In GOP speeches, Obama bashing takes center stage

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio addresses the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012.

/ (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

(CBS News) Hours after Republican delegates nominated Mitt Romney for president, the party on Tuesday kicked off its first night of convention speeches, featuring established figures like John Boehner and up-and-coming leaders like Mia Love alike, and setting the tone for the night's festivities with a series of harsh attacks on President Obama and his governing philosophy.

Hitting on familiar refrains, speakers like Love, Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers and RNC chair Reince Priebus blasted the president for suggesting that the government plays a key role in helping build small businesses, reiterating in speech after speech that "we built it" -- not the government.

"I'm delighted to report that we have a wonderful lineup for you," said McMorris-Rodgers, introducing the night's lineup. "Each speaker will be joining together to send a message to President Obama. And that message is three simple words: We built it."

The first batch of speakers adhered consistently  to that theme.

Love, an African-American and the mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, talked about her parents, who immigrated to the U.S. from Haiti, and their struggle for success.

"When tough times came, they didn't look to Washington -- they looked within," she said. "Mr. President, I'm here to tell you the American people are awake and we're not buying what you're selling in 2012."

"This is our story. This is the America we know because we built it!" she said.

Love was followed by actress Janine Turner, who was on the '90s-era show "Northern Exposure," who argued that God - and not government - "gives us our rights."

"President Obama, I'm here to tell ya, the government didn't build it. God and the American people built it!" she said. "America was not born with a gimme-gimme mentality."

Delaware Lieutenant Governor candidate Sher Valenzuela, meanwhile, spoke about her struggle to raise a special-needs child before pivoting to attacks on the Obama administration for what she called an "all-out assault on free enterprise."

Hammering home the message even further was singer-songwriter Lane Turner, who performed a song called "I built it."

Boehner, the evening's first speaker, was straightforward in his message: "When the American people walk into the voting booth, what should we do? We should throw him out!" he said in his remarks. "Because we can do better - we can do a lot better."

[DOGGYPANTS]

I commend CBS News for not taking cheap shots like David Chalian who said that Mitt Romney and his wife Ann were "not concerned at all" and "happy to have a party with black people drowning."

However, if leftists can make the connection, then why not say that the Obama Reign has been like Hurricane Issac, slowly raining destruction and misery over the USA these last four years.

[FLHRC-12]

Since when is telling the truth about Obama the incompetent president in above his pay scale as a former radical socialist community organizer with no qualifications, really "bashing"?
They seemed to be holding back as far as a lot of us are concerned.

[venusvegasvada]

I tried to watch it but I had to shut it off.

The BS was just too deep for me to take.

[Ulgnud]

And if the President and challenger were reversed the same thing would be happening the other way around. This is not news.

[bbinfla]

Mitt Romney the Bully in Chief of the Republican Party.

[Thinkbeforeyouwrite]

Obama bashing? Haven't they been going that for 4 years? Ever since January, 2008 or so when they decided they would give him no cooperation, even ideas that were GOP would get no support from the GOP, and, certainly, no bipartisan solutions would get passed because, God forbid, he might get some credit for it. Meanwhile, many were losing their jobs and homes.

[CBSDebbie]

This is just propaganda. If you repeat a lie over and over and make grandiose statements its propaganda.

[esscape]

you would expect people to drop to their knees like CBS?

[endrepubs]

The GOP gave us the Great Recession. No way do these GOP clowns deserve another chance to do that again.

[harv823]

The Republican Party is fond of using the tactics of Fear and Hate to try to divide the country. Instead, it appears that the Republican Party is using these against itself causing the rift between the Teabag folks and the established Republicans.