Observations on the 2012 Election 9.9.1

I wanted to quickly wrap up my convention thoughts before they fade into the distant past as the campaign heads into the final stretch run. As I said at the end of my last post the Democratic Convention was something totally different from the Republican one. Mainly because what they did in three days totally surprised me. Whether by plan or by luck the combination of Bill Clinton and President Obama, both of whom are the best politicians of their generation, changed the race from a personal referendum on the President to a decision on what kind of world we want to or do not want to live in.

It was rather fitting for Clinton to quote Ronald Reagan in his speech because probably nobody has been able to captivate an audience like Clinton since at least Reagan and before that JFK. I say again, the man is just the political equivalent of a rock star. Among the Democrats Clinton did the best job of describing the RNC saying their message came down to "We left him a total mess. He hasn’t cleaned it up fast enough. So fire him and put us back in." Than he did the same with the Democrats message which he said was "We believe, 'we're all in this together,' is a far better philosophy than, 'you're on your own.'" Clinton also added the word arithmetic to the political discourse as the knowledge of said is something the wingnuts are totally lacking in.

The next night President Obama followed with an acceptance speech that was more theory than Clinton's arithmetic. Where we have been, where we are, and the like. It wasn't one of his best speeches he has ever given but it was a good one and good is all that was needed to top Willard's. One short line that was nice to hear, and got my brother to send a 'hell yeah' text, was "Climate change is not a hoax." Obama also spoke at length about the military, veterans, and the seemingly endless war in Afghanistan which was something Willard didn't mention even once. That brings me to another surprise of the DNC, patriotism once seemed totally owned by the flag draped GOP. Today the President actually leads Willard among military and veteran voters.

So the election comes down to this. Do you want to live in the GOP dream world none of us remember and probably never existed or do we try and work together to climb out of the rabbit hole that was the dubya years? Well do ya punk?

I apologize for the bad Eastwood analogy.

Observations on the 2012 Election 9.9

After an campaign that seems like its been going on forever we are now only sixty days from election day. The party conventions are both over and if they didn't clarify the nominees plans for the future at all at least they did clarify what the election itself is about. Since President Obama was elected the Republicans have had just one goal, keep him from being reelected. When, okay if, Obama wins in November the GOP has no Plan B so for all practical purposes it becomes politically bankrupt party. That fact, combined with the automatic tax increases and spending cuts coming at years' end, should force them to compromise with the Democrats for the first time in years. Should the President win he has the added benefit of not having to worry about reelection ever again so can force some issues he couldn't before.

Convention wrap part 1 ….

The only news of any real value to come out of the Republican National Convention actually happened before it. That would be Willard's selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate. The only thing Ryan clarified during his acceptance speech was that he could lie better and with less guilt than any politician in history. Even Fox News itself ran a piece saying just that. It isn't good for you election prospects when all anybody remembers about your three day infomercial is that nature in the form of Hurricane Issac, somehow knowing Willard would mock global warming in his acceptance speech, chased them out of Tampa and Clint Eastwood talking to an empty chair in prime time.

For all practical purposes Willard was but an afterthought at his own convention. The RNC was like a political time capsule and much older, whiter (there were possibly fifty African American delegates), and very much richer than the Democratic National Convention. The focus was on how much they literally hate the President, that this country is theirs whether the rest of us like it or not, and on auditioning for the 2016 Presidential race. In essence to them this election isn't about what Willard would do, he has no clue, but against Obama and his policies.

The DNC was a different beast entirely and suddenly changed the dynamics of the election.

Observations on the 2012 Election 9.4

The Democratic National Convention starts later today and Michelle Obama, she of the 64% approval rating, will be the main speaker tonight. Hopefully there will be no empty chairs on stage although Chris Rock had a good idea. Have an empty chair up there for the entire convention and if anybody questions it just say it belongs to Osama bin Laden.

This short film, it's 15 minutes long, was released by the Obama Campaign back in March and is still probably one of the best they have done. It should be required viewing for any undecided voter. The latest polls have the President and Willard in a dead heat, 45% each, which leaves 10% of the public undecided.

The Road We've Traveled ....


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Observations on the 2012 Election 9.3

The RNC ended Thursday night with Clint Eastwood's return to
stand-up comedy and the Democratic National Convention (DNC) begins Tuesday in Charlotte. President Obama, who speaks on this coming Thursday night, gave his opinion of the RNC during a speech Friday in Iowa.

"It was a rerun, We’ve seen it before. You might as well have watched it on a black-and-white TV."

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Observations on the 2012 Election 8.31

You may or may not have seen Clint Eastwood's train wreck of a speech, and I use that word loosely, at the RNC last night. Short version is that Eastwood spent 30 minutes at the heart of prime time talking to an empty chair which represented the 'invisible' President Obama. There are plenty of places to read or watch the wreck, and it is entertaining in its own way, so I wont get into it here. I did want to share the President's short and to the point response which was posted on both Twitter and Facebook earlier today.

"This seat's taken."

Observations on the 2012 Election 8.30

I don't even know how to begin to describe the final hour of last night's Republican convention. It began with a speech by Condoleezza Rice who honestly did a very good job of speaking to all Americans whether or not they agree with her. She was followed by New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez who seemed to channel both Steve Martin and Clint Eastwood with her 'I was born a poor girl with a .357 magnum in my hand' speech. The night ended with an admittedly very good but totally scary performance by vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.

Condoleezza Rice gave a brilliant speech and what a friend said later is very true, to bad she isn't one of ours. After the speech one of the commentators said that if Pete Wilson had appointed Rice to the Senate seat from California, which he vacated to become Governor of the state, Rice and not Willard might be accepting the nomination for President tonight. Instead Wilson appointed John Seymour who was defeated by Diane Feinstein two years later. Her best; "On a personal note, a little girl grows up in Jim Crow Birmingham. The segregated city of the south where her parents cannot take her to a movie theater or to restaurants, but they have convinced that even if she cannot have it hamburger at Woolworths, she can be the president of the United States if she wanted to be, and she becomes the secretary of state."

Paul Ryan is something different entirely. He also harkens back to a dark time of the American soul. He is good, very good, but also a classic demagogue in the style of Huey Long or George Wallace. I'm in no way comparing Ryan to Hitler but looking at the faces in the audience during his speech I was reminded of the films of Hitler's early speeches at Nuremberg. Ryan is that scary good. When he said "sometimes, even presidents need reminding, that our rights come from nature and God, not from government," my remote literally hit the wall yet I couldn't stop watching.

After two nights of very little actual ideas I come away with two predominate thoughts about the Republican Party. Noblesse oblige, a French term which implies that people of noble birth, or wealthy in our case, are obligated by that birth to be honorable and generous. The Repubes think they are being just that but all one most do is look at the smug face of Paul Ryan to realize they are actually being the polar opposite. That fact plays along with my second term which is manifest destiny. For the most part the speakers and their audience honestly believe all the rhetoric. They believe the country is in ruins, that Obama is the devil incarnate, and most of all they believe they are right and destined to save this country from itself while leading it into a second American 'century of greatness.'

As I said, scary good. More later.

Observations on the 2012 Election 8.29

This would be all too funny if it wasn't such a serious subject, still one must always laugh. I found it on of all places the Le Monde website, via Talking Points Memo, and even though it's originally from an American site it gives you a good idea what the Euros think of our political conventions. If I had only known such a video was going to exist I wouldn't have bothered watching last night but alas I did. Sadly in the end this may the only good thing to come out of the first night of the Republican convention.

La première journée de la convention en 100 secondes ....

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Observations from the Window 8.28

After a day or two of much needed decompression I'm finally getting back to normal. Yes, what passes for normal in my world. I was totally wiped due to the flight back, my inability to sleep when I fly, and the fact that I didn't sleep at all my last night in Paris. Why? Better question is why the hell would I?

While I was catching up with laundry and such today I was watching the Weather Channel, keeping up with news about hurricane Isaac, as a more entertaining alternative to the GOP convention. In my new capacity as style maven, more on that at some later date, I have to say there was something very wrong in the network's coverage. Picture two women in the studio, one wearing a red dress and the other an orange one, both sitting in front of a wall size screening of the Isaac radar. If the dresses didn't clash enough on their own sitting in front of the radar, which is predominately red and orange, did the trick. I just wanted to scream every time the network switched back to the studio.

In all seriousness before I move on I should mention that Isaac,
currently a Category 1 hurricane, is due to make landfall just south of New Orleans as early as tonight. Keep your fingers crossed and say a little prayer to whatever god/gods you pray to for the people down there as Isaac is probably going to track directly over the city itself and twenty inches of rain is predicted.

Finally, there seems to be some kind of political event going on in the wake of Isaac. Yes that would be the convention I mentioned earlier. Morning Joe is live from Tampa all week and yesterday Chris Matthews and GOP Chairman Reince Priebus got into a bit of a shouting match. About 3 minutes in Tom Brokaw says it all explaining why Americans are about fed up with politics, except for us political junkies. Just after that Priebus again accuses President Obama of looking to Europe for ideas, principally he is talking healthcare reforms. So if the President based his health reforms on Willard's in Massachusetts doesn't it just follow that Willard also looked to Europe? Again I'll remind you where Willard spent the Vietnam War years.

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late update - After some thought I'd like to add this. If Willard really thinks his birther joke was just that, a joke, and didn't realize how it would be taken, well I don't want to think about what that says about his judgement.