign that. >> people say you're kind of too secretive. you're out of touch. you play by a different set of rules. >> well, i know that the obama campaign is going to do everything they can to try and deflect from the economic record of the president and his fame ur to come up with a plan to get the economy going in the future. they try to attack me on a personal basis and frankly distort my policies in remarkable ways. say things i do not believe. but nonetheless, one the things they've come up with is to say, oh, he won't release more of his tax returns. they didn't have that problem when john mccain was running. he releaseded two years of tax returns. that wasn't an issue. they didn't make that an issue at that point. boy, they're making it an issue now. why? only one thing's changed. president obama's now president and his record is not good and he's looking for something else to try and make it the issue. and you know what, the american people care about good jobs and
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good schools. and they know that's what i can deliver. >> let's talk about this with our panel. it's interesting, alex, when asked the question what is at his core, i think some criticings would say, well, look, he didn't really answer that question in a personal way. but you were talking about the possibility of turning that into an asset. saying this is a man who he doesn't talk about himself but through his actions you see his heart. >> it's a very quiet form of leadership in that way. and i think one of the things you're seeing is the romney folks are trying to frame this campaign a little differently. a candidate who speaks with words, barack obama, versus a candidate who speaks with what he says, with actions. you know, not do as i say, do as i do. romney has a pretty spectacular record when you look at his achievements. i think romney's core, yes, he gave an answer there about his political core. and his intentions for the
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country. but at his core, it's family and faith. that's really where everything comes from for him. >> james carville, who think we just interrupted from a mardi gras party. >> it's the louisiana republican delegation gave me this. it's solidarity during the storm. >> all right, good. >> yeah. >> do you buy that, do you buy alex's answer? >> i buy it he's a good family man and he's obviously a man of faith. i don't think anybody would deny that. the problem is, the country has many good family people and many people of faith. the question is, how is he going to take america from here to there? we know he wants a strong america. i doubt very many in this hall want a weak america -- >> wait a minute, i think the issue here anderson is the romney team made a mistake by not trying to define him early on and bring up what we're hearing tonight, these remarkable stories. and the obama team, in a very aggressive way, as good campaigns often do, they sought to define him. they poured in hundreds of millions of dollars into
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advertising and they have painted him as a dark elitist rich corporate raider who does not care about others, and i think that -- romney campaign -- >> to your point, he has an extraordinary story to tell. the oparowskis, i don't know of many politicians who have done what he did on a personal quiet level form a dying child. >> ann romney talked about that, i ran into this constantly, which is he doesn't like to talk about it. his answer to my question on political core was a political answer, and it wasn't as good as anything else he said about his faith and his family and his life. he's not a really natural politician. and that answer is the answer people are hearing when he's on the stump. >> john, it's -- >> they won't like this in team romney but it's the dukakis problem. that work and public service and governance is one thing, your life is something else.
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and what you do in your life when you step up to the political speech. it's like the parish priest or rab rabbi. when he's at the family barbecue, he's as loose as can be, but when he's on the altar, it's serious business. what does my life have to do with my job. plus, he has a more private side. he thinks, that's my private life. >> we also have ari fleisher and roland martin. ari, from a public relations standpoint do you think it was a mistake not to show that side of mitt romney earlier on, to allow the obama campaign to define him in some voters minds? >> i do. i think they had a late start on that. i go back to the pennsylvania primary. when santorum dropped out, the romney people were still running ads. i thought, they should be running positive ads. why are they still attacking? this was days before he got out. i don't think they established the narrative about mitt romney as well as they could have and as early as they could have.
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the bain attacks aren't going to work but i wish they had run those ads and made this case earlier. >> roland. >> i don't want to hear all this nonsense about, well, he's a private guy. he wants to keep it close to the vest. you're running to the president of the united states. you're not going to hide stuff. you have to show something to the public. you have to be willing to give them some glimpse into who you are -- >> but roland -- >> if you want to connect with them. >> ro land, let me push back on that because there are those who say president obama is a very cool customer -- >> absolutely. >> in fact, that's been one of the biggest criticisms, even by his wealthy donor supporters who say he doesn't show them love. >> there's a difference between back slapping like vice president joe biden and then being able to tell your story. in 2007 when then senator obama was deep down in the polls and this was july and august of '07, they made it perfectly clear,
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guess what, you're going to have to talk about your mother and when it comes to breast cancer. you have to talk about recently repaying your student loans. show some of yourself. and so if you want to connect with people, you're going to have to give them something. you can't play the corporate role all the way. you have to do it. >> i remember bush 41 in his acceptance speech saying -- i'm mangling -- i don't have the exact quote. i'm a quiet man but i hear the quiet voices that other people don't. >> that describes mitt romney as well. i'll tell you a story. we made a commercial for him four years ago when he ran unsuccessfully. of course got hip m to this pla. it was about a co-worker at bain who had lost his daughter in the city of new york, 14 years old. they couldn't find her. and mitt romney had shut down bain, the whole business, and took everybody to new york, gridded the city till they found her. the campaign didn't give us the story. we had to uncover it. we had to go to them and ask for
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it. we finally persuaded them to let us do the story -- and romney said, well, i don't know. you'd have to ask bob because this is his family and his daughter. >> james, what do you do with a candidate like that? >> first of all, you have to talk before you start. if you get into politics and you want to be president, there's things you have to do that other people don't have to do. it is -- just comes with the turf -- >> i don't think -- >> timing matters though -- >> i don't think you have to get out there on oprah -- >> i didn't say -- >> -- i think you should -- >> also, can i just -- >> but i -- >> i just lost a lot of races in september. piv won them in september that i then lost in october. we've still got sixtysome days to go here. and all of a sudden we're solve ago question that's been one of the biggest road blocks to mitt romney's success. the timing may not work out so bad. >> that may be true. >> i think this all has to do with the mormon faith and not wanting to bring that all up
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again because they've felt like they dealt with it in the campaign you were in in 2007, 2008 -- >> i think -- you faced this in your own life. you should not have to sort of go out there and tell everybody everything about you to be a public figure and be a respected figure. other people can do it for you. what's surprising about the romney campaign is they have not put those other people out earlier. >> it is different being a public figure and running for president but i hear what you're saying. i'm association we gsorry, we gn king. >> i just want to lay out part of the challenge tonight. part of the governor's speech is who i am and what makes me tick. part of it will be what he thinks is wrong. then he will try to lay out what he says will be a plan to fix it. just to underscore the challenge for you. here's romney's goals tonight. who would better handle the economy? he leads right now. it's a slight lead over the president. one of the goals is to build on this by presenting. it will be a five-point plan.
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that is a big challenge in the speech tonight. improve that number heading into the president's convention. look at this. has a clear plan for solving the country's problems. governor romney again wins on this one. he'd like to build some more on this. to what you guys were talking about. who is he as a man? that's one of the reasons here in trying to change this. is he in touch with the problems facing the middle class? this is where the president has a giant advantage. the so-called empathy gap if you will. that's what a lot these personal testimonials are about tonight. a lot of the money's been spent by the president's campaign. romney camp has been more quiet about who he is as a human being. that's one of the reasons you have this gap. it is the key goal tonight. almost a strategic imperative to say this guy is a man and he has to do a lot of it himself. is not the person you've been told he is. >> we'll see how much he can do that tonight. or at least the start to do that tonight. right before mitt romney takes
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"american idol" season five winner taylor hicks. meanwhile, let's go down to cnn's senior political correspondent candy crowley. she's on the podium and she has a preview of what senator marco rubio will be saying when he introduces mitt romney later tonight. give us a little flavor of of what we expect to hear from senator rubio. >> it will sound familiar to folks who have indeed follows rubio in the last five years of his political career. really the last two when he's been in the u.s. senate. it's the story of a young man who grew up in a community of exiles. that being marco rubio. he will talk about american exceptionalism meaning a special system that america has. he will say that it allows you if you have a good idea and work hard that you can build a business. this will sound familiar because we've heard that theme through the last couple of days. he will talk about how mitt
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romney is the guy who believes in american exceptionalism that he is the one, he's the one who can, in fact, bring the dream alive again. we're now hearing that the motorcade bringing mitt romney to this forum is on its way. earlier of course mitt romney was looking over the final parts of his speech as we have talked about. it's quite a huge speech for him. marco rubio, one of those rising stars, one of those folks that they wanted to put out here. because they do see, and we've seen every day, and talked to john mccain about it, in fact, the passing of the torch to kind of a younger generation of republicans and one of them includes marco rubio who, as you know, wolf, had been talked about for so long, as perhaps a vice presidential candidate. not his time this time around but there isn't a person in this audience sitting in florida, his home state, that doesn't think
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they will hear from marco rubio along down the road. so that's why he gets this sort of prestigious spot where he introduces the republican candidate for president, wolf. >> whole new generation of republican rising stars, now in their early 40s, like marco rubio, paul ryan. dana bash also had one of those rising stars in the republican party, dana's on the floor, you're speaking with the utah congressman, jason chavis. >> has known mitt romney for ten years and is a mormon, and is a mormon like mitt romney. i want to ask you about this first. i talked to a romney adviser who said he is going to talk about his faith tonight which he rarely does. why is that so difficult? what is the issue? >> oh, i don't know that it's so difficult. i guess i appreciate the fact that he doesn't necessarily -- he's not always doing that first. he's talking about policies and principles and how to get the country back on track. if you want to get to know mitt romney, yeah, you need to talk about it.
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>> what do people misunderstood the most about your religion, about mormonism? >> it's the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. if you understand the amount of commitment and time and volunteerism that goes into it, i think it's an amazing part of of who he is and what he's done. it's changed his life and changed it for the better. >> now, you have a close relationship with mitt romney. you've been out on the campaign trail nonstop. you unfortunately lost your father just a few months ago in may. tell our viewers that story. >> yeah the day after my dad's service, i found myself on the bus with mitt romney. it was just the two of us in the back. we spent 30 minutes talking about when he lost his father. both his mom and his dad had passed away. he had that mantle. i was going through that same thing. i don't like talking about it too much publicly but that's the kind of person i know in mitt romney. he puts his family first. he's very compassionate. he's just a great leader in that way. that's the way i know mitt romney. >> thank you very much. thank you for your time. wolf, back to you.
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>> thanks very much, erin is here with me as well. erin, clint eastwood, he's going to be speaking today. marco rubio, as we've been hearing, he will introduce mitt romney, he's got a powerful speech, we're told. and there will also be some other entertainment, shall we say? >> yeah, taylor hicks, "american idol," is going to be speaking, or performing. interesting event. clint eastwood interesting also. i think a lot of people assumed he was a democrat given his "halftime in america" super bowl ad. a lot of people interpreted that. but as we know he's a longtime republican. >> the music here at these convention whether democratic conventions or republican conventions is always one of my favorite parts. >> too bad all of you can't see wolf sometimes when he's not on camera. >> did you hear g.e. commit formerly with the "saturday night live" band when they were doing "my girl," the temptations
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song. >> we have moved a little bit. we have to give wolf a lot of credit. for those of you who don't know, wolf said, i bet that's the song they'll play. >> we were here sunday at a rehearsal and they were practicing "my girl" the temptations. i said, that's the song they will play when ann romney makes her presentation and you know what, they did. >> they did and wolf was singing along and enjoying it. >> that's a real love story, as we've all heard that love story. ann romney's speech was clearly one of the great moments of this convention. >> it was, and you could feel, you could feel the love. whatever your politics are, you could feel that love between two people. which i think is a heart warming thing. no matter what your party, anything, it's nice when you see that. >> i think the crowd's going to be pretty excited when they hear from taylor hicks. he's got some good entertainment. he's going to be singing right now. i want to make sure we listen to this. i love going to the music as you well know. >> i know we're waiting for it. a second or two delay but we've
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been waiting for this one. >> it's worth the wait. and as we await taylor hicks, i just want to remind our viewers, clint eastwood, he'll make a special presentation. you can't keep that a surprise. >> no, you can't. we don't know exactly how long it will be, what it will be, but he's definitely going to be appearing right around mitt romney's speech so it's going to be a crucial -- a crucial one, and now i believe we are going to hear from taylor hicks. >> all right, here we go. >> here we go. >> how we doing! ♪ you don't know me but i'm your brother ♪ ♪ i was raised here in this living hell ♪
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♪ you don't know my kind in your world ♪ ♪ barely time will tell ♪ oh you ♪ telling me the things you're going to do for me ♪ ♪ for me ♪ taking it to the streets ♪ taking it to the streets ♪ taking it to the streets ♪ taking it to the streets ♪ take this message to my brother ♪ ♪ you will find him everywhere ♪ wherever people live
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♪ takin' it to the streets ♪ takin' it to the streets ♪ takin' it to the streets ♪ takin' it to the streets ♪ takin' it to the streets ♪ takin' it to the streets ♪ takin' it to the streets get out and vote! >> taylor hicks, season five, "american idol" winner. he's rocking here at the tampa bay times forum. we're getting ready for the main event. that would be mitt romney's speech. his father was governor of michigan. and also ran for president. you're going to hear right now what he thinks his dad would say if he were alive to see tonight's acceptance speech. first, though, a convention flashback.
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tonight's main events are coming up here. clint eastwood, marco rubio and of course former governor of massachusetts mitt romney acc t accepting the nomination for republican candidate for president of the united states. first, dana bash. with mitt romney's brother. >> i have mitt romney's big brother, scott romney. thank you very much. this is got to be -- describe the emotions. >> it's thrilling. so it's exciting. i can't describe it. i couldn't sleep last night because it was so much fun. >> i watch you announce the delegates for your home state of michigan. you got really choked up. >> i got emotional because as i prepared to say what i was going to say, i thought about my love for my brother and what a great guy he is and it was very difficult to get it all out. >> now, you have gone through political campaigns throughout your life because of your father. talk about what your father if
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he were here would be thinking, saying, as he watched your brother accept this nomination? >> my father would be excited and thrilled. he'd probably try to tell him what to do. he was a leader. but mitt did this on his own. mitt's an incredible guy. >> what should the american people know about mitt romney? anything you can tell us only a big brother would know? >> there are several things. people have talked about his compassion and he's been an unbelievable leader. i can just tell you, in addition to that, he's been a fantastic brother to me. when i've had troubles in my life, i've gone through a couple of divorces, i've had cancer. he's the one who called me every night. analyzed what i should do to help solve my problems. he's been fantastic for me. >> okay, thank you so much for taking the time. we're going to let you go up in the vip box. paul ryan, the vice presidential candidate, is here in the hall. we just heard. and we expect him to be up in
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this vip box momentarily. wolf and anderson. >> yeah, dana, we just saw him entering with his security. his wife as well. gloria, you talked to mitt romney about his father and about how he's going to be thinking about his dad tonight. >> yeah, his father was a huge influence on his life. he ran for the presidency, three-time governor of michigan, and he just died in 1995. so i asked him what his father would be thinking of this particular moment, so take a listen. >> well, he would be extraordinarily excited. he'd be campaigning. when i ran for senate against kennedy in '84 he was out campaigning. he was going to parades and walking with ann at fund-raisers. my dad loved it and he would love it. and he'd feel this was a critical time. he'd be telling people, we have to get new leadership, america's in trouble. i can hear him now. >> would he tell you what to do? >> oh, of course. he used to wake up in my campaign that he helped me on,
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he'd wake up, 3:00 in the morning, take out his yellow legal pads and write these extensive notes about what i should say and which issues were critical. he's very involved. i know he's passed away but i think of him in the present tense. he's a guy who never pulls back. never retired. he he was always going full bore. >> you are in a unique position of having been raised in a completely political family. two politicians notice family. not only george romney but also lenore romney who ran for the senate unsuccessfully. but is there a moment that kind of stands out for you in your political upbringing? >> yeah, yeah, and actually, both of them live their lives outside of politics. they didn't get involved in politics till their mid-50s. it was then to make a difference. so that was not their career so much as the desire they had to make a difference. but i do recall that in my dad's
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re-election, he had two-year terms. he was running in the same year as lyndon baines johnson who would go on to win by a landslide and dad's polster came in and said, george, lyndon johnson is so far ahead, we're seeing the numbers come in, you can't possibly win. and, you know, i was a kid in high school and i thought, oh, no, you know, we're going to lose, i'm going to be embarrassed at school. these little things that a kid thinks. my dad said -- it was clear, i'm not in this because i worry about winning or losing, i'm here to make a difference. he was completely undisturbed by the news. he cared about -- passion for the mission that he was in the middle of fighting for and winning or losing, didn't change his perspective at all about who he was. it was one of those moments you look and say, aha, he's not defined by elections. he's been defined by a man of character throughout his life and elections don't change that. >> do you feel that way as you look at this election win or
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lose? >> absolutely. there's no question in my mind we're at a critical time in our country's history. i offer a different course than the one we're on. i think it's a much better course for middle class americans. better course for strengthening the country. but, you know, this is a choice that's up to the american people. and who i am has been long ago decided by my wife, by my five sons, my grandkids, daughters in law and the people who know me best. >> david, i find it both touching and telling that he talks about his father in the present tense at times. >> yes, he does. >> you knew george romney. >> i did. when i was young, i knew george romney, working in government, i was work in the same administration, nixon administration. i think there were a couple of lessons. he was a moderate. very progressive on civil rights it ran into a lot of road blocks against conservatives. secondly, he made this famous statement, he was running for the presidency about him being brainwashed in vietnam and that brought him down.
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>> we have to take a break. still to come, clint eastwood, senator rubio and of course mitt romney's acceptance speech begins very soon. it is the moment all of us, everybody here in this hall's been waiting for. the vips are being seated. stay with us for history in the making. great shot. how did the nba become the hottest league on the planet? by building on the cisco intelligent network they're able to serve up live video, and instant replays, creating fans from berlin to beijing. what can we help you build? nice shot kid. the nba around the world built by the only company that could. cisco.
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[ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'. welcome back to the republican national convention. inside the tampa bay times forum. this convention, they're getting ready to hear not only from marco rubio, he will introduce the republican presidential nominee, but of course mitt romney, this will be the most important speech of his political life. tens of millions of americans will be watching. he's trying to make a strong impression. especially on those who are still either undecided or leaning one way or another. but may yet be switchable as they say. let's get a little sense of what's going on on the floor. jim acosta is one of our floor
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reporters. jim what are you seeing? >> i can show you right now which is just off to the my left, this is the rope line along the vip booth entrance. we expect mitt romney to come out of this dark black curtain here on the other end of the floor here. and then take his seat next to mrs. romney in just a few moments. i had a chance to talk to a senior romney adviser earlier tonight just to get his reflection on what he thought was a key moment of the night and he pointed to those testimonials coming from members of romney's mormon church, as being what he called a real moment in this convention, wolf. >> all right, let's go to dana bash, she's also on the floor. >> wolf, i am in the middle of the floor of this convention. it is standing room only. it is packed, packed, packed. it's pretty hard to move around in here. the anticipation is palpable. and just so you know, how many people are down here and the kind of people who are down here, check this out this is new jersey, the guy who came, gave the keynote address, the
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governor of new jersey, came down to hear mitt romney give his speech, chris christie. back to you, wolf. >> all right, let's go to john berman. john where are you? >> i'm standing right by the arizona delegation. the last few nights there have been some empty seats here. there was even some frustration among delegates that people weren't showing more emotion, getting up and dancing. that's all changed tonight. there's definitely more emotion. we heard from people who were touched by mitt romney in massachusetts, those stories of people he helped. there were tears all over this audience. wolf. >> john, thank you very much. let's take a break for two minutes. when we come back, there's an amazing video tribute to mitt romney they prepared. there's ann romney, getting ready. her son is there. we're going to go and watch this tribute as we await mitt romney, his acceptance speech, that's coming up. [ male announcer ] the perfect photo... [ man ] nice!
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the acceptance speech, history will be unfolding. he will clearly be the nominee. this is an important acceptance speech. we expect to continue for 30 minutes, probably more, after all the applause and the introduction. before that, clint eastwood, he'll be here as well. clint eastwood, a republican. he has endorsed mitt romney. we're going to be hearing from eastwood. marco rubio, the young, very popular, senator from florida, he'll do the formal introduction
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of mitt romney. as we get ready for this amazing video tribute to mitt romney, let's go back to the floor, the entertainment. the tampa bay city life church chorus. ♪ to the great town of ♪ it is you ♪ united we stand america ♪ america land of the free ♪ america >> bibi wi ne bebe winans and h democrat, but he wanted to
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perform here to show unity in america. and now get ready for this video, a tribute to mitt romney. all right. the video is about to begin, we are told in the next 30 seconds or so. erin, you know, as we get ready for this video, this is the band here that i love, the "saturday night live", and we won't listen right now, because within a second, paul ryan is here, and ann romney is here and they are all here, and mitt romney is backstage and the motorcade came a moment ago and you see paul ryan right there getting ready for the video tribute and they have worked very hard on this video tribute, because it is going the show mitt romney in a obviously very, very personal and powerful and very positive way. >> yes, and they are giving some real time to it. they will have ten minutes to get a sense of the man and the life and the past. and then obviously after that, marco rubio and mitt romney
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himself will come out to give the speech. we have been watching the family and a little bit of musical chairs going on and chair switching going on. >> yes. here is the video. >> i believe in the visions of the founding fathers. i believe this is the land of opportunity. i believe that if we restore the principle of opportunity and hope and give everyone a fair chance, you're going to see this country come roaring back. ♪ >> you can never predict what kind of tough decisions are going to come in front of a president's desk, and if you really want to know how a person will operate, look at how
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they've lived their life. >> they were asking me about what's going on with, you know, with what happened with the scandal and what my opinion is of the we can pull this thing off. and i said, yeah, it is going to be just fine. i said, how do you know? and i said, because i just met mitt romney. >> people were afraid and people were thinking that something terrible could happen. after 9/11, the way we looked at these events changed drastically more than any olympic games the world was watching was this one, how would the united states respond? could they put on an olympic games? >> it was worse than i had expected. i thought that the salt lake turn around was a posmall turn around, but it was a complete turn around. >> he was not only running the show, but out there speaking to
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them and showing through the words and the actions what the olympics could mean to the united states. >> when i was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, both of us just dissolved in tears. >> probably the toughest time in my life was standing there with ann as we hugged each other and the diagnosis came. >> i was very, very ill. i don't know if people knew how sick i was. i was frightened and mitt was frightened, but i needed him desperately. >> look, i'm happy in life as long as i have got my soulmate with me. >> mitt decided to honor heroes throughout the country and the torch we light was going to be all about heroes and mitt chose me as his hero. my life was in, you know, in jeopardy, and i was like, as vulnerable as a person could be, and i trust mitt. i trust him with my life. >> oh, she is gorgeous.
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absolutely beautiful. you know, i can't explain love. i don't know why it happens. i don't know why it endures the way it does. you know, at the very beginning, i sat with her and chatted with her and put my arl around her and something changed. >> my 16th birthday party is when mitt and i really became sort of an item, and mitt helped plan it, and it was just sort of the beginning of the romance. 1968, he flew into the detroit airport right before christmas. of course, his mother is like got her arms open, and he runs right by her and grabs me. >> on the car ride home from the airport, i turned to ann and said, i feel like i hahave neve been away and she said i feel the same way. >> so when we got out of the car, we tell everybody we are getting married like next week. we compromised and waited until march 21st.
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>> sweet baby. >> sweet baby. >> i could do okay with the two. >> my mother and matt and i fought a lot. >> three not bad, but four was a little bit much. >> and oh, my gosh. >> very rambunctious. >> do not play in the water tor mu or the mud. there he goes. and craig was the most active child. he was a handful. >> craigie, hi. don't squirt me. >> i remember my mom was always begging for us to be quiet. please, can i have quiet in this house. >> we could bend a lot of rules and get into trouble, but we could never ever say anything bad about my mom. >> i travelled a good deal in my early career and i would call ann and hear the boys in the background and she might be a little exasperated and i would say, ann, what you are doing is more important than what i'm doing. >> i hate to say it, but often i had more than five sons, i had
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six sons. >> how are you, knuckle snorts? >> he was really playful. >> you know, you know, it is like, you know, you know. >> mitt would walk into the door after work and leave the briefcase at the door and never think about work until morning. >> we felt like the most important thing in his life. >> i went to mom if i needed money, because you never went to dad. he was way too cheap. >> my dad never had the right bull ens and replaced it whatever bulb he had and the problem is that it sticks out too far and blinds you when you cook so he solved that with duct tape and foil. >> i have worked since i was 12 and i know what poverty is and i have been up through it. >> for mitt, i think that he idealized his father. he really was his hero. >> in the summer, my dad used to pack up our family and take to us the great national parks. it was during those trips that i fell in love with america.
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dad was born in mexico. his parents and grandparents had moved to mexico. they were refugees from the revolution. i remember ann asking my dad, what was the most meaningful ak kcome plishment of your life? and without hesitation he said, the greatest accomplishment in my life is having raised you four kids. like me, he fell in love young. family for mom and dad was everything. my dad worked for his dad. he was a drywall guy and back then they called it lamp and plaster. he could spit out nails pointing forward. i loved the watch him lead. >> look, i'm concerned about america. i'm concerned about what is happening to america. >> but if he felt some way about a particular issue, there was no question in your mind about how he felt. friends called him the brick, because he was immovable. he let me tag along in some very
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unusual settings. >> what is the best part of the room? >> grandpa. >> and i did not realize that he was giving me a leadership lesson more than anything i could have learned in school. and bain is more than any other company. >> mitt understood what is behind the numbers and what is behind the numbers is great people. >> he valued every employee and he let us know that every employee was critical to the success of staples. >> why would anybody want to save on envelopes and file folder folders. >> mitt is a cheap son of a gun and if he can save 50 cents or painer clip he would drive a mile to do it. >> if you ask me why he can lead this country, i would say because i have seen him do it firsthand. >> and he was dealing with problems in a way to grow
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factories. wicked smart. >> i took the skills i learned and went to look at the state budget and we were about $3 billion out of balance. >> i will never forget the first cabinet meeting, because he asked one of the assistants to bring out the campaign promiss,s and there were something like 44 campaign promises and the governor said, by the end of the administrati administration, we will go down the checklist and keep each and every promise that was made. i said, he is different. >> i cut spending dollars in massachusetts and balanced the budget from a $3 billion gap in the first year to a $2 billion rainy day fund. >> when he came into office we were in a fiscal crisis and when he came out, we were on much more solid footing. >> his whole life has brought him to the point to being able to have the skills and the experience to tackle something as difficults this, as turning this country around.
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>> mitt romney is in this race, i believe not just for himself. he is in it to improve the lives of the american people. >> it is an extraordinary chief executive officer and i know he understands the economy. >> he is uniquely qualified to get the economy moving again. >> he takes control. >> he is not a stuffed shirt guy. >> charismatic. >> he is rock solid. >> effective leader. >> his values are so strong. >> he is a man of faith. >> extraordinary character. >> cares about the lives of those with voices that are unhear unheard. >> amazing humble man. >> he has a great deal of pride and love for the country. >> finds a way of turning adversity into opportunity. >> he is one of the guys who can do what it takes to turn this country around. >> i will devote every waking
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hourf of my energy to getting america strong again, and that is what an american president has to do. >> usa, usa, usa, usa, usa. ♪ i'm looking at the man in the mirror ♪ alex castellanos and you have made a lot of ads for political candidates and how did that wosrk? >> pretty impressive. they had a lot of material to work with. it is a life full of accomplishments and good storieses about the family to te tell. but up until now, john king was talking earlier that the obama campaigns have been the only people painting on mitt romney's canvas and that changes tonight. tonight, they paint it on and fill in a lot of the blanks.
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you know they are all left wingers out there, left of lenn lennon, and a least that is what people think, but that is not the case. there is a lot of conservative people, and a lot of moderate people, republicans, democrats in hollywood. it is just that the conservative people by the nature of the world itself play it a little closer to the vest, and they don't go around hot dogging it. but they are there, believe me, they are there. and i just i think that in fact, some of them around town. i saw jon voight, and a lot of people around here, around town. jon is here, an academy award winner and terrific guy, and these are people that are all like-minded like all of us. so i have got, i have got mr. obama sitting here, and he's, i just wanted to ask him a couple of questions, but -- you know,
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about, i remember 3 1/2 years ago when mr. obama won the election, and though i was not a bigsupporter, i was watching that thing and they were talking about hope and change and talking about yes, we can, and it was dark and outdoors and nice and people were lighting candles, and they were saying that, you know, i just thought, this is great. i mean, everybody is crying. oprah was crying. and i was even crying. [ laughter ] and then finally, i haven't cried that hard since i found out that there's 23 million unemployed people in this country. and now that is something to cry for, because that is a disgrace, a national disgrace and we
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haven't done enough obviously, this administration has not done enough to cure that. whatever interest they have is not strong enough. i think that possibly now it may be time for somebody else to come along and solve the problem. so -- so, mr. president, how do you handle, how do you handle promises that you have made when you were running for election, and how do you handle it? i mean, what do you say to people? do you just, you know, i know people, people are wondering, you don't -- okay.
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well, i nknow that some people n your own party were very disappointed that we didn't close gitmo, and i think that closing gitmo, and why close it, because we have spent so much money on it, but i thought that maybe it is an excuse -- oh, what do you mean shut up? okay. okay. i thought it was just because somebody had a stupid idea of trying terrorists in downtown new york city. maybe that was it. [ applause ] i have to hand it to you and give credit where it is due, and you did of rule that finally, and that's so now that we are moving onward and i know that you were against the war in iraq, and that's okay. but you thought that the war in afghanistan was okay. you thought that was something that was worth doing. we didn't check with the
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russians to see how they did there for the ten years, but -- but it -- we did it. and it was -- you know, it's something to, to be thought about, and i think that that when we get to maybe, i think that you mentioned something about having a target date for bringing everybody home, and you give that target date and i think that mr. romney is wondering why you give the date out now, and why don't you just bring them home tomorrow morning. i thought, yeah, there's ksh -- not going to shut up. it is my turn. so anyway, we're going to have to have a little chat about that. and then, i just wondered, all
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of these promises, and then i wondered about, you know, when the -- what? what do you want me to tell romney? i can't tell him to do that. he can't do that to himself. you're crazy. you are absolutely crazy. you're getting as bad as biden. of course, we all know that biden is the intellect of the democratic party. it is just the kind of grin with a body behind it. you know, it is just kind of thing. but i just think that there is
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so much to be done, and i think that mr. romney and mr. ryan are two guys that can come along -- and you see, i never thought that it was a good idea for attorneys to be president anyway, because it -- [ applause ] -- yeah, i think that attorneys are so busy, you know, always taught to argue everything and weigh everything and weigh both sides, and they are always, you know, they are always devil's advocating this and bifurcating this and bifurcating that, and you know, all of that stuff, but i think that maybe it's time for, what do you think, maybe a businessman? how about that. okay. a stellar businessman. quo
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quote, unquote a stellar businessman, and i think it is that time and i think that if you just stepped aside and mr. romney can kind of take over, you could still use the plane. though maybe a smaller one, and not that big gas guzzler that you are driving around to colleges and talking about student loans and stuff like that. you're an ecological man and why would you want to drive that truck around? okay. well, anyway. all right. i'm sorry. i can't do that to myself either. anyway. well sh well, i'd just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen, something that i think that is very important is that you, we, we own this country.
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thank you. yes, we own it. and it is not you owning it and not politicians owning it. politicians are employees of ours. and so -- they are just going to come around and beg for votes every few years and it is the same old deal, but i just think that it is important that you realize that, and that you are the best in the world, and whether you are democrat or republican or whether you are libertarian or whatever, you are the best, and we should not ever forget that. when somebody does not do the job, we have to let them go. yes, let them go.
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oh, okay. oh, yes, and just remember that. i'm speaking out for everybody out there. it doesn't hurt that we don't have to be -- i don't say that word anymore. well, maybe one last time. we don't have to be what i'm saying is that we don't have to be masochists to vote for somebody that we don't want in office just because they seem to be nice guys or maybe not so nice guys if you look at some of the recent ads going on out there.
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thank you. thank you. i think that i just drank clint eastwood's water. thank you. well, thank you so much. thank you so much, for having me here today and thank you so much for doing this convention here in florida. thank you. before i begin, this is such an important night for our country. i want to take just with your permission just a few seconds to talk about another country, a country located just a few hundred miles from the city, and the country of my parent's birth, and there is no freedom or liberty in cuba and tonight i ask for your prayers that soon freedom and liberty will be theirs as well. it is a big honor for me not so
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long ago i was a deep underdog candidate and the only people who thought i could win all lived in my house, and four of them were under the age of 10. but this is incredible when i was asked to introduce governor romney who we will hear from in a moment and i promise you, he is backstage and ready to go. and so i called a few people and i asked them, what should i say? they had a lot of different opinions, but the one thing they all said is don't mess it up. so i thought that the best way to introduce mitt romney tonight the next president of the united states is to talk about what this e llection is about. i'm so honored to be able to do it here in florida at the republican national convention in front of all of you patriots. i watched my first convention in 1980 with my grandfather. my grandfather was born to a farming family in rural cuba.
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childhood polio left him disabled and because he could not work the farm, the family sent him to school. he is the only one in his family who knew how to read. he was a huge influence on me growing up. as a boy, i used to sit on the porch of my house and listen to the stories of history and politics and baseball, as he was puff on one of the three daily padron cigars and it has been three decades since we sat on the porch. and i don't remember all of the things that he talked to me about, but the one thing i remember is the one thing that he never wanted me to forget is that the dreams he had when he was young became impossible to achieve, but there was no limit how far i could go, because i was an american. [ applause ] now for those of us and here is why i say that, and here is why
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i say that, because for those who are born and raised in the country, sometimes it becomes easy to forget how special america is, but my grandfather understood how different america was from the rest of the world, because he knew life outside of america. tonight, you will hear from another man who understands what makes america exceptional. mitt romney knows america's prosperity didn't happen because our government simply spent more money. it happened because our people used their own money to open up a business, and when they succeed, they hire more people who invest or spend their money in the economy helping others start a business or create jobs. now, tonight, you've heard for a long time now about mitt romney's success in business. it is well known. but we have also learned that he is so much more than that. mitt romney is a devoted husband, a father, a
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grandfather, a generous member of his community and church, a role model for younger americans like myself, and everywhere he has been, he has volunteered his time and talent to make things better for those around him, and we are blessed that a man like this will soon be the president of these united states. [ applause ] now sh now, let me be clear, so no one misunderstands, our problem with president obama is not that he is a bad person. okay. by all accounts, he, too, is a good husband and good father and thanks to a lot of practice, a good golfer. our problem is not that he is a bad person. our problem is that he he is a bad president.
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you think he is watching tonight? because his new slogan for his campaign is the word "forward." forward. a government that spends $1 trillion more than it takes in? an $800 billion stimulus to create more debt than jobs? a government intervention for health care paid for with higher taxes and cuts to medicare and score scores of new rules and regulations? these ideas don't move us forward. these ideas move us backwards. these are tired and old government ideals that have failed every time and everywhere they have been tried. these are ideas that people come to america to get away from.
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these are ideas that threaten to make america more like the rest of the world instead of helping the rest of the world become more like america. as for the old slogan, under barack obama the only change is that hope is hard to find. now, sadly, millions of americans are insecure about their future. but instead of inspiring us by reminding us of what makes us special, he divides us against each other. he tells americans that they are worse off because others are better off. that rich people got rich by making other people poor. hope and change has become divide and conquer.
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but in the end, this election, it does not matter how you feel about president obama, because this e llection is about your future and not his. and this election is not simply a choice between a democrat and a republican. it is a choice about what kind of country we want america to be. as we prepare to make this choice, we should remember what made us special. you see, for most of the human history, almost everybody was poor. power and wealth only belonged to a few. your rights are whatever your rulers allowed you the have. your future was determined by your past. if your parents were poor, so would you be. if you were born without opportunities, so were your children, but america was founded on the principle that every person has got-gid-given
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rights. founded on the belief that power belongs to the people. that government exists to protect our rights and serve our interests and that no one should be trapped in the circumstance of their birth. we should be free to go as far as our talents and our work can take us. and we are special, special because we are united not as a common race or common ethnicity, we are bound together by common values, that family is the most important i.n.nstitution in society. that almighty god is the source of all we have.
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we are special, we are special, because we have never made the mistake of believing that we are so smart to rely solely on the leaders or the government. our national motto in god we trust reminding us that faith in our creator is the most important american value of them all. and we are special, we're special because we have always understood the scriptural admonition that to whom much is given, from him much is required. well, my fellow americans, we
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are a uniquely blessed people. and we have honored those blessings with the enduring example of an exceptional america. i know for many of you watching from home to the night, the last few years have tested your faith in the promise of america. maybe you are at the age where you thought you would be entering retirement, but because the savings and investments are wiped out your future is uncertain and maybe after years of hard work, you expected this to be the prime earning years, but instead you are laid off and the house is underwater from the mortgage. and maybe you studied hard and worked hard in school, but now you owe thousands of dollars in student loans and you can't find a job in your field and you have to mo back in with your parents. you still want to believe that we are that special place where anything is possible, but things
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don't seem to be getting any better, and you wonder if things will ever be the same again. yes, we live in a troubled time, but the story of those who came before us reminds us that america has always been about new beginnings, and mitt romney is running for president, because he knows that if we are willing to do for our children what our parents did for us, life in america can be better than it has ever been. [ applause ] my mother was one of seven girls whose parents often went to bed hungry so their children wou wouldn't. my father lost his mother when he was 9. he had to leave school and go to work and he would have worked for the next 70 years of his life. the they emigrated to america
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with little hope than a better life. my dad was a bartender and my mom was a cashier, a hotel maid a stock clerk at kmart, and they never made it big. they were never rich, and yet they were successful. because just the few decades removed from hopelessness, they made possible for us all of the things impossible for them. many nights growing up i would hear my father's keys jingling at the door as he came home after another 16-hour day. many mornings i woke up just as my mother got home from the overnight shift at kmart. when you are young and you are in a hurry, the meaning of moments like this escape you, but now as my children get older, i understand it better. my dad used to tell us -- [ speaking foreign language ] -- and in this country, in this country, you are going to be able to accomplish all of the
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things that we never could. a few years ago during a speech, i noticed a bartender behind the portable bar in the back of the ballroom. i remembered my father who worked for many years as a banquet bartender, and he was grateful tor the work he had. but that is not the life he wanted for us. you see, he stood behind the bar in the back of the room all of those years so one day i could stand behind a podium in front of a room. that journey, that journey from behind that bar to behind this podium goes to the essence of the american miracle that we are
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exceptional not because we have more rich people here. we are special because dreams that are impossible anywhere else, they come true here. [ applause ] but that's not just my story. that is your story. that's our story. that's the story of your mothers who struggled to give you what they never had. that's the story of your fathers who worked two jobs so that the doors that had been closed for them would be open for you. that is the story of the teacher or the coach that taught you the lessons that made you who you are today, and it is the story of a man who was born into an uncertain future in a foreign country, and his family came to america to escape revolution. they struggled through poverty and the great depression. and yet, he arose to be an admired businessman and public servant. and in november, his son mitt
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romney will be elected president of these united states. [ applause ] in america -- in america, we are all just a generation or two removed from someone who made our future the purpose of their lives. america is the story of everyday people who did extraordinary things. a story woven deep into the fabric of our society, and their stories may never be famous, but in the lives they live, you will
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find the essence of america's greatness. and to make sure that america is still a place where tomorrow is always better than yesterday, that is what our politics should be about, and that is what we are deciding this election. we decide, do we want our children to inherit our hopes and dreams or do we want them to inherit our problems? because mitt romney believes if we succeed in changing the direction of the country, our children and grandchildren will be the most prosperous generation ever, and their achievements will astonish the world. the story of our time will be written by americans who have not yet been born. let us make sure they write that
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we did our part. that in the early years of this new century, we lived an uncertain time, but we did not allow fear to abandon what made us special. we chose more government instead of more freedom and we chose the principles of the founding to solve the problems of the time, and we chose a special man to lead us in a special time. we chose mitt romney to lead our nation, and because we did, the american miracle lived on for another generation to inherit. [ applause ] my fellow republicans, my fellow americans, i am proud to introduce to you the next
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♪ ♪ and so as mitt romney is walking into the aisle of the convention floor and sort of reminds me of a state of the union address where the president walks on to the floor and the house of representatives before a joint session of congress, and he is being received by all of the friends and all of the supporters shaking hands, and they are thrilled. they are getting ready for this acceptance speech by mitt romney.
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excellent introductory set of remarks by the senator from florida, anderson cooper, marco rubio, a nd he did his job but am not sure that clint eastwood did much in setting the stage for this, but that is a subject for debate down the road to be sure. that video, i believe, that exc excellent ten-minute video probably should have gone right into the marco rubio speech. all right. so let's listen in with a little bit of the nat sound as we like to say with mitt romney walking in to deliver the most important speech of his political life. he has a lot of potential undecided voters there who will have to make a decision by november 6th, do they vote for him, or do they vote to keep president obama in the white house for another four years. here he is. he is on the stage, and you know what, let's just get ready to listen to mitt romney deliver the speech.
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[ cheers and applause ] >> i do so with humility, deeply moved by the trust that you have placed in me, and it is a great honor and it is an even greater responsibility, a nd tonight, im asking you the join me to walk together to a better future, and by my side i have chosen a man with a big heart from a small town. he represents the best of america, a man who will always make us very proud, my friend and america's next vice president paul ryan.
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in the days ahead, you are going to get to know paul and janna better, but last night america got to see what i saw in paul ryan a strong and caring leader who's down to earth and confident in the challenge that this moment demands. i love the way he lights up around his kids, and how he is not embarrassed to show the world how much he loves his mom. but, paul, i still like the play list on my ipod better than yours. four years ago, i know that many americans felt a fresh excitement about the possibilities of a new president, and that choice was not the choice of our party, but americans always come together after elections, and we are a good and generous people, and we
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are united by so much more than what divides us. when that election was over, when the yard signs came down and the television commercials timely came off of the air, americans were eager to go back to work to live our lives the way that americans always have, optimistic and positive and confident in the future. that very optimism is uniquely american. it is what brought us to america. we are a nation of immigrants with children and grandchildren and great grandchildren who w t wanted a better life. the driven ones, and the ones who woke up in the middle of the night telling them that the life in the place called america could be better. they came not just in pursuit of the riches of this world, but for the richness of this life. freedom, freedom of religion, freedom to speak their mind, freedom to build a life, and yes, freedom the build a business with their own hands.
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this is the essence of the american experience. we americans have always felt a special kinship with the future when every new wave of immigrants looked up and saw the statue of liberty or knelt down and kissed the shores of freedom just 90 miles from castro's tyranny, these new americans surely had many questions, but none doubted that here in america they could build a better life. that in america, their children would be blessed more than they. but today, four years from the excitement of that last election, for the first time, the majority of americans now doubt that our children will have a better future. it is not what we were promised. every family in america wanted this to be a time to get a
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little hahead, puts a side a little more for college and do more for the elderly mom who is now living alone or give a little more to the church tor charity, and every small business wanted these to be the best e years ever to hire more, do more for those who had stuck with them through the hard times and open up a new store or sponsor that little league team. and every new college graduate thought they'd have a good job by now and a place of their own and start paying back the loans and build for the future. this is when the nation was supposed to be paying down the national debt and rolling back the massive deficits. this was the hope and change that america voted for. it is not just what we wanted, it is not just what we expected, but it is what americans deserved.
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[ applause ] >> you deserved it because during these years you worked harder than ever before, and you deserveded it because when it cost more to fill up your car, you cut out lights and worked longer hours and when you lost that job with $22 and benefits you worked two jobs at $9 an hour. [ crowd chanting "usa" ]
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>> you deserve it, because your family depended on you and you did it because you're an american, and you don't quit. you did it because it is what you had to do. driving home late from the second job or standing there watching the gas pump hit $50 and still going, when the realtor told you that to sell your house you'd have to take a big loss, and in those moments you knew that it just was not right, but what could you do except work harder, do with less, try to stay optimistic and hug your kids a little longer and maybe spend more time praying that tomorrow would be a better day. i wish president obama had succeeded, because i want america to succeed. but his promises gave way to disappointment and division.
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this is not something that we have to accept. now is the moment when we can do something, and with your help, we will do something. now is the moment when we can stand up and say, i'm an american. i make my destiny, and we deserve better and my children deserve better, my family deserves better, my country deserves better. so here we stand. americans have a choice a decision to make that choice you will need to know more about me and where i'd lead our country. i was born in the middle of the century in the middle of the country, the classic baby boomer.
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it was a time when americans were returning from war, and eager to work. to be an american was to assume that all things were possible. when president kennedy challenged americans to go to the moon, the question wasn't if we'd get there, but it was only when we'd get there. the souls of neil armstrong's boots on the moon made permanent impressions on our souls and ann and i watched the steps together on her parent's sofa and like all americans, we went to bed that night knowing that we lived in the best country in the history of the world. god bless neil armstrong.
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tonight that american flag is still there on the moon, and i don't doubt for a second that neil armstrong's spirit is still with us, that unique blend of optimism, humility and the utter confidence that when the world needs someone to do the really big stuff, you need an american. my dad had been born in mexico and his family had to leave during the mexican revolution. i grew up with stories of his family being fed by the u.s. government as war refugees and my dad never made it through college and he apprenticed as a car p carpenter. he had big dreams and he convinced my mom, a beautiful
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young actress to give up hollywood to marry him and move to detroit. he led a great -- [ applause ] -- he led a great automobile company and became governor of great state of michigan. we were mormons and growing up in michigan that might have seemed unusual or out of place, but i really don't remember it that way. my friends cared more about what sports teams we followed than what church we went to. my mom and dad gave their kids the greatest gift of all, the gift of unconditional love. they cared deeply about who we would be and much less about what we would do. unconditional love is a gift that ann and i have tried to pass on to our sons and now to our grandchildren. all of the laws and the legislation in the world will never heal the world like the loving hearts and arms of
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mothers and fathers. you know, if every child could drift to sleep feeling rapt in the love of the family and god's love, this world would be a far more gentle and better place. my mom and dad were married for 64 years. and if you wonder ed what their secret was, you could have asked the local florist. because every day dad gave mom a rose which he put on her bedside table. that's how she found out what happened on the day my father died. she went looking for him, because that morning, there was no rose. my mom and dad were true partners. a life lesson that shaped me by everyday example.
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when my mom ran for the senate my dad was there for her every step of the way. i can still see her saying in her beautiful voice, why should women have any less say than men about the great decisions facing our nation. don't you wish you could have been here at this convention and heard leaders like governor mary fallon and governor nikki haley and governor suzanne martinez and secretary of state condoleezza rice?
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as governor of massachusetts, i chose a woman lieutenant governor, a woman chief of staff, half of my cabinet and senior officials were women. and in business i mentored and supported great women leaders who went on to run great companies. i grew up in detroit and in love with cars and i wanted to be a car guy like my dad, but by the time i was out of school, i realized that i had to go out on my own and if i stayed around michigan in the same business, i'd never really know if i were getting a break because of my dad. i wanted to go someplace new and prove myself. those weren't the easiest of days. many long hours and weekends working, and five young sons who seemed to have this need to reenact a different world war every night. but if you ask ann and i what we'd give to break up just one more fight between the boys or wake up in the morning and
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discover a pile of kids asleep in our room, and well, every mom and dad knows the answer to that. those days where -- [ applause ] -- these were tough days on ann particularly. she was heroic through it all. five boys with our families a long way away and i had to travel a lot for my job then and i'd call to try to offer some support, but every mom knows that doesn't help get the homework done or get the kids out the door to school. and i knew that her job as a mom was harder than mine and i knew without question that her job as a mom was a lot more important than mine. and as america saw tuesday
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night, ann would have succeeded at anything she wanted to do. like a lot of families in a new place with no family, we found kinship with a wide circle is of friends through our church. when we were new to the community, it was welcoming and as the years went by, it was a joy to help others who had just moved into town or just joined our church. we had remarkably vibrant and diverse congregations from all walks of life and many who were new to america. we prayed together, and our kids played together, and we always stood ready to help each other out in different ways. that is how it is in america. we look to our communities, our faiths, our families for our
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joy, our support in good times and bad. it is both how we live our lives and why we live our lives. the strength and power and goodness of america has always been based on the strength and the power and the goodness of our communities and our families and our faiths. that's the bedrock of what makes america, america. in our best days we can feel the vibrancy of america's communities large and small and when we see the new business opening up downtown and go to work in the morning and see everybody else on the block doing the same thing. it is when our son or daughter calls from college to talk about which job offer they should take and you try not to choke up when you hear that the one they like best is not too far from home. it is that good feeling when you have more time to volunteer to coach your kids' soccer teams or
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help out on school trips burk for too many americans, those kind of good days are harder to come by and how many days have you woke up feeling that something special was happening in america? many of you felt that way on election day four years ago. hope and change had a powerful appeal, but tonight i ask a simple question, if you felt that excitement when you voted for barack obama, shouldn't you feel that way now that he is president obama? you know, there is something wrong with the kind of job he has done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him. the president has not
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disappointed you because he wanted to, he has disappointed you because he has not led in the right direction. he took the presidency in a way that one that is essential, he had no experience at hand. all of his experience was in the government. i learned the real lessons about how america works from experience. and when i was 37, i helped to start a small company and my partners and i had been working for a company that was in the business of helping other businesses. and so some of us had this idea that if we really believed that our advice was helping companies, we should invest in companies, and we should bet on ourselves and our advice. so we started a new business called bain capital. the only problem was that while we believed in ourselves, not many other people did. we were young and had never done this before, and we almost
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didn't get off of the ground. in those days sometimes i wonder ed if i had made a really big mistake, and by the way, i thought about asking for my church's pension fund to invest, but didn't. i figured it was bad enough that i might lose any investor's money, but i didn't want to go to hell, too. shows what i know. another of my partners got the episcopal church's pension fund to invest and today, there are a lot of retired priests who should thank him. that business we started with ten people has now grown into a great american success story and some of the names we helped start are some you have heard
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from tonight. and some of them are the staples, where i'm pleased to know that the obama campaign has been shopping. and the sports authority which of course became a favorite of my boys. and we helped start an early childhood learning company called bright horizons that first lady michelle obama rightly praised and at a time when nobody thought that we would see a new steel mill in america, we took a chance and built one in the cornfield of indiana. to d today steel dynamics is one of the largest steel producer s s the united states. these -- these are american s k success stories. and yet at the centerpiece of the president's entire re-election campaign is attacking success. any wonder that someone who at a tacks success has led the worst economic recovery since the great depression?
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in america, we celebrate success, and we don't apologize for success. now, now, we weren't always successful at bain. but no one ever is in the real world of business. that is what this president doesn't seem to understand. business and growing jobs is about taking risks, sometiming failing, and sometimes succeeding, but always striving. it is about dreams. usually it does not work out exactly as you might have imagined. steve jobs was fired at apple. and then he came back and changed the world. it is the genius of the american
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free enterprise system to harness the extraordinary creati creativity and talent and industry of the american people with a system that is dedicated to creating tomorrow's prosperity, not trying to redistribute today's. [ applause ] that's why every president since the great depression who came before the american people asking for a second term could look back at the last four years and say with satisfaction that you are better off than you were four years ago, except jimmy carter. and except this president.
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this president can ask us to be patient. this president can tell us it was someone else's fault, and this president can tell us that the next four years he'll get it right, but this president cannot tell us that you are better off today than when he took office. america has been patient. americans have supported this president in good faith. but today, the time has come to turn the page. to d today the time has come for us to put the disappointments of the last four years behind us and to puts a side the divisiveness and the recriminations and to forget about what might have been and to look ahead to what can be and now is a time to restore the promise of america.
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many americans have given up on this president, but they haven't ever thought about giving up, not on themselves, not on each other, and not on america. what is needed in our country today is not complicated or p profound. it doesn't take a special government commission to tell us what america needs. what america needs is jobs, lots of jobs. in the richest country in the history of the world, this obama economy has crushed the middle-class. family income has fallen by $4,000, but health insurance premiums are higher and food prices are higher. utility bills are higher. gasoline prices have doubled. today more americans wake up in
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poverty than ever before. nearly 1 of 6 americans is living in poverty. look around you. these are not strangers. these are our brothers and sisters, our fellow americans. his policies have not helped to create jobs, but depressed them. this i can tell you where president obama would take america. his plan to raise taxes on small business won't add jobs, it would eliminate them. his assault on coal and gas and oil will send energy and manufacturing jobs to china. his trillion dollar cuts to the military will eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs and also put our security at greater risk. his $716 billion cut to medicare
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to finance obama care will both hurt today's seniors and suppress innovation and jobs in medicine. and his $1 trillion deficits, they slow the economy, restrain employment and cause the wages to stall. for a majority of the americans now who do not believe that the future is going to be better than the past, i guarantee you this, if barack obama is re-elected, you'll be right. i'm running for president to help create a better future, and a future where everyone who wants a job can find a job. where no senior feels for the, fears for the security of their retirement. an america where every parent knows that their child will get an education that leads them to a good job and a bright horizon, an unlike the president, i have a plan to create 12 million new jobs.
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paul ryan and i have five steps. first by 2020, north america will be energy independent by taking full advantage of our oil, our gas, our coal, our nuclear and our renewables. second, we will give our fellow citizens the skills they need for the jobs of today and the careers of tomorrow. when it comes to the school your child will at the entend, every should have a choice and every child a chance.
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third, we'll make trade work for america by forging new trade agreements and when nations cheat in trade, there will be unmistakable consequences. and fourth, to assure every entrepreneur and every job creator that their investments in america will not vanish as have those in greece, we will cut the deficit and put america on track to a balanced budget. and fifth, we will champion small businesses, america's engine of job growth and that means lower taxes on business and not raising them, and
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modifying the regulations that hurt the small businesses the most, and we must rein in the skyrocketing costs of health care by replacing obama care. today women are more likely than men to start a business, and they need a president who respects and understands what they do. and let me make this very clear. unlike president obama, i will not raise taxes on the middle class of america. as president, i'll protect the sanctity of life.
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-- every american was relieved the day that president obama gave the order and s.e.a.l. team six took out osama bin laden. on another front every american is less secure today because he has failed to slow iran's nuclear threat. in his first tv interview as president he said that we should talk to iran. we are still talking, and iran's centrifuges are still spinning. president obama has thrown allies like israel under the bus even as he has relaxed sanctions on castro's cuba, and he aban n abandoned the friends in poland by walking away from the missile defense commitments, and he is eager to give russia's president putin the flexibility that he
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desires after the election. under my administration, our friends will see more loyalty and mr. putin will see a little less flexibility and more backbone. we will honor america's democratic ideals, because a free world is a more peaceful world. this is the bipartisan foreign policy legacy of truman and reagan and under my presidency, we will return to it once again.
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you might have asked yourself if these last years are really the america we want. the america that was won for us by the greatest generation. does the america we want borrow $1 trillion from china? does it fail to find the jobs that are needed for 23 million people and for half of the kids graduating from college? are those schools lagging behind the rest of the developed world? and does the america we want succumb to resentment and division among americans? the america we all know has been a story of the many becoming one, and uniting to preserve liberty and uniting to build the greatest e kconomy the world, a uniting to save the world from unspeakable darkness and everywhere i go in america, there are monuments that list those who have given their lives for america. there's no mention of their race, their party affiliation or
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what they did for a living. they lived and died under a single flag fighting for a single purpose. they pledged allegiance to the united states of america. that america, that united america can unleash an economy that will put americans back to work, that will once again lead the world with innovation and productivity and will restore every father and mother's con i confidence that their children's future is brighter even than that of the past. that america, that united america will preserve a military so strong that no nation would ever dare to test it.
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that america, that america that united america will uphold the constellation of rights that were codified in the constitution. that united america will care for the poor and the sick, will honor and respect the elderly and give a helping hand to those in need, and that america is the best within each of us. that america we want for our children. if i'm elected president of these united states, i will work with all of my energy and soul to restore that america, to lift our eyes to a better future, and that future is our destiny. that future is out there. it is waiting for us. our children deserve it. our nation depends on it. and the peace and the freedom of the world require it, and with your help we will deliver it. let us begin that future for
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the balloons are coming down and thousands of balloons and confetti coming down, and we are on the convention floor, and this is perfectly choreographed and except by the speech by mitt romney some problems, but he knew what he wanted to deliver introducing himself to a lot of folks who didn't know much about him. he managed to get into all of the emotional background that he brings to this race for the white house. he didn't dodge any of the sensitive issues and he spoke about his mormon faith, and spoke about his role at bain capital and directly went after the president of the united states, and comparing him to jimmy carter who was an incumbent president who in 1980 lost to a republican, a republican named ronald reagan, and this presidential candidate said at one point referring to president obama, this president cannot tell you you are better off than you were when he took office.
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and asking the question, are you better off now than you were four years ago. and so that speech sets the stage for next week's democratic convention in charlotte, and anderson, i'm about to be pummeled by balloons and confetti, and back up to you, anderson. >> over to the panel, and we talked about what he needed to do all week and did he do it, alex castellanos? >> i thought that the speech was good enough. he got the job done and couple of great things about it, earlier in the week, we wondered who is mitt romney and does he have passion and this is the mad as hell speech and he said you deserve better and your family deserves better and your children deserve better. he has been attacked how he would lead the country and the economic plan, but the five-point plan came out tonight. but a couple of good things happened for republicans tonight, and one of them was
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clint eastwood, he proved that he cannot do improve. now we know that. but he did something in politics that he made it acceptable to brick the balloon and the emperor has no clothes and sometimes when you brick the balloon the slide starts. >> and leading up to it, i thought that the clint eastwood thing, i am a fan of his and i thought it was a little different and i thought that marco rubio was awful. he stood up there and talked about himself running for president in 2016 and not trying to help mitt romney. romney delivered a confidently well written speech that was utterly predictable, and i don't know if that surprised me at all but it was well delivered. >> david gergen? >> well, this is a difficult one to judge from my perspective, because i thought it was a solid speech. it humanized him very well and introduced him on a very extremely level that is a quiet
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speech and a man who is living a norman rockwell america and has the vision of how we should all live together and the country is pretty far a wai way from that but what it lacked is that the speech had a lot of heart, but it needed more soul. it needed more poetry, and it also needed more fight. >> and the language is striking, in showing the generational contrast between the two candidates, and the huge ideological contrast as well. i think that the governor spent some time and if you are a obama supporter, you won't accept it, but if you are undecided maybe you will listen to the speech he made against the president. he had great gifts and to lower the oceans and heal the planet and he is not ronald reagan as a communiqcator and tonight, i wat to help the you and your family. i am not the greatest orator, but i will get to the problem. >> the speech shows who they are worried about in the campaign and who they are talking to. they are talking to the small slice of persuadable voters.
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there is a line in this speech that i wish that president obama had succeeded, because i want america to succeed. they are talking to the voterers who are voting for president obama in 200, and who are disappointed with him now which is why you didn't see a lot of hard edges at the beginning of the speech. >> and a lot of focus on women as well. >> a lot of focus and women role models i have noticed in this conventio convention. >> wolf blitzer is standing by. wolf? ♪ from sea to shining sea >> over to jim acosta who has a special guest, marco rubio who introduced mitt romney. jim? >> oh, that is right, wolf. i'm joined now by the senator from florida, the man who introduced mitt romney here at the convention, marco rubio, and senator rubio, your reaction to mitt romney's speech? >> fantastic. he hit all of the right points and glad he went into detail for the policy so that the american people can see the clear differences of barack obama and
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mitt romney and it is on now. >> it is on, because you heard mitt romney during this speech accuse president obama of throwing israel under the bus. you think that was over the top? >> no. listen, i think that today the relationship that israel feels towards the united states whether they can publicly admit it or not is insecure compared to the past and it is manifesting in several ways. at the end of the day, look, the alliance with israel is a bipartisan position and something that unifies us in congress and we need a chief executive who feels as strongly about it and we will have one soon. >> and do you believe what mitt romney had to say up there about the economy and talked about the president how he was rooting for the president to succeed, because he wanted america to succeed. i mean, were the republicans really rooting for barack obama to succeed? >> well, i can tell you about me, and i love the united states of america more than i love the republican party. i'm proud to be a republican -- >> we are getting hit with the balloons now. >> but i'm prouder to be an american, and at the end of the day, we will always have philosophical differences with the other party, but i don't
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want america to be struggling or unemployment to be high, and yet it is today. >> be careful, and you, too. wolf, back to you. >> dana bash on the floor with the new jersey governor chris christie. >> that is right. i'm going try to keep the balloons away so you can see us, because we are literally waist-deep in balloons. and governor christy, what did you think? >> well, he did a great job tonight and the americans got to see the real mitt romney tonight and he was emotional and connecting withand telling them his life and the dreams for everyone's life. >> someone who has his ear and you talk to him a lot and communicate with him in only a way this you can, in a blunt way, and did he do what you have been asking him to do? >> yes, he showed america real emotion tonight, and he spoke about the things that he cares deeply about in his life, and in his upbringing and why that means and why it means that it
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is so important to him and why it is going to be something to the american people when he is president. >> and what does he need to do next now that he has introduced himself like this to the american people, how does he harness that? >> well, he needs to get out there to work as hard as he can for 67 days. he has 67 days to win this thing. nobody is going to lose it, and someone is going to win it. i believe mitt romney tonight started the path to victory. >> okay. governor, thank you so much. appreciate it. i'm not sure how we will get out of here with the balloons. back to you, wolf. >> no one is in any rush to leave. over the candy crowley up on the podium and had a very, very close look at what was going on. candy? >> well shgs, i think that you d as the balloons were beginning to fall, all of the kids on the stage. i think that in the end what you saw was mitt romney delivering a very solid, and dare i say business-like speech. there were moments when you saw him perhaps more of him than you
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see on thor normal day on the stump. but in the end, it was mitt romney being mitt romney. it was a solid performance. it was a solid speech, and one adviser said to me, you know, look, this is a very important speech, but it is not the end. it is the kickoff for the fall. so what they want is a springboard here. they are hoping for this to give them, a bounce and he was not ta talking about the polls, but they'd obviously love that, but this gives them a way to move into the fall, to go into the debates and to continue obviously, and to put all of the adds up on the air, as they were looking here for a way to spring into the fall. and this is mitt romney being mitt romney. they are down here praying and that is always my cue to send it back to you all, wolf. >> all right. candy, standby. i want to get back to you shortly, but back up to anderson cooper. >> yeah, let's check in with ari
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fleisher or roland martin and what did you think? >> well, he hit, anderson, and did everything he needed to do, and two levels. i talked to a senior romney aide and he said that the ish ssue t focused on was not likability but whether people could see that mitt romney connected with with them and understood their concerns and issues in their lives and he is very effective in the first half of the speech about that. the second part of the speech i thought was tremendously successful for mitt romney was the substance of it. when he said that talked about a election night in 2008 in chicago, and he said if you felt the excitement when you voted for barack obama, shouldn't you feel the same way now that he is president obama? that encapsulated the disappointment that the american people have in the country under president obama. and that is a powerful indictment of a line and delivered in a soft spoken manner that was effective manne manner. >> roland martin? >> yes, in terms of giving the red meat, that is what he gave to that particular point that
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ari made. i tell you that we are not losing 750,000 a month like we lost under george w. bush, and that is a fact. also i thought it was interesting that mitt romney evoked the genius of a steve job s at apple and how he rescued the company and then the next sentence he talked about a president obama gets his way when it comes to those jobs that will be shipped over to china and apple makes most of the products in china. so you praise steve jobs and then the manufacturing in china. and housing never came up in this particular speech. but if you go the mitt romney.com, you won't see anything about housing or foreclosure and lots of americans out there, that is one of the very concerns that he did not touch that particular issue. so again, i think that you are going to have people say, hey, and he touched on the jobs issue, and showed some emotion and showed some passion, but the bottom line is game on. >> and john king? >> i think it is surprising that he didn't mention housing in the speech in the sense that one of the big competitive swing states
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nevada has one of the worst housing crisis in the country and so does this state we are in, florida. he did more broadly mention and talk about at one point, someone who had a mortgage and they could not sell their house and underwater, but not specific about a policy, but to disagree with roland, to go to the romney website and somebody who goes through may not agree with the policies, but there is a more specific one, and his website is more specific when it comes to policies. and you will find all of the issues. >> and housing? i went to the website and let me know where it is, because i wrote a specific piece on housing and again that is a fundamental issue not just florida or nevada, but some of the states on the rebound and we are still dealing with the foreclosures. >> it is on the website. i will show you, roland, if you get on the website. >> i have. >> and i did not think that in the substance of the speech where he was going. we heard a long speech from paul ryan extremely effective about the tough choices. if there were any tough choices laid out tonight, i did not hear them.
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they skirted that, and it all sounds like it is straight forward, and these are tough deals. >> that is page seven of the speech of nine pages. >> a reason for that. when moses says let's go to promised land and not go through the desert. this is a political convention and romney had not laid out a vision for the future and frankly, the republicans have a horrible tendency to ask people to drink their medicine because it tastes bad and not because it is good for them, and it is that optimism that was strong tonight. >> and james? >> i give a democratic critique, it is this, not a word about economic policy that george w. bush could not say and not a word about foreign policy that dick cheney could not say or a word about social policy that rick santorum could not say. this is nothing new and all warmed over republican stuff that we have all heard before. >> and cnn's john berman is down and the floor with governor jan brewer of arizona. john? >> thank you, anderson.
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so governor, you supported mitt romney for a while now and he has come to the state to campaign and you were sitting right here in the front row and what have you seen tonight that you have not seen before? >> it was fabulous and exciting. i saw mitt romney come forward to present to us a new vision for america. and that we didn't have to accept the president's failures. it was so very much, it was so accepting that our country needs that i'm just totally excited. >> he talked a lot about his mother and a story i have not heard a lot about and i have covered him for years and he talked about the women leadership in the country right now and what do you think he is trying to do? c connect with the female voters here? >> well, he has to reintroduce himself to america and top republicans and democrats and independents. they need to know what mitt romney is. they didn't know what he stands for and he believes in america, and he believes in the people of america. >> i also have to ask you before i let you go here, you were right here in the front row and probably closer to clint
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eastwood than anybody else in the entire building and what were you thinking when he did his act up there? >> i thought it was absolutely terrific to talk to somebody who really wasn't paying attention and we kept talking to him and talking to him, and he doesn't listen. he doesn't listen. >> thank you, governor brewer. >> thank you. >> anderson? >> all right. one of the things that the speech, the prespeeches did do is to pushing mitt romney's speech out of prime time to some degree which is -- >> well, i check and the network was supposed to do 10:00 to 11:00 and cnn checked and they actually went through the whole speech. >> they didn't cut it off. >> they couldn't cut it off, but the voters may have cut it off at 11:00. they don't know how many carries through. >> and when you were obviously a supporter of mitt romney and you were describing it and you said he did what he needed to do, i did not hear huge amount of enthusiasm or excitement?
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>> well, maybe you are not excitable and marco rubio is an excitable speaker and i think that mitt romney gave the impression that he is ready to go the work. maybe it is not exciting thing in the world, but that is who he is, and right now that might be good enough to elect the next president of the united states. by the way, one of the problems that we talk about is that he was not specific enough in the litany of the policy in the speech, but that has been the problem of the whole campaign and he has had a 56-point economic plan and no vision, follow me, let's go to the future and he did it tonight. >> he said he would create 12 million new jobs, but we didn't hear how, but this is maybe not the new place to do it honestly. >> but that steel company he talked about did receive a huge amount of subsidies from the united states government. >> right, right. but what they are trying to do tonight is not necessarily move the ballot and i was talking to a senior romney adviser earlier and he said that we are looking to move the underlying attributes of the candidate which means they want people to think that he cares about them.
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>> and lowering the expectations is that. >> and the speech was not specific enough, but it was not different or creative. >> that is a fair critique. but he said that i will get 12 mi million jobs, and excuse me hour, are you doing do that? and most economists don't believe you can do that and by reciting the five points is not compelli compelling. but alex on the point, i have to tell you something that the country is in tough shape and if the republicans are going to come forward to say, we have a bracing program to get us through some hard times, i think that they have to square with us and tell us, this is going to be tough and there is a desert ahead and we have to get in this together and that is why you need new and different leadership. >> well, that is just finished tonight -- >> well, it was fine. >> and the speech will hold the place and improve it a little bit, but what it tells you, james is right, nothing new and here's how i'm a new republican and this is the place and the specificity of creating the jobs
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it tells you that the presidential debates are going to be pivotal to the race. >> and candy is standing by. where are you at? >> i'm down here on the podium watching the remnants of the party, if you will. i talked to two folks via the e-mail here tonight, and after romney finished that are in the romney campaign and i said, you know, it seems solid, but it didn't really seem wow exciting and really changing things, and i mean, he wrote back and said, listen, find me more than a handful of convention speeches that move mountains? we didn't need to move a mountain. we needed to move forward and we did that. so they feel this is a good night for him for a lot of reasons and not by the way just for his speech, but some of the speeches that preceded it, and particularly those from the mormon church and did what mitt romney still has a hard time doing which is sort of as one adviser called it tooting his
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own horn. so, they really feel as though this is something that can move them forward, that just as john was saying in a race this close, what you want is some kind of forward movement which you won't get is to be able to move some mountain. >> james carville, earlier, you were making the point that this is a speech unlike any other, and what you are saying is that this speech that we heard tonight was a speech like any other. >> well, yeah, it wasn't, but it, understand, unlike the inaugural speech, it got people standing behind you and the weather can be bad and anything can happen. the state of the union, half of the people in the audience don't like you, but here, everything is scripted, i mean from the place in the back to where you come out to the balloon drop to everybody in the place, and you know, 50 democrats in here all love you and want to love you and want you the succeed. he gave a competent speech and
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competently written and not creative, but if they wanted to nudge the ball a little bit forward they did. >> i don't believe that was the aspirations, but that is how they are lower the expectations, but james is right about one thing, they did not answer the question that is on everybody's minds, he didn't answer anything new and you want to go back to bush, and at some point candy crowley will be moderating a debate where barack obama is going to turn to mitt romney and say, you want to go back the bush and you have said nothing new tonight and how he answers that question will pick the next president of the united states. >> ari fleisher. >> anderson, the standards that the speech is judged by in 2008, barack obama gave a speech, hope, change, yes, we can, and everybody in the press roared what a great speech it was. and then the standard is being set to judge this speech to be given the specifics and was there enough policy? this is exactly what a convention speech should be and one of the lines that is most memorable of the speech and these are the kinds of the things that the american people remember after the speech is done, and when he said that the
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obama promise to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet, and my promise is to help you and your family. those are the messages and the impressions that linger just like hope and changeling 6 ling. >> nobody out there believes that president obama is an astronomer. >> no, but they do believe he is out to lunch and the economy is go ing to bring him down. >> look, here is the point. romney talking about education in terms of people getting education for a job, and the only thing that he mentioned was choice. i support choice and that is not going the fly. last point, go to mitt romney.com and click issues and you will not find a button that says housing. i just checked. >> you nknow, this is so different from the mitt romney we saw in the primaries. this is not a red meat convention. you had a couple of the speeches like chris christie, et cetera, but this was a convention for those persuadables, so we didn't hear as much red meat and
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cheering at the convention that could be also that mitt romney was a lot of people here's second choice who voted in the primaries and eventually came to mitt romney. >> can we just talk for a moment about clint eastwood, because there is more important things? i have not been to many of these things and was that a moment that was real and certainly of this convention and if not any convention in a long time? >> well, i'm a big eastwood fan, just like james. and it was painful. i thought it was something that somebody didn't talk to somebody to help that -- that was not fair to him. he is much better than that. >> and i dont n't know if it wa not roll org he was not reading it? >> well, what is the strange, strange thing to me was that in the 9:00 to 10:00 hour they had one of the finest hours of convention footage and the testimonials especially the
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couple that lost their child and the wonderful build-up and the film was per terrific and then they move from one of the best hours of television to one of the worst opening primetime on final night i have ever seen. >> it did not help clint eastwo eastwood, but i'm not sure, but there is joe lunch bucket in ohio laughing at barack obama, because clint eastwood got off a couple of funny lines and he solves problems by shooting them. and culturally, this is a home run for working class guys and if you thought that the republicans had a gender gap yesterday, wait until tomorrow. >> and he was not appealing to women, and i think that it is one of things that somebody had a great idea get clint eastwood and he will be terrific and i don't know how you vetted this and say, mr. eastwood, you should not do that or maybe you should deliver it differently -- >> you are going to bet clint eastwood to make his day?
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>> exactly. right. >> we have to take a quick break and mitt romney's speech is a lot to consider and in a minute we will look to see if he humanize humanizes the images that made him appear more human and compassionate. we would like to hear from you on twitter as well as we consider, mitt romney, the man, next. when my mom ran for the senate my dad was there for her every step of the way. i can still see her saying in her beautiful voice, "why should women have any less say than men about the great decisions facing our nation?" all energy development comes with some risk, but proven technologies allow natural gas producers to supply affordable, cleaner energy, while protecting our environment. across america, these technologies protect air -
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and i knew that her job as a mom was harder than mine, and i knew without question that her job as a mom was a lot more important than mine. [ applause ] and as america saw tuesday night, ann would have succeeded at anything she wanted to do. >> you could clearly see he was getting emotional, anderson and he didn't exactly start crying, but the eyes were beginning to well up. >> and tight innocence the vone couple of times. >> and perfect touch talking about his wife, ann, and his sons and grandchildren and mom and dad and grandparents and showed a real human touch and i think it was a powerful moment in the speech.
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he let it go. and a lot of people have been telling him for a long time, be yourself, and don't be trying to be so stiff and wooden, but be mitt. let mitt be mitt, and in that moment at least i thought he opening up. >> and a lot of outreach to women and ari fleisher, this speech excited you? >> yes, it did. he gave an impassioned defense of success in america and the life story supported what he was say saying and that is the type of thing that people say, what we want in america, more of it. and he did it in an effective way and he spoke about it in a soft style and direct to the point and i'm going to help you and your family, but it was again that substantive gap that he opened up against president obama here where he made the case that the president had done didn't work. i thought it was a big hit. >> david, you know when we were listening to him, when he moved on from the personal, and introducing himself, you e no, a lot of whous are political news junkies and have seen him and
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covered him over the many years, we know what we shabouow and kn what he is about, but when he was speak iing in the video tribute to him, and what marco rubio was saying and the personal tributes from all of the people who haver of the h k over the years is starting to have an impact. >> and i think that you are maybe right and especially with the women. i thought that the greatest success of the convention was to humanize mitt romney and they did well with that starting with ann romney speech through the first night and the testimonials tonight as well as the film and then his own speech. you know the quietness and the sincerity of it and the decency of the man has come through. and so on that front, i think that they made a lot of progress tonight and may well see a numbers change on the gender gap. i felt in terms of facing the country's problems, and the huge issues that are ahead, i thought
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that he would try to march across the goal line instead of trying to inch across. >> and certainly talk about the economy and not specifics, but to ari's point, that is not necessarily what this speech needed to do or would have been appropriate to do. >> it is a night for broad brushes. >> and not the state of the union. >> and checking in with erin burnett and the focus of speech. >> well, it is interesting, anderson, going through the 12 million jobs promise and he said i'm not talking about something complicated or profound, but america needs more jobs and that is true. the 12 million jobs number is aggressive number. a lot of people have been saying that is what we are on the track for now, and that ist no true, anderson, because that is 250,000 jobs a month for every month that mitt romney is in office for his first term and that has never been done in american history, so what he is talking about accomplishing would be incredibly ambitious if he could get there and some economists said it is possible, but some are more cautious, and
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another promise in there is that he said we will be energy independent in america by 2020 and anderson, you know so many presidents in american history have made that promise and sometimes we put the sound bites together and chuckle at the massive failure, but right now with the forecast trajectory is energy independence by 2020 right now without a new energy plan from mitt romney which is another interesting thing and people say 2020 energy independence, and that is a big deal, but not so much. >> and that is an interesting point we will talk about. al alex? >> ari made a good point that we made heard a full-throated defense of success in america and one thing this election may be a contest of makers versus takers. the productive people in the private sector who believe that is how you grow the economy and versus a sector who believes that you grow the economy by organizing through government. >> but do you believe that works and a lot of people who don't believe in success? >> i'm not even, and the depends how you get it.
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do you get it top-down from washington by washington using it. trickle down government from washington. that is the case we heard here all week i think or do you get it bottom-up from the private sector and the economy from the dollars can't be in two places -- in washington or in someone's pocket? >> well, by every indicator, democrats have outperformed the republicans and not just by a little bit. >> not the last three years. >> well, from jobs to economic growth to the stock market, they have outperformed the republicans. >> and happy days are here again. >> and let me be very clear, this president has created more private sector jobs than president bush did in eight years, period, end of argument. >> we have to go candy crowley who is standing by. can candy? >> and an ter derson, again, i told you a little bit earlier talking to romney campaign, and this is not going to be a big surprise, they think that this particular speech was the essence of mitt romney. it is what i got from a second
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source there. and they do believe, and you all were talking about this earlier, that they at least opened the door for a second look by some of the persuadables and they believe a lot of that has to do with the references not just tonight, but throughout the, throughout this convention. it has to do with women, and they believe that that is still a group that they can persuade over to the republican ticket. anderson? >> all right. candy, stand by. we want to have all of our viewers if they want to take part in cnn's coverage of this republican convention, and here is what you have to do. log on the facebook.com/cnn and tell us after mitt romney's speech what do you think of him? >> also, cnn has assembled a focus group of undecided florida voters as they watched mitt romney's acceptance speech, and the women in the group had strong reactions to what they heard and especially when he talked about his mom and to the
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and strength naturally lost over time. [ female announcer ] ensure muscle health has revigor and protein to help protect, preserve, and promote muscle health. keeps you from getting soft. [ major nutrition ] ensure. nutrition in charge! >> we are back in tampa at the republican national convention, and most of the folks are leaving if they haven't left already. cnn has assembled a focus group of undecided florida voters. they have watched mitt romney's acceptance speech and their reactions are important and interesting. our tom foreman watched the speech with them over at the c nshncnn grill. >> it was fascinating to watch the reaction here from the 28 undecided voters from around here and a group that leans a little bit republican, but they are democrats in the crowd, too. and mainly independents, and
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watch in particular how they responded to the highest point of the night for this group when mitt romney talked about his dad and mom and how they related to his mom's aspirations. >> when my mom ran for the senate, my dad was there for her every step of the way. i could still see her saying in her beautiful voice "why should women have any less say than men about the great decisions facing our nation?" >> a massive cheer from the crowd there and a big reaction from the women there when he talked about his mom running for senate and his dad supporting her, and why did that make you feel good? >> well, it humanized him and he has parents and a warm and loving family and he understands what we are going through as parents and bringing up our own children. >> even if it makes you feel that way, does it move you closer to wanting to vote for him?
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>> i'm still undecided. >> even after hearing that. it made a difference, but not a big difference. >> not a big difference. >> one other thing that is interesting in this is the reaction from all of you to the attacks and when the attacks began, interestingly enough, the women here liked them much more than the men did. watch what happened on on this. the women are the pink line and the men are the blue, and watch how they respond in this attack on the obama record. >> but tonight i'd ask a simple question, if you felt that excitement when you voted for barack obama, shouldn't you feel that way now that he is president obama? you know there is something wrong with the kind of job he has done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him. >> reporter: why do you think that men here did not seem to
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like the attacks as much adds women? >> i mean for me personally, it doesn't do anything for me. it is not informative, so it doesn't really kind of cater to my decision-making at all. >> reporter: you don't care about that. so who is a woman here who generally thought that the attacks were effective and good thing because you had to be here because you are all registering that way. who liked the attacks? a little bit? h. >> well, i thought it was a fair question to ask, are we better off than we were four years ago. >> that is all it came down to a fair, decent question to ask at that time? >> it is fair to take a look at the record, and what has obama done in the past four years and he had a right to ask that. >> and let me move to the back here and ask a couple more questions. did anything happen tonight that really changed your mind? because the overall impact seemed not particularly strong throughout the speech. >> well, i did not change my opinion at all. i wish there was something that would have shocked me or persuaded me to, you know, vote that way, but it just, i was kind of still even keeled.
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>> and one more quickly over here. what about you? anything that moved you at all n in this? >> i liked everything that was said, but i wish it was a better al te alternative. he sounds much better than obama, but i still don't give up the hope. >> well, this is a group as i said from the beginning that is undecided voters, and they all tend to a little bit more republican, but mainly independents, and when you watched the dials to igt nooshgs i am telling you not a tremendous amount of movement. so that's the thing that mitt romney probably most has toer woi aren worry about, because these are the voters he has to get all over the country, the undecideds and thement ins and -- the independents and they will decide it. >> a moment ago we invited you to go to the facebook page and tell us what you felt of him, and 33% say more supportive and
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