Democrat National Convention

[Troy McClure]

I thought I would create a new thread regarding the Democrat National Convention. So far I thought it's been fairly successful in just about every way, particularly Senator Clinton and President Clinton. The governor of Montana was also very entertaining Tuesday night.

I'm looking forward to seeing Senator Obama speak tomorrow night. Should be exciting, which just happens to be the 45th anniversary of Dr. King's 'I Have a Dream Speech' in DC.

Apologies if I sound really giddy.

ps to Cacophony -- I'm very enthused about Senator Biden. Kudos to you for showing us what a good guy he is.

Thoughts?

-Jason

[gambit]

Originally Posted by Troy McClure

The governor of Montana was also very entertaining Tuesday night.

Hey, I voted him into office! Glad Brian Schweitzer got a chance to speak at the national convention right before Hillary.

[Troy McClure]

Originally Posted by gambit

Hey, I voted him into office! Glad Brian Schweitzer got a chance to speak at the national convention right before Hillary.

I hope what I said about Governor Schweitzer didn't come across as a slight against him. I kept thinking while watching him, 'Man I hope Senator Obama asks him to campaign with him'. I was completely impressed by his natural candor. --Jason

[chuck]

Wait. Jesse Ventura was at the DNC?

And I missed it?

Dammit.

We're getting quite a bit of radio and TV coverage down here - going to hook up my Daily Show torrent queue to get all the best bits though.

[Deckard]

Biden and Clinton - both superb. And if we're talking soundbites for the masses, this one from Bill was about as good as they come:

"People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power."

The kind of message you won't be hearing next week in Minnesota.

Not had time to watch Kerry yet but I've heard he was on form too.

Feeling a little anxious about Obama's speech though. Someone made what I thought to be a valid point - apparently the backdrop being set up at Mile High Stadium will have him framed by huge great Roman columns. Now given the running theme in the Republican attacks being fired at him (celebrity, rockstar, messiah, etc), do we really think this was a wise choice? Might it not have been much more inspired for him to have gone totally counter-intuitive and given his acceptance speech in a smallish venue, to a selected audience of mostly white and working-class families?

It was a fair point, I thought. Huge venue, roman columns... you can hear the Republican response even before they've aired it. This runs the risk of not living up to its own hype.

We'll soon see, though.

I just hope the security's up to scratch.

[cacophony]

Originally Posted by Troy McClure

ps to Cacophony -- I'm very enthused about Senator Biden. Kudos to you for showing us what a good guy he is.

Yeah well I should warn you that I'm a terrible jinx. Whatever or whoever I support usually loses. So cross your fingers and hope my magical jinx power is broken for the next few months.

[cured]

The republicans are going to rip into Obama something fierce next week, make no mistake about that. They don't have much of a leg to stand on, otherwise, and they'll perpetuate a lot of falsehoods about their own administration that is going to rally their base. I don't think the democrats have done a good enough job going after McCain in this convention. It's been a good convention but not a great one, thus far.

Having said that, this race won't be decided until Obama eviscerates McCain in the debates, which is what I think will happen.

[IsiliRunite]

Originally Posted by Troy McClure

a good guy he is.

I really hope this is sarcasm.

[gambit]

Originally Posted by Troy McClure

I hope what I said about Governor Schweitzer didn't come across as a slight against him. I kept thinking while watching him, 'Man I hope Senator Obama asks him to campaign with him'. I was completely impressed by his natural candor. --Jason

Nah, no slight was around. It'd be nice if he campaigned with Obama, but he has to campaign for his job this year, so that may only be minimal.

[Deckard]

OK, just lost another post, so let's try and recap what I just wrote...

I agree with you Cured about the Republicans ripping into Obama next week far far more than the Dems ripped into McCain this week. The Dems spent a lot of time talking about change and unity, and apart from Biden, not as much on McCain as they might have. Given the way the Republican base appears to have somewhat begrudgingly accepted the reality of McCain rather than enthusiastically championed him, it will be more canny for him to keep the focus on the flaws of Obama. Expect them to run with "Obama is all hype and no trousers and not one of us" and "the world is a dangerous place".

When it comes to the debates later on, I'm far less sure that Obama will get much electoral mileage from those. And that worries me, given how things stand at present. You'll have the homely aw-shucks well-fed veteran hero, prone to almost celebrating his ignorance on certain things, versus the so-called inexperienced, skinny "in-tel-lec-tual" (that word deliberately over-enunciated to make it sound like an alien concept).

If memory serves, Kerry was much more effective than Bush in the debates of 2004. Yet Bush walked away with it. Bush emphasized toughness, he emphasized certainty, and even though Kerry's rebuttals were spot on and demonstrated far better reasoning, it seems that this was more detail than many American viewers/voters needed in a president. They wanted their apple pie, and that's what I fear will happen this year, even moreso than 4 years ago. That demonstrating logical argument and underlying principles come second place to how people will feel.

Also, the international situation could yet swing it to McCain in a big way. I'm still wondering whether Israel plans to go ahead with their strike on Iran before the year is up.