Romney, Huckabee, Giuliani, and Palin

Thoughts on watching the speeches at the RNC tonight as I put lipstick on my neighbor’s pit bull…

- We’ll start with good ‘ol Mitt Romney.  It would seem that Romney dusted off the trusty “tax and spend liberal” speech given at previous RNC’s since oh, about 1960.  As I watched him say that the change Washington needed was more Conservatives, I wondered if he was aware that we’ve had a Conservative Republican President for eight years and a Conservative Republican Congress for six of those eight years.  Maybe one needs to be completely divorced from reality to give a speech at the RNC.

- We’ll move on to Mike Huckabee.  All though I hold contempt for every policy position that he holds and disdain his desire for a more theocratic nation, he is a chummy sort, isn’t he?  He retained the manner of a benevolent preacher and he seems to reach the base of the party on a visceral level.  If he had been better funded, he would have won the nomination since he is the most authentic, folksy, anti-intellectual in the party.  He was respectful of of Obama’s accomplishments while challenging his policies.  Overall, a decent speech and much of what I expected.  It even came with a pointless and overly emotional patriotic anecdote, Huckabee’s oratory signature.

- Rudy Giuliani.  What an angry, mean spirited little man.  It’s one thing to criticize the positions of the opponent, but to belittle him and show open disdain for the things he represents and his personal story is just open nastiness.  Rudy’s speech reminded me of the speeches given at the 1996 RNC in which the viciousness reached epic proportions.   During the DNC, shots were taken at McCain’s positions, record, and policies, but they never belittled the man.  We should be better than this and to see an arena of people stand to cheer this nastiness was a defining moment of this election.  He talked so long, they had to skip the Sarah Palin introduction video…

- Sarah Palin came out to a raucous ovation after the RNC moved the men from the front rows and replaced them with female delegates.  Hey, the RNC even handed out hundreds of lookalike “homemade signs” to make it seem as if the regular folk were not content with the simple campaign signs and had to make their own.   Political theater, gotta love it.

Palin spent the first 10 minutes of her speech introducing her family and discussing her love and dedication to her children.  Alright, I’ll ask.  Are families off limits or are they to be paraded and used as campaign fodder?  If you’re going to make your family part of your platform and qualifications, expect the press to ask about it and bloggers to talk about it.  We’ve now had footage of Cindy McCain, Willow Palin, Track Palin, Piper Palin, and Todd Palin holding Trig Palin and putting him up for the camera.  Is this a political convention?  Also, WIllow Palin just spent 30 seconds or so licking her hand and stroking Trig’s hair.  That was a little gross.

She begins the culture war aspect of the speech and drops the favorite right wing buzzwords like elite, liberal media, and so on and so forth.  She’s just like “every other Mom in America” and she’s not gonna let any Harvard educated smartypants tell her she doesn’t know from good government.

She is clearly the candidate for the anti-intellectual faith based voter.  John McCain has worn religion like a fucking hairshirt for the past three years, you think he’s watching this thing backstage just cringing inside at how he has had to compromise himself to get this far?  I do.

It’s incredible to me that they are just openly mocking Obama and his qualificiations.  There’s a line in politics in how you address your opponent and these people tonight seem to be enjoying crossing it.  Just incredible.  What an incredibly negative tone.

She also touches on her stance against big government and federal earmarks.  Yes, the Mayor who took office in Wasilla with no debt on the books and left it $22MM in the hole.  The woman who requested millions of dollars in earmarks, retained lobbyists with ties to Jack Abramoff to pull federal monies into her small town as Mayor and again as Governor.  She of the party who has lorded over the largest government expansion since FDR!  They’re opposed to big government!  Up is down!  Black is white!  Cats and dogs living together, it’s political anarchy!  Are people really this disconnected from the reality that exists outside the walls of the arena?

How does drilling for oil in Alaska or off our coasts so Exxon can sell it to the highest bidder on the international market help us reduce our dependence on foreign oil?  Just wondering.  Is she proposing some legislation that would require US oil companies to sell oil pumped and refined in America to Americans?

It’s always amazed me that Republicans have convinced a sizable portion of American workers that corporate friendly legislation and free trade somehow benefits them.

This is wildly and nastily partisan.  Talk of styrofoam pillars, self designed Presidential seals, condescension to his role as a community organizer, a disdain for his service as a State and US Senator.  Total derision.  For whatever you thought of the DNC proceedings, they was honorable…unlike this snark filled anger fest.

So, after watching this parade of anger and personal ugliness.  I have a few recommendations for the Obama campaign.

1.)  Pretend that Sarah Palin doesn’t even exist.  Let her move forth as the mirror image of Middle American values voters and cede the ground.  Not because she’s too tough to fight, but because the GOP wants you to attack her.  McCain (as most military men are) is a subscriber to Sun Tzu tactics.  Read Chapter Eight, Maneuvering.  It preaches avoidance of direct conflict and distracting your enemies.  Palin is a distraction and they needn’t take the bait.

2.)  Make this election about the last eight years of Republican rule and the apparent contradictions in their opposition to big government while they have advocated policies and government expansion that are near unrivaled in American history.

3.)  Talk about how the RNC was about division, identity politics, and the same old nastiness that has poisoned our nation for decades.  Remind people that the Obama/Biden ticket and their convention was about unity and trying to identify things that we have in common.  Sure, there was a dose of political rhetoric about McCain’s positions and policies, but that’s what elections are about.  One campaign is trying to be positive about America’s future while the other is in denial about what America is today and the leadership role they have had in making it that way.

4.)  Make sure Biden treads lightly in that debate with Sarah Palin.  Biden is well known for being a terrible blowhard and could come across as a condescending bully.  He needs to stay cool and let the records speak for themselves on serious issues.  He might be baited into a Lloyd Bentsen moment, but remember…Bentsen won the debate but Bush and Quayle won the election.