I Have Never Done This Before
but I’m going to link and approvingly excerpt something from the American Conservative Magazine responding to SaraCudda Palin being called “the next Reagan.”
I’m sorry, but this is getting out of hand. Whatever you think about the substance of Reagan’s speech in 1964, to which some drunken enthusiasts may want to compare Palin’s acceptance speech, there is no comparison between them. Part of this is in the nature of the speeches. Reagan’s speech was entirely focused on policy and the differences between the candidates, it was delivered in a different register, and he said next to nothing about himself, while Palin’s speech was necessarily part introduction and part apology.
[snip]
Reagan’s name has become almost entirely dissociated from the man, and it has simply become an identity marker to be trotted out to sanctify this or that person or proposal. Reagan nostalgia has become an effort to cover up for the distortions and perversions of the last twenty years.
Read the whole thing, there isn’t much more . . . something about Hitler and Lenin, the usual folks you think of when discussing old Ron.
The comments are pretty choice though, stuff that would get you banned from Red State or LGF — like praising Obama and a link to a 2 minute You Tube of Intelligent Design promoter Ben Stein, flabberghasted they are stuck with Palin who he says knows so little about anything important she needs Harvard economists to tutor her and, “She should have Henry Kissinger Babysitting her.”
[snark: The mind reels with that image. /snark]
They haven’t quite taken the halo of Saint Ronny Ray Gun yet, but it’s not shining quite so bright any more since the Bushies forgot to pay the light bill for the city on that hill. Here’s a sample from the comment thread:
I miss hearing about Newt Gingrich’s quest to name one monument to Ronald Reagan in each of America’s 3000-odd counties, as well as to place his face on the $10 bill.
If only Newt and the Reagan Idolaters would take the next rational step, and require us to adopt Reagan’s surname. If adopted, this would be some great identity politics in the making.
More appropriate would be renaming the title of the Presidency to an honorific adoption of the name Reagan, as the Romans did with Caesar’s name–that way every new President would be called Reagan as the official form of address, they could begin shouting, “Hail, Reagan!” and that way Reagan could be in charge forever.
Simply Craptastick. A change like this at the freaking American Conservative Magazine is change I can believe in.
What About The Economy, Stupid
McCain’s topic tonight will be an Orwellian twist from the old warmonger: “Peace, safety and national security” focusing on his “life and record of challenging DC establishment” according the the guy who writes the scrawl on MSNBC. His theme, co-opted from the Obama slogan: “Change is Coming.”
Note that AP, true to the jornamalistic ethics it has displayed lately (none) has reviewed McCain’s speech two hours before McCain took the stage tonight — based no doubt on advance copies of the text handed out to the media. That or they had a hand in writing it along with Bush’s speech writers.
Prior to his acceptance, his wife, Tom Ridge and Lindsay Graham are to talk about his character, integrity and strength.
Not one word was said in the last three days about the economy by the Republicans, about a plan for securing jobs or making health care more affordable. None will be offered tonight.
We will hear how important it is to remain tough and steadfast in the face of adversity and that McCain is more than ready for the job. You won’t hear a thing about our failing infrastructure, the high cost of education, the increased poverty rolls, rising inflation and unemployment. Not. One. Word.
He might talk about “fixing” Social Security and certainly you’ll hear about not bowing to “elites,” and amusingly from one of the oldest and longest serving members of the party that has ruled the nation for the last eight years, controlled the courts for decades, and has dominated our politics with fear and mismanagement at every turn — that they will retake Washington.
What we need to do is reign in Wall Street and K-Street, and that will NEVER happen in a White House run by the incestuous lobbyist free-for-all that a McCain administration promises to be.
Don’t talk to me about changing the way our government does business
when every one of his tax proposals benefits the big business interests
that have been catered to low these last 93 long months.
Don’t talk to me about the integrity or strength of character of a man who would cow-tow to the religious extremist this week by picking a running mate whose views on a woman’s right to control her own body includes forcing her to have the baby of a rapist — even though McCain himself is no where near that extreme.
And most of all, don’t tell me he’ll be different from the impulsive fly-boy/cow-boy he wants to replace when all he wants to talk about is what happened after he crashed his fifth jet and decided the person best suited to be one shaky breath away from the big desk was the lady he only met once, knew nothing about, but polled well enough he rolled the dice to see if she’d boost his miserable performance in the contest so far.
Don’t tell me it’s raining when your pissing on my leg.
Lots A Folks Watched Moose-Girl On Teh TeeVee
Sarah Palin’s speech generated 37.2 million viewers, just a 1.1 million viewers short of Barack Obama’s record-breaking speech on Day 4 of the Democratic Convention. More impressive was that Palin’s speech was carried on only six networks while the Obama speech was carried on ten (including BET, TV One, Univision and Telemundo).
America got a good look at the purty ladee the GOP put on display, and can judge for themselves the stark differences in vision and approach between Barack and SaraCudda.
Those who care and those who were just curious about all the hub-bub saw for themselves the contrasting tone, the degrees of respect, gravitas and realistic proposals each of these competing self-described reformers bring to the table they say they know how to reach across.
I know what I thought, which should be no surprise to anyone. I know you can’t get anything done, reach consensus or move an agenda by spitting in the eye of the people you must work with. If by some strange alignment in the heavens (or Diebold algorithms) McCain and Palin reach the White House only to face a Democratic controlled Congress, there’ll be a whole lot a pissed off legislators who really won’t wanna hear those quaint platitudes, insults and smug attitude when discussing how to fix an economy that lost another 33,000 jobs in August — something addressed in detail by the Democrats and completely absent in three days of GOP fanfare.
Oh, BTW. Cindy McCain’s dress Tuesday cost as much as the average unwed working mom without a high school diploma can earn in a decade — unless she lives in the Governor’s mansion. Out. Of. Touch. Much?
By The Way, How Was The Speech?
You know what national problem Barack Obama did not mention last night? It’s a pet complaint of bloggers on the right and left every day. Our shitty corporate media.
However, faced with such an extraordinary evening culminating a week of outstanding choreography, not even the most jaded right wing tool could deny the historic nature of what they witnessed. (Note that Hannity and O’Reilly fled back to New York instead of making insta-analysis after the speech, opting for data mining and eating boogers found under their beds and waiting for Limbaugh to write their talking points for their radio hate fests in the afternoon.)
Pat Buchanan calls a Democrat’s speech the best and most important political convention speech he had ever heard, going back 48 years. MSNBC to it’s credit, along with CNN backed off the commentary and just let the show unfold for the most part.
David Gergan calls a Democrat’s speech a Symphony and a Political Masterpiece.
WaPo/Fox’s Charles Krauthammer? Obama was “Brilliant.” Even the neocon’s neocon can’t deny what was right in his face.
“[A]wfully impressive performance,” Bill Kristol.
Greta Van Sustren: “It was a great speech.” “Dazzling,” “Dazzling,” “Dazzling,” “Dazzling,” but can he deliver, deliver, deliver, deliver? (She truly is awful.) Pollster Frank Luntz answered her, predicting a predictably inflated 10 point Obama bounce, that the change Barack talks about will not come from him, but from the American people. Luntz reminded us of the line from the speech that change doesn’t come from Washington. Change is brought to Washington. [Ooo, make that 5 Greta “Dazzlings.”]
Bubba got their notice too.
Karl Rove had enough integrity (I can’t believe I wrote that) not to simply parrot Sean Hannity disingenuously trashing Bill Clinton’s speech the night before, but talked about Clinton being the first to lay the groundwork for an anti-McCain argument at the Convention — an argument Obama ran with last night. Peggy Noonan swooned for the Clenis as well.
Even some conservative commentators were impressed. Karl Rove said on Fox’s Hannity and Colmes, “He gave the best argument offered thus far on the third day of the convention for Barack Obama. He gave a comprehensive view domestically and internationally. It wasn’t his endorsement tonight that mattered…but what he did do is he set a theme: Restoring the American dream at home and America’s leadership abroad.” Peggy Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal that “halfway through” Clinton’s speech “I thought: The Master has arrived. Crazy Bill, the red-faced Rageaholic, was somewhere else. This was Deft Political Pro Bill doing what no one had been able to do up to this point at the convention, and that is make the case for Barack Obama.”
So, how did Rove assess Obama’s acceptance speech? “Clintonian.” High praise, at least in what passes for gray matter between Rove’s ears. Rove mostly played the role of wonk instead of speech critic, examining the argument Obama make that he saw coming from the Bill Clinton preview, and advising how to counter it. I think he knows there’s just no use fighting rhetoric and symbolism against our guy with their guy, who just isn’t up to the task.
They’re all putting a happy face on everything, but you can just tell the GOP punditocracy is freaked. It must be even worse in the lobbyist encrusted trenches of McCain Central.
Lone Fox nay-sayer Juan Williams was unsatisfied that not enough inspiration, not enough emotion, not enough MLK (even though having MLK,III and his sister speaking should pretty much cover that). Williams felt Obama didn’t take advantage of the moment, not giving us enough of the stuff McCain and Co. says is the reason Obama is all fluff.
To Williams, I say: ENOUGH.
When You’ve Had ENOUGH!
Photo Via Kossack Iceberg Slim who has tons more from every night of the convention.
:
Best soundbyte of the night.
“Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and independents across this great land — enough!” Obama said. “This moment — this election — is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On Nov. 4, we must stand up and say: ‘Eight is enough.’ ”
Balloon Drop? Feh! Lemme see the GOP beat fireworks and confetti cannons M.F’rs.
But that’s just fluff, indicative of the phenomenal support team that made Barack Obama unbeatable. But the red meat I’ve been dying to hear from him was reported this way by MoJo’s David Corn:
Obama sounded strong; he looked strong. “If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice–but it is not the change that America needs,” he said. Obama warned McCain to stop questioning his patriotism: “I’ve got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.” And, he said, don’t go pulling the same-old, Rove-like stunts, accusing Democrats of being nothing but tax-raisers and national security weaklings:
The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America–they have served the United States of America.
And the smart campaigning goes on. Think about how many more contacts they make in the swing state of Colorado for the GOTV effort by opening up this historical event to 75,000 people. They picked up another 30,000 text-message subscribers across the nation tonight as well.