"And to the Republicans for which they stand..."

A few remarks about the speeches at the Republican Nationan Convention on Tuesday, September 2nd

Over all, it wasn’t a bad night to be a Republican.

Laura bush spoke to introduce the President, making sure she praised the work of Republican women and expressing her delight at the choice of Governor Palin as Vice Presidential running-mate to John McCain. It turns out that she’s a much better speaker than her husband.

I didn’t make any notes during George W. Bush’s remarks for various reasons, but did watch. As to the President’s videotaped remarks, I am just going to make one quick comment: The truth is that Bush just isn’t the speaker that Barack Obama is. Or Al Gore. Or Joe Biden. Or anyone who spoke at the Democratic National Convention. In fact, none of the early speakers tonight really excelled. I have to admit, though, Fred Thompson wasn’t too bad. Neither was Joe Lieberman.

The video tribute to Ronald Reagan was noteworthy more for what it omitted than for what it contained. The video never mentioned the fact that Ronald Reagan was a prominent Democrat until he switched parties in 1962. And while praising the devotion of Nancy Reagan, it failed to mention Reagan’s first marriage to Jane Wyman from 1940 to 1948, nor did they mention any of Reagan’s four children (not just the two he had with Jane Wyman).

Not surprisingly, the video tied John McCain to Ronald Reagan. Not that I ever saw that they had all that much in common, but some kind of attempt was to be expected.

Interestingly enough, each speaker seemed to make a point of John McCain’s steadfast resistance to torture by his captors; Fred Thompson in particular. Is this the best policy for the Republicans to take right now? I wouldn’t have thought so. And was it all that smart to dwell so hard on who McCain was as opposed to who he is? After all, it’s the man he is now that we have to elect. Or not.

There was a stage-wide screen behind the speakers that showed the Reagan tribute as well as the Bush address, and which showed scenes of McCain’s life and career during the other speakers’ words, but whenever the camera widened out to include this screen it often seemed to be in transition from one picture to another, showing a confused mess to the TV viewers.

I’ll try not to read anything into the fact that the "keynote" speaker tonight was a Democrat. Independent democrat Joe Lieberman was the only one to speak about unity that transcended either party, talking about Democrats and Republicans fighting each other rather than fighting the problems we face. What I didn’t expect to hear was Lieberman praising Bill Clinton. It was greeted with applause; not terribly enthusiastic applause, true, but applause none the less. He talked about the independence of John McCain and his calling for "national unity."

All in all, as far as the Republicans are concerned tonight’s speeches were (mostly) all they could have wished; lots of praise for McCain, lots of talk on Republican issues, lots of waiving the flag, and lots of John McCain the War Hero. I feel like I was being asked to vote for GI Joe. They were weak on the economy, weak on unemployment, weak on the environment, weak on almost everything except flag-waiving patriotism. It was a cheering crowd, a partisan crowd, but not all that enthusiastic a crowd. Perhaps they were all saving themselves for Sarah Palin.

The Blues Viking

The opinions here expressed are mine and if you don’t like them you can get your own damn blog.