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