Most of last night’s speech really reminded me of a senator I used to read about named John McCain. About 18 months ago, I appreciated McCain’s attempt at immigration reform, opposition to torture, openness to the press (and thus the public), fervor for balancing the budget, opposition to tax cuts not aimed at middle income earners, and (more importantly) seeming to value an accomplishment higher than “party unity.” I have not seen that lately. But last night McCain spoke of unity over partisanship and chided the Republican Party rather strongly for a convention acceptance speech. McCain even alluded to Republicans’ sanction of torture and implied he would end it (“I know how the military works…and what it shouldn't do”) and one small allusion to immigration (“In this country, we believe everyone has something to contribute and deserves the opportunity to reach their God-given potential, from the boy whose descendents arrived on the Mayflower to the Latina daughter of migrant workers”). In general terms, it was a workmanlike speech delivered as well as expected. It was more stirring in his personal story than any political strategy. I was surprised he went as far as he did talking about his own POW experience. It seemed to me they kept ramping up the POW story and details as the week went along and I thought it reached a macabre (and over the top) crescendo with the “When you’ve lived in a box….” narration by Fred Thompson immediately before McCain took the stage. I assumed they did this to keep McCain from having to do this himself, much like others communicated the historic aspect of Obama’s race so that he didn’t have to mention it. At least McCain gave the best tie-in I’ve heard for why his POW experience is relevant to being President by describing how it personally changed him and created his love of “country.”
The calls for unity in government and personal respect for Senator Obama rang hollow to me given the full-throated display of mean spirit the night before. But the best thing McCain has going for him, in my opinion, is that there continues to be a small disconnect between him and the group gathered in the convention hall. McCain’s biggest reaction came from the crowd the moment he mentioned Sarah Palin’s name. Yet there were stifled boos when McCain mentioned his respect for Obama. The crowd sat quietly when McCain promised, “I'll ask Democrats and Independents to serve with me” and when McCain mentioned, “I've fought lobbyists who stole from Indian tribes.” He was met with stone silence when he said, “We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us.” All good stuff, but I continue to be puzzled, as I have been all week, how the speakers speak passionately how “change is coming…We’re going to change Washington” etc. with no apparent memory that from January 2001 through January 2007 they held all three branches of the Federal Government and today still hold two out of three!
McCain’s platform elements sounded like the last few State of the Union speeches. To the best of my understanding, McCain is running on a platform of “All the same policy elements we have right now, but with less corruption.” Fair enough. America will decide, and we can discuss specific elements of health care, taxes, etc. here before November.
Showing posts with label republican national convention. Show all posts
Showing posts with label republican national convention. Show all posts
Friday, September 5, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
How Long Must We Sing This Song? How Long? How Long...
I want to be angry but instead I’m sad. I start out furious but end up feeling remorse. I believe a golden opportunity slipped through America’s hands last night. Today I could be talking about how a highly competent but “ordinary” (I mean that in the best sense possible) woman exploded onto the political scene and seems poised to bring common sense and community values to Washington. From what I have seen of Sarah Palin so far I believe she has that in her. Instead, I am dismayed at how someone with her fresh voice and an eager audience chose to use sarcasm and lies to tear a good man down, repeat a major distortion of her own record and offer nothing specific in return other than more oil drilling.
Sarah has a compelling personal and professional story and she did a good job talking about that at the beginning of her speech. I think at that point she was leaning heavily into the desires of all of us who have ever said “I wish someone from my town would have some input in Washington.” The Harry Truman reference was right in line with that too. Then Sarah jumped headlong into the mud pit and never looked back.
You have to hear the audio to get the true feel for the disdain dripping from her voice as she belittles Barack’s community organizer experience. If she has any compassion for people at all, then Sarah cannot possibly know what Barack did as a community organizer. So at that point in her speech, I am already faced with a decision of: 1) she believes spending 3 years giving your life in direct assistance with every aspect of life with low-income Americans is worthy of scorn, or 2) she didn’t bother to find out what it was he did. Neither option is a good one.
Sarah follows that with a mild distortion of Barack’s discussion of why he thinks Midwestern white voters are “bitter.” Lucky for Sarah, very few will actually look up what Barack said because they might say, “hey, wait a second, he might be right!” Her discussion of her own Alaskan record is fine, with one glaring exception discussed below. The whole thing is a tad misleading because most people aren’t up on the unique features of the Alaskan budget. If we dove into it, I actually think Alaska is a good argument for state control of the oil and gas in this country, but that’s another issue.
The big distortion that really irks me, I might even call it an outright lie, is this whole “bridge to nowhere” thing. It’s a fact that Sarah Palin was for the bridge and was “upset” that a community in her state was being called “nowhere.” Even more importantly, it is a fact that Alaska took AND SPENT every cent originally marked for that bridge. So what is the reform in that? What is the truth in “I told them thanks but no thanks”?
From there on to more attacks on Barack. If you were hoping for substance in them, I have bad news, more sarcasm: “What does he actually seek to accomplish after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet?” Followed by more lies: “America needs more energy; our opponent is against producing it.” (against producing more energy? Are we even supposed to take this statement seriously?) “Victory in Iraq is finally in sight, and he wants to forfeit.” (is she aware that the Iraqi government agreed with Barack’s plan for troop withdrawals and now the Bush administration is agreeing too?).
I wish I had more time to pour some passion through my pen, but in the interest of getting this out there so I can hear your feedback, that’s all I can say at this point. (what about that line of hers deriding Barack's concern for the human rights of prisoners?!Agggggghhhhhh!)
Okay, one other thing, I heard from commentators after the speech that the crowd was chanting “Drill, baby, drill!” and this was apparently a refrain for the evening. A reasoned debate of the pros and cons of starting to drill in places that are not currently being drilled - that we can have! And I suspect at the end of that we'd end with a small increase as a stop-gap measure and for future use in case the mid-east shuts off our supply.
But wildly stomping and cheering "drill baby drill" is short-sighted and devoid of reason, and when you add in that many of these same people also cheer wildly that oil companies are evil, it makes them look stupid.
Look at me, I’m right in there calling people sheep. That’s why I end up feeling remorse over this. Barack is calling us to hope and a better tone in politics, imperfectly of course, slipping sometimes himself of course, but calling us all nonetheless. But the politics that divide us is an easier path to take…
Sarah has a compelling personal and professional story and she did a good job talking about that at the beginning of her speech. I think at that point she was leaning heavily into the desires of all of us who have ever said “I wish someone from my town would have some input in Washington.” The Harry Truman reference was right in line with that too. Then Sarah jumped headlong into the mud pit and never looked back.
You have to hear the audio to get the true feel for the disdain dripping from her voice as she belittles Barack’s community organizer experience. If she has any compassion for people at all, then Sarah cannot possibly know what Barack did as a community organizer. So at that point in her speech, I am already faced with a decision of: 1) she believes spending 3 years giving your life in direct assistance with every aspect of life with low-income Americans is worthy of scorn, or 2) she didn’t bother to find out what it was he did. Neither option is a good one.
Sarah follows that with a mild distortion of Barack’s discussion of why he thinks Midwestern white voters are “bitter.” Lucky for Sarah, very few will actually look up what Barack said because they might say, “hey, wait a second, he might be right!” Her discussion of her own Alaskan record is fine, with one glaring exception discussed below. The whole thing is a tad misleading because most people aren’t up on the unique features of the Alaskan budget. If we dove into it, I actually think Alaska is a good argument for state control of the oil and gas in this country, but that’s another issue.
The big distortion that really irks me, I might even call it an outright lie, is this whole “bridge to nowhere” thing. It’s a fact that Sarah Palin was for the bridge and was “upset” that a community in her state was being called “nowhere.” Even more importantly, it is a fact that Alaska took AND SPENT every cent originally marked for that bridge. So what is the reform in that? What is the truth in “I told them thanks but no thanks”?
From there on to more attacks on Barack. If you were hoping for substance in them, I have bad news, more sarcasm: “What does he actually seek to accomplish after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet?” Followed by more lies: “America needs more energy; our opponent is against producing it.” (against producing more energy? Are we even supposed to take this statement seriously?) “Victory in Iraq is finally in sight, and he wants to forfeit.” (is she aware that the Iraqi government agreed with Barack’s plan for troop withdrawals and now the Bush administration is agreeing too?).
I wish I had more time to pour some passion through my pen, but in the interest of getting this out there so I can hear your feedback, that’s all I can say at this point. (what about that line of hers deriding Barack's concern for the human rights of prisoners?!Agggggghhhhhh!)
Okay, one other thing, I heard from commentators after the speech that the crowd was chanting “Drill, baby, drill!” and this was apparently a refrain for the evening. A reasoned debate of the pros and cons of starting to drill in places that are not currently being drilled - that we can have! And I suspect at the end of that we'd end with a small increase as a stop-gap measure and for future use in case the mid-east shuts off our supply.
But wildly stomping and cheering "drill baby drill" is short-sighted and devoid of reason, and when you add in that many of these same people also cheer wildly that oil companies are evil, it makes them look stupid.
Look at me, I’m right in there calling people sheep. That’s why I end up feeling remorse over this. Barack is calling us to hope and a better tone in politics, imperfectly of course, slipping sometimes himself of course, but calling us all nonetheless. But the politics that divide us is an easier path to take…
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Three Men and a Baby
George W. Bush, Fred Thompson and Joe Lieberman all spoke last night at the Republican National Convention. First, I want to mention the stage. I love it. The stage is only about 4 or 5 feet off the ground and 3 sides of it are in the crowd. The speaker is part of the crowd; a very interesting arrangement for an event such as this. The back of the stage is an incredible 51 feet by 30 feet high-def LED screen. I wonder if knowing they could never compare to the Invesco Field stage from last week’s convention, the campaign decided to go for an entirely different affect. The affect here is sparsely practical and modern (the good kind of modern). I watched the screen used effectively as relevant photos faded in and out during Thompson’s speech, and a Minnesota senator gave his speech in front of a panoramic view of St. Paul.
Bush gave a very short speech via video that hit exactly the notes needed to satisfy the party faithful in attendance but created no opportunities to tie McCain to Bush (apparently one awkward hug per year is enough). Bush was on video, but the perfect delivery made me suspect it was not a live feed. After watching that short speech on video, if I were McCain’s people, I would scrap the idea I’ve heard that McCain will give his speech via satellite. Bush felt dramatically removed from the room and the thousands of people. Because of delays, you cannot interact with the crowd in any way without appearing very awkward (see the Obama family moment from last Monday). Without interaction and standing in a silent room, the speaker is totally removed from the crowd. Nearly the exact opposite affect the stage creates for live speakers. In many situations I could see that not an issue, but this is one of those times McCain would want us to see him being embraced and cheered by thousands. He’s not exactly a charismatic guy; he doesn’t need to create a situation to make him seem even more removed. Of course, after the love fest I expect for Sarah Palin tonight, maybe he doesn’t want the comparison. But I’m way off the evening’s speeches now… Bush was warmly received, which was fine but did create for some bizarre moments later when the crowd cheered with equal passion for how screwed up things are “in Washington.”
Fred Thompson gave McCain’s life story from the Naval Academy through his POW time in Vietnam. McCain’s years as a prisoner of war is an incredible story, no doubt about it. It’s interesting to me how we can all so easily disconnect an individual from the atrocity of war. We can feel awe and respect for McCain’s behavior after being shot down, without ever considering the women and children on the ground being terrorized and killed just moments earlier. Fred’s telling of the story was good, but he was glued to the teleprompter! As an actor, I really expected him to be engaged more with the camera and crowd. Fred then moved into McCain’s political career with basic generalized statements designed to highlight McCain as a “true” reformer instead of just “a teleprompter speech designed to appeal to American critics abroad.” (I’m wondering, does this mean McCain will not be using a teleprompter on Thursday? I’m confused…) This typified Fred’s attacks on Obama, which were all pretty generic and seemed ineffective. Fred did give a very practical line or two about how taxes affect us all, ending with a good line: “They say they are not going to take any water out of your side of the bucket, just the ‘other’ side of the bucket! That's their idea of tax reform.”
I give credit to the convention organizers for scheduling Joe Lieberman. Joe started his speech calling for national unity, not partisan politics, on issues like gas prices, health insurance and threats from enemies abroad. I like the appeal and the unifying message of having a well-known Democrat say it at the Republican convention, but I was disappointed that Joe gave zero examples of anything specific about these issues. What is it that partisan politics has prevented McCain from doing about gas prices, health insurance and enemy threats? Off-shore drilling is the only semi-specific issue related to these topics that McCain is “for” that the Democratic congressional leaders have opposed. Anyway, I thought Joe’s presence alone spoke highly of McCain’s willingness to at least not criminalize anything Democratic. Lieberman slipped from this track, though, when he attacked Barack with a generic argument summarized by him as “eloquence is no substitute for a record.” I’m not sure when in America it became a point of contempt to be smart and communicate well, or when intelligence and the ability to motivate no longer became foundational qualities of a president.
In final comment, I did chuckle several times as the convention crowd created moments of dissonance. Having cheered President Bush and McCain’s long record in Washington, they equally cheered McCain’s apparent ability to “drain that swamp” and to end the
“self-serving ways of Washington.” Joe met with tepid applause when he touted McCain’s work on immigration and global warming. The funniest (most ironic) moment of the night came when Fred Thompson and the crowd cheered President Clinton’s ability to work with the Republican Congress to reform welfare and balance the budget! Especially that budget one, THAT was funny!
Oh yeah, the baby. Watching delegates and party spokespeople being interviewed about Sarah Palin’s expecting daughter, and hearing them offer such defense and gracious comments, I couldn’t help but remember Dan Quayle and these same people’s outrage at fake person Murphy Brown pretending to have a baby as a single woman…
P.S. I cannot WAIT until tonight's speech when we get to see Sarah Palin's speech, which apparently includes skinning a moose, drinking the blood and grinding some moose burger all while she breastfeeds Trig, teaches Bristol some Lamaze and rips Joe Biden a new one!
Bush gave a very short speech via video that hit exactly the notes needed to satisfy the party faithful in attendance but created no opportunities to tie McCain to Bush (apparently one awkward hug per year is enough). Bush was on video, but the perfect delivery made me suspect it was not a live feed. After watching that short speech on video, if I were McCain’s people, I would scrap the idea I’ve heard that McCain will give his speech via satellite. Bush felt dramatically removed from the room and the thousands of people. Because of delays, you cannot interact with the crowd in any way without appearing very awkward (see the Obama family moment from last Monday). Without interaction and standing in a silent room, the speaker is totally removed from the crowd. Nearly the exact opposite affect the stage creates for live speakers. In many situations I could see that not an issue, but this is one of those times McCain would want us to see him being embraced and cheered by thousands. He’s not exactly a charismatic guy; he doesn’t need to create a situation to make him seem even more removed. Of course, after the love fest I expect for Sarah Palin tonight, maybe he doesn’t want the comparison. But I’m way off the evening’s speeches now… Bush was warmly received, which was fine but did create for some bizarre moments later when the crowd cheered with equal passion for how screwed up things are “in Washington.”
Fred Thompson gave McCain’s life story from the Naval Academy through his POW time in Vietnam. McCain’s years as a prisoner of war is an incredible story, no doubt about it. It’s interesting to me how we can all so easily disconnect an individual from the atrocity of war. We can feel awe and respect for McCain’s behavior after being shot down, without ever considering the women and children on the ground being terrorized and killed just moments earlier. Fred’s telling of the story was good, but he was glued to the teleprompter! As an actor, I really expected him to be engaged more with the camera and crowd. Fred then moved into McCain’s political career with basic generalized statements designed to highlight McCain as a “true” reformer instead of just “a teleprompter speech designed to appeal to American critics abroad.” (I’m wondering, does this mean McCain will not be using a teleprompter on Thursday? I’m confused…) This typified Fred’s attacks on Obama, which were all pretty generic and seemed ineffective. Fred did give a very practical line or two about how taxes affect us all, ending with a good line: “They say they are not going to take any water out of your side of the bucket, just the ‘other’ side of the bucket! That's their idea of tax reform.”
I give credit to the convention organizers for scheduling Joe Lieberman. Joe started his speech calling for national unity, not partisan politics, on issues like gas prices, health insurance and threats from enemies abroad. I like the appeal and the unifying message of having a well-known Democrat say it at the Republican convention, but I was disappointed that Joe gave zero examples of anything specific about these issues. What is it that partisan politics has prevented McCain from doing about gas prices, health insurance and enemy threats? Off-shore drilling is the only semi-specific issue related to these topics that McCain is “for” that the Democratic congressional leaders have opposed. Anyway, I thought Joe’s presence alone spoke highly of McCain’s willingness to at least not criminalize anything Democratic. Lieberman slipped from this track, though, when he attacked Barack with a generic argument summarized by him as “eloquence is no substitute for a record.” I’m not sure when in America it became a point of contempt to be smart and communicate well, or when intelligence and the ability to motivate no longer became foundational qualities of a president.
In final comment, I did chuckle several times as the convention crowd created moments of dissonance. Having cheered President Bush and McCain’s long record in Washington, they equally cheered McCain’s apparent ability to “drain that swamp” and to end the
“self-serving ways of Washington.” Joe met with tepid applause when he touted McCain’s work on immigration and global warming. The funniest (most ironic) moment of the night came when Fred Thompson and the crowd cheered President Clinton’s ability to work with the Republican Congress to reform welfare and balance the budget! Especially that budget one, THAT was funny!
Oh yeah, the baby. Watching delegates and party spokespeople being interviewed about Sarah Palin’s expecting daughter, and hearing them offer such defense and gracious comments, I couldn’t help but remember Dan Quayle and these same people’s outrage at fake person Murphy Brown pretending to have a baby as a single woman…
P.S. I cannot WAIT until tonight's speech when we get to see Sarah Palin's speech, which apparently includes skinning a moose, drinking the blood and grinding some moose burger all while she breastfeeds Trig, teaches Bristol some Lamaze and rips Joe Biden a new one!
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