On the first night of the DNC, the speakers hit the GOP’s perceived strength: family

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http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/13778/democrats_go_for_the_jugular/

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It was positively Rovian, after all, how the Democrats simultaneously shored up the base while making a pitch to the heartland, attacking the GOP’s perceived strengths.

For the base, there were nods to policy—gay marriage and the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” seemed to pop up in every speech—but the diversity of the speakers did most of the work. Deval Patrick, the African-American governor of Massachusetts, got a primetime spot. So did Obama’s Jewish former chief of staff (and current Chicago mayor), Rahm Emanuel, and Kal Penn, the young-ish actor of Indian descent who starred in the Harold and Kumar comedies. Julian Castro, the 37-year-old Hispanic mayor of San Antonio, delivered the keynote.

There was nothing subtle, though, about how the Democrats’ made their pitch to the heartland. There was nothing remotely subtle, in particular, about Ted Strickland, the former governor of Ohio, who highlighted the role of the auto bailout in bolstering his state’s economy. He ticked off the number of jobs saved and noted recent announcements by General Motors that it would add new production lines in Ohio.

“Barack Obama stood by us and now, by God, we will stand by him,” Strickland thundered, going on to draw a stark contrast between Obama and Mitt Romney, who “lives by a different code. To him, America’s workers are just numbers on a spreadsheet.” Romney is also, by Strickland’s telling, a liar (for accusing Obama of gutting welfare reform), a coward (for hiding his tax returns), and a traitor (for putting his money in offshore bank accounts).