The nights opened with speeches by McCain's former opponents for the GOP nomination, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. The only thing that really needs to be said about these two is that a big part of their speeches were focused on mocking so-called East Coast Elites. If any two people typify this class, it's Giuliani and Romney.
Day three had the big arrival of Sarah Palin. Finally, the Republicans we all know and love were back... the kind that profess to love America, but who clearly hate Americans. Gotta love it. She did her speech proud, but this really wasn't a surprise to me considering her background as a sportscaster. Most politicians have difficulty at first using a teleprompter and the television background was good training for her. What did surprise me a bit was that it was so sarcastic in tone, especially the final fifth or so. I wasn't surprised by the attacks. That is standard GOP presidential election tactics 101. However, it is a bit risky to introduce someone to the public stage with a speech that could have been written by a catty 13 year-old girl. Of course, since it was written by George Bush's former speech writer, it amounts to the same thing. It has played well to the red meat part of the GOP base, but how it will play to independents is still unknown.
Here are some of the responses to Palin's speech, which I think are worth noting. First, there is Obama himself. Another good one is that of Hillary Clinton campaign veteran Howard Wolfson. Glenn Greewald over at salon.com wrote a great article titled The GOP's Cheerful Viciousness that is most certainly worth reading. ABC had a video response as well. Hell, even Condoleeza Rice refused to say anything more positive about Palin than that she gave a good speech. (And Jon Stewart's take on Palin in general was priceless.)
McCain's speech on the final night was much more of a tried-and-true Republican acceptance by the nominee. It could have been given almost verbatim -- and pretty much was; start at 4.5 minutes in for specifics, but it's all sadly funny -- by George Bush in either 2000 or 2004. McCain is not considered an accomplished public speaker. He is stiff and has difficulty, even after decades in Congress, using a teleprompter. It showed here. He was really only at ease in the final minutes of the speech, which focused on his war record. Regarding that, I now hope that we can put the idea behind us as false that John McCain has any reticence about using his time in Vietnam for political gain. It seems to me that the only one diminishing McCain's service -- and the hardship he endured -- in Vietnam is McCain himself via the grandstanding done by both his campaign and himself. Surely, his actions there should speak for themselves.
Reactions to the speech came from the Obama campaign and lots and lots of press and political pundits. I think that the most telling thing about the speech is that the McCain campaign has now abandoned all pretense that their strategy of making the campaign about either "experience" or the surge in Iraq was working. It failed just like Hillary Clinton's did for the same reasons. This election is about "change," whatever that means, and McCain struggled to grab some of the change mantle. The question of whether or not his campaign can be successful at this is questionable. After all, seven of the nice justices on the Supreme Court were appointed by Republican presidents, Congress has been controlled by Republicans for six of the last seven years, and Republicans have been in the White House -- with an almost universally despised president -- for seven of the last eight years. While I'll never underestimate the ability of the American people to vote against their own self interest -- just look at the 2004 election! -- this seems a particularly hard sell in the current climate. I mean, McCain proclaimed that the US has "to catch up to history," while he himself can't use e-mail or log into his own web site! Get real.
Most of what Palin and McCain had to say was, of course, either a distortion of the truth or outright lying. Again, this is to be expected. What is somewhat surprising is that, with a few exceptions, the media has been cowed and is letting them get away with it cleanly. And if the media won't step up, I hope the Obama campaign will hit back harder than it has thus far. (There are further fact-checking articles being written about the second day of the GOP convention now as well.)
One of the biggest surprises on these nights was again the miscues of the GOP on stagecraft. As I mentioned in my post about day two of the GOP convention, Republicans have long been masters of setting the right tone in this sort of environment. I'd say that they are adept at using the trappings of patriotism to hide their actual callousness regarding the country and its people, but that's just me. I'll note two examples of "getting it wrong."
- First, you had Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina proclaiming that we are achieving victory in Iraq... as the large screen behind him displayed the photo of a military cemetery and soldiers' graves. Morbid indeed, but telling.
- Second, you had John McCain himself propped up in front of the same screen, talking with what appeared to be a photo of a large luxury mansion behind him. At first, I thought this odd simply because it recalls the fact that the McCains own at least seven luxury homes... and there is no reason to want to remind Americans of that. It turns out that the mansion wasn't a home at all, but rather a photo of Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, California. Of course, it was supposed to be Walter Reed Army Medical Center, but the campaign blew it. (This is quite in line with just how poor McCain has been on voting in support of veteran care.) What is even more humorous is that the campaign later claimed that it intended to use the photo of the school even though it had previously owned up the the mistake. It gets better still, with the school telling the McCain campaign to stop using photos of it because school officials don't agree with McCain's positions on education.
Finally, and most importantly here, is the thing that made me the most angry during the GOP convention. (And they set that bar high.) In a video leading up to McCain's speech, footage from 9/11 was used. It included the planes hitting the towers, the towers collapsing, and the Pentagon on fire. The events of September 11 are often spoken of in policy terms. No doubt they play a role in our politics. However, with a few exceptions in small-stage political races, the footage of the calamities themselves has never been so used. The Republicans violated this unspoken rule, doing so on an international stage, and did so for callous political self-interest. The party and McCain himself should be vilified for this. Indeed, this tells you all that you need to know about the man and his party.
McCain got a nice bounce from the convention and erased much of that which Obama received the week before. Much of this likely came from shoring up Republican voters, which shouldn't be discounted just because these voters should already have been in the fold. A great deal of Obama's bounce was likely similar in nature. Still, this is where the playing field will be set. We have two more phases. The point from now until the debates, where advertising will dominate, and the debates themselves. Whether Palin will be effective in the debates or in -- real -- press interviews is anyone guess. However, she'll be an effective attack dog, which is the traditional role of the vice presidential candidate. She isn't qualified for the job -- even discounting her levels of experience, taking only her views into account -- but she'll likely help McCain in getting the one that he wants.
8 September 2008
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