Having watched the video (30 minute speech, by the way): some high points and low points:
Highs:
- Talk of conserving oil, and quoting Joel Salatin
- revealing how rushed Congress is to pass bills without reading them
- emphasis on small, local, citizen legislators, strict term limits
- stresses need for more inclusion and outreach to people not regarded as sympathetic to republicans, like NAACP.
- in the Q&A acknowledged that concern over civil liberties can be addressed from both sides of the aisle
Lows:
- Promotion of fracking, which doesn't have a long-run future.
- "Democrat Deficits". I'm personally adverse to politicians who use attack labels. Obama's spending is manic, but what about W? He refers to the Democratic bailout, which...again, began with W.
- Possibly because he's speaking to an audience of Republicans, he spends far too much time attacking Democrats in general. Republicans should focus on making themselves better, not by comparison to anyone else but better by any standards. Excellence should be the objective, not 'marginally-better-than-the-other-guy'. (Democrats should strive for the same goal, in my opinion.)
- "There's nothing wrong with us, we need to Convince People We're Right". No.
- Pointing out that arming Syrian rebels means arming Muslims against Christians. That's...er, problematic.
