Conventional Convention

Watching the GOP last night makes me wonder what planet these people live on. Joe Lieberman seems to think we can all get past the partisanship and all get along - well - as long as there's a hockey stadium full of zealots who want to "drill, baby, drill" (then think about renewables, if at all) and "win" Iraq (and ignore Pakistan and Afghanistan and UBL, etc.), and engage in character assassination and lies ... it's going to be hard to end the gridlock. I even wonder if Obama can do it. I was just really surprised at how angry and negative and cynical Rudy and Huck and Palin were. If I remember from last week every mention of McCain started by praising his service and courage and then attacking his policies. To the contrary, the speakers belittled Obama and then lied about his policies - very mean spirited. And not to whine, b/c this is how the GOP usually wins ... but I just wanted to point out that despite McCain's "desire" to elevate the game, the rest of the hall didn't get the message.

As for Palin, I think she's a great story - and has great symbolism (kid in Iraq, down syndrome, pregnant, hunts, small town, spunky, etc.) that will play well with suburban white women. She is good at giving speeches (sound familiar?). And she got only a million fewer people to watch her than Obama!! When she talked about herself she was interesting. However, her contradictions roll in every day (don't blame the press) and she sounded very typical when she began to distort Obama's record and butress her own (the "bridge to nowhere" comment).

Matthews made an interesting point saying that her nomination had nothing to do with HRC, but instead was to offer a direct contrast to the (percieved) elitism of the Obamas.

Still, I think a lot of non-interested, casual observer types (that WILL VOTE) see the pick as a gimmick.

The hypocracy of the Palin nomination is blatant. How many times do you hear GOP talking heads defending her "accomplisments" and "record" and "judgment" and arguing she's not an "empty suit" who got "lucky" and jumped ahead in line - over the same things they blame Obama for! There's no consistancy, and it doesn't pass the straight-face test (Rob Portman was touting her feats on city council!).

The convention makes me boil.

UPDATE: David Brody at CBN:

This speech was part mom, part Pit Bull and part policy wonk. I mean she went after Obama as hard as anyone. She basically ripped him to shreds but she didn’t do it in a way that looked mean or vindictive

UPDATE: Of course the NRO doesn't think it was mean at all:

More importantly, the speech tapped into a teeming reservoir of repressed rage. Memo to Barack Obama: You’re right, many of us are bitter. We are damn angry about being framed as “the American Taliban” because we love our country and think it’s exceptional as is; because we think you deal with evil by defeating it, not cozying up to it; because the change we think we need is a government that shrinks and gets out of the way, not a confiscatory, will-sapping Leviathan; because we don’t see “patriotism” as the willingness — the eagerness — to catalogue America’s flaws while never acknowledging her greatness; because when it comes to “reputation in the world,” we think it’s the “international community” not the United States that has a lot of catching up to do.