Republican Convention Tuesday: Not Bad, Not Great

I'm watching the convention on network TV.  NBC messed up the feeds with President Bush's speech, such that his pauses for applause were batches of silly silence.  Really weird--Brian Williams gave a long explanation and apology.  But it was still really weird!  

Laura Bush tried to explain why her hubby couldn't get on a plane and come, the first time in 40 years that a sitting president didn't address his party's convention in person.  She didn't have an answer--it was awkward.  Plus Bush wasn't even in prime time--it was only clips that were replayed on the networks.  

What I caught of Thompson's speech was terrible.  Just terrible!  What a lousy speaker!  It's really remarkable that he could be that bad.  At the end he mentioned how McCain can't raise his hands over his head.  Interesting--the Republicans were too good to feature Dole's combat injury in 1996, but they're not above it now.  Also, it conjures up the image of Obama not saluting the flag--McCain can't, Obama won't.  

There was an ad in Ohio during the convention attacking Democrats.  Very effective.  At the end McCain is pictured and his voice approves the message.  Will voters hold the negativity against him?  No way.  Negative ads like that one ("The Democrats will bring you unbalanced budgets and higher taxes")  work.  Nobody likes the Democrats in Congress.  Even the hard-core Dems are mad, because the '06 election was about the war and Congress did nothing to end it.  

The signs in the hall are "Country First."  Lieberman said, "I'm here because country matters more than party."  The message is obvious: Obama is not really about country first.  This works on two levels.  The first is alterization--he's not really a true American, since true American's always put their country first.  The second is about Obama's meteoric rise to promenance--he's about "me" first and country second.  Brilliant!  If he was about country first, he would pay his dues, put in his time, and wait for his turn.  But he elbowed his way to the front, knocking over a woman to be first in line.  That's not someone you want as your leader, since he won't put the real common good of the organization first, but will always be thinking about his own prospects and perhaps abandoning everyone when a higher opportunity awaits.  I've already heard a joke somewhere about Obama running for President of the World his second year into office.  

The troops coming home in honor--Lieberman's statement.  Lots of cheers and USA!'s.  A great line, since it both conjures up ending the war and being able to forget about it without guilt, a twofer.  He spoke directly to Democrats and Independents towards the end, urging them to vote for McCain.  It was powerful stuff.  This is why they had Lieberman speak.