Democrat Convention Honors Our Military and Veterans; Republican Convention Ignored Them

UPDATE from Mitt Romney on why he didn't mention the military in Afghanistan or foreign policy on his Fox interview with Bret Baier:

September 07, 2012
Bonus Quote of the Day 

"I only regret you're repeating it day in and day out. When you give a speech you don't go through a laundry list, you talk about the things that you think are important and I described in my speech, my commitment to a strong military unlike the president's decision to cut our military." 

-- Mitt Romney, in an interview on Fox News, on why he didn't mention Afghanistan or praise U.S. troops in his convention speech last week. 

Romney says in a speech you talk about things that are important -- guess our troops in Afghanistan are not important or our veterans to Romney.  The words I would love to use against Romney should not be used on a website.

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This has been a strange two weeks for Republicans who have close ties to members of the military and veterans.  We sat through watching the Republican Convention expecting to hear thanks to our military now serving along with the veterans.  Basically nothing was said even by former Secretary of State Condi Rice.  It was disgusting and something that made me tune into the Democrat Convention to see if they were willing to support our troops and veterans.

I was blown away by the Democrats with their honoring our veterans starting on the first night.  First Lady Michelle Obama talked about meeting with the military and their families who have suffered through all of the deployments.  So many of the military and veterans you hear talk have tremendous respect for her continual outreach to the military, veterans, and their families so I wanted to watch her speech.  I was blown away at how much I enjoyed her speech compared to Ann Romney's who seemed condescending.

The comments coming from those at Fort Bliss where Obama made a visit last Friday to announce more mental health benefits and the draw down in Afghanistan was continuing on schedule made a huge impact on my view of President Obama.  They waited four hours in the heat to be able to see and hear the President speak not to mention the people waiting outside.  Can vouch for how hot it was as we were there for the OU/UTEP game which even at 10:00 p.m. it was still warm.

Last night veterans were on stage at the Democrat Convention along with a video honoring our active duty military and those veterans who served which brought tears to my eyes.  When the video of Vice President Joe Biden aired it showed when he was talking to those families who had lost loved ones, it came from the heart.  He lost his first wife and young daughter years ago in a car accident when they were hit by a truck.  His son has been deployed to the Middle East so he knows what it is like to be a parent with a son or daughter who is deployed.  Know what it is like to have a daughter deployed -- it seems like forever until they return.  The worst part of her deployment was the flight over and back in a plane that should have been sent to the boneyard.

A lot of the military had doubts about the President and First Lady but in four years the Obama's have shown how much they care for our men and women in uniform along with the veterans by their actions not just words.  Can truthfully say this is one issue that has swayed me to the side of Barack Obama.  He was willing to make the call on the mission to take out Bin Laden when Romney thought it was a waste of time.  Obama was right and Bin Laden sleeps with the sharks in the Indian Ocean.  Romney believes that Russia is our greatest geopolitical threat while Obama still thinks it is Al Qaeda and the terrorists.  Obama wins that one hands down as well.  Whoever is advising Romney is living in the Cold War days which ended in the early 90's.  Maybe Romney forgets he is running in 2012 not 1994.

What kind of Republican Party fails to honor our military at their Convention?  The Romney Republican Party has lost any chance I would ever vote for Romney/Ryan after watching the Democrat Convention and their showcasing the military and foreign policy.  Listening to their speeches this week, it felt more at home then the GOP which were more about I, I, I.  Jeb Bush is right that Ronald Reagan would never be elected by today's Republican Party.  This Republican Party with their lurch to the far right has basically told the rest of us to take a hike.  After November 6, 2012, a lot of us may take them up on it and walk out the door.

A Changing of the Guard
The Democratic Party is now the dominant foreign-policy party.
By Fred Kaplan|Posted Friday, Sept. 7, 2012, at 1:27 AM ET

The conventions these past two weeks—and particularly the final speeches Thursday night—have cemented the fact that the Democratic party is now the party of national-security policy; not just a wise or thoughtful foreign and military policy, but any kind of thinking whatsoever about matters beyond the water’s edge. 

For anyone who’s followed American politics the past 40 years, since the election between George McGovern and Richard Nixon, this is a staggering shift. 

It was the Democrats who talked Thursday night of their president’s “backbone” and “courage,” of the clear message he sent—as Vice President Joe Biden put it when talking about the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound—that “if you attack innocent Americans, we will follow you to the ends of the world.” By contrast, Biden recalled, Republican challenger Mitt Romney once said that it wasn’t worth “moving heaven and earth, and spending billions of dollars, just to catch one person.” 

More extraordinary still, it was the Democrats who saluted, mourned, and celebrated the “fallen angels” and “wounded warriors” of the U.S. military. Romney observed no such ritual, leaving Sen. John Kerry to note, in his speech Thursday night, never before had a wartime nominee for president, of either party, “failed to pay tribute to our troops overseas in his acceptance speech.” 

Not even the Republican convention’s foreign-policy surrogate, Condoleezza Rice, said much about the veterans—or anything at all about the Iraq or Afghanistan war, even though she had been George W. Bush’s most trusted foreign policy adviser for all eight years of his presidency and had thus played a big role in starting those wars. 

The clearest sign of the change in party dynamics was this: The Democrats feel so assured in their new role as guardians of national defense that they also talked openly about seeking peace, negotiating arms-reduction treaties with the Russians (which Romney opposes on the flimsiest of grounds), withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, and shifting money that was once spent on fighting wars to revitalizing our own cities—as Obama put it, “to do some nation-building right here at home.” 

Excerpt:  Read More at Slate