Genuine Points vs. Disingenous Rhetoric

While I find it difficult at times to watch either political party's 4-day infomercial, there are those occasional moments that are worthy of tuning in, especially if they have the opportunity to be free of the B.S. Factor. With John McCain and Rudy Giuliani scheduled to speak this seemed like a good opportunity for a rare moment or two of genuine dialog. So what did we get? Well, a few observations:

1) Michael Moore was in the hall as a columnist for USA Today. Forget the McCain "disingenuous filmmaker" line; do you really need to know any more about Gannett than that? With deference to Jeff Foxworthy, if USA Today is your news source you might be a Stepford liberal.

And speaking of that line, it was telling that McCain did not know that Moore was in the hall. But after he delivered his line and then realized Moore was there he did not back down, as some people will do when faced with their adversary. Instead, he repeated the line. Good stuff.

2) Painful as it was at times, it was smart to take everyone back to 9/11 and remind people why the administration chose its current course. It was a stroke of genius to have three "everywomen" speak, all of who had lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks (and one who also lost a son in Iraq). Simple, poignant, and unadulterated. And then...

...in a single moment, the message of these women was completely lost by the B-movie inclusion of the singing of Amazing Grace. What on earth was the purpose of that? Did someone think that swing voters were going to come in droves if you could wring every last tear out of them? Or that mixing more religion into the prime-time message was going to make fence-sitters comfortable with the Republicans? It was offensive and unnecessary and someone ought to be ashamed.

3) How strong would a candidacy of McCain and Giuliani be, regardless of who's at the top of the ticket? No election is certain but it's tough to see how those two would be defeated. But you get the feeling that viewpoint may be lost on the current core of Republicans.

McCain is seen by many Republican leaders as someone who doesn't play by their rules and therefore doesn't deserve to lead the Party. Some of those opinions leaking from the GOP also point to a bigger problem: if they're not careful the Republicans will move so far to the right that the view of the center becomes obscured. And while McCain may have been a Goldwater conservative at one point he has moved much more to center, not to mention that the center has also moved to the right of where it used to be. So if the GOP leadership sees McCain as outside the mainstream, look for the country to begin a shift leftward.

4) Watching all of the 9/11 recap cast my mind back to Guiliani immediately after the New York attacks. This convention is, of course, about Bush and his leadership, but here was a man who didn't have 2 days to compose himself before facing the public. It still stands as the truest moment of a leader under fire I've seen in my lifetime. Contrast that with Hillary Clinton unabashedly looking for photo ops in the days that followed the attacks, and then being caught on camera making snide remarks when Bush addressed Congress 2 weeks later.

5) In case anyone wonders whether Guiliani and McCain registered with swing voters, all you had to do was watch the protesters behind MSNBC's anchors, who were sitting outside. Every time the cameras went on they began chanting "Kerry, Kerry" or "No More Years." However, after McCain's speech and especially after Guiliani's they fell completely silent, as if their message was suddenly hollow or their candidate had just paraded naked around MSG. If they were affected that way, how about the rest of the country?

6) Immediately after the convention, the Centrist Dudette asked me to see what the initial soundbites were and who was being featured. In the American press it was running about 50-50 between Guiliani and McCain. Interestingly enough, the British press we visited (BBC, London Times, the Telegraph) all featured McCain and the Michael Moore line. While it was still front page, Le Monde didn't mention either speech, but talked about the convention in generalities. Most interesting of all was that Al-Jazeera didn't have the convention on the front page at all. However, it did lead with John Kerry promising Iran that if elected he'd consider allow them to continue operating their nuclear plants. Draw your own conclusions.

I don't know that the TV will come on in the Centrist Dude household until Bush speaks, as the next 2 days will likely be nothing but red meat for the True Believers and sugarless gum for anyone else.