Romancing the Vote
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on September 8th, 2008 4:28 am by HL
Romancing the Vote
ST. PAUL — The 2008 Republican National Convention had too much in common with the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. That’s where presidential candidate John Kerry talked endlessly about his military service — to the point where people would joke, “Hey, did you know that John Kerry served in Vietnam?” Nor did Teresa Heinz Kerry — the Massachusetts senator’s heiress second wife — set delegates on fire. By that convention’s end, the crowd clearly lacked gusto for their nominee and the campaign ahead. Last week in St. Paul, the Republican convention dwelled too long on McCain’s POW status — and, yes, he is a true hero — and McCain’s wife didn’t seem to connect with the delegates. There was less hoopla after McCain’s speech than after that of his running mate, Sarah Palin.
The Electoral Sitcom
WASHINGTON — St. Paul followed Denver as night follows day. Republican deconstruction artists quickly tore into the lofty images that Democratic campaign managers had spun around their guileful, graceful nominee. Two months of party warfare to come were methodically set in concrete in the past two weeks. But conventions also send important, often unintended, messages about the state of the American spirit at any given moment. Both gatherings revealed Americans as anxious and eager not just to move beyond the George W. Bush era but to repair the gigantic mess that Washington policymaking is rightly perceived to have become.
