RNC, Part 2

~ Laura

I’m not sure if I can handle this. Before McCain, we’ve got Tom Ridge and Cindy McCain — brutally bad speakers. I might not make it. I feel convention fatigue setting in.

Distract by this Blogginghead diavlog.

All this talk about the torture of John McCain, brings this to mind.

John McCain says that when he takes office, after the other guy leaves, he’s going to set up a system of school vouchers. Yeeeah, no he’s not. Even if the national government was able to take over the education system which is run by state and local government, Republican voters don’t want school vouchers. It’s just never going to happen. So, when McCain says he’s in favor of school vouchers, that really means he has no plan for schools.

Man, he is wooden.

I’m glad that his mom finally stood up and waved. I have to admit that whenever they showed her on the TV yesterday, either Steve or I muttered, "where am I?"

Oh, that was difficult to watch. He repeated the same tired lines over and over. The strangest disconnect is when he talked about reforming Washington and change. How can a guy who has been part of the Washington establishment and who has had a fellow Republican in the White House for eight years even make statements like that with a straight face?

McCain’s in a tough spot. I think he really wants to say that the Bush administration was a cluster-fuck and he needs to fix things. But he can’t go there. Instead, he’s just pretending that Bush doesn’t exist.

Steve and I are debating whether Palin is going to lead the pack in 2012 or she’s a flash in the pan.

Published by Laura

14 thoughts on “RNC, Part 2”

  1. For me, it’s not convention fatigue; after Giuliani and Palin’s speeches, I’m just too angry to even listen to John McCain talk. I’m thinking about it, but I’m not going to watch his speech. I can’t bear the obnoxious anti-Obama cheers, and the talk of the evil liberals and evil media.
    As an unwavering Democrat, I know I’m not the target audience, but this is John McCain’s party now, and he’s lost my respect. And this was a tough thing to do – I actually have admired him for a long time. So (as revenge! pointless, I know) I’m not going to allow him to rope me in to “bipartisan night.” I’m done with him.

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  2. But don’t you kid of admire a guy that age who is willing to wear that much make-up?
    Actually, I agree entirely: I used to think he was sort of OK. Now, I really really don’t like him.

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  4. I actually miss the McCain of 2000, the one who is lurking in there. Damn that Rove and the evangelical right. I wouldn’t have voted for him, but I had some respect for him.

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  5. Or maybe this was the real McCain all along, and 2000 was the aberration.
    Good line from a Politico reader, which I found by way of Washington Monthly: “Someone needs to remind Mrs Palin that Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor.”

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  6. Yes, this is getting better and better. Palin has less chance in 2012 than Quayle had in 1996: she is not independently wealthy, and is on the far right. One of the fears Republicans must have is that if McCain wins he’s landing them with an unelectable heir presumptive.
    Obama’s people can run flip-flop ads all over the place; they can run against McCain’s platform, and ask whether McCain agrees with it. The domestic policy oriented debates run the risk of being a serious embarrasssment, because, as Laura says, McCain doesn’t even know anything about education (in complete ignorance, I’m betting that his kids all went to private schools).
    Cindy was a complete embarrassment. She said he’s the ideal father. What? A man who leaves his chronically ill wife and kids for a woman not much younger than his oldest (adopted) son (whose home had already been broken up once)? Maybe perfect for her kids, but not for her predecessor’s. I do hope Obama’s people can figure out a way of getting nasty about this on Christian radio.

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  7. Speaking of cultural differences (from the previous post), I don’t think that Doug’s Politico reader’s comment is going to be very persuasive to anybody who isn’t already for Obama.

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  8. That’s ok, it’s hard to see that Palin’s culture warrior stance is going to be persuasive to people who aren’t already for McCain.

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  11. Speaking as someone whose whole family is, mostly, on the right, I can tell you that your average non-blogging, barely cnn-watching Republican doesn’t even know McCain left an ill wife and kids for a younger woman (how you wouldn’t question that when you see Cindy, I’m unsure). My parents had no idea, and I believe my mom was a bit shocked when I told her (but, as I gather, it was so long ago that it doesn’t *really* matter). My dad is pumped to vote for a moose hunter. No lie. I’m sure he’d prefer a male moose hunter, but such is life. I think I’ll try and point out to him that she’s a charismatic, which *may* do some harm (but I suppose he’d take a charismatic –gasp– over an evil liberal). And actually, as far as the RR goes, the left could tap into the distrust that many traditional Christians (read: Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, etc) have of Pentecostals…

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  12. Laura — probably because NCLB is a big government program that is more opposed by the Reps than the Dems, but he has not thought a single jot about how it might be reformed.
    My experience is the same as Lindsey’s by the way. I was staying with my Bush-supporting evangelical in-laws when the John Edwards story broke; they were reveling in the story, saying that it showed he was completely unfit to be President, and when I asked them whether this meant they were supporting Obama, they had no idea what I was talking about. Eventually, rather than claim I was lying about McCain they mumbled about Supreme Court appointments. I think there is some demoralizing to do — there is only one family values candidate in this election, and it sure isn’t McCain.
    Hi Lindsey!

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