The Republican National Convention

Remember when you were in middle school and two popular kids would fight in the parking lot and everyone would circle around them watching anxiously? That's how the little boy inside of me feels about politics right now.

I've been a bad Democrat this year. For someone with mostly liberal point of views, I got to see very little of the democratic convention, and have seen much much more of the Republican side. But, I think that's more or less understandable since I was in Texas with no television FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD.

When I say that I am a Democrat, let me explain. I am more accurately described as an independent. I do not automatically vote Democrat and always like to hear both sides of every argument and every election. I try not to jump to conclusions. It's just that after hearing both sides I USUALLY side with the Democrats more so than the Republicans. For example, most of my friends immediately hated Palin as soon as she was announced as McCain's running mate. They hated her for the reasons that were immediately apparent. Choosing her was an obvious political move. She came out of nowhere. She has little experience. Etc. I was not immediately against her and was willing to give her a fair chance. That having been said, when I did get to look into her stances and views more thoroughly, I disagreed with almost all of them.

Getting to the convention, McCain and Palin were the dull points for me. Even disagreeing with all the points made, I can tell the difference between a good speech and a bad speech. And theirs were not very good. McCain, for one, didn't tell us anything we didn't already about him. He accepted the praise given to him and then basically just joined in praising his own views, without making much effort to actually move us or appeal to us emotionally.

Similarly, Palin's was equally disappointing, especially following Huckabee and Giuliani. I stated in a previous post that I liked Huckabee's speech very much. I would never want him as a leader, but he was powerful, funny, and interesting to listen to. He was very good at inspiring members of the Republican Party and united them behind McCain. Giuliani, to a lesser extent, was good for the same reasons. I hated some of the things he said but God Damned if he can't get people riled up. He made up for the horribleness of his own campaign by delivering a pretty good speech that only continued one September 11th reference. That was good for him.

What Huckabee and Giuliani were also good at was their defense of Palin. There are a lot of bad things I think you can say about her, but Huckabee and Giuliani pointed out the cheap shots made at her and dismissed them. They talked about her "lack of experience" and compared it the Obama who, when it comes to leadership on a big scale, may have less. They pointed out the worst criticism of Palin I've heard: "How will she take care of her children?" Giuliani responded simply to this, "Who ever says that about the Men?" They addressed everything they needed to about the attacks against Vice President Nominee, Sara Palin, and made me, for one, ready to listen to her.

And then Palin did little more than re-state their defenses with much less skill and charisma, leaving me thinking "Ok, she's not inexperienced. She's just boring." After the words of Huckabee and Giuliani, she was given the chance to put the bullshit behind her and just address her actual views and ideas. She didn't do that. The rest of her very long speech was spent expressing the same ideals as most of the speakers in the Republican Convention.

Now that both conventions are over, I cannot wait for the debates. Obama is a brilliant speaker and McCain is surrounded by such an aura of Military hero ship. This should be a fun fight to watch.