Post (and Pre) Convention Thoughts

Now that one convention is over and another is about to begin (if a hurricane doesn't interfere -- and doesn't the fact that the GOP convention might be interrupted by a hurricane almost three years to the day after Katrina indicate to you that if there is a God He has a really fucked-up sense of humor?), this might be a good moment to sort out some thoughts on what has happened, as well as what is about to happen.

I will admit that I was slightly disappointed by Barack Obama's acceptance speech. It was sort of the declamatory equivalent of "Alexander Nevsky" -- he sacrificed a lot of what made him great to begin with, and I'm not at all sure that the trade-off was worth it. I understand the logic behind it (which was to give a lot of specifics in order to rebut the notion that he's all eloquence without substance), but in the end it came off a lot like one of Bill Clinton's old State of the Union messages from the '90s -- a laundry list of proposals that was meant to please everyone but became instead a little tiring to listen to.

Bill Clinton's speech, on the other hand, was a classic. He said everything that Hillary should have said but failed to deliver in her solipsistic, overly self-congratulatory speech. I've been critical of both Clintons during this campaign, but I fail to see how anyone could have improved on Bill Clinton's performance on Wednesday night (certainly Obama didn't top it the night after). It reminded me of Babe Ruth coming out of retirement and back to Yankee Stadium and telling the crowd, "You want to see a home run? I'll show you a home run." And then BAM! He hits it out of the ballpark.

Joe Biden did well by himself too. No one would ever consider him a master of eloquence (his own eloquence, anyway), but he told his story and helped middle-class voters connect with the ticket in a way that might help Obama with the voters he's going to need in the Fall. I think he was a brilliant pick and I look forward to his performance in the upcoming debates.

Then John McCain made his choice for vice president -- and chose a 44-year-old self-professed "hockey mom" from Alaska with even less experience than Barack Obama. A brilliant choice? A "tactical mistake" (as my old friend Robert George put it on his blog)? I'm sure the rabid right-wingers at Fox are spraying their pants over the choice (although I haven't seen any of the cable coverage, and am glad I haven't), but I'm with Robert. This was a very high-risk move on McCain's part that really calls his judgment into question.

Think about it -- Obama has a search committee that includes the daughter of John F. Kennedy spend weeks going through and vetting all the prospective candidates before agreeing on one of the most senior and respected members of the senate.

John McCain, on the other hand, picks a woman almost three decades his junior with very little experience whom he had met exactly once. And who's under investigation at the moment.

Forget about Sarah Palin -- what does that say about John McCain? If I were the Democrats, that's the line I'd take. What does it say about John McCain's judgement that he made the most important decision of his candidacy so quickly and casually? Is this the guy you want deciding whether or not we go to war with Iran?

The GOP in general, and John McCain in particular, are going to have a lot of explaning to do next week. And I can't wait to see what, if anything, they come up with. If they don't get washed out by a hurricane first.