Strange Convention
Posted on September 2, 2008
Strange ConventionThis has been a strange convention.
It starts with the geography. St. Paul and Minneapolis are called the Twin Cities, but that implies that they are close together, which they are not (not if you want to take a quick cab ride from one event to another). St. Paul has all the official events, while Minneapolis has all the parties, which means you have to make a choice between the two. Most are going to the parties.
John McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin continues the theme of duality.
For the Republican base, the Palin pick is the best thing since sliced bread. They are pumped and they don’t want to hear any of the criticism.
For the Democrats, the media, and some Republicans, the Palin pick is mystifying. Who is she? What did she do before this? And what is up with all of these pregnancy stories? To these folks, the McCain pick is a huge risk that he didn’t have to take.
Finally, this convention has been bedeviled by the weather. When politics competes with the weather for the attention of the viewers, politics usually loses. And of course that has been the case with Hurricane Gustaf.
Many of us were amused to see John King use his new-fangled election monitor to track the storm on CNN. King is a great political analyst, but he is no Al Roker when it comes to the weather. Anderson Cooper, of course, jumped at the opportunity to confront another Hurricane. You could almost sense the disappointment when it was discovered that this was no Katrina.
Bobby Jindal proved that he is no Kathleen Blanco. He was actually very competent, which is a nice change of pace.
But the convention must go on, now that the weather has passed. And so it will.