The Jon Blog

Three Hours I'll Never Get Back!

So as you may have figured out, I've been volunteering at the Republican National Convention. Not that I'm in favor of Republicans or anything. I mean, I'm voting for John Kerry, and tonight reinforced my confidence in my vote even more. Because while I was working at my little desk, not too far away from the Garden floor, I was offered a pass to go into the Garden and listen to the evening's speeches. And even thought I knew I wasn't going to like what anyone had to say, I thought it would be an interesting moment. Plus I like to know what I'm talking about if I'm going to be criticizing something...

Let's just say that everything the Republicans say is a misrepresentation, including 'and' and 'but.'

I listened to Zell Miller. I was appalled. I listened to Lynn Cheney. Whatever. I listened to Dick Cheney and basically wanted to puke. I seriously felt nauseous.

I watched a lot of the coverage of the DNC on C-Span. They talked some about why they wanted Bush out of the White House. But they talked about what their plans were, about what they want to do.

The Republicans only talked about why they hate John Kerry and what they feel they "earned" because of Bush's being in the White House on 9-11. They're riding on a wave of non-partisan support for this historic event and a wave of hatred for those who they don't understand -- even to the point that when Dick Cheney posed with his "family" at the end. Guess who wasn't standing there with them all? Yup, you guessed it. The lesbian daughter was strangely missing.

And how about this: Cheney said,

In his years in Washington, John Kerry has been one of a hundred votes in the United States Senate -- and very fortunately on matters of national security, his views rarely prevailed. But the presidency is an entirely different proposition. A senator can be wrong for 20 years, without consequence to the nation. But a president -- a president -- always casts the deciding vote. And in this time of challenge, America needs -- and America has -- a president we can count on to get it right.

Excuse me? I don't entirely remember high school civics and government, but since when does a president vote for anything? If there is a deciding vote to cast, isn't it the Vice President, as the "President of the Senate" or something like this, who casts the deciding vote? I'm real glad that Dick understands his job description so well... and his boss's too!

Another thing I have to say is this: Do you remember a lot of boo-ing at the DNC? Well there was a boatload of booing tonight. The whole thing just felt overly (and unneccesarily) negative. And I really just don't get how so many people could fall for their mumbo-jumbo.

To make matters even more fun, we could mention Mitt Romney, the Governor of Massachusetts, who spoke against gay marriage and other things. And in my opinion, the only "emotional" part of what he had to say was a story he borrowed, from Olympic speed skater Derek Parra. He talked about Parra carrying the WTC flag from 9-11 into the opening ceremonies of the Salt Lake City Olympics. It was a nice story, but I thought it was inappropriate for more than one reason. First of all, it was essentially hearsay. He was co-opting someone else's story for someone else's political good, which is a lot of crap in my opinion. Second of all, it was another one of these moments where they basically were saying, "We were in power when a bunch of people died in a horrible disaster, and we should stay in power..."

Here's what I have to say: on the international scene, there's so little respect for the American government. There was a huge amount on 9-12-01, and we've managed to lose all of that support. Personally, I place the blame for that on one person. And I'll give you a clue. His middle initial is W.

So can you blame me for wanting to puke all evening?

Posted by Jon at September 2, 2004 12:53 AM | TrackBack