Day one conversations

TAMPA, Fla. — This morning I had a chance to speak with two of our nation’s most vibrant and exciting conservative leaders, Ralph Alvarado, a candidate for the Kentucky Legislature, and former presidential candidate Herman Cain. To give you an idea of what people on the ground here in Tampa are feeling like, here’s a little of what they told me.

Mr. Alvarado told me, “The media has been filtering Romney's message. This convention will give him the opportunity to present his unfiltered vision. People at large are disenchanted with government. They have been promised hope and change and believed the change would come. People are tired of rhetoric and talk. They want a concrete plan that will work. Romney has a concrete plan that will work and if people hear that message they will see it as the future for this country.”
 

Mr. Cain told me, “The life and death of the American Dream is at stake in this election. If Obama gets four more years, this dream will turn into the American nightmare. Do we want to elect the leadership team, Romney and Ryan, that will lead an American renewal, or do we want Obama back to oversee America's demise? Obama has failed because he is not a leader. The first sign of that was when he took the office of president and appointed more than three dozen czars. That many people alone with the existing Cabinet was an absolute recipe for disaster. No leadership model has ever worked with that many people trying to advise you in what to do. [From then] he was destined to fail. He doesn't have an accurate economic gene in his DNA. He fundamentally believes in big government. He does not believe in personal individual responsibility. In short, Obama believes people are stupid and gullible.”
 
I can tell you from firsthand experience that the left tries to label black conservatives, to write them off so that they can’t speak their minds. Cain labels himself “an ABC, an American Black Conservative. I don't deny my African ancestry, but I've only been to Africa once and I’ve been American all my life.”
 
He took the words right out of my mouth.

---