The Conventions

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Aldeth - I don't think Palin worked on the speech very much, since I heard that it was written for her by one of the RNC's speech writers. IMO, it was a very polarizing speech, and I suppose that is what it was designed to be by whoever penned it. What the media hounds were looking for was not so much what she was actually saying, but how good her delivery was, which was quite good. She was an attack dog, but came off as the small town "soccer mom" that she is being fabricated as by the RNC. It's the "narrative" of her personal story that is being sold by the RNC to the voters.

That aside, she is supposed to be an "expert" on the energy issue, but she came off with the same old bull that we've been hearing about since the last century - Drill, drill, drill and give the oil companes what they want and we will one day have our "energy independence" from all the nasty third world countries that hate us so much.

Mac is the one who is actually running to be prez, for those of you who may have been distracted by all the media spin and glitz of the Palin "story" (it's funny how this has become HER convention), and she's really more like the "believable" pretty face, selling us on the product (McCain), like in all those toothpaste ads on TV. That is probably her real function, judging by the way this politcal theater has been scripted by the RNC.

 

That's a valid point Chandos. I guess the real question of the performances at the Convention is not how the speeches are received at the Convention itself (always positive) but how they play outside of the Convention hall. I agree that the speech was very polarizing, but that's also not particularly surprising given her role as VP. However, I'm not sure how wise it is to come off sounding sarcastic and polarizing in what is really her first national appearance. Most people (myself included) never heard her speak before last night, and the red meat speech she delivered was fine for the party faithful (who loved it) but I'm not sure how that's going to play with independents and undecided voters.

I also think that Chris Matthews brought up an excellent point. She did not show herself last night to be an alternative to Hillary Clinton - she is nothing like Clinton in any respect. Instead, she is setting herself up as an alternative to Obama - someone who is young, a rising star in her party, and not a Washington insider.

One thing seems pretty certain though - the campaigns are going to start to go ugly. Really ugly.

 

I didn't get a chance to see any of the convention last night, but from my readings today many conservatives are very happy with the way it went.

 

Yes, she attacked Obama "plenty good," as they say here in Texas. Other than that, don't look for any answers or solutions to our current problems....

 

She seems to have most of the big figures behind her from what I can tell. Party discipline or geniuine conviction, they appear quite ready to defend her from any attacks.

 

Well I was planning on watching the entire final night of the GOP convention, and was really looking forward to seeing John McCain's speech. But after that shameful 9/11 disaster porn they just showed, I'm turning the damn TV off. I knew they would exploit 9/11 tonight, just as they have every chance they could for the last 6 years, but to show such graphic imagery was just beyond tasteless. It's almost as if they think we're all stupid enough not to remember that it happened on their watch. That somehow we're going to forget they still haven't caught the guys who did it. Christ.

I'm gonna have a stiff drink and go to bed. These people are just shameless.

 

Nuts, I just got home so I missed the 9/11 thing. Hopefully, I will be able to find it on Youtube. It is always important to remember that for many the world changed on 9/11 and it never hurts to be reminded what is at stake each election cycle.

 

The unusual thing about McCain's entire speech is that it was more backward looking (focusing more on what he has done) than forward looking (focusing on what he will do). It seemed kind of strange to me, considering one would presume the speech would be about what he would do if he were elected president. It was the exact opposite of the type of speech Obama gave a week ago. McCain seems very uncomfortable giving speeches, an odd characteristic for someone who has held public office for as long as he has. Overall, I'd say the highlight (for Republicans at least) at their Convention was Sarah Palin.

EDIT: I didn't mean for the above to sound disparaging of McCain, it's just that I think it was a strange speech. It seemed like it would have been more appropriate as a State of the Union speech than I'm accepting the Republican nomination to be president speech. That's the best way I can describe it. It wasn't necessarily bad or inappropriate - it just was totally different that what I was expecting.

 

Metaphor time.

So last night, McCain had 3 images circulating behind him during his speech. One such image, which sparked a bit of confusion to the viewing audience, was of a beautiful spanish-decor building that no one quite recognized. Was it a school? One of McCain's mansions? No one knew...until this morning. Evidently, it was a photo of Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, CA. Why is this significant to McCain? It's not - they meant to display a photo of Walter Reed Veterans Hospital. No one on McCain's staff – the campaign that supposedly cares so much for our wounded soldiers – realized that building wasn't the correct Walter Reed, since evidently none of them have ever even seen it. Despite being bombarded for comment all day about the photo, the campaign is refusing to comment. The actual Walter Reed Middle School issued a press release saying they have no idea why they were featured so prominently at the convention.

So in short: the McCain campaign can't even exploit our wounded soldiers without screwing it up. This, folks, should really tell you a lot about what we're dealing with here.