Showing posts with label '08 RNC Convention. Show all posts
Showing posts with label '08 RNC Convention. Show all posts
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Guarding John McCain
I don't know that this piece contributes much to our understanding of the current state of American politics or society, but it is fantastic. Avi Steinberg does a 12 hour shift as a security guard at the Republican convention, and discusses his misadventures here. I've read a lot of stuff today- this is by far the most memorable item. Enjoy!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
A Cynical Eye
I have made a fairly conscious effort to approach the Republican convention with an eye out for its merits, on the assumption that it would probably showcase the McCain campaign at its finest.
The longer I have watched, the more inclined to cynicism I have become.
Those folksy hand-lettered signs the crowd has been holding up? NPR reported this afternoon that they are in fact mass produced...to look like hand lettered signs.
McCain was interrupted early on by several protesters, motivating the crowd to shout them down. How did protesters get to such prominent places on the floor? I have no proof for this one, but in Nixonland Rick Perlstein documents how Nixon would make a point of letting Vietnam protesters into his campaign speeches, so that when they interrupted his speeches with their shouting, the "silent majority" would shake their heads and vote Republican. Considering the security at this event, one does have to wonder.
Credulity is one of my shortcomings, but the Democrats somehow seemed so much more authentic.
McCain's speech was strangly soft in tone. I rather liked his olive branch to the Obama campaign. The admission that the Republicans had lost their way over the last eight years was surprisingly candid. It is certainly starting to look more like the John McCain I held real respect for back in February. But then he turs to the attack. The punchlines are formulaic- taxes bad! Government bad! Small businesses good! The policy specifics so painfully lacking in Palin's speech last night were finally there, and McCain does seem to realize where many solvable problems lie. But his proposed solutions are disappointingly similar to the ones that haven't been working for the better part of a decade.
There just seems to be some aura of frailty about him as he speaks.
What he is doing effectively is presenting a vision of the Republican brand without the hallmarks of the Bush years.
It's remarkable the degree to which Obama has set the tone for their convention- win or lose, this is clearly his election.
But it's hard to move past those manufactured signs. They just aren't the product of a party transformed, or to be more specific, a party prepared not to crassly manipulate the American public to preserve its grasp on as much authority as it can get. For a speech purportedly focused on service and cooperation, McCain still seems to be running to a large degree on his biography. Even if McCain really believes that he can bring a fresh wind to government, his staffing choices suggest that he won't. It's hard to believe that the people who wrote last night's adventure in selective omission were not also the authors of tonight's very different piece, and would be advocating for absolutely anything they thought might win the election, regardless of the damage to the environment, the increase to the deficit, or complete deviation from independent reality. The speech tonight is probably the peak of the McCain campaign thus far- it's a shame he's chosen to surround himself with people whose presence undermines his every claim.
And by the way, why on Earth should the enthusiasm of a hand-picked crowd give commentators any reliable guide to the success of a speech? Convention crowds would applaud any series of words at all presented in a language they could understand. Such "interpretations" are just lazy. Dur!
The longer I have watched, the more inclined to cynicism I have become.
Those folksy hand-lettered signs the crowd has been holding up? NPR reported this afternoon that they are in fact mass produced...to look like hand lettered signs.
McCain was interrupted early on by several protesters, motivating the crowd to shout them down. How did protesters get to such prominent places on the floor? I have no proof for this one, but in Nixonland Rick Perlstein documents how Nixon would make a point of letting Vietnam protesters into his campaign speeches, so that when they interrupted his speeches with their shouting, the "silent majority" would shake their heads and vote Republican. Considering the security at this event, one does have to wonder.
Credulity is one of my shortcomings, but the Democrats somehow seemed so much more authentic.
McCain's speech was strangly soft in tone. I rather liked his olive branch to the Obama campaign. The admission that the Republicans had lost their way over the last eight years was surprisingly candid. It is certainly starting to look more like the John McCain I held real respect for back in February. But then he turs to the attack. The punchlines are formulaic- taxes bad! Government bad! Small businesses good! The policy specifics so painfully lacking in Palin's speech last night were finally there, and McCain does seem to realize where many solvable problems lie. But his proposed solutions are disappointingly similar to the ones that haven't been working for the better part of a decade.
There just seems to be some aura of frailty about him as he speaks.
What he is doing effectively is presenting a vision of the Republican brand without the hallmarks of the Bush years.
It's remarkable the degree to which Obama has set the tone for their convention- win or lose, this is clearly his election.
But it's hard to move past those manufactured signs. They just aren't the product of a party transformed, or to be more specific, a party prepared not to crassly manipulate the American public to preserve its grasp on as much authority as it can get. For a speech purportedly focused on service and cooperation, McCain still seems to be running to a large degree on his biography. Even if McCain really believes that he can bring a fresh wind to government, his staffing choices suggest that he won't. It's hard to believe that the people who wrote last night's adventure in selective omission were not also the authors of tonight's very different piece, and would be advocating for absolutely anything they thought might win the election, regardless of the damage to the environment, the increase to the deficit, or complete deviation from independent reality. The speech tonight is probably the peak of the McCain campaign thus far- it's a shame he's chosen to surround himself with people whose presence undermines his every claim.
And by the way, why on Earth should the enthusiasm of a hand-picked crowd give commentators any reliable guide to the success of a speech? Convention crowds would applaud any series of words at all presented in a language they could understand. Such "interpretations" are just lazy. Dur!
About What You'd Expect
I guess that, after the whole “Let’s praise Clinton” thing didn’t work out so well for Palin and McCain, they’ve settled on “Let us change the mess we made.” I’m having a hard time following the RNC this year. It’s just exactly what I expected. Palin excited the kinds of people who go to the RNC and everyone else seems confused. The DNC this year had a lot of drama – how will the Obama/Clinton reconciliation come together? The RNC is just … well, dull. Fred Thompson? Rudy Giuliani? Eight minutes of Bush? I’ll be curious to see what McCain says today. The media certainly said that Obama had to bring something new in his speech – and he did. Will expectations of McCain be the same? Is there any chance that McCain will bring up a single policy proposal? Does the McCain campaign have anything to say besides “just not Obama”? Palin has excited the base – do they have anything for anyone else?
On a side not, The Daily Show last night was fantastic. Living abroad, it’s hard to keep up on what’s going on in the world of television. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are both available in streaming versions that are accessible from all over the world. NBC and Fox’s Hulu and Turner’s Adult Swim streaming versions aren’t available outside the US. They should take a note.
On a side not, The Daily Show last night was fantastic. Living abroad, it’s hard to keep up on what’s going on in the world of television. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are both available in streaming versions that are accessible from all over the world. NBC and Fox’s Hulu and Turner’s Adult Swim streaming versions aren’t available outside the US. They should take a note.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Where's the Policy?
The Palin Speech tonight was an impressive collection of logical non sequiturs, and close to a desert with regard to policy. Still, she was photogenic, and had good delivery.
John McCain "has already faced tougher challenges" than being president. I respect the guys military service, but can that statement really be true?
Palin tells us more about her family than I would expect to learn having dinner with them- and as an aside, what is up with all the lingering shots of people holding their unconscious children? Surely it isn't good parenting to drag your one-year old to all-night political conventions?
How can Palin claim in one breath to be an average pit-bullish hockey mom, then turn in the next to the part where she just happens to govern a state? And her claims to economic policy success in the course of that job have to be taken with the caveat that Alaska is a financial mutant- its residents do not pay taxes! Alaska pays you a couple grand a year to live there, siphoned from oil profits. Regretably, the federal government employs a different system, to which Palin would presumably have to adapt.
The policy thinking tonight has been limited to suggesting that we should drill for oil, and to continue to fight for small government (of the sort that supports the largest public works project in US history, presumably). Thin barely describes this. The goods are being saved for tomorrow night?
Jaw dropping moments:
John McCain "has already faced tougher challenges" than being president. I respect the guys military service, but can that statement really be true?
Palin tells us more about her family than I would expect to learn having dinner with them- and as an aside, what is up with all the lingering shots of people holding their unconscious children? Surely it isn't good parenting to drag your one-year old to all-night political conventions?
How can Palin claim in one breath to be an average pit-bullish hockey mom, then turn in the next to the part where she just happens to govern a state? And her claims to economic policy success in the course of that job have to be taken with the caveat that Alaska is a financial mutant- its residents do not pay taxes! Alaska pays you a couple grand a year to live there, siphoned from oil profits. Regretably, the federal government employs a different system, to which Palin would presumably have to adapt.
The policy thinking tonight has been limited to suggesting that we should drill for oil, and to continue to fight for small government (of the sort that supports the largest public works project in US history, presumably). Thin barely describes this. The goods are being saved for tomorrow night?
Jaw dropping moments:
- she. mocked. "healing. the. planet."
- stadium applause for the US not "reading (terrorists) their rights," with all that implies.
- another obvious lie about her documented support for the bridge to nowhere
- most popular crowd chant according to PBS: "drill, baby, drill"
- this is more just interesting, but apparently the post-speech was the first time a pres. and veep candidate have ever hugged, at least in public (PBS- man alive is that obscure)
Mute
It is killing me not to be able to live-blog this Giuliani speech. I'm finding it more confusing than anything. Was he invoking the unfairness of gender role dichotomies a second ago? The mind reels.
RNC Day One and a Halfish
It’s telling that Bush spoke to the RNC from the White House. I know that Gustav gave him the excuse, but there must have been a sigh of relief from the McCain campaign. You can’t exactly ignore the sitting president, but that being said, the last thing McCain (or anyone in office or running for reelection, something that the RNC is notably lacking this year) wants is to be seen having your picture taken with George W. Bush this year. Bush’s speech was about what you’d expect – did you know John McCain was a POW? – with this delightful slap at the left: “Fellow citizens, if the Hanoi Hilton could not break John McCain’s resolve to do what is best for his country, you can be sure the angry left never will.” It’s unbelievably galling to hear a man who authorized torture to compare his political opponents to torturers. The eagerness of the Republicans to get Bush back behind the curtain as quickly as possible almost – well, not really almost – makes me feel sorry for him. But then I see those beady shark eyes and remember his unshakeable sense of rightness and exactly why I can’t wait for January.
Fred Thompson brought more of the red meat for the party – did you know John McCain was a POW? – and I once again find myself asking, “Fred Thompson? From Law and Order?” I remember the Fred Thompson boomlet from the winter and spring and still find myself kind of surprised about it.
Ah, Joe Lieberman. What can you say? He’s a hack, and he’s a hack who’s about to lose his committee assignments.
Admittedly, this convention was not aimed at me. The Republican Party is split and right now it seems like the only thing holding it together is Sarah Palin. In a way, it was a smart move on McCain’s part. He’s never been beloved of the Christian Right. Nominating one of their own, even if she is dangerously ill prepared is one of the only ways I can see of him overcoming their antipathy. The problem, of course, is that in nominating a dangerously ill prepared Christian cipher, he’s undercutting the other part of his base – the perpetual war, American hegemony wing of the party that rode George W. Bush into the Departments of State and Defense. Palin is George W. Bush without the daddy issues and without the steady, guiding hand of Dick Cheney whispering in his ear.
Fred Thompson brought more of the red meat for the party – did you know John McCain was a POW? – and I once again find myself asking, “Fred Thompson? From Law and Order?” I remember the Fred Thompson boomlet from the winter and spring and still find myself kind of surprised about it.
Ah, Joe Lieberman. What can you say? He’s a hack, and he’s a hack who’s about to lose his committee assignments.
Admittedly, this convention was not aimed at me. The Republican Party is split and right now it seems like the only thing holding it together is Sarah Palin. In a way, it was a smart move on McCain’s part. He’s never been beloved of the Christian Right. Nominating one of their own, even if she is dangerously ill prepared is one of the only ways I can see of him overcoming their antipathy. The problem, of course, is that in nominating a dangerously ill prepared Christian cipher, he’s undercutting the other part of his base – the perpetual war, American hegemony wing of the party that rode George W. Bush into the Departments of State and Defense. Palin is George W. Bush without the daddy issues and without the steady, guiding hand of Dick Cheney whispering in his ear.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Taking Cover
Looks like Bush and Cheney are going to skip the Republican National Convention next week because of Hurricane Gustav. Presumably, they want to avoid a repeat of the visuals that we’re all familiar with from Hurricane Katrina. I guess an old dog can learn some new tricks.
McCain and Palin, meanwhile, are touring the gulf coast in the run up to both the RNC and the landfall of a hurricane. The response to Katrina was so poor it has Republicans scrambling to be seen as taking it seriously. That being said, it’s pretty distasteful for a candidate to spend their time doing photo ops and politicking while a region braces for a hurricane.
McCain and Palin, meanwhile, are touring the gulf coast in the run up to both the RNC and the landfall of a hurricane. The response to Katrina was so poor it has Republicans scrambling to be seen as taking it seriously. That being said, it’s pretty distasteful for a candidate to spend their time doing photo ops and politicking while a region braces for a hurricane.
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