Howleriffic
I have a public service idea for the convention bloggers. When you are talking to reporters, why don’t you all mention that they should read The Daily Howler?
Sommerby does the absolute best press criticism in the blogosphere and if the press who are interviewing you want to know how bloggers see the press, his site is a good place to start.
Just a suggestion from a boring, partyless couch-blogger.
Man Of Many Talents
Fine blogger and musician, Brew, has a CD called “Get Out of Iraq” that you can buy there at the convention or online at Simplefears.com
Go to the link for a sample. It’s a good tune.
Send Me
Gotta love Clinton. He just has that Mojo.
I can’t remember what the event was, but I remember hearing him do that “send me” riff before and I think it’s very powerful. It’s a biblical reference that resonates with those who respond to that, but it’s also poetic and inspiring to the secular. It’s the kind of language that Amy Sullivan and others are alwasy talking about — not explicitly religious, but resonent to the religious.
He has that very rare gift of being able to discuss complex issues in simple ways without being condescending. (Edwards has that ability, too.) He drew the contrast between the parties in ways that people who don’t follow politics and feel uncomfortable with the emotion involved can wrap their arms around.
It was a good night, I think. Everybody up there were Democratic stars and since this is essentially a televised pageant, political star power is a potent plus for us. Since St. Ronnie the GOP has been reduced to flogging cartoon characters like Schwarzenegger, but they don’t have real political superstars. Our politicans are actually much more fun to watch.
Calling All Blogs
Jeff Greenfield is flogging the idea that that stupid picture of Kerry on Drudge is exploding all over the blogosphere and is comparable to the famous Dukakis in a tank pic.
I think it’s time to drag out this one again:
Crusader Codpiece looks very impressive here, don’t you think?
Oh, and by the way, he fell off his bike again today.
Blog Conventions
I’m giving out my first day of the convention blogging award to—- a non-blogger. I’m sorry guys, but as interesting as the inside baseball stuff about Verizon and logistics and celebrity sightings is (and it is) the blogging award of Day One goes to Harold Meyerson at the convention blog on American Prospect Online for actually reporting things I hadn’t heard anywhere else:
AFL-CIO CAUCUS, SUNDAY, 3:20 P.M.: Labor unveiled one major tactical twist at its delegate caucus on Sunday afternoon. AFSCME President Jerry McEntee, who has chaired the AFL-CIO’s political committee since the Van Buren administration, announced that on the afternoon and evening of George W. Bush’s speech to the Republican convention — Thursday, September 2 — union activists will knock on the doors of one million union households in the 16 battleground states.
I like it.
Harman told me that Democrats think it’s possible that Bush may spring into action on the intelligence reform front as soon as Friday, possibly calling Congress back into session to deal with the 9-11 Commission’s recommendations. (Of course, this would also have the effect of shifting attention away from the Kerry-Edwards ticket that will be nominated on Thursday.) The Democrats have no intention of having this issue taken away from them, however. Harman said that tomorrow morning at 8:00 A.M., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will convene a Democratic House Caucus meeting here in Boston, which Harman will address, to make sure the Democrats have the fullest possible proposal on the table before Bush acts.
I’m sure you are all aware that the day after the convention is like the afterglow day. The campaign found its big release the night before and smoked its metaphorical cigarette and everybody’s in love. For Bush to burst through the bedroom door is pretty darned uncivil but predictable. The Dems are all together and they should be able to formulate a counter strategy.
This is interesting stuff.
Message Strategery
Salon has an interesting article up about a fiery meeting earlier today at the Veteran’s Caucus where Wes Clark, James Carville and Max Cleland supposedly went off the reservation and got the vets all riled up. (This happened after an earlier caucus meeting where Sharpton allegedly went off the reservation and got the Black Caucus all riled up.)
“There’s another party out there, and they would have you believe that they’re the best qualified to keep America safe and secure,” Clark said. “I’m here to say it’s not so.”
In a building riff that brought veterans to their feet, Clark said: “That flag is our flag. We served under that flag. We got up and stood reveille formation, we stood taps, we fought under that flag. We’ve seen men die for that flag, and we’ve seen men buried under that flag. No Dick Cheney or John Ashcroft or Tom DeLay is going to take that flag away from us.”
Clark’s fiery performance knocked the GOP-style stuffing out of the veterans’ event, turning it into a Bush-bashing barnburner. By the time Carville reclaimed the stage he was in full sputtering ragin’ Cajun mode. “I know the Kerry people back there are having a heart attack,” Carville said. “They’re saying, ‘There goes Carville, the mad dog, the pit bull.'”
Uh huh.
It seems to me that the Kerry campaign’s public face of cheery optimism barely holding back the furious grassroots is a pretty good strategy. Everybody keeps parroting the party line like “positive” and “upbeat” when they’re talking to the celebcorps while even speakers like Jimmy Carter(?) allude to Bush’s national guard service and lying. You end up wondering what they’d be saying if Kerry hadn’t “given the word” to be disciplined. He shows leadership and the Democrats look like they’re ready for a fight. The Republicans are frustrated because they want the Democrats to make the mistake they made in 1992 and go over the top.
It’s as if the Party has Jack Nicholson’s smile.
I Already Need A Drink
Is there anything more thrilling than watching the likes of Anderson “Pretty Boy” Cooper spew stale, outdated uninformed conventional wisdom all over national television? I’ve watched a lot of conventions but the coverage of this one is shaping up to be the most condescending and unelightening ever. They might as well have sent Ashley and MaryKate. (Actually, have you seen either one of them in the same room as Anderson Cooper?)
May I recommend a trip over to C-Span? The speeches are boring, but at least they are sincere. (Fox News team just got a hearty boo from the crowd.)You get to see lots of shots of the delegates instead of the absurd celebcorps who haven’t even the slightest interest in anything but trivia. And the films are actually quite good.
As Professor DeLong plaintively cries, “Why, oh why can’t we have a better press corp?”
Conventional Wisdom
I gather that Theresa Heinz-Kerry was rude to a reporter for a right wing rag that has been smearing her all over Pennsylvania for the last year and that there are a lot of totally, like, cool parties that people want to go to but can’t get in to but maybe they’ll get into if they meet the right cool person who can get them in. And it was fine for all the media celebs to go to a ballgame but it was a total disaster for Kerry to do so. All of this is a sign of Democratic haplessness.
Meanwhile, the “drama” of the first night is whether any of the speakers will deviate from what are alleged to be Kerry’s direct orders not to “trash” Bush. It’s ex-president’s (and shouldhavebeen president) night and you never know what those crazy left wing kooks are going to do. Will Carter tell Bush to go fuck himself? Will Al Gore tell the GOP to shove it? Will Bill call Junior and Dick major league assholes? Who knows? But it’s so exciting watching the media speculate about it. Because if the Democrats do deviate from Kerry’s direct orders, you know what that means. The Democrats are in … disarray. Which means that the mediawhores can just read from all the scripts of Democratic conventions from the last 40 years and concentrate on those fantastic parties.
One little observation: if you get into those allegedly cool parties they are usually populated by people you criticize harshly on a daily basis. Perhaps once you meet them, though, you won’t want to trash them on a daily basis because they were, like, so totally cool at that party you got into. That’s the dynamic of Washington socializing and it leads to … Richard Cohen. Frankly, the only blog report of parties I’ m truly interested in are Wonkette’s. She is, after all, a professional.
If somebody wants to take a different tack they might think about trying to get into some uncool parties — like where the delegates from Ohio go. They aren’t very glamorous, but they are the blogworld’s much beloved grassroots of the Democratic party. Maybe they would have an interesting, non-blogging, non-media, non-celebrity take on this crazy democracy thing.
Brass Knuckles
Check out Terry McAuliffe’s new brainchild: Where Was Bush?
The right-wing attack machine doesn’t want you asking questions about Bush’s record, and they’re doing everything they can to change the subject. Here are five facts to keep in mind when facing their attacks.
Questioning Bush’s Record Does Not Denigrate Guard
Bush Received Special Treatment in National Guard
Bush’s Whereabouts Unclear During 1972-1973
Bush Should Have Done More During 1972-1973
Bush Has Yet to Explain Missing Records
There’s a lot more, plus a handy e-mail tool to send this information to everyone you know.
Anatomy Of A Smear
Dave at Seeing The Forest deconstructs the multi-pronged GOP campaign to smear Clinton for 9/11 and let Bush off the hook. As he says:
Republicans fight back with smears to discredit their accusers. They constructed a 3-part discrediting action that phased in, coming to a conclusion just before the commission releases its report.
For those of you who didn’t follow the previous Clinton smears in detail, this is a classic GOP operation. We have the merging stories of Gorelick, Wilson and Berger — a combination of character assasination, misrepresentation and the exploitation of unrelated credibility issues to form the basis of a counterfactual narrative that is much more juicy than the real thing. A dark conspiracy is set forth in the right wing press, then filters into the mainstream and tittilates the mediawhores with its more exciting version of events. Scoops are given to favored reporters and new facts dished out judiciously to keep the story going long beyond its natural life.
Read Dave’s post for the details. This is how its done.
Update: The incomparable Howler has more on this story. I realize that it’s long past time we asked just who in the hell is Kelli Arena and why is she always in the middle of these GOP psuedo-scandal pageants? Does anyone out there know who her special friend in the White House is?
