Obama's Convention Speech Reminded GOP Just How Radicalized It Has Become

President Obama's speech at the Democratic Convention last night was much more than simply an excellent valedictory address -- it was yet another example of the President adopting Republican ideas and making them his own.  Obama, in his speech, basically told Republicans, "Hell, if you are just going to abandon these ideas, then I'm going to pick them up and use them." 

Obama has been doing this his entire presidency.  As I have noted many times in this blog, the President -- knowing early on that McConnell and the rest of them would oppose him on everything -- repeatedly embraced Republican ideas over the course of his two terms in order to back the GOP into an ideological corner. The best example of this, of course, is Obamacare, which is basically Romneycare-warmed-over, but there are many other examples.

He did the same thing last night in his speech.  These two passages stood out for me:

[Hillary] has been accused of everything you can imagine and some things that you cannot. But she knows that's what happens when you're under a microscope for 40 years. She knows that sometimes during those 40 years she's made mistakes, just like I have, just like we all do. That's what happens when we try. That's what happens when you're the kind of citizen Teddy Roosevelt once described, not the timid souls who criticize from the sidelines, but someone "who is actually in the arena, who strives valiantly, who errs, but who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement." Hillary Clinton is that woman in the arena. She's been there for us, even if we haven't always noticed.

***

Ronald Reagan called America "a shining city on a hill." Donald Trump calls it "a divided crime scene" that only he can fix. It doesn't matter to him that illegal immigration and the crime rate are as low as they've been in decades, because he's not actually offering any real solutions to those issues. He's just offering slogans, and he's offering fear. He's betting that if he scares enough people, he might score just enough votes to win this election.

At one point he referred to the GOP as "the Party of Lincoln." But the President did more than merely refer to famous Republicans.  Obama also brought up ideas one would normally find in a Republican speech, and this did not go unnoticed by conservatives. Rich Lowry tweeted after the speech:  "American exceptionalism and greatness, shining city on hill, founding documents, etc--they're trying to take all our stuff."  One conservative actually tweeted:

Still stunned. Feel like I'm in the twilight zone. Obama just defended America & conservative values from attacks by the Republican nominee.

Several times during his address I heard convention-goers yell, "Four More Years!"  Obama ignored those people, but it was pretty hard not to agree with them after hearing that speech.  I wish he could run again.  He'd win in a landslide.

UPDATE -- From Taegan Goddard:

“President Obama’s prime time speech lifted the Democratic convention to its third straight night of ratings wins over the Republican convention last week — and now the Trump campaign is exhorting supporters not to watch the Democrats’ final night,” CNN reports.

“Overnight Nielsen ratings indicate that Wednesday night’s DNC viewership was about 15% higher than last Wednesday night’s coverage of the RNC… The Democratic ratings advantage has come as something of a surprise, given Donald Trump’s reputation as a ratings magnet.”

I can't imagine anything that would infuriate Donald more than losing a ratings battle with the Democrats.