Democratic National Convention, Part I

My two cents on the Democratic National Convention:

I watched Clinton and Biden last night. Bill sure can work a crowd and give a rousing speech. Besides Obama, I don't think there's anyone better.

Bill's speech was, of course, mostly about himself. He kept reminding everyone about how the roads were paved in gold, there was a Lexus in every garage, peace reigned supreme and all the world loved us when he was President... Not that any of this was true (except the budget surpluses) but it's all part of the DNC/MSM legend about the glorious days of the Clinton Presidency. Bill, in his slick style, wasn't so blatant as to claim all the credit directly. Instead, he reminded us how wonderful things were when the Democrats held the White House... and he just happens to have been that Democrat. So we must elect another Democrat, who happens to be Obama.

I missed a large chunk of Biden's speech because I had to get laundry out of the dryer. I don't think I missed too much. Biden is Biden, and a good speaker. He seemed to be rolling off the old Dem boilerplate about how everything the US and the world is going to hell in a handbasket, and it's all GWB's fault, McCain will be more of the same. Only Obama will fix it and make everything right with the world. Eh, I've heard it all before. It's the typical grand ideas and themes but not actual plan or substance. Come on, tell us something... heck, anything new.

After Biden's speech, his family all piled out onto the stage for the usual photo-op. This is a party convention standard, totally cliched, but it of course works perfectly. It also doesn't hurt to have a whole passel of cute grand-kids.

Then something odd happened: Mrs. Biden gets on the mic and tells her husband that there's a surprise guest, and who should it be but Obama himself! So, BO comes on stage, says some nice words about Joe, rallies the crowd a bit. His family then piles on the stage and the adoration continues. What was odd, at least to me, was that I do not recall ever seeing the Presidential candidate come in after his VP gave his speech. Maybe this is common, but I really don't remember it from previous conventions. It all felt very cheap to me. This is Biden's night, yet Barrack had to come in and horn in on the love fest. I seemed like he appeared on-stage because he just can't stand not being the center of attention, either out of a bloated sense of self-importance, or perhaps a serious self esteem issue. Hmmm.....

As for Hillary's speech on Tuesday, not bad, not bad at all. She'd gotten better with her on-stage performance, but she's still no Bill or Obama... but then, who is?

She gave the "good soldier" speech... said she supported Obama, but never actually praised him. She talked a lot about herself, and how it was of great importance to keep McCain out of the White House, so support Obama. What exactly makes Obama a great choice... oh, um... never mind that.

She also did that "I remember meeting a blind, unemployed, single mother of two crippled children, who was covered in boils and living in a box..." thing again. She always has these stories of these anonymous people she's met somewhere that inspired who to do something-or-other. What are their names, where/when did you meet them? Well, she can't answer these questions since the stories are all made up. It's such obvious BS and yet people eat it up. In her defense she's certainly not the only politician who does this... although I can't think of any names right now.

Who started came up with this personal-encounter-story style of BS? Was it Bill Clinton? It seems very Clinton-esque. I seem to remember him doing this in his State of the Union... but I'm pretty sure Reagan did it too. Reagan loved to tell stories so this style of thing seems to fit . However, the difference was that when both RR and Clinton would do this during the State of the Union, they'd then point out the person in question sitting in the audience (usually next to the First Lady). So, there was at least a true person.

Tonight is the big Obama speech. It should be interesting. I've read that they're building him a stage that looks like a classical Greek temple. So, THE ONE will descend from Olympus to grace us mere mortals with his divine wisdom. I think I'll have to stock up on beer in preparation for this one...