You Know What Leeches Do, Right?

David Weigel | August 25, 2008

They suck the blood out of things. And Jim Leach just dived into Barack Obama's neck, fangs-a-flashing, and drained the energy out of the evening. Must we be submitted to the cross-party speech in every convention now? Is that what Zell Miller has wrought?

Comments

SIV|8.25.08 @ 10:29PM|#

Zell Miller brought the house down with one of the best speeches I've ever heard, including recordings of historical speeches.The GOP made him tone it waaay down from what he planned to say.

You can't expect that from most Party-crossing Pols. I missed Leach, is Lincoln Chafee gonna give one too?

NotThatDavid|8.25.08 @ 10:29PM|#

We can only hope that Joe Lieberman's immense personal magnetism will be able to outdo him and save the RNC.

SIV|8.25.08 @ 10:46PM|#

Lieberman always sounds like the dad on Alf

|8.25.08 @ 11:33PM|#

I couldn't help but think: "Is this Leach guy really just a Republican plant, there to make the Democrats look stupid and desperate enough to pick *any* disaffected Republican who would speak at their convention?" I was so bored.

Gene Berkman|8.26.08 @ 4:43PM|#

SIV - you are so right about Lieberman!

I like the idea of including a defecting leader of the other party as a speaker at your convention. And I even like some things about Jim Leach's record in Congress - his vote against the Iraq War, his vote against aid to the Contras etc. But it would be hard to find a more monotous speech at a political convention than the one he delivered last night. Sigh!