I'm something of an amatuer pundit so here are some of my observations about the DNC. First is anyone else sick of hearing that Kerry fought in Vietnam? I certainly give him more props in the heroism department than GW alright already. After a few more weeks of this I might just vote Republican if GW at the Republican convention says, "I weaseled my way out of Vietnam by joining the Air National Guard and even then I still skipped out on doing my duty and I'm damn proud of it." Kerry's Vietnam experience IMO is the prime reason why he and not John Edwards is the Dem nominee. What I saw out of this convention is that as of now there really is one issue in this election which is Iraq. Kerry and the Dems have to be able to attack Bush on Iraq while still appearing competent to deal with the overall War on Terror. Bush as he has been doing lately in his stump speeches is still talking about what a good thing it was to go into Iraq. For all of the talk about "two Americas" and the economy both parties are obsessing about Iraq. For the speeches Kerry surprised me with how hard he went after the Bush admin.. There were times that I could hear echos of Michael Moore in the background, especially that comment about the Saudi Royal family. He also showed some particularly gall in personally calling on GW Bush to not use the Constitution for political purposes after he had said a few minutes earlier he would have an Attorney General who respected the Constitution. Kerry certainly dispelled any thought of him being another wimpy Massachuesetts liberal he came out with his teeth bared for this. There were also a long stretch when this could've been delivered at the Republican convention and still gotten as many cheers with his talk about the Flag, patriotism, building up the military, taking it to the terrorists and faith. In short Kerry has thrown down the guantlet by preemptively claiming some of the Republicans strongest issues. At the same time he's staked out some clear differences in regards to trade and stem cell research. Even though I rolled my eyes several times when he trotted out the same old DEm protectionist, class warfare, "saving" social security rhetoric but in general I thought it was a very good speech and a welcome departure from the well scripted up with people vibe of most of convention. As for John Edwards speech I couldn't stop myself from thinking "Man that guy is slick." He even got me rethinking my opposition to tort reform because he showed me how powerful a sharp trial lawyer is and how even the toughest Jury could be putty in his rhetorical hands. One thing that I found interesting about Edwards and Kerry's speech is that in many ways they seem to have been flipped. Edwards gave the kind of speech the Pres. nominee gives in that it was highly upbeat and reached out to a wider audience OTOH Kerry gave a more traditional Veep speech with a lot of red meat for the base. If there hadn't been Iraq or a war on terror I can't help thinking Edwards would be heading the ticket and not Kerry. As for Edwards overall I'm believing that Clinton wasn't joking when he said he resented the guy. As for Clinton he's still got it. His speech was another masterstroke. He managed to highlight his own failings in support of Kerry yet still came out appearing better than anyone else there. I also gotta mention Al Sharpton too. Wacky racial paranioa and anti-semitism aside this guy was the liveliest and most entertaining speaker of the lot. I loved his answer to GW Bush's comment that Blacks should reconsider their support of the Dems. 'We never got those 40 Acres and a mule so we rode this donkey for as far as it will go." Other than those speeches I wasn't really that impressed with any of the other ones I saw. Barak Obama delivered a good solid Dem speech but other than the fact that his name is Barak Obama and he is running virtually unoposed for US Senator of Illinois there didn't seem anything exceptional about it. Hands down the worse speech IMO has to be Teresa Heinz Kerry. Its not just her accent, afterall even Ahnold ( I mean Dutch from Predator) can deliver a good speech saying Cahleefornia, her pacing is terrible and deadening. She makes Dick Cheney look as lively as Jesse Jackson in comparison. Overall thoughts about this convention. Like too many conventions these days it has become too overproduced and almost maddening in how overproduced and on message it was. Its become so obvious with the premade signs and slogans that the delegates are about as spontaneous as a synchronized swim team. Besides for Kerry coming out swinging, Clinton's rhetorical skill and Al Sharpton this convention wouldn't have been worth much even for entertainment value. For most of it there was little substance and too many layers of paint over seething differences within the Democratic party on Iraq. Seeing something like this I wish that we had conventions of yore with violent clashes in the streets real, drama in the selection and surprise dark horse nominees. Fortunately this convention ended on a better note with Kerry throwing down the glove for Bush and the Republicans and I look forward to seeing what they'll do with it in 4 weeks.
