RNC
Joy and I set ourselves the task of watching the Republican National Convention. Last week we found ourselves glued to the Democratic convention every night, watching about twelve hours of coverage and every major speech. It made me think of an era when political rhetoric was considered a form of popular entertainment, and families would drive into town to hear the great orators of the day. Michelle Obama is a fine speaker, Bill Clinton is always fun to listen to, and Barack Obama was mezmerizing. I missed Kucinich, but I caught some of the highlights later (unfortunately, it was on the Dailey Show). So, to get a more or less balanced view of the election, it seemed only fair that we check out the RNC.
I know that we're biased, but the contrast was striking. Laura Bush speaks in a monotone, George Bush was only allowed an eight-minute pre-recorded address, Fred Thompson is ponderous, I wanted to reach through the screen and throttle Rudy Guliani, Cindy McCain looked like she just got out of bed, and Joe Lieberman should be arrested for impersonating a Democrat. Oh, and did you know that McCain was a POW during the Vietnam War? I think I heard someone mention that - about once every five minutes. By the time we got to Sarah Palin's acceptance speech, it had become something like Mystery Science Theater 3000 - we were talking back to the television, calling her on her lies and generally terashing a poor littel backwoods beauty queen who is about to find herself so far out of her depth. Her speech was carefully scripted adn well rehearsed - she's perfectly adequate speaker (better than some I heard this week), but the material she was given was sarcastic and smarmy
John McCain spoke for 49 minutes (did you know he was a POW?) and although he and the convention handlers tried to whip up the crowd's enthusiasm, the poor man is not a good speaker. The rhetoric never gets off the ground, he spent half his time telling the republicans how much they suck, and you could play a drinking game with his inappropriate smirks (he ends every couple of sentences with a creepy little grin, like he knows something we don't). The delegates jumped to their feet to cheer every ten seconds or so, but the cameras caught a lot of yawns and several protesters being hustled to the doors.
Oh, and one more thing. Please don't ever again put Laura Bush in a red dress in front of a fuzzy giant video screen showing a Patton-sized waving American flag. It's enough to cause an epileptic seizure.
Now on to the campaign. I've got my tub of popcorn and I'm ready to watch the bloodshed.
I know that we're biased, but the contrast was striking. Laura Bush speaks in a monotone, George Bush was only allowed an eight-minute pre-recorded address, Fred Thompson is ponderous, I wanted to reach through the screen and throttle Rudy Guliani, Cindy McCain looked like she just got out of bed, and Joe Lieberman should be arrested for impersonating a Democrat. Oh, and did you know that McCain was a POW during the Vietnam War? I think I heard someone mention that - about once every five minutes. By the time we got to Sarah Palin's acceptance speech, it had become something like Mystery Science Theater 3000 - we were talking back to the television, calling her on her lies and generally terashing a poor littel backwoods beauty queen who is about to find herself so far out of her depth. Her speech was carefully scripted adn well rehearsed - she's perfectly adequate speaker (better than some I heard this week), but the material she was given was sarcastic and smarmy
John McCain spoke for 49 minutes (did you know he was a POW?) and although he and the convention handlers tried to whip up the crowd's enthusiasm, the poor man is not a good speaker. The rhetoric never gets off the ground, he spent half his time telling the republicans how much they suck, and you could play a drinking game with his inappropriate smirks (he ends every couple of sentences with a creepy little grin, like he knows something we don't). The delegates jumped to their feet to cheer every ten seconds or so, but the cameras caught a lot of yawns and several protesters being hustled to the doors.
Oh, and one more thing. Please don't ever again put Laura Bush in a red dress in front of a fuzzy giant video screen showing a Patton-sized waving American flag. It's enough to cause an epileptic seizure.
Now on to the campaign. I've got my tub of popcorn and I'm ready to watch the bloodshed.