Day One of the shortened Republican National Convention in Tampa was highlighted by the final two speeches that aired on the broadcast networks: Ann Romney and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
But the theme for the evening portion of Tuesday's marathon nine-hour session was a slam at President Obama's now infamous "You didn’t build that” remark he made in Roanoke, Virginia last month.
The RNC announced last week that Tuesday's convention theme would be "You Built It," and there was no way humanly possible to forget it. The theme recurred not only during the first two hours of evening speeches, but in comments by "regular folks" recruited to speak or star in short videos displayed on the slick LED screens (a design that CBS' Face The Nation host Bob Schieffer compared to a Swedish sauna).
Point taken. It wasn't really good television. That is, if most of the country was watching it — but they weren't, except for PBS & C-Span fans. Delegates followed suit by dancing poorly with their arms extended holding signs that read "We Built It."
This article appears in Aug 23-29, 2012.