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Artur Davis Prepares to Bring the House Down

For the rare political junkie who isn’t familiar with the story, Artur Davis is a black former congressman from Alabama (and Obama classmate from Harvard Law School) who gushed about then-Senator Obama at the Democratic convention four years ago and was one of his stronger allies in Congress. He is now a Republican Romney supporter, an evolution most Democrats find inexplicable. (The DNC recently distilled these feelings into this video.) Along with Chris Christie and Ann Romney, Davis was sure to be among the most popular speakers of the night simply by virtue of who he is. But the red meat he plans to serve up makes that a certainty. Here are a few samplings:

“Remember the President saying of negative politics and untrue ads, ‘not this time’? Who knew ‘not this time’ just meant ‘not unless the economy is still stuck ... and we can’t run on our record’?”  
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“I know how loaded up our politics is with anger and animosity but I have to believe we can still make a case over the raised voices. There are Americans who voted for the president ... but who are searching right now, because they know that their votes didn’t build the country they wanted. To those Democrats and independents whose minds are open to argument: listen closely to the Democratic Party that will gather in Charlotte and ask yourself if you ever hear your voice in the clamor. Ask yourself if these Democrats still speak for you. When they say we have a duty to grow government even when we can’t afford it, does it sound like compassion to you ... or recklessness? When you hear the party that glorified Occupy Wall Street blast success; when you hear them minimize the genius of the men and women who make jobs out of nothing, is that what you teach your children about work?”
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“Bill Clinton, Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson reached out across the aisle and said meet me in the middle; but their party rammed through a healthcare bill that took over one-sixth of our economy, without accepting a single Republican idea, without winning a single vote in either house from a party whose constituents make up about 50 percent of the country. You know, the Democrats used to have a night when they presented a film of their presidential legends: if they do it in Charlotte, the theme song should be this year’s hit: ‘Somebody That I Used to Know.’”

Follow me on twitter: @noamscheiber