The Drumbeat

Wow. I wish I had written this article.

President Bush's gaffes are numerous and well chronicled. However, the mounting number of gaffes committed by Barack Obama have garnered very little attention in the mainstream media (for obvious reasons). For instance, who knew that America has 60 states?



Not only do we have 60 states, but new ones are being created everyday! Have you ever heard of "New Pennsylvania?" Apparently Obama recently campaigned there.



President Bush has been ridiculed for years for misspeaking and mangling the language. I'm certainly not going to defend him for that. But, the growing number of gaffes by Obama have gone largely unreported. Wonder why?

Oh, one more thing, just wait until Joe Biden gets going. That guy is a pompous windbag and a gaffe machine. Get out your popcorn. This is going to be fun!

This is Just Too Funny

http://view.break.com/567077 - Watch more free videos

Wow. These people are weird.

22 Reasons

For the most comprehensive list (to date) of why I won't be voting for Barack Obama, see this article (and the photo to the left).

The Conventions

It's been a long time since I posted and there's no way I'm going to be able to catch up on everything. But, I thought I would just quickly give a few thoughts on the two recent political conventions. I didn't watch all of either of them, but I did see enough (I think) to get a flavor for what went down. Some thoughts:

Democratic convention:

Extremely well done. For the most part, very professional and aesthetically pleasing. Hillary gave a very good speech, hitting the right notes in an effort to reconcile those of her voters who are still angry about her treatment in the media and by the Obama campaign. At the end of her speech I got the sense that even Democrats who did not support Hillary's candidacy were disappointed she wasn't on the ticket.

Bill Clinton gave a very good speech, as he is certainly capable of doing. And, s

martly, he kept it relatively short (those that remember his speech at the convention in 1988 will know what I mean). There was a lot of "Clinton" in this convention, which was unavoidable.  But, the worry for the Democrats was that it would overshadow Obama. It didn't.

Joe Biden's speech was a typical VP nominee address, attacking the opponents. It was marginally effective. A fairly good speech from a completely arrogant gas bag. 

Obama gave a very good speech. It's no secret that he's an extremely gifted orator. The staging looked good, but the columns played into the "Messiah" theme, which I think is working against him a little. The energy and enthusiasm of the 80,000+ crowd was powerful. 

Overall, I thought it was an extremely good convention, although I don't think the bounce in the polls was as high as expected.

Republican convention:

The convention started during Hurricane Gustav and, therefore, most of the speakers and events of Day 1 were postponed. I watched a little of the second day. The address by Bush was stilted since he wasn't in the room, but I thought it was pretty good. I like Fred Thompson's address, but it wasn't memorable.

The big day was, obviously, Day 3. I missed the Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee addresses, although I did hear some excerpts today on talk radio. I'm not a huge Huckabee fan, but I thought he was very strong. I LOVED Rudy Giuliani. He did an excellent job of clearly contrasting the differences between McCain and Obama, using humor along the way. Lots of red meat for Republicans (which is one of the functions of conventions, to fire up the base). 

But what the convention-goers, and I think the country at large, wanted to see was Sarah Palin. After nearly a week of sexist attacks from the "mainstream" media, giving credence to the outrageous lie that she faked her pregnancy to cover for her own teenage daughter (who is now 5 months pregnant), and suggesting she was a bad mom for accepting the VP nomination with 5 kids, including a 5-month-old special-needs infant (the same media who hailed Biden for taking the oath of office after the sudden death of his wife that left two young sons without a mother), among other things, the country wanted to see if Governor Palin was up to the task of being the VP nominee on the Republican ticket. And under all that scrutiny and pressure...

...she knocked it out of the park.

Her composure was astonishing. She was relaxed as she introduced herself and 

her family to the nation. She was tough on Obama, pointing out his many inconsistencies and weaknesses with a smile.  She was dignified and remarkably poised, yet commanding. She refused to play the victim, despite the media belittling her, her hobbies, and her family. I thought her address was well balanced with some policy (particularly strong on energy), biography, and attack on the opponents. As you can tell, I was very impressed with Governor Palin.

Unfortunately for McCain, there was no following that. The last night of the convention was kind of weak. I thought Cindy McCain did a good job and I thought John McCain's acceptance speech was good, but not great. However, I liked his theme of being a servant of the people. That's always been a gripe of mine about politicians. It seems that when they get elected, they think that they are our rulers; but it's exactly the opposite. They are there to serve our interests. 

I thought it was very revealing when John McCain told the story of how his time as a POW was

transformative. While undergoing inhumane torture, he came to understand for the first time what it meant to sacrifice oneself to a cause greater than himself (e.g. encouraging his fellow captives with a grin and a thumbs-up after torture sessions, not allowing the enemy to score a propaganda victory by refusing early release prior to others whom had been there longer, etc.). I thought it was an effective way to show how the notion of "service to country" went beyond mere platitude, and actually became part of him. It lends weight to his claim that he is beholden to no special interest or party affiliation. 

Certainly, McCain hasn't been perfect in this regard. There's probably instances when he failed to live up to his own high standard. But, it was the first time in recent memory where I actually half-believed a politician wanted to put the country's interests above his own. Maybe I'm allowing myself to be naive. Who knows? But, it made sense to me that such a horrific life experience would leave an indelible mark on someone, and that it could be used for good.

Overall, I thought the Democratic convention was much better than the Republican convention in terms of energy and aesthetics. In terms of speeches, although Obama's was very good, I don't think anyone tops Palin's. She gave a superb speech that gave Republicans, who had been fairly glum for the past couple of month, something to cheer. 

At the end of the day, the conventions are useful to accomplish the technical aspects of nominating candidates for the President/Vice President, as well as rallying the faithful and being a very splashy TV advertisement. How much it influences undecided voters is hard to tell. I tend to think "not much" (I think the debates are more influential). And, it's certain that the people who like their preferred candidate are not going to be dissuaded from voting for them. 

So, it comes down to the next couple of months of campaigning, debating, organizing on the ground, etc. I think Obama has a decided edge in this year when the Republican brand is in the tank. But, 2 months is nearly a lifetime in politics and anything can happen.