The Republican Convention

Republican speaker after Republican speaker belittled Barack Obama’s messages of hope and change and in the process seemingly advocated despair and stagnation. The Republicans came up with their own slogan of “Drill Baby Drill,” something you might expect your psychotic dentist to prescribe, not a party platform that delegates at a national convention would scream. When Rudi Giuliani actually tried to pay the Democratic nominee a compliment by explaining that Obama's story could only happen in America, the delegates took it as a punchline and chuckled. The way the Republicans dealt with Obama reminded me of the third grade. What's next, are they going to attack his big ears?

The Republicans delighted in chanting "zero," the amount of executive experience possessed by Obama and Joe Biden. One could argue that running a presidential campaign, directing what will be about a billion dollar enterprise involving more people than have ever resided in the state of Alaska, is a nice little test. But the explanation of Sarah Palin's experience does more to discredit the disparaging remarks against Obama.

The Republicans actually laid the crux of their argument for Palin's experience by claiming that Alaska and Delaware have the same amount of electoral votes. Apparently, you can fit 250 Delawares (geographically, not in terms of population) into Alaska. Palin evidently has foreign policy experience because Alaska is near Russia. I know, this sounds like Stephen Colbert's shtick, but I assure you that it is their actual argument.

The Republicans allege that Obama and Biden are the first and third most liberal senators. I wish! I believe they claimed that Kerry and Edwards were first and fourth last time around. Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold, Ben Cardin, Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, and numerous others have something to say about that. Just about all of the Democratic senators are more liberal than Biden. I was upset at the Biden pick because he was too much like McCain. I don't think McCain is too liberal or too conservative, I just think he's wrong on too many issues.

The rest of the Republican Convention has been a parade of minorities in an attempt to show that the party is not simply a bunch of good-ole-boy white men. So you have white women who are former CEOs and a black guy who used to be Lieutenant Governor (from Maryland, where we vote on the Governor and the Lieutenant on the same ticket). There was an old Jewish senator well past his prime and a Latino guy who works in middle management somewhere. If you are a Republican and a minority, you probably have spoken at the convention.

When the white men finally spoke, it was apparent that they were very angry. Mitt Romney was forceful in condemning Al Gore's private jet, but made no mention of his own. Romney also accused the Supreme Court of being too liberal, which nearly made my head explode. Hopefully the Republicans will start to talk about the issues that concern us. So far, there's all red meat and real substance.