Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Not Quite The Home Run It Was Billed As

This was no better than last night. Another snoozer.

Huckabee starts to talk about the need for change, but then he drops the ball and doesn't state what McCain will do to make a change! Instead, he jumps track, and says, let me tell you what we "don't want to change." And of course, it's the standard, freedom, security and prosperity, which completely ignores the fact that the past eight years under the Republican rule have made the American citizen less secure, less prosperous, and certainly bereft of our innate freedoms (courtesy of the Patriot Act and FISA legislation). I haven't heard one thing yet during this convention about what McCain is going to do. Just rhetoric.

And more lies. Like the whopper that Sarah Palin got more votes running for mayor than Biden got in the presidential primaries. Um, as Keith Olbermann debunked the claim later ... facts: Biden received more than 30,000 votes in the primaries, and Sarah Palin received 616 votes in her mayoral campaign. Not even close! History is not the strong point of the Republican party. How about the claim that Lincoln was the founder of the Republican party! Google that one, and you come up with the fact that "it was actually founded in 1854 by disaffected members of the Whig party." (Hat Tip again, to Olbermann).

YAWN.

Big applause with the line about not waiting for the "government to rescue me." Hmmmm ... rescue isn't what the Republicans call the pillaging of the United States Treasury. It's called tax breaks for the rich, big business incentives, and war profiteering! Let's call it what it is, baby!

I do find it funny that even the spoon fed press (which whenever it suits the Republicans, is labeled "left wing" but which, in reality, is controlled by the corporate CEO's right leaning beliefs), were caught off mike today (Peggy Noonan, et al.) bashing the Republican vice presidential candidate. Proof positive right there that the media says one thing when the mike is on because they are fed the talking points, but when it is off (or they think that it is off), they speak their minds, and it ain't pretty! There is not a whole lot of enthusiasm for four more years of the same bullshit from the Republican party, despite what the punditry reports to the contrary. PROOF POSITIVE.

Landslide, baby, landslide. Democrats take it all come November.

One thing we all know is that McCain is qualified to be the president because, in case you haven't heard, he was a prisoner of war. I swear, I'm going to barf.

I found it funny that last night's placards read "service" and yet tonight when Giuliani talked about Obama's first real job, in service as a community organizer, the crowd scoffed! Service, apparently to Republicans, is service to big corporate interests, not service to the American community.

"Only at the RNC can people who one night before asked the country to do service for their country then now boo when Giuliani mentions community organizing." H/T to AmericaBlog.

Watching this convention makes me feel the need to take a shower, there's so much bullshit flying around. Fortunately, it's just a feeding frenzy isolated to the room in which the speeches are being made. Trust me, there are not 38 million people watching THIS convention. 55 million registered Republicans vs. 72 million registered Democrats. Now we know just this year, the Republican party has shrunk in size while the Democratic party was registering and voting in the primaries by a margin of between two to one and three to one. That's quite a number, and even if every registered Republican votes the party line, it still won't be enough to elect John McCain.

End of story.

Gov. Palin's speech was supposed to "hit it out of the ballpark" as the media has claimed (yeah, the same media that the Republicans have been bashing since they came down so hard on Gov. Palin's selection as the V.P. nominee) but it was more like a "foul ball." Her speech was also full of lies, which I am sure will be vetted by Think Progress, Media Matters and Fact Check dot Org over the next few hours. Like her claim she opposed the "bridge to nowhere" which has been thoroughly debunked already. And simple lies, like the fact her son is supposed to be deployed to Iraq this coming September 11, which has been debunked by Vote Vets dot Org. Or the lies about Obama, which were many in her speech. But hey, she can read a teleprompter pretty well, and after all, the Republicans have had her holed up for the last five days giving her a crash course on Republican politics and how to talk and act like a vice president!

What has been totally missing from this convention has been any real concrete plan to change the way the government has operated the past eight years. We heard what Obama plans to do, but all the Republicans have to offer us is their belief that because McCain was a prisoner of war, he has the qualities that are needed to "lead." I could give a shit about leading. I want to know what exactly they intend to "lead" us into, or where, or away from. That's probably part and parcel of the Republican problem, because there are no choices coming from that party except "more of the same."

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