I know, I know. I promised you a live blog on Monday, but then this little watery, wind storm in the Gulf of Mexico sort of postponed things. But all is back on track (with substantial modifications). So tune in tonight. Again, I'll try to start blogging around 8:00 PM-ish.-------------------------------------------------------------------
7:56 Coverage starts early!! Woo-hoo! But nothing's happening. The Republicans are playing Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" Don't stop believing in what?
8:01 Republican PR video, narrated by Boo Radley. Darn it! Don't tell me you are the narrator, Robert Duvall. The fun is in guessing. What-ev. PBS isn't even showing the video. Why not? It showed all the boring Dem PR videos. Mainstream Meadia (MSM) bias!!!!!!
8:03 Some lady is on stage talking up Minnesooota's hospitality. PBS still isn't showing it.
8:04 There they go. Ann Davidson, they show her speaking. Now my msnbc interne
8:06 Did she just call Sarah Palin, Sarah Polente?
8:07 Pink Elephants!!! I want to join that group. Do you have to wear a pink hat? Drink pink drinks?
8:08 Minnesota Senator Coleman speaks now. He's Jewish. A Jewish Republican? You betcha!
8:10 He reminds us about homeless people on the gulf coast. Republican drinking game of the evening: every time they say "gulf coast"
8:11 First direct Obama slam clocks in at 8:11 PM. That didn't take long.
8:12 This guy is a little boring. Bring back the pink elephant lady!!!!!!!!
8:13 The offer is still open Republicans. You bring out a live elephant, I'm voting for you!
8:14 My roommate points out someone in the audience is dressed up as Abe Lincoln. She says she would have attended if she had known it would be a costume party.
8:15 Essay winner! Topic: What does the American Flag mean to you. My answer: Olympic gold medals baby! The Minnesota student who won the essay contest has a much better answer than mine and she narrates it over some patriotic film clips. Her Minnesota accent is just precious.
8:19 The authoress, Victoria Blackstone, comes out and leads us in The Pledge of Allegiance. That was nice.
8:22 In the studio, Mark Shields is talking about that darn Palin grand baby. Yo. If you think it's not something we should be talking about, then DON'T TALK ABOUT IT. Yep. He's still talking about it.
8:23 Still taking about the grand baby. Oh yeah, and they're still talking about it in the context of "we shouldn't talk about it." WASTE OF TIME.
8:25 Argh! They're still talking about it.
8:26 Whew. No more baby talk; instead, Gwen Ifel (who will moderate the VP debate) asks Tucker Bounds, McCain mouthpiece, about Sarah Palin's qualifications. Oh Man, Campbell Brown ripped him a good one the other day on CNN when he couldn't name a single foreign policy decision she made as governor. I wonder if Gwen can make him look just as stupid.
8:28 Watch Tucker play defense: (1) Earmarks Palin got as mayor are okay since on her way to becoming governor she took a side trip to Damascus and saw the light and will never, ever do it again (except for those times that she did do it again). (2) She was totally vetted, all this stuff we are just learning about her McCain knew the whole time, which must be why it is going over so well with Dems and Independents.
8:30 Campbell kicked his ass much better.
8:33 Returning to the stage, Michele Bachmann, representative from Minnesota is speaking in a bright, Bright, BRIGHT yellow dress about how happy, Happy, HAPPY she is to be there. Actually, I really like her dress. I like yellow. And the dress has a cute belt buckle near the top.
8:36 Second Obama dig clocks in at 8:36. You know, for Republicans, they really are laying off the Obama digs. Must be a hurricane hangover.
8:38 I love how the Republican delegates have color coordinated their outfits by state delegation. Organization baby!
8:40 Wes Gullet and his daughter Nikki of Phoenix, Arizona take the stage. They are here because of Cindy McCain. They want to say hi to Cindy and her adopted daughter Bridget who are in the convention hall.
8:41 Nikki and Bridget were found by Cindy McCain in Bangledesh in an orphanage. She brought them to the U.S. for medical care and new parents. Awh. Cindy McCain is crying.
8:48 Back in the PBS booth, historian Michael Beschloss tells us about the history of "vetting." He pegs Tome Eagleton as the turning point for the modern vetting process.
8:49 Historian Richard Norton-Smith is having Dan Quayle flash-backs. PotatoE, Patata, I say.
8:57 Still talking about Dan Qualye. Where is Dan Qyalye? What happened to him?
9:01 Over on the internet feed, another speaker as mentioned "gulf coast," so take a drink you folks at home.
9:02 PBS is still talking to pundits and surrogates. They assure us that McCain is NOT temperamental. He is NOT/NO LONGER a darling of the press. Hmmm. Notice how, when he is no longer competing for primary votes against other, more-conservative Republicans he is even tempered and unfairly treated by the media.
9:05 Bushes in the HOUSE!!! HW and Barbara. They take seats near Cindy. But HW starts working the crowd who start yelling OBAMA, OBAMA. Sorry, it just sounded like Obama. Jim Lehrer says they are saying BUSH 1, BUSH 1
9:08 Next speaker: Capt Shanna Hanson, firefighter and first responder to the collapsed bridge last year. I'm still amazed that only 13 people died. Do you think she'll address how McCain will improve the country's infrastructure while still cutting taxes?
9:09 "gulf coast" mention 2 times. 2 more sips of my ice water.
9:11 another video is playing, but PBS is again ignoring it. I can't identify the narrator. The video is about Abe Lincoln, if you care.
9:13 The Republican party, somehow, is lacking speakers as interesting and compelling as the Democrats had. They have fewer speeches and are forcing the PBS pundits to keep talking about the same things. Good news for me. I get to have snack time.
9:14 Tommy Espinoza. Hew was a in Vietnam with John McCain. Now, THIS is interesting and compelling.
9:18 He's a nice, straight-forward guy with good enthusiasm. Sort of impossible to snark on.
9:20 On the floor, a PBS correspondent interviews a Vietnam vet who shared a POW cell with McCain, and it really illustrates how WELL John McCain has aged. This guy looks cowed by time. John McCain, by contrast seems spry. Oh, this guy is 83. Explains the difference in appearance.
9:23 Christine Todd Whitman!!! She could be a VP? Why not pick her, McCain? Oh, right, she doesn't pander to your base. Sorry, I brought it up. Todd-Whitman speaks to Gwen Ifel about GW Bush's legacy.
9:29 Todd Whitman does an excellent pitch for John McCain.
9:30 David Brooks points out Repubs are losing young people (me) and middle class people (sort of me....depending on what your definition of middle class is). So, McCain will have to move to the center. By picking a progressive Veep? Oops. Guess he'll have to do it some other way. AND QUICK!!!!!!
9:33 David Brooks brought out the funny. Only a PBS pundit would make a joke while referencing 1066 and the Battle of Hastings!
9:34 On the stage and in the internet feed, another PR video is playing and the narrator sounds like Gary Sinise.
9:35 PBS actually will show this video. And this time Jim Lehrer ruins my guess the narrator game. At least I was correct, it is Gary Sinise.
9:38 Gary narrates the tale of Navy Seal, Mike Monsour, who won the Medal of Honor in sacrificing his life for his fellow soldiers.
9:42 Question? Why is Barbara Bush wearing a Lei on her arm? Quick! Someone explain to her that Barak Obama is from Hawaii. See, this is what happens when you don't watch the opposing convention. You miss out on important information.
9:43 The convention continues to recognize other medal of honor recipients, many POWs, and veterans in the audience including HW Bush!!!!! Yay for Bush #1 and for all Navay Pilots. Disclosure: My uncle was a Navy Pilot.
9:45 Laura Bush is on the stage. She as excited to see her inlaws in the audience as I am.
9:46 Sarah Palin gets a bigger cheer from the crowd than McCain does. These people don't seem to see the problem with that.
9:47 Laura starts rattling off all the women who have served in the GW Bush administration. If you call naming only three of them "rattling." Seriously, Laura, you couldn't think of at least two more?
9:53 Ladies and Gentlemen, via satellite, Laura's husband and our President: GW Bush. Wow, he starts off talking about the hurricane without mentioning...whoops...there it is, "gulf coast."
9:54 GW gives a shout-out to his mom and dad. Awh.
9:55 GW talks about McCain being tortured and how the torture was ineffective in getting McCain to break. He and the cheering delegates exhibit no sense of irony as GW says this.
9:58 GW talks up "The Surge," which, coincidentally is the planned name of Sarah and Todd Palin's next child.
10:01 GW talks up his wife, and the smile on his face is very sweet.
10:02 GW blesses me and America. And then he goes away.
10:03 But Laura picks up the figurative baton and thanks the delegates and Repubs at home for supporting the Bushes.
10:04 Another Video?! I can see why PBS has quit showing the ubiquitous PR videos.
10:08 Fred Thompson, a.k.a. D.A. Arthur Branch, takes the stage. Someone should tell the organizers that changing the pictures on the gi-mungous TV screen behind the podium is distracting for TV viewers like me.
10:11 Right now, Thompson is talking more about Palin than McCain. Not the best thing to do during the 10:00 PM ABC/NBC/CBS broadcast. Average Joe America might not get the message of who JOHN McCAIN IS!!!
10:14 Finally. Thompson speaks about the presidential nominee. With less enthusiasm, I note.
10:15 Thompson points out all the McCains in the audience. A respectable bunch. Still, nowhere near as numerous as all those freekin' Bidens.
10:16 Thompson brags about John McCain's demerits at the Naval Academy. I'm sure kids tomorrow, at school, will use it as an excuse when they are sent to detention. "I'm sorry mister Vice Principal but I learned from John McCain that demerits are an honorable, leadership building, trait. So can I be excused from detention, please?"
10:18 Thompson starts telling the entire Vietnam story of John McCain...in detail. If this gets re-hashed in another Repub PR video, I will be very annoyed.
10:22 Thompson talks about how McCain, under pressure of torture, gave false information. The applauding crow STILL DOES NOT GET THE IRONY. I'm sure each one of them approves of torture techniques for extracting information from terrorists and believes that such techniques get reliable information. It makes you want to hit them on the head. I want my own irony mallet. I'll take it to Minnesota and start smacking torture and "severe interrogation techniques" supporters with it. I won't smack them too hardly, of course. That might be torture.
10:26 Thompson mentions McCain's fight against earmark spending. Funny how he doesn't mention Sarah Palin this time.
10:27 Thompson just dissed Obama for using teleprompters. Hey pot! If you look closely at those teleprompters surrounding you on stage, they have pictures of kettles on them. (And I really hope he isn't using those teleprompters (it looks like he isn't) because otherwise, what he just said is dumber than dumb).
10:31 Oooh. Tax talk. That gets a standing ovation when Thompson makes a good point about taxing businesses. He can keep that ovation as long as he doesn't talk about that sinker of an economic idea: Gas Tax Holiday.
10:33 Giant, Huge, Boisterous Ovation for not killing fetuses.
10:35 Instead of blessing me (as the President did), Thompson signs off by blessing John McCain and America.
10:36 Mark Shields notes that Thompson got the biggest cheers for knocking Obama, but not for talking up McCain.
10:40 Turncoat Joe Lieberman takes the stage. Lots of Repubs like him. I can't understand why? It's just so strange to see him up there.
10:40 He said "gulf coast," take a drink!
10:42 Joe Lieberman decries partisanship at a PARTY Convention. As you expect, he gets barely any applause for that.
10:43 Joe explains why he's here: Country matters more than party. Then he talks about how being American is more important than being in a party and he comes close to Obama's message of "We are American's first." Heh. Obama said it better.
10:45 Joe keeps talking up this version of a unity theme, which doesn't seem to fit, because I associate unity with the eloquence of Obama.
10:47 No applause for the Patriot Act? What's wrong Repubs? I thought you loved the Patriot Act? I thought your party platform requires you to love it and all phrases that contain the word Patriot or Patriotism. You patented patriotism, right? No one is ever allowed to question a Republican's patriotism, right?
10:49 Very mild applause for fighting global warming. And the Repubs wonder why they are losing young people.
10:50 Kids, eloquence is bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. It means you are an elitist.
10:51 Lieberman alleges that Obama has been unable to take on powerful interest groups within the Democratic Party. Um. Didn't Obama beat the Clinton machine to get the nomination?
10:53 Lieberman keeps talking about national unity. It's very confusing, because the Republicans' inability to compromise and allow McCain to select a moderate Veep candidate, pretty much shows me how NOT READY this party is for "unity."
10:55 Now he's talking about unity in the context of war in Iraq. Even more confusing since polls say that most of the country is unified in wanting the troops to come home right now.
10:56 Ooh, Lieberman speaks directly to Dems and Independents watching at home. He does so by saying nothing of substance. He tells them to vote for McCain because he is a "straight talker" and a "restless reformer." Oh, well, Joe. If you say so, then sure!
10:59 Lieberman wants me to vote for the man who has always put America first. I guess he didn't get the Obama memo. WE ALL PUT AMERICA FIRST! (I really do like that Obama line, of course, it is eloquent, ergo it must be bad. Joe Lieberman spoke without eloquence, ergo he must be good.)
11:01 The big speeches are over. None of them that enjoyable or interesting except for the President's and Laura's.
11:02 The historians note that tonight asked people to vote for McCain based on his biography rather than his policies.
11:05 Historian Michael Beschloss is as skeptical as I am at the resonance of the tacked-on unity theme. He especially notes the Irony (where did I put that Irony Mallet?) that Lieberman, who was not chosen Veep because the Repub party couldn't stomach a Democrat turned Independent, espouses bipartisanship.
11:09 Nite 1 of Day 2 is over. See you tomorrow, where the Repub delegates will go INSANE over their new queen Sarah Palin. Also, we might hear something about McCain's substantive policy agenda, but don't get your hopes up.
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