2012 GOP convention live, thread #2

Watch live video here and join the conversation as we live blog the 2012 GOP convention.

4:56 PM PT: Country singer Lane Turner just finished singing "I built it." I'll give him credit for saying "I" and not "we," because at least "I" is something Ayn Rand could agree with. Earlier, the crowd was chanting "We Built It," which is exactly the point President Obama was making: we built this country together.

4:58 PM PT: Speaking of We Built It, the current speaker'Sher Valenzuela'built a business teaching people how to get government contracts. So yes, we built that too.

4:59 PM PT: Hmmm:

Mitt and Ann eating room service, 2 hours before show time

' @EmilyABC via Echofon Of course they are.

5:07 PM PT: The Oak Ridge Boys have just taken the stage in the Tampa Bay Times Forum. They are singing "Amazing Grace" in an effort, they say, to put God back in the American way of life. I guess they believe that God had disappeared from American life. Funny, I had no idea. I guess it was part of the War on Christmas?

5:07 PM PT: NBC can tape delay the Olympics for up to ten hours, yet we get the RNC live. Fuck.

' @jesseltaylor via web 5:08 PM PT: Tampa Animal Control warning area pet owners of possible erratic behavior due to convention dog whistles.

' @pourmecoffee via txt

5:11 PM PT: Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a GOP Representative from Washington, leads the crowd in more "We Built It" chants. She says she knows from the bottom of her heart that her family built their business alone. Sure, but they also depended on the cheap electricity provided by the Bonneville Power Administration.

5:13 PM PT: "Live free or die." So begins Kelly Ayotte, the junior senator from New Hampshire. That's the second time someone has used that line tonight.

5:17 PM PT: I'm sick and tired of these assholes claiming that job creation is down under President Obama. Do they not remember that for the first year of his term the economy was in free fall? Since then, we've created millions of jobs. In fact, the economy has added more private sector jobs than it has lost, even if you start the clock the moment President Obama took office. George W. Bush cannot make that claim.

5:17 PM PT: By the way, none of this garbage is being carried on broadcast television.

5:20 PM PT: "President Obama has never even run a lemonade stand," says Ayotte. Well, maybe he hasn't, but Obama has more private sector experience than Paul Ryan. (For that matter, so do I.)

5:22 PM PT: Next up: Jack Gilchrest, a New Hampshire businessman who appeared in a Romney ad assailing Obama's "build that" comment. Irony alert: Jack Gilchrest has taken millions in government dollars, including government financing to help his business.

5:29 PM PT: Ohio Governor John Kasich is taking credit for Ohio's rebound. But as former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm reminds us, Obama's decision to save the auto industry is largely responsible for that. And we all know what Mitt Romney wanted to do.

5:32 PM PT: Going to be fun to listen to all these GOP governors brag about how they saved their states and created jobs w/o stimulus money. Oh, wait...
— @RalstonFlash via TweetDeck

5:35 PM PT (Kaili Joy Gray): New thread here.