Kim Rhode On Her Appearance At The Republican National Convention

Olympic Gold Medal winner Kim Rhode was interviewed by Ginny Simone of NRA News about her speech and appearance at the Republican National Convention. Rhode gave a short speech and then introduced a number of other Olympians that were supporting Mitt Romney.

From what Kim says, her role morphed from just doing a short speech to being the one who introduced the rest of the Olympians. She admits to being nervous as well as “a huge Republican”. Having watched her speech and presentation of the other Olympians, I think she did just fine.

CCRKBA On The Republican Platform

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms issued a statement yesterday congratulating the GOP on their strong pro-gun platform.

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is “encouraged by the strong pro-gun rights platform” put forth at the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

“This is the strongest pro-gun rights platform I’ve ever seen,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, who was in Florida this week.

The platform includes language supporting the “law-abiding citizens’ God-given right of self-defense,” and national concealed carry reciprocity. It opposes revival of a ban on so-called “assault weapons” and normal capacity ammunition magazines, and it also takes a swipe at the Justice Department over Operation Fast and Furious.

“This is strong stuff that squarely puts the GOP behind, ahead of and alongside every one of this nation’s millions of law-abiding gun owners,” Gottlieb noted. “I was delighted to see such a bold position put forth because it clearly provides a contrast between those who offer lip service to the Second Amendment, and those who live by it.”

The Republican platform also supports gun owner privacy with language supporting “the right to obtain and store ammunition without registration.”

“I think it is important to American gun owners that, even in the wake of the tragedy in Colorado, and the soaring homicide rate in Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago that the GOP platform framers can intelligently separate the acts of criminals from the civil rights of peaceable citizens,” Gottlieb stated. “Others would dredge up cliché-ridden programs that have been demonstrable failures, and that punish law-abiding citizens for the acts of social losers, thugs and lunatics.

“The Republican platform does none of that,” he concluded. “It is clear that this platform language was crafted by people who understand that the rights of law-abiding gun owners should be expanded not eroded. Their platform recognizes gun owners as first-class Americans, not second-rate citizens.”

Interesting Point

The Republican National Convention starts today in Tampa. The security in Tampa seems to be very tight according to this report from Roger L. Simon of PJ Media. One of the reasons security is so tight is the threat of violence by anarchists and other nihilistic lefties.

The area around the convention has been declared a “National Security Area” and Simon has some interesting thoughts about that.

If there’s one thing that has dominated the talk, not to mention the hearts and minds, of most people here in Tampa for the convention is the tremendously stringent security, far worse than what I remember from Minneapolis in 2008.

Only two routes, roughly a mile and a half apart, give you entry to the convention facilities. All other streets are blocked off with staggering numbers of security personnel – soldiers, police from various venues, secret service, other security services, private services, etc. – on horseback, motorcycle, bicycle, automobile and, of course, on foot. There appear to be vastly more of them than there are of us, media and delegates. At some angles from the convention perimeter, Tampa resembles a military encampment.

One insider in a position to know told me that over 60 security organizations were involved. What could be the reason for this? It’s hard to believe it’s the threat of those so-called anarchists who seem to be nowhere in evidence (or washed down a drain). Or could it?

(Yes, I know. According on to one report linked by Drudge, one group of 200 demonstrators, later reduced to 100, did show up somewhere – a minuscule number in a metropolitan area that approaches three million in a country of well over three hundred million. Ten times as many people are on line for pizza at Ray’s on a bad day.)

Here’s another interesting thing that same insider told me. This intense security was not instituted by the RNC or by the Romney campaign, but by the federal government that has declared Tampa a national security area. In other words, Obama’s people are in charge of the stringent security here. They instigated it. What do they fear?

I have two theories, not necessarily contradictory. One, they just want to make the Republicans look bad – police state types. Perhaps more importantly, the Obama folks don’t want anything violent to happen because they know convention violence most often comes from the left (cf. Chicago 1968). Violent left-wing demonstrators at the Tampa Republican Convention would be bad news for the Democrats.

Hmmm.

Quote Of The Day

Peggy Noonan is one hell of a speechwriter. While I disagree with her vehemently on occasion, she does write well. The quote of the day comes from her column in today’s Wall Street Journal discussing Mitt Romney and the Republican convention in Tampa. As noted elsewhere, the Obama Administration, in a rather tasteless gesture, (and is there any other kind from their ilk) is sending Joe Biden to Tampa during the convention.

It is good that Joe Biden is going to the Republican National Convention to hold high the flag of his party. People make fun of his gaffes, of his embarrassing verbal forays, but he’s no fool and he knows how to take it to the other guy. The speech he is working on, to be given in the heart of downtown, just across from the convention site, will be stirring and stentorian: “All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Tampa, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, ‘Ich bin ein Tampon.'”

I wish that were mine. It came in the mail from a Hollywood screenwriter, one of the gifted conservatives who quietly toil there.

I wonder if Joe does poorly in Tampa will they pull his string.