Friday, August 31, 2012

The Republican Convention

I generally abhor political speeches.  I find them bombastic, hollow, and generally a poor predictor of how a politician will actually perform once in office.  I would rather hear them answer questions from a competent reporter (are there any left?, Jake Tapper maybe), or at least debate each other under the thumb of a moderator willing not to indulge his or her bias unnecessarily (again, that's not so easy).  And the commentary on every network except C-Span, well, sucks.

So I'm not inclined to watch days of speeches by candidates and their supporters, even when they're likely to be my ultimate choice.  Possibly the only good thing about Hurricane Isaac is that it shortened the convention, oh, and that it may relieve some drought in the Midwest.

Therefore, I only watched the speeches on the last night.  That means I missed Ryan's speech, but of course, the "liar" controversy (not really a controversy, he didn't lie, he just told some truths unpleasant to liberals) was all over the blogs, TV and the papers (in order of importance) the next day.  I regret missing that speech, a little.

However, I did watch most of the proceedings last night.  I thought the testimonials on behalf of Romney's humanity were touching and powerful, but not likely to turn over any minds not already listing in that direction.  Rubio is a great speaker, and a definite asset to the party; I'd like to see him out of the worthless Senate and into a nation office ASAP.  Ryan/Rubio wouldn't have upset me a bit.

Clint Eastwood was great, unless you didn't understand the bit, and shockingly there seem to be not a few conservatives, and a majority of liberals who don't.  I disagree with anyone who claims this was a waste of time and a distraction.  But, I guess we'll find out.

Romney did just fine, but, it was one of those speeches I talked about above.  I just can't take them seriously.

Now, on to the debates.  I'm particularly awaiting the Ryan/Biden encounter.

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