Convention Liveblogging

Oh well.  I'm exhausted and burned out, so may not say much.

8:29  I'm glad McCain didn't pick Meg Whitman as his VP.  She's delivering an excellent free-enterprise, small-government speech, built on the paradox of "America is all about the inspired individual" and "country first" -- but she has an unpleasant, grating voice.  One of my quirks about political candidates is, "Can I stand to hear the sound of this person's voice for four or eight years?"  (It was a test that both Bush and Kerry failed.)

8:49  Carly Fiorina is promising that McCain will balance the budget by 2013.

9:07  Mitt Romney brings up the unsettling image of the sun rising in the west -- Arizona and Alaska -- which inadvertently reminds me of a Biblical miracle, the sun standing still for Joshua probably.  Was that intentional on any level?

Romney links family values (with a mom and a dad) to America leading the family of nations.  Abandon one, lose the other.  Don't ask, don't tell.

Good that he wasn't the candidate.  His manner of talking is just too slick.  He's like a 1950s pitchman, someone from "Mad Men."

"At Saddleback, after Barack Obama dodged every direct question, John McCain hit the nail on the head.  There is evil in the world and we will defeat it!"  Crowd chanting "USA, USA."  "People in our party prefer straight talk to politically correct talk."

Have you ever seen so many white people?  It's certainly not exclusive, but it is overwhelming.  (Coming from New York, this looks strange to me, as Germany looked strange to me when I visited there in 1962, coming from the south side of Chicago.)

You can imagine, though, that the few black people there feel like they're establishing a beachhead.  Pioneers.

9:28  Mike Huckabee, the only candidate I have contributed to, early on (before he saw that he couldn't please everybody and made the choice to speak only to the Christian right) -- probably because I like the sound of his voice.  Also his intelligence and his sense of humor.   Where he grew up the three heroes were "Jesus, Elvis, and FDR -- not necessarily in that order."  "I'm not a Republican because I grew up rich.  I'm a Republican because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life poor, waiting for the government to rescue me."  "Sarah Palin got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."  Go ahead and be mean, but at least be smart and funny and original.  If you have wit you don't have to throw shit.

Once they were free from the electoral imperative, Bill RIchardson grew a beard (didn't Al Gore, too?); Mike Huckabee gained some of the weight back.

10:02  Rudy, with that slight familiar lisp, or deviated septum or adenoidal twang or whatever it is in his voice.  Makes me homesick. 

"You're hiring someone to do a job. . . . Imagine you have two job applications in your hand, with the name and the party affiliation blocked out . . . You have to decide who to hire, and you have to get it right."  Smart trope.

As he praises McCain he's doing an annoying chicken-pecking thing with his hand, a form of finger-shaking.  What's that background behind him that looks like out-of-focus waves?  Footage from Gustav?  A waving flag?  It's making me seasick.  

Now Rudy's reciting the Obama "resumé" and drawing boos and laughter.  Specifically the indecision suggested by the number of "present" votes he cast in the Illinois State Senate.  As mayor, governor, or CEO, executives can't vote "present."  They have to make decisions.  "He's never had to lead people in crisis" -- a statement Rudy knows he's uniquely qualified to make.  "Not a personal attack, a statement of fact:  Barack Obama has never run anything, nothing, nada."  The crowd is orgasmic.  Now the camera finds two or three rejoicing black faces.  "This is no time for on-the-job training."

"Our country will be safe in the hands of John McCain.  No doubts!"

"There's good change and bad change.  Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy."

"Drill baby drill!"  Sign in the audience:  "Drill now."  Drilling has become patriotic!

Bristol Palin's fiancé has shown up, in a suit.  (You can't help but wonder what's going through his mind.)  Both of them are so nubile, glossy with hormones, right at the age when nature wants you to reproduce.

Oh, I see what it is behind Rudy!  A vast film loop of New York Harbor's leveled skyline at sunset.  It was waves.  (Have we gotten used to the absence of the Twin Towers yet?  So many of the buildings around them were built around them, it lacks an organizing principle, a jutting axis.)

Palin's been a mayor:  "I'm sorry that Barack Obama feels that her hometown is not . . . cosmopolitan enough. . . . Maybe they cling to religion there."  He's doing the chicken-pecking, finger-jabbing thing again.  It might as well be the middle finger.  I once saw the chilling sight of a man getting an erection as he imagined hurting his rival.  That old primitive act of war is being subliminally invoked here.

Rudy the feminist:  would they ask a man if he could raise a family and be the vice president?

10:29  Heeeeeeeere's Sarah.  Huge ovation, "Palin Power," "Hickey Moms 4 Palin" signs.  She's got that "naughty librarian" look. [That was a typo for "Hockey Moms"!  But "Hickey Moms" is even better!]

Oh God, there's Al D'Amato.

Yes, her voice is a little screechy.  It has a distinct "Fargo," "Northern Exposure" twang to it.

Her close-shorn soldier son stands up.  Good-looking boy.

Looks like little Piper could give the younger Obama daughter a run for her money.

The special-needs baby is introduced in his father's arms.

Palin seems unspontaneous (how heavily she must have been prepped, and the speech massaged and rewritten), but as she brags about her family's accomplishments, spontaneity and pride break through. She's enormously cheery.  From time to time she wrinkles her nose, and she tsks and tut-tuts.

"'We grow good people in our small towns'."  "A writer" said that about Harry Truman.  (Westbrook Pegler, quoted by Pat Buchanan.)  "I grew up with those people."  

She makes the point that Obama talks about working people "one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco . . . John McCain is the same man."  (Some will contest that.)

As she talks about coming to Washington as an outsider, she gets very zealously mischievous.  This note of mischief and relish in going after corruption is

"Sudden reform never sits well with entrenched interests -- we put the government back on the side of the people. . . . to end the culture of self-dealing . . . that luxury jet was over the top.  I put it on eBay."  Best line of the night so far.

Reform is obviously her passion and her strength.  She catches fire, sounding authentic and knowledgeable talking about it as she does not when she's doing obligatory patriotic cheerleading.

Energy, too.

Now she tears into Obama for having authored two memoirs but no laws, even in the state senate, and never speaking of "victory" except in his own campaign.  (Me FIrst versus Country First is the meme.)  He'll raise your taxes, make government bigger, give you more orders from Washington, make America unsafe in a dangerous world . . . "Al Qaeda still wants to inflict catastrophic harm on Americans, and he's worried that no one will read them their rights."

She's become quite natural and comfortable now, and it's clear that in a contest for the identification of working-class Americans, Barack Obama will never hold a candle to her.  (The votes of working-class Americans, that is, and the dollars of the business class.)

The race for the White House is "not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery."  The world is "not just a community, and doesn't need an organizer."  (There it is again, Danny.)  "There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you."

This is an excellent line:  "the compassion that comes from having once been powerless."  Followed by "the special confidence of those who have seen evil and have seen how evil is overcome."  Kudos to the speechwriter.

Democrats, despair.  Personal destruction, your only hope of denting her, is going to backfire.

Now she takes the baby on her shoulder, saying "I can too do it all."  And McCain comes up, the word-for-word repeated descriptions of his ordeal making his stiff body language a badge of honor rather than a sign of age. 

Commentator Alex Castellanos:  "The most macho speech of the evening was delivered by a woman. ... Tests like that are how we choose leaders.  Republicans are going to be thrilled to see that strength in her."

Amazing!  The Republicans have risen from the ashes of George W. Bush! 

They end with a roll call, the democratic ritual that the Democratic Party passed up for "acclaim." 

My own reaction is completely divided, like my life.  I can't simply, exultantly identify with the victors:  "She scored one for us!"  Emotionally, I'm still one of "them" -- the defeated.  (I'm not from a small town, after all, with the exception of my six months at Fort Myers Junior High when Fort Myers Beach was a small town and the main after-school activity was teenage pregnancy.)  I see why the victors are the victors (and I am predicting a Republican victory right here, right now -- taking bets).  I'm not capable of that willed, ruthless confidence that steamrollers doubts and pesky facts.  But I salute its robust fitness and its power to inspire.  We're a warrior nation.  This is the country we live in.  If you don't like it, move to Canada.

* * *

"Game on," says Jeffrey Toobin.  Palin has proven plenty tough enough for Dems not to be faint-hearted about attacking her.  (I LOOOVE seeing a woman fight like that.)  They'll start with "fact-checking" on the Bridge to Nowhere (she was for it before she was against it) and the records of the Wasilla city council (she supposedly left the town in debt).  And on the Hensley fortune.  

It's going to be viciously dirty, and you wonder if the country can ever recover and reunite.  Loss will be the real test and chance for Barack Obama to prove that he can be a healer and a uniter.  It will also be a necessary part of his seasoning for a great future.  

IN THE COMMENTS:  Ron said:

I wonder aloud that if between Obama and Palin we are working out how we really feel about 'identity politics', for good or ill in each case. Will this election move us away from this idea towards...what?, I don't know.

Kinda like how JFK signaled that men didn't need to wear hats.

Comments

[Donna B.]

You are so right about the "voice."

Since I've been without internet for several days, I'm using this thread to comment on the last few days worth of posts and comments.

I can't quite believe the level of animosity toward Palin that I've seen today while "catching up".

Wow... the polity needs a bath and perhaps a chill pill?

I'm a small-town girl, actually lived in more than one trailer house, as well as what might be considered an "80s" mansion. It's been financially up and down for me. The "down" was always some choice I made that didn't turn out well. I should blame who for that?

Now I live a small city with access to opera, ballet, art museums, a fine symphony, two universities, and fine hunting and fishing. I can be as "elite" as I choose or as "average Jane" as suits me.

This is my strength. This is the average American's strength. We, individually, are not easily fit into any one national ideological box.

Defining what this country needs and where it should be heading is even more difficult. What is meant by the accusation that "we've been lead in the wrong direction"? Which direction is right? Where is that list of possible directions and their consequences?

I have had relatives in Iraq or Afghanistan several times. This does not give me any moral authority to make pronouncements on whether the wars are right or wrong, winnable or not... it simply makes me think much much harder about what is best for this country, and thus best for my grandchildren.

Since 1/2 those grandchildren are female, I think the wars against radical Islamism are worthwhile wherever and however they are fought.

My little cuties in burkas? I don't think so!!

My little grandsons as arrogant domestic tyrants as encouraged by those same radicals? Nope. Not those intelligently sweet boys.

SO... I'm pro Iraq and pro democracy and pro a very strong U.S.

Selfish? Maybe.

Then again, maybe not. I should be all for Obama since he proposes a fairly drastic tax cut for my demographic - it would have meant over $3000 we wouldn't have paid to the U.S. Treasury for 2007.

So why do I think this is a dumb idea? Because those dollars have to be made up somewhere else and it's going to be my children who are well into lucrative careers who are going to be paying much more than the $3000 I might save.

Look, these kiddoes are supposed to pay for my nursing home room with the mountain, ocean, desert, pasture view.

OK, then I'm selfish. I'll live with it. :-)

Thanks for indulging me.

[Danny]

Wait, but you're saying Palin's voice ISN'T grating and irritating? Listen again! And just to prove I can occasionally be bipartisan in my judgments, I find Hillary's voice just as grating. I remember when she won a Grammy for the audio version of "It Takes a Village." The writing was fine but a GRAMMY for her unbelievably wooden reading? Were they NUTS? If only Julie Andrews were born in the U.S. Wouldn't you love to hear her giving a State of the Union speech?

[amba]

I didn't focus in on Palin's voice enough to other day. It did sound a little piercing in the high registers. It's nicer in quiet one-to-one interviews. This is always a risk for women trying for volume. They should practice karate.

[Danny]

Giuliani's hatchet job on Obama is making me sick...truly sick. When did "community organizer" become such a dirty word? He might as well be saying "child molester." The crowd is scary. The "USA! USA!" chanting terrifies me. Oops, sorry, I shouldn't be livecommenting on your blog, but any admiration I ever had for Giuliani is gone forever. His laughing as he incites the mob is chilling. Repulsive.

[amba]

Why on earth should you not be livecommenting? Keep it up!

[XWL]

The crowd is scary. The "USA! USA!" chanting terrifies me.

I suppose unabashed patriotism does frighten some folks.

(after all, they're being patriotic towards a country that's "just downright mean.")

[Melinda]

The "What Not To Wear" people have gotten ahold of Palin. She looks very polished.

[Melinda]

What was that hubbub just now? It looked like they were ushering somebody out. (I'm watching C-Span.)

[Melinda]

I'm trying to place the voice. Part Frances McDormand in "Fargo," part Sally Field in "Norma Rae," part Diane Keaton.

(Boy, this is turning into the Melinda Bruno Blog.)

[amba]

I want it to be the Melinda Bruno blog! Go ahead, all of you, talk about it! And/or you can go over to Althouse and get lost in the crowd ...

[Outis]

When did "community organizer" become such a dirty word?

It is a dirty word, to those of us who are self-organizing.

He might as well be saying "child molester."

Please.

The crowd is scary. The "USA! USA!" chanting terrifies me.

But the hero worship of Obama in Denver was probably just oky. Uncritical love of country - bad. Uncritical love of your candidate - good!

[Melinda]

Strong speech, and good jabs at Obama. I'm looking forward to seeing how he responds.

This concludes the Melinda Bruno Livecommenting Show. Off to blow-dry my hair and get up early for a doctor's appointment.

[Ben (The Tiger)]

I was nervous.

I'm not nervous any longer -- the lady can handle it, and she's going to do just fine.

[amba]

Melinda -- I hope it's a routine, unscary one.

[Melinda]

Thanks. Routine follow-up.

[Donna B.]

Oh Wow... I think Palin did a fine job overall. And family-wise, I'm impressed with the inclusion of Bristol's babydaddy.

If there's one thing I've learned from growing up with a welcoming extended family on one side and a bitter, side-taking one on the other is that inclusion is the ticket to happiness and success.

I was watching CNN, did everybody else see Piper licking her hand to smooth the baby's hair? What a "down-home" gesture and you know she's imitating her mother.

There were also several shots of Cindy McCain and she looked thrilled and in total agreement with the speech... even though she's certainly of the rich and elite.

OK, I've been a Palin fan for about a year now. I'm still thrilled with the choice.

[Donna B.]

I forgot to mention that my son and husband -- both "hard-core" democrats in the best sense of the word were quite impressed by Palin.

[Pastor_Jeff]

I don't know. She's a good speaker, and I kind of like what sounds to me like an upper Midwest accent. But I liked Palin more than I liked some of her lines.

There's plenty to criticize in Obama and his campaign, but I didn't care for the condescending attitude. If you've got a stronger platform and a better story, then sell it. Be intensely proud and self-confident, but don't belittle people. Instead of ripping "commnity organizers" tell us what a small town mayor does. What responsibility did you have? I would like to have heard less about Obama and more about Palin's experience and accomplishments.

I don't think those kinds of attacks will win middle-of-the-road voters. But I could be wrong on both the impact and the intended audience.

You're more optimistic about a GOP victory than I am.

[amba]

PJ, I think working, rural, and small-town Americans have felt insulted and condescended to, and in the nastiness of this speech toward Obama, however wince-worthy and shriveling, Palin was voicing their resentment and exacting their revenge.

[Outis]

I was right about Palin being aimed at the working class Hillary voters. (Did you notice how they kept working the blue collar battle ground states into her speech?) She never was about the white collar bi-coastal woman set. The fact that she's a woman seems to have distracted the Dems from her true target audience. This must be serendipity, as even Rove isn't this good!

After the candidates left the stage a strange trio appeared, including a tall drink of blackwater. I thought, "Is that Cowboy Troi?" Why yes, yes it was! Cowboy Troi, John Rich and Gretchen Wilson performed a strangely moving version of the national anthem.

But if Danny wants to be creeped out, he should be creeped out by the "Raisin' McCain" song John Rich performed after the National Anthem. It's kind of wierd & creepy for a candidate to have their own song. But they followed that up with Stevie Ray Vaughn's "If the house is a rockin'", so the musical portion of the night ended on a high note.

I will note one rhetorical mistake in the speech - it was a mistake to mention Truman the way she did. Truman was hand-picked because "they" knew that the sick, failing FDR was going to die soon. Given all the fuss around McCain's age and health, that's perhaps not the best image to put in people's minds!

[Rod]

I am "whelmed." Not overwhelmed or underwhelmed. She can read from a teleprompter reasonably well - not polished, but Good Enough. If that was the test, Hollywood could produce a President every four years. We still have no idea whether she would have good judgment in the Situation Room under the White House.

40% of America (Republicans): Slam dunk, home run. where has this woman been hidden?

40% of Americans (Democrats) How dare he pervert the Good Cause by nominating a woman like her. Why, she doesn't even support abortion rights, the true Feminist litmus test.

20% of Americans (swing voters). Don't know her well enough to decide whether we want to ask her to the dance.

Guess who will decide the election?

[Tom Strong]

I am predicting a Republican victory right here, right now -- taking bets.

Heh. I'm (mostly) ignoring this godforsaken election right now (as I prepare to move to DC, shudder), but I'll take that bet. Though what are the stakes?

[Peter Hoh]

Giuliani? I can't stand him. He reminds me of Bush: bluster and incompetence.

Palin? She did an excellent job. I think she helped wash off some of the Bush smell that has been lingering around the GOP ticket.

[huxley]

Interesting. I just got off a long-distance call with my oldest and bestest friend, so I'll have to catch up later with Sarah's speech on YouTube.

However, this was a make or break moment for her. If she rose to the occasion, even if it were not a perfect 10, then she went over and she went over big. That's what it sounds like.

Palin will have consolidated the Republican base, hoisted the banner of Hope and Change, and undercut Obama's faux claims for reform.

If that is the case, it is very bad news for Team Obama. I'll take some of that action on a Republican victory too.

[amba]

Right, Tom, fitting stakes! It's easy for Reynolds -- scotch all the way. I'm so tired I can't think, but it will come to me.

[huxley]

I don't know what it means but when I see pictures of McCain and Palin, I keep having Battlestar Galactica flashbacks of Col. Tigh and a younger version of President Laura Roslin.

Of course, Tigh turns out to be a Cylon...

[amba]

Donna, I loved your long comment about the freedom to be un-pigeonhole-able, and about the willingness to be taxed (within reason) the way religious people tithe. The independents have it!

[Outis]

Correction: that's Cowboy Troy. I have no idea why I thought he spelled it with an 'i'.

[amba]

Troi was a character on "Star Trek: The Next Generation." (The therapist-empath? Counsellor Troi?) You've obviously crossbred them!

Let's see, a case of Chardonnay if Obama wins -- and . . . ? What's the McCain side drinking? I'm clueless!

[Outis]

Clearly McCainiacs are beer drinkers and hell raisers. Buy 'em a case of Budweiser.

[Outis]

You've obviously crossbred them!

Apparently! Each could do much worse....

[amba]

Bud? Do we really want to put another drop in that bucket?

Fitting, though, it is. But not very desirable. :-P

[Outis]

Well, you can't very well suggest they drink Stella Artois, can you? That's the beer of an elitist!

Even worse would be suggesting Kronenbourg 1664 - that's French!

Of course, the Bud's about to be Belgian, just like the Stella Artois.

How about a case of Sam Adams - no beer could be more patriotic for an American than that!

[RW Rogers]

I thought Governor Palin did fine. I note some are criticizing her for attacking Obama. I guess I missed their criticisms of Joe Biden's speech. (Grow up, kids! This type of pointed speech by the vice-presidential nominee is a staple of American politics.)Others are complaining someone else wrote Palin's speech. I guess I missed their criticism of Barack Obama for allowing Axelrod to work on his speech. At least this time, they didn't borrow any lines from one already delivered by Deval Patrick.

Rod is right about who will decide this election, although I think the starting point is higher for Democrats than Republicans based on recent data on Party ID. So the question is, what did they think? I imagine the answer is, "Good beginning. Let's see how she does from here on." The real focus will be on the two presidential contenders, however.

[amba]

Good one, Outis. Sam Adams it is, if the other wagerers agree.

[amba]

RWR -- but the veeps are going to be more important than usual, because of the intergenerational dynamic. In each case, the older generation is mentoring and protecting the younger, and all the heat is with the younger members of the teams, even though the positions are reversed. It's cool that they're both young and attractive and representative of their constituencies although not at all "average".

[Outis]

I note some are criticizing her for attacking Obama. I guess I missed their criticisms of Joe Biden's speech.

RW, the real problem is that Palin did it better than Biden. How dare she!

This is the most disgusting national campaign I have ever witnessed.

[Outis]

Good one, Outis. Sam Adams it is, if the other wagerers agree.

I thought of the Sam Adams right after I had verified the comment about the Budweiser. But ultimately it gave me a chance to mention Stella Artois and Kronnenbourg - twice!

[XWL]

What's the McCain side drinking? I'm clueless!

Well, given that you've got a nursing mother on the McCain side, I'd have to go with something non-alcoholic, but still quintessentially American, with a hint of western frontier history.

I think a Hansen's Sarsparilla flavored Signature Soda would do the trick (that says both Klondike and Tombstone).

[Ron]

With McCain coming from a navy family, I would think the beer should be Anchor Steam!

[Ron]

Over at Slate, they are talking about Palin in the oddest way:

"A pitbull with lipstick." ???

"The biggest target of Palin's succession of happy little kicks in the groin, of course, was Barack Obama. She painted him as a vapid, self-obsessed fog machine of words."

happy little kicks in the groin?

and how do you paint someone a fog machine?

Ugh!

[Spud]

Does anyone think if Sara Palin had run for president, she would be the republican nominee? I don't. The hard right philosophy did not sell well in the primaries.

[michael Reynolds]

It was a terrific speech. She did some damage to Obama. She helped McCain. Oddly I think the one thing she did not do was make herself seem presidential. Rather the opposite. But she rocked the house, that's for sure.

[amba]

Hansen's Sarsparilla flavored Signature Soda

Signature? XWL, that sounds delicious, but way too ... artisanal!
(The very fact that I know that word puts me on the side of the devil!)

It's really confusing -- you know anarchists are drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon these days!

[amba]

Ron -- the "pitbull in lipstick" was her line -- from the joke "What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?" "Lipstick!"

By the way, did you know that (like most Alaskans) she has smoked pot, admits to doing so at least back when it was legal there, and admits also that unlike Bill Clinton, she cannot claim she didn't inhale? This is part of being Alaskan, apparently.

[Simon]

Terrific. John McCain promised to follow bin Laden to the gates of Hell, and you get the feeling that if she was with him, most Republicans would follow. Or at least walk over hot coals for her. "The world is not just a community, and doesn't just need an organizer" was an instant classic.

That "not written one law" line was the only serious tactical error - it's going to be seized on and shown to be false when taken literally, and the only defense she can use is that it's hyperbole, not one of the better-reputed rhetorical devices.

Amba said:

Loss will be the real test and chance for Barack Obama to prove that he can be a healer and a uniter.

I just don't think he has that kind of character.

It will also be a necessary part of his seasoning for a great future.

No, no, no. I remember quite distinctly Michelle Obama promising that if we sent him packing this time, he wouldn't be back. I'm going to hold her to that.

[karen]

"A pitbull with lipstick." ???

Ron, i missed the whole danged sheebang last night. The only clip i caught on WCAX-TV this morning was Palin saying:

"Do you know what the difference is between a hockey mom and a Pitbull?........... Lipstick.

I can't quite picture Hillary making fun of herself quite like that:0).

Amba- i'm so tired of the us/them division. I'm hoping that people will just take Palin for an individual- not simply a woman,mom,middle-class,average pol. Yet, it's comments like Harris' about her being "poorly educated" that take the emphasis off Palin and put it on a whole lot of folks just like her(me, for example).

It sounds like BObama has a past and a(n?) history that he would like to re-create and Palin has one she is so happy w/she wouldn't change. Yet, he's the one w/the Harvard degree. That's kinda scary, too.

[amba]

Well, Simon, time will tell. And people like you could help show him how to be a good loser by being good, gracious winners. Mainly, he's just your ideological enemy. Remember "love your enemies"?

[Simon]

The Lord was quite clear about loving them. He was considerably more vague on the subject of liking them. ;)

[amba]

Karen: if you're tired of the us-them thing, stop being one of its chief practitioners.

When we stop acting like someone who disagrees with us is the Devil, we'll be getting somewhere. The good moments of this campaign have been the ones where each side expressed respect for each other before going at it again hammer and tongs.