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Sometimes you catch a bit of a news report or a piece of text from an article that beautifully frames what a phony game all this convention business really is. Happened to me this evening while reading the Washington Post, with this passage:
Sitting around a dining room table, the McCain team has talked to her about Iraq, energy and the economy but has focused on what she should say in her speech, struggling almost as hard as she has to prepare for what will be, along with a debate in October, her main opportunity to shape the way she is viewed by voters. Not anticipating that McCain would choose a woman as his running mate, the speech that was prepared in advance was "very masculine," according to campaign manager Rick Davis, and "we had to start from scratch."
Few politicians write their own speeches anymore. But even my jaded eyes bugged at the idea that McCain's campaign had already written tonight's speech before they knew who the running mate would be.
Seward|9.3.08 @ 10:30PM|#
I'm not the first person to note this, but conventions are basically as scripted as any drama or sit-com is.
|9.3.08 @ 10:32PM|#
So if she wins does that make her husband the Second Dude? Will Mrs. McCain call herself the first Dudette?
cuntivore|9.3.08 @ 10:35PM|#
I don't see why a moose-eatin, polar bear shootin woman can't deliver a "masculine" speech.
BDB|9.3.08 @ 10:43PM|#
"ALWAYS PROUD OF AMERICA!!!!!!!"
Except when shes hanging out with the Alaska Nationalists.
|9.3.08 @ 10:47PM|#
"I'm not part of the long time political establishment."
I guess just her running mate is.
|9.3.08 @ 10:49PM|#
This is one problem with Palin as I see it.
If McCain says that his experience is a qualifier and Obama's
inexperience is a liability then the natural question is, then why
did you pick Palin?
If Palin says she is better than Biden because she is an outsider
and not part of a long time political establishment, then the
response is naturally that McCain is surely part of the long time
political establishment.
BDB|9.3.08 @ 10:54PM|#
Republicans cheered Unions.
And a windfall profits tax.
And I am horribly, horribly confused.
|9.3.08 @ 10:54PM|#
Did you know the Alaska Republican Party Platform says that
"promiscuity" and "pornography" are "social dysfunctions" that they
pledge to combat?
They also expose any extension of "gaming and gambling."
http://www.alaskarepublicans.com/PartyPlatform.aspx
|9.3.08 @ 10:56PM|#
Fuck. She's doing well.
Well, I was wondering how the Dems would lose, and I guess I don't
have to wonder anymore.
Gilbert Martin|9.3.08 @ 11:02PM|#
"Who wants to be she cries?"
Nope - the weepy victim routing is a Democrat specialty.
BDB|9.3.08 @ 11:03PM|#
O RLY? The bitching about the meanie media I've been hearing about the last two days came from Democrats?
|9.3.08 @ 11:06PM|#
Republicans cheered Unions.
And a windfall profits tax.
Can we just gas those morons, now?
Gilbert Martin|9.3.08 @ 11:06PM|#
"O RLY? The bitching about the meanie media I've been hearing
about the last two days came from Democrats?"
Pointing out that the media has a liberal bias ain't crying - it's
stating an absolute fact.
BDB|9.3.08 @ 11:08PM|#
Maybe if this were 1984. There are so many media outlets now it is hardly a monolith.
SIV|9.3.08 @ 11:09PM|#
Did Biden blow a kiss to an old war buddy during the Dem
convention?
War? Biden? He had 5 drafte deferments like Cheney
Milena Thomas|9.3.08 @ 11:23PM|#
As a writer, do you not have a stock of topics, views, phrases,
etc. you keep in a file for later use? I do.
I often will salivate over a phrase, word, punchline, but have to
store it for later until I find the appropriate post to put it in.
Just like a speech can be prepared, but tweaked once you have the
right person to deliver it. Not a big deal.
Gilbert Martin|9.3.08 @ 11:25PM|#
Palin did a good job of zinging Obama on his puffed up image of himself with those lines about his self designed presidental seal and mocking his "healing the planet" remarks.
|9.3.08 @ 11:27PM|#
They wrote the whole speech and then had to find a western
female governor with five kids and fisherman husband to give it. Do
we know who wrote the Chosen One's speech? Surely superman doesn't
employ speech writers.
Dave. Your Washington Liberal is showing.
|9.3.08 @ 11:29PM|#
The line about dragging collumns off to the Holywood set was
brillant, really Reaganesque.
Is it just me or could you close your eyes and think the
Republicans have nominated the highway patrolman from Fargo?
SIV|9.3.08 @ 11:32PM|#
Ron Paul is going to be on Tavist Smiley in the next 10-20 minutes. I'm curious to hear what he thinks of Palin.
SIV|9.3.08 @ 11:34PM|#
John,
Somebody called her a cross between Marge Gunderson and a generic
Sandra Bullock character.
That movie character description is dead on.
|9.3.08 @ 11:34PM|#
Did Biden blow a kiss to an old war buddy during the Dem
convention?
Look, man, the shit that Tom Moe went through is not just some "old
war buddy" shtick. I'm going to go all provincial and say that the
man graduated from my University and cyncism in light of the crap
he went through is terribly inappropriate.
Tom Moe's
Story.
Bill\'s Dog|9.4.08 @ 12:50AM|#
"Not anticipating that McCain would choose a woman as his
running mate, the speech that was prepared in advance was "very
masculine," according to campaign manager Rick Davis, and "we had
to start from scratch.
Few politicians write their own speeches anymore. But even my jaded
eyes bugged at the idea that McCain's campaign had already written
tonight's speech before they knew who the running mate would
be."
Reading comprehension is a prerequisite to writing. You might look
up the term "start from scratch".
Woof
Infant Sorrow|9.4.08 @ 3:45AM|#
I like Sarah Palin more for her disposition than anything she
has explicitly said or done. It thaws my icy heart to hear a
politician speak with such clear antagonism towards
environmentalism, for instance, and that Palin is a Christian
fundamentalist is less scary when weighed in opposition to Mccain's
grotesque national reverie.
Consider the unlikely prospect of a Mccain presidency slightly less
nauseating.
|9.4.08 @ 7:46AM|#
"Consider the unlikely prospect of a Mccain presidency slightly
less nauseating."
I just don't see a McCain presidency as being that bad. In fact, I
think some major liberal reforms have a much better chance of
becoming reality under him. If McCain gets in then the
Warner-Lieberman climate control bill should sail through, if Obama
was in then the GOP Congressional delegation would play the
opposition and hold it up. Not so much if the Prez is GOP. Also, I
think some tweaking of McCain-Fiengold can go through to tighten
that up (I realize that is unpopular with some here). Corporate
reform as well as some kind of taking the oil companies to the
wookdshed is going to get through much easier under a McCain
presidency as well.
|9.4.08 @ 11:32AM|#
If McCain gets in then the Warner-Lieberman climate control
bill should sail through,
I think some tweaking of McCain-Fiengold can go through to tighten
that up
That seals it. I'm voting Barr.
|9.4.08 @ 11:34AM|#
Is it just me or could you close your eyes and think the
Republicans have nominated the highway patrolman from
Fargo?
I've noticed that, too. Won't hurt them in the northern tier
battleground states.
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