Maureen Dowd in The New York Times on the pitiful Mitt Romney The emotion Mitt Romney has been evoking this convention is pity, Dowd writes. He's a forgotten man. Chris Christie's speech sang his own praises. People talked about who would be running in 2016. "Romney is seen more as maître d’ than nominee, ushering the party to a better table in the future."

Sally Kohn in Fox News on Paul Ryan in three words: dazzling, deceiving, distracting. Paul Ryan was likable. But the speech was also "an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech." And he avoided talking about a lot of things, like his votes to raise spending. "[By] trying to deceive voters about basic facts and trying to distract voters from his own record, Ryan’s speech caused a much larger problem for himself and his running mate."

Bill Keller in The New York Times on Condoleezza Rice's role in the GOP Rice's role is complicated. She's an accomplished black woman, but she's also a reminder of Bush and "an out-of-Republican-fashion moderate on social issues like abortion." Her worst conflict with the GOP is on foreign policy–she is not a hawk. Her speech, then, was careful and tempered. "Rice had the convention – winning a standing ovation from a crowd that may not have appreciated how far she was off message."

Minxin Pei in Foreign Policy on American perception of China There is a gap between American perception of Chinese strength and its reality that "has real adverse consequences," Pei writes. China's economy has underlying problems based on its regime. Yet, the U.S. continues to assume China will only rise under it. Instead, Pei argues, the U.S. should reassess and assume that one day democratic transition may come.

George F. Will in The Washington Post on bluffing voters Twice as many Americans are conservative than liberal, but do they really mean it? "Before Franklin Roosevelt, 'liberal' described policies emphasizing liberty and individual rights," Will writes. Then, after him, "government no longer existed to protect natural rights but to confer special rights on favored cohorts." It's now "clientism," or paying for votes with federal favors. But the wording is a means of complaining. Romney should remind voters that the losers forfeit the right to complain. 

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Serena Dai