A few final thoughts on the DNC Convention after it’s close (other thoughts on the week’s activities are sprinkled throughout the last 3 or 4 days worth of Blog items below).
John Kerry said all the right things last night in his speech. A little too quickly perhaps, there was so many applause lines that he’d have better served himself to allow them to reverberate a bit more. But he’s never been known for his oratory genius. It’s what he said that counted most. At least to me.
Still not certain I’ll actually be able to cast my own vote for him, paticularly since I live in the “locked” state of California and my vote may be better spent elsewhere (though, obviously not on Bush). If you live in Missouri or Texas or Ohio or Florida, etc., you’d be crazy to vote for anybody else. Which is what the Bushies are counting hoping for, of course!
I was, however, impressed with the speech in general. He said a lot of things that a lot of us Progressives had been wanting to hear from the man who isn’t George W. Bush.
The coverage of the speech, which I watched mostly via Fox, though switched over to CNN and others throughout, showed again how even in their choice of camera shots the Foxies are anti-Democrat and Pro-Republican. While earlier in the week they would cut away to bored folks, dark folks, and folks in funny outfits right in the middle of important points in the various speeches (as opposed to waiting for applause lines and then showing cheering Dems) they subtly switched to a new tact last night.
If you watched Kerry’s speech on Fox, you’d think he was actually in Hollywood making his speech! Which was clearly no accident of editing by the Fox directors. Almost every cutaway was to one of those “awful Hollywood Liberal Elitists” (I counted shots of Ben Affleck, Leo DiCaprio, two guys from The West Wing, Rob Reiner, John Cusack, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick and Steven Spielberg..and oh, yeah, Hillary…all within the first fifteen minutes of the speech!)
There were about five thousand delegates there, 15,000 reporters, scads of Democratic officials, but it was the “Hollywood Liberal Elite” who got the bulk of the camera time. That’s Fox for ya. More on them later.
I was a bit mystified by the following comment from Kerry’s speech though:
The ideas of building unity and not angry division, and respecting one another, etc., made shrewd sense. But the last part there, about “never misus[ing] for political purposes the most precious document in American history, the Constitution of the United States” seemed an odd way to end the thought.
I wasn’t certain what he was speaking of there, until I saw a Bill Schneider/CNN explanation that he was referring to Bush’s cynical and failed “Gay Marriage Amendment”. Then it made sense.
Perhaps the most interesting developement of the week was the Dems enormously clever — and so far very successful — move to co-opt the “optimistic” tone that Republicans had likely been hoping to seize upon themselves. The Reagan Effect is fully in play suddenly in this year’s campaign, and it’s the Democrats, ironically, who have successfully taken that legacy (for now) and made it their own. Beating the GOP at their own “we’re the party of optimists, they’re the party of doom and gloom!” game.
So kudos to whoever came up with that plan!
The Bush-Cheney thugs already look pretty pathetic (and un-American in this case), by tearing into Kerry-Edwards in the bargain. Drudge’s lead item at this moment, for example, “Bush Derides Kerry as Man of Few Achievements…” will likely ring pretty poorly today for Team Bush amongst the electorate who really does seem to want some hope and optimism in this country for the first time in years! Yes, I know the pols always claim that “American voters are tired of the negativity”! But this time, I sense that it may actually be true!
Thus, I’d predict the more positive candidate this year may also end up winning because of it! Bush may soon figure that out, but his record of years of ugly divisiveness along with a proven inability to be the “uniter, not a divider” he claimed to be, added to his surrogates complete inability to be positive (that’s just not what they’re made of, and they don’t have positive facts on their side to boot) means that Bush finds himself now in an unfortunate corner.
Anybody wanna start laying bets for which day between now and November 2 that Dubya will have his own “Bozos” moment this year? (Surely you all remember when Papa Bush’s chances were so bleak back in ’92, that the sitting President referred to his opponents as “those two Bozos”.) Desperation does funny things to a guy, I guess. Watch for it from Mr. Bush at some point within the next 95 days.
Also, of note this year, was “Fox Up Against It!” They weren’t able to pull of their usual all-out unchallenged assault on the Democrat Party this week. Was it because they were surrounded by Dems? Or is the Anti-Fox Movement really beginning to have an effect in the House that Murdoch Built?
More on that later…and meanwhile, where are those fucking balloons? Well done, CNN! You guys are geniuses!
Bush united Rep and Dem houses in Texas. The Dems respected him especially long time Dem Bob Bullock. Dems in Texas are pretty conservative though. When Bush got to DC, the Dems are so much more liberal and unwilling to get along. I think Kerry is trying to set it up so that he does not get criticized for his voting record. I think Bush will do a better job than Kerry during the debates.
Paul,
Bad news for Bush. Kerry has been doing debates since high school. i am sure in your perspective Bush will "win" but the larger question is will Bush’s claims be judged by objective criteria? Probably the same chances as you answering my questions about socialists and communists.
maybe my first guest blog item later this week??? Expanded of course.
Bill Maher had the former PM of Canada Kim Campbell, David Dreier and Michael Moore. Dreier was just hammered and bolted right after the show. But the highlight of the show was M. Campbell schooling special guest, Ralph Nader on how the third party works in our country and how he’s misusing his candidacy in ours.
Day one of Bush’s term, he rolled back environmental laws and abortion safeguards. He acted like he had a mandate, seeing how he got into office, there was no mandate.
The Governorship of Texas is a figurehead. He had to play ball because the Democrats were the majority and they only met every two years.
150 people were executed while he was faux-governor. He sent retarded people and women and some innocent ones as well. His tortured examination was limited to a one page summation by his council. He laughed at a woman begging God to save her.
Apparantly he didn’t want the words of Jesus himself to get in the way of being tough on crime…
"You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."
Houston became the most polluted city in the nation and his school voucher programs failed miserably. Oh, and lets not forget his 40 years prior as a cokehead, sloppy drunk, drunk driver, and a C student that Miraculously got into Yale and Harvard.
Kerry will give Bush question like: What is your biggest mistake?
Name some of your close friends in the Air National Guard?
Spell Abu Ghraib. Pronounce Abu Ghraib.
> 150 people were executed while he was faux-governor. He sent retarded people and women and some innocent ones as well. His tortured examination was limited to a one page summation by his council. He laughed at a woman begging God to save her.
All of these people had due process! Do we save every person who becomes a Christian in prison and begs God to save them? He followed the law in Texas.
> "You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."
A strike is one thing. But when they come at you with a gun or to rape your wife, I believe you have a godly right to protect yourself and your wife and others in danger. I bet if I beat the crap out of you, you would eventually fight back or sue.
The socialist/coummunists info was from newsmax.com. I did see another article where China endorsed Kerry.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives...8/141010.shtml
I cannot find the socialist article of a few days ago
This is a funny site:
http://communis.server296.com/
Paul,
that’s just silly. You said "the news today" now please specifically name names. Or why not just admit you were trying to slam people in the way you righties do? That newsmax article is precisely what i am talking about. Shocked you didn’t choke on the size of those horse apples.
Paul,
i believe adultery was punishable by death according to Scripture. perhaps you remember that go and sin no more statement. But hey i dont know whats in Bush’s heart.
i am not even saying he didnt have to kill her but i think making fun of someone whose death warrant you signed is pretty bad taste. i wonder if Jesus would make fun of someone he was about to put to death? You realize how stupid that is? But hey, i dont know whats in Bush’ heart
So, in Paul’s copy of the New Testament do Jesus and his followers rise up against against the Romans and crucify Pilate?
I’m not aware of any instance in which Jesus calls violence a good or Godly thing.
But, one of the benefits of Christianity is that we can admit that we don’t always live up to the Christ’s teachings and be forgiven all the same.
Would any of us seriously vote for a candidate who told us their response to a terrorist threat would be to turn the other cheek?
Let’s not be so arrogant that we tell ourselves that dropping bombs on innocent children or even murderous terrorists is our godly right.
Isaac Asimov wrote: "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." Here’s to a more competent President!
In the old Testement, God had Israel destroy many nations. God is Jesus and Jesus is God. In the New Testement, God struck people dead for lying. God did a lot of things in the old Testement that you would consider volent, like destroy the earth, destroy Pharoahs army under the water, etc. God can do what he wants. He will judge the wicked. And yes, I believe that God can use a nation to destroy a wicked nation.