It's been an amazing spectacle to behold. Exuberant throngs of party faithful, largely old and white... with token splashes of of brown and black and young stirred into the mix for the panning TV cameras. Speaker after speaker angrily ranting about how the GOP is uniquely qualified to fix all the things they have broken over the last eight years. "We are the real agents of change. We eviscerated America, and we're the only ones who know where we hid the viscera, and we're the only ones who know how to put those pieces back."
We witnessed impassioned faux-populist rubbish being ceremoniously dumped on the heads of Americans... while Cindy McCain preened and posed in $300,000 "outfits" that will go into a closet in one of those lost McCain homes. An outfit for one occasion that cost more than most American's homes. "Yo, Mr. & Mrs. Bubba: We feel your pain! Clothes are expensive, aren't they?"
Surreal is the most diplomatic term I can come up with to describe this bizarre and unsettling bit of Political Theater.
i've decided they should be renamed the great white party. i tuned in for a few minutes here and there during johnny's speech, and pretty much all i saw were middle to older aged white americans. yes there were a handful of african- and asian-americans on hand, but for the most part they were all white, very proper, and gave off the appearance of being mostly upper middle class to rich.
did anyone notice that the 3 couples johnny highlighted during his speech did not appear happy at all to be there? especially the couple whose son was killed in iraq. i wonder if they were paid appearances.....
i am cautiously optimistic that things did not go as well as planned for the GOP during their convention. the next two months will be entertaining for sure, and i am really looking forward to the debates.
i've decided they should be renamed the great white party. i tuned in for a few minutes here and there during johnny's speech, and pretty much all i saw were middle to older aged white americans. yes there were a handful of african- and asian-americans on hand, but for the most part they were all white, very proper, and gave off the appearance of being mostly upper middle class to rich.
did anyone notice that the 3 couples johnny highlighted during his speech did not appear happy at all to be there? especially the couple whose son was killed in iraq. i wonder if they were paid appearances.....
i am cautiously optimistic that things did not go as well as planned for the GOP during their convention. the next two months will be entertaining for sure, and i am really looking forward to the debates.
For all its own silly political theater, the DNC at least "felt" like more of a true cross section of America. Obviously that was carefully staged. The black and brown faces were seated in places that were likely to be caught by cameras... just like the simulated homemade "Hockey Moms for Palin" signs that were positioned to be caught by panning cameras.
The conventions have deteriorated into schlocky infomercials, but at least the Dems actually tried to have a convention comprised of diverse races and ages that looked something like America. As far as I could tell, the Repubs looked like a bunch of grumpy white people with corn cobs lodged uncomfortably up their butts. Despite the searing rectal discomfort, they did manage to mindlessly chant "USA, USA, USA" on cue.
The most intuitively accurate summation of McCain last night that I've heard is that mcCain's speech was one of a man looking BACK on his career, not looking forward to a new one.
The McCain campaign seems to have realized it cannot win with a populist appeal toward innovative responses to middle class problems. In the last month, it through out the playbook McCain started with (decency, ideas, plans) and has picked up Rove's playbook: Fear-mongering, cultural division, appeals to the Christianist base.
Note that in the last few election cycles, Rove's playbook was winning in the Presidential elections...
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Remember the dollar value to human life. Mine is priceless. Yours is negotiable. - unknown
The most intuitively accurate summation of McCain last night that I've heard is that mcCain's speech was one of a man looking BACK on his career, not looking forward to a new one.
The McCain campaign seems to have realized it cannot win with a populist appeal toward innovative responses to middle class problems. In the last month, it through out the playbook McCain started with (decency, ideas, plans) and has picked up Rove's playbook: Fear-mongering, cultural division, appeals to the Christianist base.
Note that in the last few election cycles, Rove's playbook was winning in the Presidential elections...
Good analysis. I'd like to think that the American people have grown weary of Rove's fear/division tactics. We shall see...
For all its own silly political theater, the DNC at least "felt" like more of a true cross section of America. Obviously that was carefully staged. The black and brown faces were seated in places that were likely to be caught by cameras...
I was there at Invesco, section 333. There was no one strategically placing black or brown people around me or any other section that I saw. On the lottery application, I don't remember any "race" check boxes (I didn't get my ticket through the lottery though). I also didn't see any minorities getting pulled out of the 2.5-hour long line to get seated on the floor either. I think it is pretty safe to say that the DNC did not need to create a "feel" of diversity. There simply was diversity.
-d
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Could it be that intense partisanship unhinges us all, leading us to being with the conclusion we prefer, and then to reason backward to reach it? -William Falk
..... in other news the Democratic controlled Congress, that "other" branch of Government, finally brought their butts back to work to announce that the House is set to adjourn September 26; the Senate's date is up in the air..
Expect great things.
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“Those who beat their swords into plowshares plow for those who don't.”
I was there at Invesco, section 333. There was no one strategically placing black or brown people around me or any other section that I saw. On the lottery application, I don't remember any "race" check boxes (I didn't get my ticket through the lottery though). I also didn't see any minorities getting pulled out of the 2.5-hour long line to get seated on the floor either. I think it is pretty safe to say that the DNC did not need to create a "feel" of diversity. There simply was diversity.
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