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TAMPA — Maybe it’s unfair to say so because former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice didn’t have to carry any water as a member of the Republican ticket. But her speech to the Republican National Convention was more serious and, yes, more presidential than any other speech on Wednesday night. She outshined Paul Ryan.
Yes, I disagreed with many things Rice said, and there was a hole in the speech where the word “Iraq” should have been. But it was more the speech of a potential chief executive than Ryan’s was.
The most striking aspect of what Ryan said was what he didn’t say. This was not the Ryan of blueprints and budget proposals. Ryan sought to bury his budget for electoral purposes tonight, though you can be sure it will be unearthed at the Democratic National Convention next week.
And he has clearly picked up the Romney campaign’s habit of playing fast and loose with facts. For example, he declared of President Obama, “He created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.”
Somehow, Ryan said not a word about the fact that he was himself a member of the commission and that he voted against its report, one reason it did not get the votes it needed to for adoption.
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