Romney draws battle lines in GOP acceptance speech

Thursday’s program also featured speeches by Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.); former Florida governor Jeb Bush; former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) and his wife, Callista; and actor Clint Eastwood, whose appearance was not announced until Thursday.

Eastwood delivered a bizarre and rambling series of attacks on the president, who was portrayed as an empty chair next to the actor. He brought down the house when he said, “When somebody does not do the job, we’ve got to let him go,” prompting chants of “Let him go! Let him go!”

Romney's speech, sliced and diced

INTERACTIVE | Hear Mitt Romney's speech, see Twitter reaction and read analysis from The Fix, Fact Checker and other columnists.

More from PostPolitics

It's not just Republicans up in arms about Benghazi

Sean Sullivan

THE FIX | More than half of Americans say the Obama administration is trying to cover up the facts of the attack, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

IRS’s Lois Lerner to plead the Fifth

Aaron Blake

The IRS official who first disclosed the agency's improper targeting of conservative groups will invoke her right not to incriminate herself.

Has anyone been ‘fired’ because of the Benghazi attacks?

Glenn Kessler

FACT CHECKER | Sen. Rand Paul claims no one has been fired because of the Benghazi attacks. So what happened to those State Department officials who lost their jobs?

Coburn: Tornado aid must be offset

Rachel Weiner

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) will insist that any federal aid to deal with the tornado in his home state must be offset by budget cuts.

Read more

Rubio, one of the GOP’s rising stars, drew a prime-time speaking slot. “Our problem with President Obama isn’t that he’s a bad person,” he said. “By all accounts, he, too, is a good husband and a good father, and thanks to lots of practice, a pretty good golfer. Our problem is he’s a bad president.”

Bush talked mostly about education but first spoke as a member of one of the Republican Party’s leading families by calling out Obama for explaining his economic record by pointing to the problems he inherited from the administration of former president George W. Bush, Jeb Bush’s brother.

“Mr. President, it’s time to stop blaming your predecessor for your failed economic policies,” Jeb Bush said. “Mr. President, you were dealt a tough hand, but your policies have not worked.”

The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that 54 percent of Americans blame George W. Bush for current economic problems, compared with 32 percent who blame Obama.

Romney did not lack advice in the hours before his speech. Jeb Bush urged him not to listen to most of that advice and told him to simply “speak from the heart.”

“That’s been hard for a guy who’s been brought up, trained, lived his life in a way of great discipline and reserve,” Bush told reporters and editors from The Washington Post and Bloomberg News at a breakfast Thursday morning. “You can’t undo 63 years of how you’ve lived.”

Romney and Ryan toured the Tampa Bay Times Forum on Thursday afternoon, joining about 100 campaign staff members for a photo in front of the stage. Romney spent a few minutes onstage checking out the lectern and adjusting the teleprompters. Accompanying him were members of his team’s senior staff: campaign manager Matt Rhoades, chief strategist Stuart Stevens, media adviser and convention producer Russ Schriefer, longtime spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom, and senior adviser Peter Flaherty.