Castro: 'Choose the Candidate Who Has Chosen Us'

San Antonio mayor and rising Democratic star Julian Castro commandeered the podium tonight to extol the American success story of immigrants—who get just a little help. "Texas may be the one place where people actually still have bootstraps—and we expect folks to pull themselves up by them. But we also recognize there are some things we can't do alone," Castro told a wildly enthusiastic crowd at the Democratic National Convention. But Mitt Romney "doesn't get it," he added, pointing to the candidate's recent entrepreneurial advice to Ohio State students at a campaign stop. "'Start a business,' Romney said. But how? 'Borrow money, if you have to, from your parents,' he told them. Gee—why didn't I think of that?'" laughed Castro.

Republicans "tell us that if the most prosperous among us do even better, that somehow the rest of us will, too. Folks, we've heard that before," Castro said. "First, they called it 'trickle-down,' then 'supply side.' Now it's 'Romney-Ryan.' Or is it 'Ryan-Romney'? Either way, their theory has been tested. It failed. Our economy failed. The middle class paid the price. Your family paid the price. Mitt Romney just doesn't get it." America must choose between a country "where the middle class pays more so that millionaires can pay less—or a country where everybody pays their fair share," he added. "Our choice is clear. Our choice is a man who's always chosen us." Castro concluded by movingly recalling the days his mother held a mop cleaning houses to help raise her family, while today he holds a microphone at the national convention. But as proud as his mother is of him, "Mom," he said, turning to her in the audience, "I'm so proud of you." (More Julian Castro stories.)