The Governator was a rock star tonight.
This part of his speech stikes me as the most effective--"Now, the other party says there are two Americas. Don't believe that either. I've visited our troops in Iraq, Kuwait, Bosnia, Germany and all over the world. I've visited our troops in California, where they train before they go overseas. And I've visited our military hospitals. And I can tell you this: Our young men and women in uniform do not believe there are two Americas! They believe we are one America and they are fighting for it!" Great stuff.
Edwards' "Two America' spiel may play well in the salons of Georgetown, at Tina Brown's "serious Manhattan dinner parties" and with the Gang of 500 that run the media, but most Americans think the "Two Americas" concept is so Cuomo in '84 and so 9-10.
Is this where Edwards came up with his "Two Americas" theme?
From Kerry's hard-to -find, radically antiwar tome, "The New Soldier":
"I think that, more than anything, the New Soldier is trying to point out how there are two Americas -- the one the speeches are about and the one we really are. Rhetoric has blinded us so much that we are unable to see the realities which exist in this country."
I believe Mr. Kerry gave one of those speeches in Beantown, and he's down in the polls because the Swiftees are telling America who he really is.
About the twins: they are very pretty, much more so than the Kerry daughters. And, mercifully, unlike the daughters Kerry, they aren't Karenna Gores-- they aren't agenda pushing big mouths. That being said, they didn't do well tonight. They had a "Simple Life 2" vibe. They were definitely more Paris and Nicole than Julie and Tricia Nixon. They might not have scored in Peoria (Geraghty and the Corner and much of the after action punditry gave them a thumbs down), but it might actually have made the ticket more palatable in the Blue states.
Here's Sullivan's take:
THE GIRLS: But Jenna and Barbara really did steal the show. The word "sex" emanated from the stage. No, this wasn't an ad lib. The marketers who are promoting the policies of James Dobson and Rick Santorum were making jokes mocking the prudery of people who think "Sex and the City" is something only married people do and never talk about. Like the president's gaffe about not winning the war on terror, this could never have been uttered at a Democratic convention without the Dems being described as out-of-touch metrosexuals. But the delegates, knowing that this kind of front is necessary to win over the American middle, didn't seem to mind. Compared to the earnest, mature, almost somber Kerry daughters, these two were upper-class brats, giggling, cooing, pointing to friends in the crowd, giggling over their lines, and generally showing the maturity of the average "American Idol" contestant. I have to say I loved it - if only for its authenticity, for the sudden interruption of an actual reality into the sometimes surreal script of this convention. So we have an Austrian-American bodybuilder with a history of orgies and a couple of spoiled, hard-drinking party girls fronting for a party whose platform is inspired in large part by Biblical fundamentalism. Yep. It would be hard to convey a more vivid reflection of our fractured culture than that.
And Sully said this about the convention so far:
THE SPECTACULAR INCOHERENCE: How to convey the spectacular incoherence of last night's continuing infomercial for the re-election of George W. Bush? The evening began with a series of speeches trumpeting vast increases in federal spending: on education, healthcare, AIDS, medical research, and on and on. No, these were not Democrats. They were Bush Republicans, extolling the capacity of government to help people, to cure the sick, educate the young, save Africans from HIV, subsidize religious charities, prevent or cure breast cancer, and any other number of worthy causes. The speakers were designed to target certain demographic and interest groups, just as the Democrats used to. The notion that these things are best left to the private sector, or that spending needs to be slashed in the wake of rising debt, or that the race of a speaker is irrelevant: all these are now Republican heterodoxy. The highpoint of this section was the speech of Bill Frist. I've never really listened to him give a speech before and this one was frighteningly bad. He has a cadaverous face and a terrifying smile. His first anecdote made no sense at all. His denunication of trial lawyers - the one moment when he didn't look like a funeral director - left him wild-eyed and awkward-gestured. He spoke as if to a bunch of seven year olds in their second language. How did this guy ever get to a position of leadership? He's the Senate Majority Leader and, on a bad day, he'd give small kids nightmares. His speech was a mishmash of comic cliches, pathetically contrived hand movements, that robotic swivel from teleprompter screen to teleprompTer screen, and crude demagoguery. When you see who really runs the GOP (funny Tom DeLay isn't in prime time, isn't it?), you begin to realize why a cross-dressing ex-mayor (Rudy puts on a dress for a goof and suddenly he's a cross-dresser? --CD), a dissident Californian and an unelected ex-librarian are among its major spokespeople.
No he's not seething over the FMA or anything...
All in all, the RNC convention has been mostly very good, but the prospect of a barely perceptible bounce looms. The GOP Bigs should have made sure that McCain and Giuliani got on the networks-- they were wonderfully effective and only the junkies watched it on cable. If Cheney and Bush deliver and the Swiftees
continue their flood the zone strategy in the swing states, Kerry will join the "Band of Losers" with Mondale, Dukakis and McGovern.