Convetion Update

OK, so I don't have Convention fever quite like I had Olympic fever, but I have been watching and listening. Being here at the beach alone with the little ones lends itself to prime time TV watching. Yesterday we took the ferry to Hyannis for dinner and to wander around town a bit, and then the girls crashed when we got home because they had been out on the beach all day.

Incidentally, the Hyannis trip is sort or apropos during the convention, as it is the Kennedy family's traditional home base. Of course, if we were really tracing Teddy K's famous stomping grounds, we should have hopped a ferry to Martha's Vineyard instead. And this gets me to something that really irritated me about the first night of the convention...

I understand that he is dying and that he risked his health to get to Denver, but can we please stop praising him as some monumental American hero? For a party that rails against privilege and wealth, he is the absolute height of entitled aristocracy. He was born into fabulous wealth and connections. He got thrown out of Harvard for cheating, then got let back in because his old man gave them so much money (and his brother was a Congressman).

He KILLED A WOMAN, for Chrissakes!!! And again, his family connections got him out of that. He was handed his Senate seat because his brother had just been elected President, then proceeded to be an absolute national joke for his entire time in Congress. And, lest we celebrate his great liberal ideals, let's not forget that he has spent the last five years fighting against a wind farm because it will be visible on the horizon from his back porch in Hyannis. The word "hypocrite" comes to mind.

OK...I am ranting now...back to the program. Michelle Obama spoke on Monday, and I thought she was just sort of OK. Not bad, but I feel like they have reined her in for fear of her being seen as a little too much of an America-hater. Her speech seemed tame and kind of disinterested.

However, I thought that Hillary was really good last night. She is not really a great speaker, but she was really on point last night. Hit most of the notes she needed to hit, spoke with confidence and a good rhythm, and just basically delivered a really good address. A little heavy on rhetoric and disingenuous examples of people she may or may not have met...but overall she really delivered. I have read some stuff today that says she didn't do enough to personally endorse Obama, but I am glad she didn't because it would have seemed so phony. She stuck to the believable parts: that they agree on a lot of major issues.

She has set the bar high for Biden, who will inevitably be compared to her, but I think she came in just where she needed to be...good message, good delivery, clear instructions to her supporters but not showing up the headliners. I know the McCain folks noted that she didn't mention any of the things she criticized Obama about all spring (basically, that he is unprepared to be Commander in Chief), but I think Bill will cover that tonight. It was easier for her to avoid it that to try and go back on her statements...and Bill can speak to that better than she can anyway.

So, where are we now...let's see. Democrats are often criticized for being soft, and this is no exception. They are missing their chance to tell everyone why McCain would be a terrible President. This is their one chance to get a huge TV audience and to have a whole string of people rip the other guy over and over again.

I feel like they are mis-reading two important facts.
1) People basically like McCain. He is old and frumpy, but there is a lot to like about him, whether it is his military service or his clear convictions and willingness to buck his own party.
2) The connection to Bush is not a given. He and Bush have been at pretty strong odds over the last 8 years, and I am not sure they can just say "Well, this will be more of the same," and have it stick. Bush and McCain clearly have a lot of similarities, but this is not like a sitting Vice President running to replace his boss.

It just seems like the Democrats are assuming that everyone will dislike McCain personally and assume that he is a carbon copy of Bush, and I don't think it is safe to make that assumption.

Two more days to go, though...and plenty more talking.:-)