1. Lucky for Republicans, Bill Clinton Thinks He's Too Good for an Editor
Bill Clinton saved Republicans by being self-indulgent.
Because,
for about ten to fifteen minutes last night, ol' Bubba's mojo was
working. Clinton is the best speaker the Democrats have -- much better
than Obama. Just one serving of Clinton's emoting demonstrates how
overrated Obama's in-this-moment-we-make-history grandeur shtick is. So
they gave Clinton the toughest assignments: Persuade the public that the
so-called "recovery" is the best anyone could have hope for, that none
of the Republican criticisms of Obama raise any legitimate points, and
that there really is reason to believe that the next four years will be
better than the past four.
Clinton
has a gift for making the unreasonable sound reasonable and making the
reasonable sound unreasonable, and it worked for the first . . . ten to
fifteen minutes or so. But somewhere around "partnership, not
partisanship" -- a sentiment completely at odds with every other speech
given at this convention, and about 99 percent of the messaging from the
Obama campaign and its allied super PACs -- the speech became a bridge
too far. And then it went on. And on. And on. Longer than Clinton's
much-mocked 1988 keynote address.
The
nightly newscasts were delayed considerably. The comments on Twitter
became less adoring and cheering and more and more questions about when
Clinton would wrap it up. And Clinton's speech just kept going.
As
the sections continued, it became clear that this is what Bill Clinton
lives for -- how he misses the excitement, the attention, the power. . .
. The presidency is like a drug, and while I'm sure his
post-presidential life has its perks -- though he is a vegan now --
nothing is quite like having an arena full of adoring fans, hanging on
your every word, ready to applaud and cheer your every utterance. The
two-term limit is the only thing that is keeping him from running again.
And the speech just kept going.
The man impeached for committing perjury accused Republicans of lying. And the speech just kept going.
The
man who embarrassed his most loyal fans and followers and staff by
engaging in wildly reckless behavior and then offering implausible
explanations and even more implausible excuses, who once suggested the
political rhetoric of his foes motivated Timothy McVeigh, now insisted
that politics "can be an honorable enterprise that advances the public
interest." And the speech just kept going.
Somehow it seemed fitting that the remaining viewers who were still watching were, in all likelihood, doing so in bed.
By
the time it ended, everyone forgot that Bill Clinton began his tribute
to President Obama by saluting his excellent judgment in whom to marry. I
wonder how the secretary of state interpreted that remark.
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2. The Pre-Game Show
The 8 p.m. hour began with Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
How
often does the head of a PAC address a political convention? I suppose a
lot of candidates and former candidates have PACs, but Richards is
there as . . . only the head of a powerful fundraising and political
advertising organization. I'm not saying it's a scandal, just a bit odd.
Tabitha Hale tweeted: "She said, 'when women aren't at the table, we are on the menu.' Mitt Romney WILL EAT YOU!"
Ah, she's the daughter of former Texas governor Ann Richards. Well, that explains a bit.
Later,
the president of the United Auto Workers spoke. Do the Republicans have
the heads of their component interest groups speak? What is the
equivalent of the UAW to Republicans? Defense contractors? The energy
industry?
The Washington Free Beacon's
Katherine Miller observes, "Cecile Richards looks like she came out of
central casting for the other woman, a high-powered attorney in a 1997
romantic comedy."
I've
heard good things about Colorado governor John Hickenlooper, but I
didn't see much in his speech to indicate he's a rising star with
charisma to spare. I did like his line that microbrewery production in
his home state is up by 30 percent though.
Governor
Jack Markell of Delaware was mildly interesting, because he had the job
of emphasizing that Democrats don't hate businesses. He talked briefly
about his own business experience and mentioned that he had an MBA --
which generated the most tepid level of applause.
9:02: I hear that the fire marshals will no longer allow people into the building. The Washington Post's
Dana Milbank reports that "hundreds of delegates and journalists are
locked out of the arena." ABC News's Jake Tapper reports that the crowd
is getting "testy."
9:45:
Did Sandra Fluke get skipped? We're past the point she was supposed to
speak. Her sudden withdrawal would be . . . inconceivable.
Instead,
we had a long, long, long address from the president of the UAW and
then a trio of workers who blame their job losses on Bain Capital. I
suppose we should be thankful that they didn't roll out Joe Soptic to
give a "Mitt Romney murdered my wife" speech.
10:00
p.m.: Ah, Sandra Fluke was held until prime time. The Democrats have
placed their bet that her demand that her birth control be covered by
her Catholic institution of higher learning is a winning one, and worthy
of as wide an audience as possible . . . though perhaps a moot point,
as the non-cable network correspondents' introductions overrode her
remarks.
I
suppose if you're a Democrat, and you're going to have Sandra Fluke
give a speech at your convention, that was the speech you want her to
give. The problem is that the entire concept of Fluke speaking seems
fundamentally flawed:
She's
30 and she's a student. Her entire pitch is based upon her demand that
her (Catholic) univesity pay for something that many people pay for
themselves. Rush Limbaugh calling her the s-word is a terrible thing to
say, but Fluke acts as if it is some sort of massive national scandal
that she was called a nasty name, in a culture where people send death
threats over movie reviews. Her entire address is based upon the
mentality of a victim.
10:15 Elizabeth Warren takes the stage. The cheers go up another decibel; this is prime time.
"Our
middle class has been chipped, squeezed, and hammered. Talk to the
construction worker I met from Malden, Massachusetts, who went nine
months without finding work. Talk to the head of a manufacturing company
in Franklin trying to protect jobs but worried about rising costs. Talk
to the student in Worcester who worked hard to finish his college
degree, and now he's drowning in debt." Four more years!
"He
and Paul Ryan would pulverize financial reform, voucher-ize Medicare,
and vaporize Obamacare!" Some delegates applaud in response to this;
undoubtedly they are applauding what they think is a good attack line,
but it looks like they're applauding the vaporization of the unpopular
law.
I
suppose Warren did herself some good, but her pitch, and that of all of
the Democrat speakers, requires a quite difficult pivot: They must
first emphasize their empathy with those who are struggling to find
jobs, full-time work, or better jobs, to refute the charge that they're
out of touch about the economy. Then they must offer some variation of,
"you've never had it so good. Four more years!"
Walking
past my spot during the course of the evening: Senator Al Franken (D.,
Minn.); Senator Chris Coons (D., Del.); former White House staffer Van
Jones (D., Truther); Priorities USA super-PAC head honcho Bill Burton;
Ashley Judd (as stunning as you would expect).
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3. One Party's For God and Jerusalem . . . The Other, Not So Much
So,
if Republicans wanted the second day of the Democratic convention to go
terribly wrong for the president's party, what would they wish for?
How
about a party platform that removes what had been some
pretty-boilerplate language about God and a pledge that Jerusalem is the
capital of Israel? How about a last-minute effort to undo the damage of
those platform changes, and the assembled delegates being particularly
vocal in their disagreement with the damage-control efforts? How about
the Democratic National Convention delegates loudly booing God and Jerusalem?
(Somewhere in the Fox News workspace, Karl Rove just stepped away from
his pundit desk to just breathe it in deeply and savor the moment.) How
about the Obama campaign making another attempt to save the
circumstances by telling the Associated Press that the president
"personally intervened" to restore the old language, while two members
of the platform-writing committee told the blog of Foreign Policy magazine that those positions were an effort to reflect the current Obama-administration policies?
Coming up tomorrow night: booing motherhood, the flag, apple pie, and baseball.
Democratic
National Committee chiefs Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Patrick Gaspard
cancelled interviews with local media outlets tonight, amid controversy
surrounding the party's decision to reintroduce "God" and "Jerusalem" to
the platform.
Blair
Miller of WSOC-TV, ABC's Charlotte affiliate, also Tweeted that
Wasserman Schultz canceled her interview with him, without explanation.
"After my Romney interview today, we were planning to interview Debbie
Wasserman Schultz live," he wrote. "However, she did not show up. Her
staff not answering calls.
Wasserman
Schultz went on CNN tonight and denied reports of "discord" with the
White House over the party's decision to include the terms, claiming the
party had "a two-thirds vote" on the issue.
After the interview, CNN host Anderson Cooper said Wasserman Schultz's version of events was "an alternate reality."
"From a reality standpoint," he said, "to say flat-out, there was no discord, is just not true."
By the way, the Jerusalem-is-the-capital-of-Israel
foul-up is especially egregious, because this is one of those promises
that never really needs to be kept, at least if recent history is any
suggestion. Back in 1992, Bill Clinton attacked George H. W. Bush as
soft in his support for Israel, pledging to move the U.S. embassy --
currently in Tel Aviv -- to Jerusalem. (If I remember correctly, we have
a consulate in Jerusalem.) Then, once in office, Clinton and his team
took a good look at the ramifications of that move -- another round of
predictable outrage and protests in the Arab world, a fairly serious
security headache for staff within the embassy, and so on. And so
Clinton set up a group to study it . . . that studied it . . . and
studied it . . . and studied it . . . and basically kicked the can down
the road for eight years. In 2000, George W. Bush used the exact same
card against Democrats, made the exact same pledges to groups focused on
U.S.-Israeli relations . . . and then ended up going down the same
cul-de-sac of reviews, discussions, and analyses, and more reviews,
discussions, and analyses. I'm sure there are few fans of the idea in
Foggy Bottom, and nobody wants to be the one who has to answer for the
decision if, God forbid, Hamas, Hezbollah, or other group sets off a car
bomb outside the new embassy shortly after its opening. Sure, every
U.S. diplomat abroad is a potential target for terrorism, but a new U.S.
embassy in Jerusalem would instantly rocket to the top of terrorists'
target lists.
In
2008 Barack Obama and his campaign broke with the tradition; he did not
promise to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. You could say this
represents a certain honorable honesty, a reluctance to make a promise
he clearly had no intention of keeping . . .or maybe you could say this
was a unique insult to Israel -- he wasn't even willing to make the same
false promises his predecessors had. (The upside-down world of
politics: Obama didn't even respect friends of Israel enough to lie to
them!)
As
for God, expect just about every Democrat to invoke religion and faith
from here on out. Last night featured one of the "Nuns on the Bus."
Elizabeth Warren said "I grew up in the Methodist Church and taught
Sunday school," and quoted Scripture. (She didn't refer to her alleged
Native American heritage at all.)
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4. The Great Stadium Cancellation of 2012
Am I crazy for thinking that the Obama campaign should have gone through with having the president's address at Bank of America
"No, Wait, It's Totally Panthers" Stadium? Just how bad could turnout
have been? The arena, full for Clinton Wednesday night, holds 20,000.
Depending on how the stadium is set up, it can seat 60,000 to 74,000
people. You're telling me the campaign couldn't find 20,000 more
Democrats? Reportedly stadium seats were used as an incentive for any
volunteer who put in nine hours of work on the campaign. Obama could
have brought in 40,000 people, right? That would have made the stadium
about two-thirds full, and the Obama campaign would still have the
built-in excuse of bad weather for poor attendance.
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5. Addenda
If
you see me appearing in a Comedy Central web video singing the praises
of Dr. Pepper, shot on the streets of Charlotte, it is because I ran
into a guy I haven't seen since high school helping film the web video. I
did manage to work in a few references to Nanny Bloomberg's inane
16-ounce-soda ban in New York City; we'll see if it ends up on the
cutting-room floor.
Oh, and this just handed to me: Bill Clinton's speech is still going.
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