* While most eyes are on the Democrats, the speculation over who John McCain will tap - probably early Friday morning - as his running mate continues to occupy Republicans in general, and conservatives in particular. The Hill this morning fueled renewed speculation by noting that the GOP’s final list of convention speakers was released today…and conservative Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor (lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 96.86 percent), known to be on McCain’s short list…is nowhere to be found. Can it be Cantor?
* Because I’m a bit of a political masochist, I watched a little of MSNBC’s political coverage while waiting for the big Hillary speech. And at around the 9 o’clock (EST) hour, Chris Matthews began to pontificate about Hillary Clinton and what a raw deal she and women in general had gotten in this campaign.
At one point Matthews broke his filibuster, with obvious agitation, to tell someone off camera that he’d wrap up his commentary in a minute. Later he seemed to go after fellow co-host Keith Olberman - who apparently was the person trying to get Matthews to wrap up and shut up. Olberman appeared stunned, momentarily taking on the look of a kicked puppy. All’s not well between these two hard-core liberal meatheads. Which I find quite amusing.
* Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner was Hillary’s warm-up act and delivered the night’s keynote address. Man, did he suck.
* Chelsea Clinton introduced her mom, prefacing the speech with a video tribute to the former First Lady featuring the standard music soundtrack over standard video clips and standard still photos. Ho-hum. This wasn’t the kind of cutting edge video we’d come to expect for the White House Clintons by the likes of Linda Bloodworth-Thomason in the 90s. This was cookie-cutter. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
* Finally, the moment everyone was breathlessly waiting for…the grand entrance by Hillary the Magnificent - dressed in the ugliest orange-colored pants suit you’ll ever want to lay eyes on. Now, don’t get me wrong. This isn’t sexist. I’d make fun of a man who came out dressed in that ugly color, too. It looked like something the Joker would wear in the original Batman movie back in the 60s.
* Enough about fashion; let’s get into the substance of Hillary’s remarks. Oops. There wasn’t any. Same tired, old liberal cliché after tired, old liberal cliché. There was simply nothing remarkable or new about anything Hillary said. For a party running on the theme of “change,” this was nothing but the same old crap.
* My favorite part of Hillary’s speech was how she began it: “I’m here tonight as a proud mother, as a proud Democrat, as a proud senator from New York, a proud American, and a proud supporter of Barack Obama.” Um, notice anybody missing in there? Like the guy she’s married to - who used to be President of the United States of America. Interesting that she didn’t say she was a proud wife. I wonder why none of the network talking heads picked up on that “dissing” of Bill Clinton, even over at FOX?
* My least favorite part of the speech is also my least favorite part of the entire Democrat campaign. Hillary called for ENDING the war, not WINNING the war. I hope McCain nails her and them on that distinction at the GOP convention next week.
* As for the rest of the speech, it was all about Hillary. In other words, standard operating procedure for the Clintons. Sure, she called for the election of Barack Obama - but it was the kind of call she’d have given for ANY Democrat nominee. There was no suggestion that he was the best person for the job. That he was ready for the job. That he was experienced enough for the job. B.O. shares most of Hillary’s liberal philosophy and his name will be on the ballot; therefore, vote for him because there’s no other choice. Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
* When Hillary wasn’t talking about herself, her campaign and the issues important to her, she was playing the ol’ gender card. Pretty hypocritical if you ask me, considering how she went so far out of her way in the campaign to ask that she be judged on her merits, not her chromosome combination. Then again, hypocrisy is what the Clintons are all about.
* I only noticed two occasions where Hillary went after John McCain, the Republican nominee, with any level of gusto. Her first line was, “No Way. No How. No McCain.” Rousing applause from the convention floor. But pretty lame really. The second one was saying it was appropriate for John McCain and President Bush to be in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St. Paul) next week for the GOP convention because “they’re awfully hard to tell apart.” Cute. Mildly humorous. But again, pretty lame. And tame.
* In the end, Hillary did the bare minimum she needed to do to avoid any future criticism that she was a sore loser. She gave Obama the bare minimum endorsement necessary, and nothing more. While publicly rooting for a Democrat victory this year, she’ll obviously lose no sleep over an Obama loss on November 4. Because that means the 2012 Hillary for President campaign will begin in earnest on November 5.
* One final observation: Hillary did, in fact, call for her supporters to unify behind the man who vanquished her. But in listening to one hard-core Hillary supporter on CNN immediately after the speech, it’s obvious that Hillary can’t get her people to do that simply by telling them to do so. Barack Obama is going to have to EARN those votes in his speech Thursday night. That makes the stakes for The Obamessiah that night even higher.
I gotta tell you, usually when I watch and listen to these Democrat conventions, the speeches, the outrageous rhetoric and the personal attacks get my blood boiling. But so far, after two full nights, I think my blood pressure has actually gone down. There’s no fight in these folks. They seem to be just going through the motions. It’s almost as if they’re just phoning it in. I mean, they’re not even going after DICK CHENEY.
Where’s Barack’s Ann Richards? Where’s Barack’s Mario Cuomo? And by the way, forget where’s Waldo. Where’s Jesse Jackson?
To borrow a phrase, these Democrats aren’t attack dogs; they’re lap dogs. If the first two nights of the 2008 Democrat convention is any indication, McCain just might win this thing in November by forfeit.
Posted on August 26th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National
That orange jumpsuit looks like something Bill Clinton should be wearing.