Tonight’s the big night. Barack Obama, acceptance speech, outdoor stadium. Good idea, or bad? We’ll see. This has got to be the speech of his life. Expectations are high; if the speech doesn’t meet them, the buzz will be that he failed.
Tomorrow John McCain is supposed to announce his running mate. I wouldn’t put Joe Lieberman completely out of the running. It would give McCain a boost among Americans who are utterly clueless, which is a substantial part of the electorate. Mitt Romney, the GOP establishment favorite, would be a big yawn to most of America, I believe. And, of course, the infamous white evangelical Christians don’t like him.
President Bush is supposed to speak on the first night of the GOP convention, but the White House is hinting he might not go because of Tropical Storm Gustav. Not that it would make any difference to anyone on the Gulf Coast where His Worthlessness is. Louisiana Governor Jindal, one of the GOP’s token nonwhite people, might stay home, also, if Gustav turns into a hurricane and hits New Orleans (nearly three years exactly since Katrina).
I would be very sad if Bush doesn’t speak, because I think he would get the GOP convention off to just the right start.
Michelle Malkin and the Hot Air crew have been trying all week to stir up some news about Dem convention protesters. I think somewhere in her vacuous head she thinks people protesting the Dem convention are somehow connected to the Dem convention or belong to the Democratic Party. (From what I can tell, most of the protesters — beside the PUMAs — are the usual vocational demonstration crowd that shows up for everything, bullhorns at the ready.)
First she said there were riots. Then she complained the riots were sparsely attended. I’m looking forward to her coverage of Ron Paul supporters at the RNC convention next week.
Get this: McCain adviser says “there are no uninsured Americans.” His solution to the problem of millions of uninsured Americans is to officially declare there are no uninsured Americans. I’m serious. See also Obsidian Wings.
Also, the GOP platform calls for a complete ban on embryonic stem cell research. This is even more right-wing than the 2004 platform, which simply supported the Bush policy not to fund embryonic stem cell research.
What are the Republicans going to talk about at their convention? They sure as hell don’t want the American people to know what’s in the platform. It’s going to be nothing but smears of Obama; no substance at all.
Finally — see Billmon.
Compared to the Democtratic Convention, the Republican one will look like the bar scene in Star Wars. Ugly creatures grousing about the Liberal’s and pretending everything is fine – if only we bomb everything in sight, drill anywhere we want, and stop any woman from avoiding coming to term – under any condition…
I think when the American people see the differences, they’ll get it. After Rudi says 9/11 for the 357th time in a paragraph, they might finally tire of the fear, fear, fear.
And, while I hope that Gustov does not hit our shores, how tragic a farce would it be if it did during their convention. If it does, Americans will get a feeling of “deja vu.” Of course, if Bush goes down there this time, it will be “vuja de…”
It’s great that Billmon is back, even if occasionally on DailyKos. Good article.
It’s hard to imagine how the GOP convention won’t be a parody of itself, something cooked up by Jon Stewart – Live, From the Bizarro Universe. Zillions of dollars of balloons, flags, and Republicans in their very own Alternative Reality. A kickoff by W would indeed be fitting, and would set the tone – “Watch this drive”. I’ll let those with more intestinal fortitude send postcards back to this dimension.
I’ve seen most of the major DNC speeches and have been impressed and moved to tears. It’s been a nice mix of standard political convention speech combined with deeply felt authenticity. I’m eagerly awaiting Obama’s speech tonight which I fully expect will be electrifying.
I guess I’m reading Jon Stewart’s mind. The Daily Show has a billboard near the Minneapolis-St Paul airport that reads:
“Welcome, Rich White Oligarchs!”
Maybe the Republican’s will be highlighting their vaunted success in Iraq. All that freedom they created in the Middle East for less than a trillion dollars and a million lives. That’s quite an impressive feat considering todays high cost of marching freedom. Surely they can beat their chests on that issue.
But for substance, I think they’re going to share a common experience with old Mother Hubbard when she went to the cupboard.