Republican Rantings
 

Anybody watch the freak show last night? My Clear Channel affiliate was playing cuts that didn't seem focused at getting the undecided voter. Interestingly, NPR was playing the same cuts with, I suppose, the intent of showing how insane these guys are. Of course NPR cranked out a right wing anti-Iran diatribe a couple days ago so maybe they're just embracing the inevitable.

I watched a little. Zell Miller was on fire but, to me, unconvincing. Cheney was flat.

Guliani has been the best so far. His conversational style was brilliant

Apparently Zell wanted to challenge Chris Matthews to a duel later that night.

seriously.

Miller was about thirty seconds away from an aneurysm on Hardball.

Last night, the Pubbie message morphed from "9/11: Never Forget" to "9/11: FORGET EVERYTHING ELSE." If America buys into that, well, it deserves what it gets.

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
H. L. Mencken

Didn't watch (no TV) but from what I get from newspaper, radio and co-workers, there wasn't much meat to anyone's speech. I didn't really expect as much... the whole convention is little more than a Republican Pep Rally. Same thing for the DNC too, little more than a Pep Rally to charge up the loyalists in hopes of getting some of that enthusiasm to spread to the people who don't vote for animals.

Well they are making the various arguments for their sides too.

I gotta say I am unmoved by the notion that Kerry voted against weapons systems during a time when it seemed like military overextension was a big American problem. What I would like to know is in what ways 9/11 changed that, if any.

Also, I am unmoved by the notion that Kerry is the most liberal Senator or one of the most liberal Senators. He was representing the most liberal state so in one sense he was doing what he was elected to do. And from what I've seen, a lot of those rankings are bizarrely constructed and very selective about various votes.

The flip-flop thing - well there's no denying that the guy is a Clintonesque politician who sometimes bases his policy on the shifting winds of the day. You could say this means he lacks the resolve of true leadership; on the other hand this means he will roughly mirror the population's desires, which is not such a terrible thing, especially if the complaint is that he's actually too liberal.

Also, I think being in the Senate means that, if you're savvy enough, you take different positions on things in order to score political points.

he he

You're right, if Kerry goes all Clinton on us chasing polls that wouldn't be the worst thing. At least there would be public discourse.

Clarifications on talking points:

The "first and fourth most liberal senator" statistic only counts last year, while both Edwards and Kerry were campaigning, and only voted on the bills that were close and/or especially important. Over their careers, both are much closer to the center of the party, politically.

The flip-flop accusation is based on the fact that Kerry admits that his views are more complicated than a sound byte. When people complain that Kerry "voted for it before [he] voted against it", they seldom mention that the Republicans voted against it before they voted for it, or that Bush threatened to veto it before he signed it. There were two versions of the same bill - Kerry supported the first, the Republicans supported the second.

meanwhile outside
 

I think the Republicans' motto this year might as well be "Trade Your Freedom for Security...This is NOT a Request."

Of course the Dems kept their protestors in a git mo style cage...

Revised Motto: If you don't vote for Bush, Evil Brown People will kill you.

Where's General Sherman when we need him?

Reason magazine this month notes that Kerry's Senate record on civil liberties is actually worse than John Ashcroft's

Electoral vote prediction
 

HM has posted this link before, but i hadn't looked at it in awhile. Interesting to see what is happening in the polls during the convention. if you follow the link back, you will see bush actually lost a few this week.

electoral vote count

He lost Wisconsin today (as per the note at the bottom of the page), which he had only picked up a week or so ago. I suspect the final map will look much like todays, but with Pennsylvania and Iowa blue, and Nevada and Colorado red.

Here is the text of Zell Miller's speech.

Speech

Amusingly, as Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney opposed all of the weapons systems that Miller accuses Kerry of opposing.

Words, words, words.

A linguistic investigation into the conventions.

On New polls in AL, MI, SD & WI. :)

I would've been there with 'em if I could. This girl loves a good protest.

GOP backs away from Miller’s blast.

i think his delivery sucked even though i like some of what he said. unfortunately that is zell miller when he gets on the platform. nobody really cried too much when he did the same thing while he was in clinton's corner at the '92 convention. Miller is just one seriously intense old man who gets a little too wrapped up in the rhetoric.

hey Griff, I had heard something about the whole git-mo style cages, but have yet to run across an article on it.. maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places.. (or my local media isn't so keen on making the RNC/NYC PD look bad...) I was wondering if you could post a link or something that has some more info on it? thanks

and geez... it did seem like Zig Zag Zell was going to blow a gasket.. and just geez... these people scare me..

He sounded like a crazy old ass man...and looked just as crazy too.

No one really "got" me as far as speeches. McCain's was good I thought. Other than that, I fell asleep during Cheney and Bush's speeches, and Guliani came across to me as too smug..that's just me I suppose. *shrugs*

well giuliani is a new yorker... a rich new yorker. 'nuff said
i didn't catch cheney's speech.
parts of bush's speech were pretty good, but overall it wasn't that great.
miller was over the top in delivery like i said although much of the text was alright.
arnold is ... well, arnold.

the conventions are just BS rewards for the delegates and volunteers anyway. nothing real happens anyway. back in the really old days, a bunch of party guys went into a back room and decided who was going to be the nominee - sometimes completely to the surprise of the delegates. too bad that didn't happen this time.

the DNC should have canned Kerry and gone with Edwards so they could play the same angles they did with clinton. it probably would have worked again. i don't know who would have been an appropriate VEEP though. maybe lieberman or clark to try to get some of the R's to swing their way.

the RNC should have canned cheney and thrown McCain on the ticket. it would have been a much stronger ticket considering all the baggage cheney is dragging.

Can't vouch for the source here but I saw these kinds of photos elsewhere. Maybe I'll poke around some more. Click the link under the photo for more pics.

The RNC should have canned both Bush and Cheney, and put McCain and Powell on instead. If they had done that, I would vote Republican for the first time in my life.

powell's wife has flat out said she would divorce him if he accepted any sort of nomination.

and besides i don't think it would be very smart to have a black vp. i would vote for him for POTUS, but putting him in the VP slot would just put a big(ger) target on the head of POTUS.

there are a few people out there who would be willing to pop the president just to see an african american president. i have said that for a long time. i would vote for a female african,mexican,hawaiin for president, but not for VP.

i just realized how bad that looks on screen, but it is not a racist or sexist thing. it is i don't want to see a president dead thing.

Yeah? Well, it was a pipe dream anyway.

Better Pics, yah I know who that is.

Some observations, having watched a large chunk of the convention on C-SPAN and MSNBC:

--The GOP channeled FDR and Truman on several occasions.

--Zell Miller is officially senile.

--McCain and Giuliani gave good speeches. Arnold was retarded. The Bushes were boring.

--McCain was a moron for giving Michael Moore the time of day.

--The GOP convention was rather negative...and angry...and mean. In other words, typical Republican bullshit. :)

[quote=sycamore
--McCain was a moron for giving Michael Moore the time of day.

--The GOP convention was rather negative...and angry...and mean. In other words, typical Republican bullshit. :)[/QUOTE]

yeah, i wish mcCain hadn't done that too. but i don't disagree with him

you really think the convention was overwhelmingly negative and angry? outside of zell. i didn't think it was that bad, relatively speaking.

You're forgetting you are a right wing nut. :)

true, there is that. i'll work on it. maybe i can work my way into the socialist party by the next election. it's something to strive for anyway.

We've got enough of those here. Stay true to your nature or just agree with me...

oooh i could follow you! i know i can. well, maybe i should just throw in the towel and admit, i've never been a good follower. i guess i'll just have to be me. and someday when it is my turn to rant from the RNC podium (you know i have all my right wing contacts) you can say you knew me when...

Dang, where am I gonna get a sycophant this time of day?

"Angry" is the wrong word..."arrogant" is probably more appropriate. But I stand by "negative."

that is fair. i saw it a little in giuliani and a lot with miller. i guess i just didn't see it in the rest.