I didn't watch much of the GOP convention. It was a busy week for me here. However, I did listen to some of the speeches via Minnesota Public Radio, which airs them at noontime the day after the speech.
I loved the speech by Arnold. Classic Reagan. His message was optimistic. He showed a sunny Republicanism that has been gone way too long.
Zell Miller. Wow. He took burning bridges to a whole other level. I speech was just mean-spirited and instead of criticizing the Democrats, he demonized them as traitors. That is just going way too far. He painted the Dems as all being weak-minded and disrespectful of religion. He made Kerry look like he wants to get permission from Jacques Chirac to do anything which is far from the truth. Or that if Kerry is President, the world will not be free, but taken over by the terrorists.
There's nothing wrong with pointing out the weaknesses in one's opponent. The Dems are not as strong on national security as I think they should be. But Miller has a whole lot of nerve in saying that all Democrats want to sell out our country. He should be ashamed of himself for such uncivil talk.
One more thing. There is also nothing wrong with being a marverick. John McCain is one. But notice that McCain tries to be pleasant with Bush, a man that he disagrees with on many issues and with John Kerry. He has remained loyal to the principles of his party even when he is on the outs with them. Miller , on the other hand, trashed his party and made sure that he is now hated among Dems. For what reason?
Miller excited the base. Problem is, it was the base of his own party who fight even more to make sure he has egg on his face come November 2nd.
Posted by Dennis at September 3, 2004 12:12 AM
why the long face? lemon face.
Posted by: Lemon Stanly at November 10, 2004 04:57 PMMy take on the convention I didn't watch:
It was all a dog and pony show. Ever since the decision-making was taken from the delegates in 'electoral reforms' after the 1960s, that's all the conventions ever are now.
The things I caught on the replays are understandly sad: Arnold promoting the claims of a 'Clinton Recession' to make Bush's economic failings someone else's problem; Zell Miller making Pat Buchanan's 1992 "Better In The Original German" speech look reasoned by comparison; Dick Cheney showing the kind of charm and oratory that lets an amateur like Darrell Hammond stay employed on SNL; and Purple Heart bandages being worn by people who most likely never served in Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Kosovo and both Iraq wars.
Our political discourse has gone from open debate to people threatening duels on one another. Welcome back to the 19th century, everybody! Any day now, we'll have a Southerner congressman caning a liberal Northern senator and it'll feel just like 1856 all over again, woo-hoo!
Other than that, I'm fine.
One last thing about Zell Miller: from that speech, he despises the liberal Democratic leadership far more than we moderates despise the neocon Republican leadership. Why the bleep is he still in that party? Especially after the hissy fit he basically just threw up there? Sheesh!
I didn't watch Arnold's speech, but I saw clips of it. This is from Motley Fool:
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Here's the exact line: "To those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say: 'Don't be economic girlie-men!"'
But you know what? I'm pessimistic about the economy. I'm afraid that the Federal Reserve has backed itself into a corner. I'm afraid that lending discipline among mortgage companies has completely collapsed. I am concerned that low interest rates have been used to entice the American consumer to clean up a recession borne by an irresponsible corporate spending binge by going on one of his own. I'm afraid that the $200 billion-plus that Americans have cashed out of their houses has been spent, and the next drop in interest rates won't be concomitant with a rise in prices; rather, it will be because of a full-fledged financial emergency.
So fine, I'm an economic girlie-man. Here's another thing: I'm not someone rooting for things to be worse. I'm a four-alarm, full-fledged laissez-faire capitalist South Park Republican fiscal conservative. I don't think people can get rich by buying houses from one another for ever more money. I don't think that the path to ultimate financial success is to borrow more; it doesn't work on an individual level, and it sure as heck doesn't work on a national level. I think that the most exceptional thing about America's economic performance is its historical willingness to allow the successful to succeed and the failures to fail. The failures, of course, can jump back up, try again, and THEN succeed. But the talk of how many jobs some president has created or lost (as if) turns what is great about America right on its ear, because if I know one thing about economics, it is this: There aren't a few smart folks in a room somewhere controlling things. In fact, the more smart folks try to control the economy, the more things tend to get screwed up.
http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2004/mft04090118.htm
Posted by: Renee in Ohio at September 3, 2004 09:00 AMDennis,
You are dead on with your comment that Miller "took burning bridges to a whole other level." And if you thought his speech cast him as a cranky old man, you should have seen his so-called interview with Chris Matthews: Miller came just this side of actually challenging Matthews to a duel. A duel!! I guess the big difference between Miller and McCain is ... well, Miller is retiring. But how Miller translated his upcoming retirement into being a license to verbally kill ... I have no idea.