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September 3, 2008
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I remember when Bill Clinton gave his
speech after 8 years in office. He stood on the Convention
stage and rattled on and on - people laughed about how long he liked
to talk for - about what he saw as his accomplishments in office.
From the economy to the Family Medical Leave Act and on and on and
on.
Contrast that with last night at the
Republican Convention.
George W. Bush, closing out his second
term, spent not one second and not one word on his track record.
He did not attempt to list any accomplishments.
Instead, he spoke only about John
McCain. Well, actually, he did give a rousing backing of
Governor Palin - a one sentence backing without a single word of
rationale or justification. While he went on about, of course,
John McCain's character and not his record, he simply said, with
regard to Palin, that she was a good choice. No reason why she
was a good choice. Not one word attempting to explain why he
believed her to be so.
And not one word on what he felt he has
accomplished in eight years. Not one.
Bush's record was dealt with, however,
by his wife, Laura, in her introduction to her husband's speech.
Yes, Laura was given the task of highlighting her husband's eight
years worth of accomplishments in office. And what did she
come up with?
Mosquito nets.
No, this isn't a joke. Even
better, not even mosquito nets in America. Left to the task of
trying to point out something her husband did useful during his
eight years in office, the best she could do was say that he managed
to get some mosquito nets for some foreign people.
Suddenly Palin looks more qualified than
our current President.
Now, it was a nice thing to do - it was
to help deal with a malaria problem. But eight years in
office. Clinton went on and on. Reagan went on and on.
Mosquito nets for a foreign land.
Eight years as President of the most
powerful country on the planet. He could have done that as a
part-time volunteer for a non-profit.
To be fair, she did list a total of
three things. Yes, only three, one of which was the mosquito
nets. A second of which was - ready - increasing the number of
"Africans" who get HIV medication from 50,000 to 2 million.
Again, not that that's not nice, but he
wasn't President of Africa. He wasn't part of an international
aid group. Eight years he ran this country - the United
States, you see - and his wife only listed three accomplishments,
and he listed none. And two of the three she listed were
mosquito nets and medicine for Africans - not for the epidemic of
African Americans in Washington DC with HIV. Nope, for Africa.
As for the third and final
accomplishment? It was, of course, a general phrase without
specifics. "He kept the nation safe," claimed the First Lady
in her last days. I suppose she's not counting the part about
allowing the worst terrorist attack ever to occur on American soil
to happen on his watch. Or letting one of our greatest cities
be washed away thanks to levees he failed to repair despite
warnings. I guess on both of those she meant he kept America
safe after not keeping America safe. I guess completely
screwing up and causing historical disasters doesn't count if you
don't do the same one repeatedly.
Mosquito nets, drugs for "Africans," and
keeping "America safe."
That was it folks. Eight years -
with a friendly Congress dominated by his party for most of it.
The interesting part was it wasn't much
different when people spoke about McCain. Now, John has been
in office for more than twenty years. And there were plenty of
labels and claims - 'He's a maverick'; "He takes on the
establishment' etc. etc.
But amazingly lacking were any concrete
accomplishments or leadership moments for John. In fact, it
sounded as if over the course of his two and half decade career the
only thing John McCain claims to have accomplished was being right
about "The Surge." It's also an interesting parallel in that
this follows the pattern Laura Bush used in saying her husband kept
"America safe." John McCain stood on the Senate floor in
October of 2002 and told America Saddam's WMD's were "in tact,"
talked about Al Queda ties, and warned about the nuclear threat, and
helped create the whole Iraq half-a-trillion dollar and
thousands-of-lives-lost disaster. But, five years into it,
maybe he got something right about something that maybe helped some
part of it five years later. After they didn't great us a
"liberators" as McCain had said they would - five years before.
I like this Republican thing. I
can go burn down an apartment building killing 100 people, as long
as at the end of the fire I help step on one of the remaining
smoldering embers.
The rest of the night was offensive.
Yes, the above part was the good part.
There was a video telling the story of a
Navy Seal who lost his life in Iraq. It was the story of an
amazing kid turned amazing man. And all I could think while
watching the story was that this boy died because John McCain echoed
George Bush's lies. Yet the GOP, with this video and for about
twenty minutes afterwards, tried to make some bizarre case that
because soldiers exist and because they die, that means you should
vote Republican.
Literally. They had Medal of Honor
winners there from who knows which war - they didn't specify.
They stood up. They had the sister of the Navy Seal lost in
Iraq and two of his fellow Seals stand up. They had service
person after service person stand for ovation after ovation.
Not one word of why this has anything to
do with the GOP. Not one connection, legitimate or otherwise,
about why this means people should vote for McCain. No, just
the usual nonsense, as if they are the party of the military.
Except on this night it rang especially hollow as a leadoff,
smacking of desperation and more intelligence-insulting,
nation-dividing pandering..
And then when the two big speeches of
the night came, it was time for McCain's brave new bipolar GOP to
rear its head.
To lead it off, failed Presidential
hopeful Fred Thompson gave what had to be one of the most offensive,
divisive speeches of this convention season. After a
Democratic convention that steered away from attacking McCain
personally or smearing him, sticking to policy differences, Thompson
was lost in a Rush Limbaugh episode, slamming, of course, the
"left," insulting Democrats, and talking about Barack Obama as if he
was a "smooth talking" - read jive talking - nobody.
Yes, having Palin on the ticket left
their mind. They went after Obama as being so inexperienced as
to be utterly useless and, of course, writing speeches meant for
"foreign leaders," a nice reminder of the GOP's hatred of both
intelligent speeches and all Western nations, in particular our kin
in Europe.
A CNN analyst couldn't help but comment,
"This speech will make a lot of Democrats very angry."
That wouldn't have been so offensive if,
immediately following this speech, the GOP didn't roll out Joe
Lieberman to, yes, talk about bi-partisanship and say everyone
should forget party and be as one America and vote McCain.
Let's get this straight: they just
unleashed a heinously offensive partisan assault on Democrats, the
left, and Barack Obama, who half the nation supports, rather than
take the approach the Democrats did repeatedly, which was to say,
"John McCain is an honorable man, but we disagree on policy."
No, it was, "You guys are losers," "Hey,
let's be bipartisan."
How about, "Let's be bipolar."
Watching Lieberman's speech, you saw the
potential John McCain's campaign could have had. You saw how,
if John had truly stayed the maverick he was for years, held his
ground against the tax cuts and the religious right, and chose a
moderate independent like Joe Lieberman as his runningmate, John
could have really - with his experience far outweighing Obama's -
had a real shot at winning over Moderate Independents like us.
In fact, I must admit, due to Obama's
lack of experience, I had, as many Moderate Independents have, tried
to find in McCain someone I could rally around. His
credentials and story - as Fred Thompson movingly told - are
everything you could want in a President.
But John McCain, with his reversals on
vital issues, his pick of the unqualified Limbaugh love toy Palin,
and this completely offensive, divisive nonsense at the convention,
coupled with Barack Obama's outstandingly upstanding and
inspirational convention, have made clear that if you care about
America, if you care about the people you love, if you care about
our soldiers who wear the uniform proudly and bravely, you will
steer as far away from McCain and the GOP as you can.
Mosquito nets. Dead soldiers.
Bipolarism.
If that's what you think America needs,
the GOP is your party, and John McCain is your man.
I cringe to think of the nastiness,
divisiveness, and insults yet to come with two more days with John
McCain at the helm in Minnesota. Imagine what it would be like
with him at the helm of the country for four years?
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