A Mild Chris Christie Kicks-off GOP Convention

I can’t help myself. Chris Christie has a paradoxical affable bravado that makes me like him. He strikes me is a guy who believes what he says and who seems to enjoy a messy skirmish. The Romney campaign brought out the tough talking New Jersey Governor on night one of the convention to stir up the base. Christie delivered on that, but he did little else.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie 
Republican National Convention
Tampa, Fla., Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012. 
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applwhite) / AP

A national party convention is mostly made up of the true believers. They sit on the edges of their seats antsy and ready to jump to their feet, cheer, wave signs and look with tear soaked eyes into the cameras. A speaker needn’t have Christie charisma to get a standing ovation from this crowd. An audible “we are the USA” from the meekest of speakers can get a convention crowd chanting USA for five minutes.

That’s why I thought it odd Christie had to prod convention goers at the end of his speech with “It’s now time to stand up. Let’s stand up. Everybody, stand up!” These are not words you generally hear from a convention speaker.

Maybe my expectations were too high for Governor Christie’s speech. I was looking for red meat inspiration. What he delivered was something along the lines of we are better than they are. OK, but you need to give the throng a little more excitement and those at home something to remember.

George W. Bush must have cringed when talking about the nation’s economic woes Chris Christie not so blithely said, “It doesn’t matter how we got here. There is enough blame to go around.” Fair enough and Christie made a the point by following up with, “What matters now is what we do.”

Yeah, but “how is what is being offered different than Bush” went unanswered by Christie.

In fairness to Christie, it is tough being the first pitcher to the mound for convention baseball. The nominee’s agenda is not yours. You are not there to talk specifics. You are supposed to set the stage. Christie did not falter, but I doubt he did much to boost the Romney candidacy.

Maybe it won’t matter Christie was tamer than expected. Vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan takes the stage next. Convention goers should wear comfortable shoes tonight. There will be a lot of standing and cheering even if Ryan decides to read the phonebook. He won’t. The question is will he connect with the crowd outside of the Tampa Bay Forum.

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Graham Gillette can be reached at grahamgillette@gmail.com 
This entry was first published as a Des Moines Register online essay.