Mitt Romney took the stage at the Republican National Convention and accepted the GOP’s presidential nomination to thunderous applause. In a rousing speech, he outlined the failures of the current administration and pledged to recreate the American dream—and of course, prove his iPod’s greatness over Paul Ryan’s. Here are the top five moments of his speech.
I accept!
“Mr. Chairman, delegates. I accept your nomination for president of the United States of America,” newly minted GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney bellowed above the cheering crowds. Humbled and moved, Romney invited the audience to “walk together to a better future” and introduced his running mate, Paul Ryan. From there, he began his triumphant acceptance speech, praising the American spirit and promising to build a revived nation.
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“I wish Obama had succeeded”
In a respectable move, Romney said he had hoped for President Obama’s success because he wanted the country to benefit. He turned this into a call for action, encouraging Americans to stand up and demand change, to say: "I'm an American. I make my destiny. And we deserve better! My children deserve better! My family deserves better. My country deserves better!" It was getting close to being a call-and-response kind of speech.
His loving parents
Romney markets himself as the family man to top them all, and it seems he had two pretty good role models. In a touching part of his speech, he tells the crowd that his parents were married for 64 years, and each day his father placed a rose at his mother’s bedside table. She knew he had died when there was no rose. “If every child could drift to sleep feeling wrapped in the love of their family—and God's love—this world would be a far more gentle and better place,” he said.
The best part of Obama’s presidency
Was the feeling you had the day you voted for him, according to Romney. (No mention of Osama bin Laden here.) “Hope and change had a powerful appeal,” Romney said. “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?” Trigger boos from the crowd.
His promise
Unlike Obama’s promise to “slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet,” Romney swears he’ll “help you and your family.” He promises a united America, with a revitalized economy, thousands more jobs and a military “that is so strong no nation would ever dare to test it.” He promises a bipartisan foreign policy, stricter rules against Russia, and help to Israel. And he promises to stop Iran’s nuclear threat and uphold “the constellation of rights that were endowed by our creator, and codified in our Constitution.” That, Romney says, is the “America we want for our children … Let us begin that future together tonight.”
