The Democrats stated their case clearly, boldly and without apology. And the GOP has indicated it won't back down on its principles.
President Barack Obama and his daughter Malia wave after President Obama's speech to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., Thursday.Harry Truman famously said that if the people are given the choice of voting for a Republican, or for a Democrat who acts like a Republican, they’ll choose the real Republican every time.
The citizens will be getting a genuine choice this year. Last week’s Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., made that abundantly clear.
The speakers were nearly all from what former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean used to call “the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.”
He developed that locution after years of seeing ersatz Democrats, Democrats who talked and acted like Republicans. These types were nowhere to be seen in Charlotte.
Democrats embraced their party, their plans, their president. And they embraced the notion that we are all of us in this together. Elizabeth Warren, seeking to unseat Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts, said so clearly, boldly, without apology.
Former President Bill Clinton, who controlled the room like the rock star he has long been in Democratic Party circles, was utterly masterful in his address. He came with a boatload of statistics, addressing every question, refuting every GOP talking point, turning back every Republican criticism. And he did it all with a smile.
And then came the president himself. His acceptance speech on Thursday night was less a soaring reprise of his 2008 campaign than it was a realistic call to arms. His work is not finished, he forcefully argued. It takes time to get out of a hole as big as the one the nation was in when he took office.
When Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney tapped Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate, he signaled clearly that he would not be tacking toward the center. His campaign would be a conservative one.
He would be all in.
So too are the Democrats.
The best elections offer a real choice. We’ve got one in 2012.