Thursday, September 4, 2008

Republican Convention Night Two

I sat down and watched the RNC on DVR last night the same way I did the DNC last week.

And as a brawler, that's what I have been waiting for!

No one does kneecapping like the Republican Party. Something I have always been jealous of, I wish my party could veil itself in 'values' and then rip people apart.

Let me start with Sarah Palin.

I thought she gave an excellent speech. Her delivery was much smoother than I expected considering the short time she had to prepare. Unlike my guy Joe Biden, she didn't step on any lines either and got the maximum bang for her buck. It was a skillful speech, and I think she touted the positives of her experience very well.

To steal a Republican talking point, it was an impressive performance from a young, eloquent, and engaging figure.

The issue I had with her and for the entire night was the snide and nasty nature of the evening.

The Republicans are crying sexism and elitism for any critique of Palin which is good strategy. A good strategy until you turn the night into a character assassination of your opponent.

When you fire away like they did you better be prepared to take return fire.

And for the record, if every attack against Palin is sexist, then wouldn't it be fair to call the demeaning of Barack Obama racist?

Let's open up the record of Sarah Palin. Obama has been through the ringer of debates and interviews since he won the Primary in Illinois in 2004. We have made decisions on him as a nation. Some worship him, some are not sold on him, and some hate him. There are many other views people have of him positive and negative.

Digging into her history is what the media is supposed to do. This is what the Republicans wanted the media and a special prosecutor to do to Bill Clinton.

As Obama has stated and I echoed yesterday, going after her family should be off limits. Yet her statements in favor of things like 'The Bridge to Nowhere' before she was against it, is fair game. Her leaving Wasilla $22million in the hole as Mayor is fair game.

If they are so enamored with her, they should say 'bring it on'.

This is the Vice Presidency, the person who could become President!

We should know where she stands.

We should know where she came from and what she believes.

Blaming the media is just an old political trick. Democrats know this trick better than most, as my buddies, the Clinton's, perfected it. Yet the media is supposed to dig and let's be honest, as a nation very few of us know much about Sarah Palin.

There are two questions that have to be asked though after the past couple nights.

First, when is a Republican going to say by their logic, Sarah Palin has more 'executive experience' than John McCain?

Second, when is a Republican going to mention George W. Bush? They bumped the President out of prime time for Joe Lieberman and I didn't hear Palin say Bush once.

Negativity works in politics, but last night flashed back to Palin's political hero, Pat Buchanan. His legendary hateful 1992 speech was what flashed through my mind with Giuliani. Having him go that negative before her was a bad move. I had 20 texts from friends and family, Republicans and Democrats, who said they changed the channel.

To have Palin follow with condescension against a profession I guess we are supposed to mock now, 'community organizers', was overkill.

In the end it will fire up both bases and turn off the moderate voters.

But that was the point of the Palin nomination. It isn't the Hillary voters, it was done to appeal to the Evangelical voters.

The Dems spent their Convention drawing differences to John McCain, but overall went out of their way to be respectful to his service. The 'values' of the Republicans have thus far not included similar respect towards the careers of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

So it is feeling a lot like more of the same after all?

4 comments:

Patrick said...

I thought she delivered the speech very well but thought it was horribly written.

I can imagine a bunch of speechwriters sitting in a room, coming up with a list of funny lines and then trying to cram them all together.

It lacked any sort of structure, it lacked any sort of narrative line and had it syntax and word usage that was, at times, bizarre.

She would start ideas and never finish them (she said she was going to tell us about the duties of a small town mayor, we are still waiting), she would switch subjects in the middle of a sentence (at one point she made her father a haberdasher and vice president of the United States), and she would attack Barack Obama for one thing and then, in the very next breath, praise John McCain for the exact same thing (their personal journeys, for example).

It was awesome, I suppose, if you aren't into actual thought. If one liners and soundbites are what you want from your leadership as opposed to ideas and reason, this was the speech for you.

That doesn't work. It hasn't worked. The reason we are in the situation we are in as a nation is because people only care about ideas that can be summed up in a sentence.

The speech was little more than a series of bumper stickers and t-shirts held up to a cheering crowd. We need more than "that guys sucks, vote for us! POW!"

Sadly, I guess that is the level of discourse we are at. She did an excellent job with what they gave her, however. She is compelling personally and delivered that hash very well.

Speaking of personally, her family is fair game.

Obama has been in the national spotlight for four years. He has two daughters. I have no idea what their names are.

Palin has Trig, Trap, Willow (the cute one), Bristol, the non-pregnant teenager, and soon to be son-in-law Pauly Shore. I mean Levi. I've know who Palin is just a bit longer than four days and I know her kids' names.

You don't get to ask that people leave your family alone and then use them a reason people should vote for you. You can't use them for political points and then tell people to back off.

Did you know she has a kid with Down Syndrome? It might have gotten mentioned a time or three. Trig, the baby. He's cute. If you were at the Republican National Convention yesterday you would have gotten to hold him, because they were passing him around the arena like a plate of cold biscuits.

Palin is going to be an advocate for special needs parents. I'm sure the special needs parents of Alaska are pleased to hear that since, before she had one of her own, she cut the funding bump special education was supposed to get. Plenty of money for a new football field for the high school in the town were she had been mayor- not so much for other little down syndrome kids. At least then. Now she's an advocate for them. Maybe for pregnant teenagers too (also cut). Certainly not for sex education(abstinence only!). But I digress.

Can we please stop the "executive experience" silliness?

All experience is not the same. I ran track in high school. I'm not ready for the Olympics. Just because you managed your PTA does not mean you are ready to run the New York City public school system. General Motors is not going to hire the guy down the street from me with the used car lot to be their new CEO.

Being governor of Alaska, the 47th biggest state in the union in terms of population for two years is good. But it doesn't trump the actual experience possessed by Obama, Biden or even McCain. It's silly. She had more money, because of oil profits, per capita than just about any other state in the union. Despite that she still requested more money from the federal government than any other state in the union. She's for smaller government though!

I dunno. I'm a frickin Republican and this is what the party has done to me. I like John McCain, and this is what he's done to me. Where is the John McCain of 2000? You know, the one the Republican party smeared with the rumor he had an illegitimate black baby in South Carolina so Bush could win that state.

That John McCain would punch this one, especially considering he just hired the same guy who started those rumors to work for him...

Okay, I'm rambling like a RNC Vice Presidential acceptance speech now.

Final thing, democratic politicians are, on average, prettier than republican politicians but republican delegates are way more attractive than democratic ones.

The crowd at Obama's speech looked like someone set off an ugly bomb. Even the men at that speech last night were great looking.

Patrick said...

Jesus Christ that was long.

Patrick said...

I take it all back.

My wife just informed me that Trigg's middle name is Van.

Which makes him Van Palin, like the band (say it out loud.

That is totally awesome.

17 People said...

Pauly Shore!!!

hahahah