2 long, joyous parties for the political parties
Lee Benson
Two months from yesterday, barring another "Florida," we will have elected a new president.
I've spent two weeks straight at first Denver for the DNC and then St. Paul for the RNC, which represents a personal transformation for me since two weeks ago I didn't know what DNC and RNC meant (Democratic National Convention and Republican National Convention for the still uninitiated, bless you).
It was by far the longest stretch of political-watching in my lifetime. And I have some observations:
• The cable news networks, especially Fox and MSNBC, should be ashamed, calling what they do journalism. They don't present the news, they slant it. They're as objective as a Chinese gymnastics judge. (I know I should have known this before, but I never paid this much attention.)
• If the conventions decided the election, start referring to Denver as "Mr. President." Denver was Michael Phelps, St. Paul was the rest of the world. Denver's downtown was packed from dawn to dusk, reminiscent of Salt Lake during the Olympics. The weather was perfect, the Democrats were loud and enthusiastic, and celebrities were everywhere.
• If it came down to a gang fight, the winner would be ... the media. There were about 6,000 actual delegates, including alternates, at each convention. There were 15,000 members of the media (counting set-up crews and the guys who get the NBC guys their coffee) at each convention.
• I still have no idea what the delegates do.
• Nothing is spontaneous. All those "Obama" and "Change" and "McCain" and "Country First" signs were printed months ago and handed out at the door, with explicit instructions on when and how to use them.
• You could write the headlines ahead of time: "Biden Wows Crowd" "Palin Wows Crowd" "McCain Speech Hailed" "Obama Speech Hailed." Of course the crowd is going to be wowed. Of course the speech will be hailed. This is because the audience consists only of people who already agree completely with everything that has been said, is being said, or is going to be said. It's like preaching to the choir and the choir is related to you and also owes you money. You cannot give a bad speech. Everything is funny. Everything is interesting. Sarah Palin got a three-minute standing ovation for her speech and that was before she gave it.
Recent comments
Why is there no actual commentary in this article?
I think there…Mark Eldridge | Sept. 6, 2008 at 8:05 p.m.
Benson asks: "(And just one small bipartisan question: If Republicans…
Beneath the propaganda | Sept. 5, 2008 at 9:52 a.m.
