Tip Your Waitresses On the Way Out

Sarah Palin did a good political job in a political setting. I don't think she made a credible case for capable governance, but that's not what this campaign is about. As last night showed, the Republican case has come down to a sort of Friar's Club Roast. In a largely policy-free evening, it was all about who could get off the best zinger. (There were moments in Rudy Giuliani's speech where his comic timing was so good, he was so in the moment, that I laughed out loud. When he stumbled, aghast, at just what a "community organizer" is, I could barely believe it. This guy is good.) She got off some good ones, though she won't win any points for either factual or intellectual honesty.

It's a political convention, of course, and party-building is the main event. So far, it seems the RNC has been a success. A largely dispirited party is now engaged and enthused. That's a success. I'm guessing there are a lot of pols who chose to avoid the convention who are regretting that decision.

The whole night, though, I found myself marveling at how small the Republican Party has got. The sweeping vistas of Reaganism have been paved over and all that's left is a series of "Drill, Baby, Drill" billboards. You can still see Reagan's grand vision, if you squint hard and forget that it's the Republican Party that's been bloating government and expanding it's reach into our private lives. The great threat to liberty isn't progressive taxation, it's the Republican-powered gutting of the Constitution, which received little mention at the Democratic Convention and enthusiastic embrace at the Republican.

John McCain is promising reform and his first steps at doing it have been to align himself with the offending party's most orthodox and reactionary elements. I look forward to McCain and Palin hitting the campaign trail and having to answer actual questions about what, exactly, they intend to reform. They're Republicans running against the results of Republican government, and denial works a lot better in the friendly confines of a convention than it does on the campaign trail.

The upside of the evening: Mitt Romney's political career is over. Good heavens he's world-class bad, somehow both cheesy and synthetic at the same time. In a night of denial, he was the most in need of a psychological breakthrough, the billionaire former governor of Massachusetts railing against eastern elites and spouting "liberal" the way a Tourette's sufferer ejects obscenities. Plus -- and this is really the only thing that matters on a night like last night -- he just wasn't funny. Well, maybe accidentally, in a distracted, Leslie Nielsen kind of way. But generally, he died the lonely death that awaits bad stand-ups when they finally falter onto the big stage.

Comments

[fish]

Oh, where to begin....

Sarah Palin did a good political job in a political setting. I don't think she made a credible case for capable governance, but that's not what this campaign is about.

Indeed, it sounds like she has all the yahoos swooning! But you are correct, she is mostly fluff! On the other hand the dems haven't made a case for capable governance just more of the same poor governance that we've been on the receiving end of for the last 80 years.

There were moments in Rudy Giuliani's speech where his comic timing was so good, he was so in the moment, that I laughed out loud. When he stumbled, aghast, at just what a "community organizer" is, I could barely believe it. This guy is good.

Well if you like his stand up routine you should know that he kills in drag! There is precedent for the also rans to shine once the pressure is off. The best lines of Sir Alberts political career were after he was out and he could go on at length about the social security lockbox/lunchbox/ziplock bag.

The great threat to liberty isn't progressive taxation, it's the Republican-powered gutting of the Constitution, which received little mention at the Democratic Convention and enthusiastic embrace at the Republican.

Perhaps but an abundance of resources really greases those skids.

This nation is finished!

[Steve]

Would you have been more impressed if she had given her speech from a football stadium and delivered a sermon about change while choosing a running mate that is the 6th longest serving senator?

Never mind, I know the answer to that.

[Squidley]

I don't think [Sarah Palin] made a credible case for capable governance, but that's not what this campaign is about.

How could it be? The Obamamessiah hasn't achieved a single thing in all his time in office. No legislation bears his mark; no bill bears his name. All he excels at is self-promotion.

McCain, of course, is all about thumbing his nose at the Republican establishment, so even though the conservatives recognize he is not one of their own, they dislike him less than the crypto-Marxist running on the other side.