Republican National Convention Thread (September 1-4, 2008)

t_mac1 · Sep 3, 2008

palin has been practicing her speech since sunday and it's a written speech for her. no way she's gonna do bad. the expectations are low.

the only thing i'm wondering is when is she going to speak to the public by herself or go on campaigning with just a mic on her and answer questions directly.

did chris matthews go wild on those 2 mccain guys? hardball lol

weslinder · Sep 3, 2008

So I've been having a blast. Let me give a few updates:

Monday: I went to the convention, which was mostly boring, and talked to little old ladies in the guest section. Then as I'm leaving, one of my friends from Houston grabs me and drags me with her into the CNN grill. (CNN bought a restaurant across from the XCel Center to feed their employees and guests.) I had a nice little conversation with Wolf Blitzer. Then we had a pub crawl through downtown Minneapolis.

We did see a Code Pink rally that was really bizarre. There was an army of 100 or so Riot Police that showed up, made a wall and blocked off a major intersection. Then 12 coked-up middle-age women walked up and started dancing and singing and yelling random grievances against government.

Tuesday: I went to Ron Paul's Rally for the Republic at the Target Center in Minneapolis. There was much more talk about the issues there than at either convention. It was a blast. I was called and told that I was on C-SPAN, and was invited into the "donor dinner" (even though my donations didn't get me close to qualifying) with all the speakers. I got to have a long conversation with Grover Norquist about his new book Leave Us Alone, which I had read on the flight, met Jesse Ventura, and a great Congressional candidate from Massachusetts that I may go up and volunteer for. Jimmie Vaughan played at the after party, and I went there.

Today: Dick Armey gave an incredible speech at the Texas delegation lunch about how Republicanism is really about individual rights, and that it's a Christian duty to protect individualism, and not try to oppress those who aren't like us. He delivered it in a really soft-spoken way, and I'm not sure that the Neocons and Theocons got the point, but I loved it.

I'm headed to the convention, and I'll update whenever I get a chance again.

rimrocker · Sep 3, 2008

More than 21.5 million people watched the second night of the 2008 Republican National Convention — a 17% decrease from the 26 million viewers who tuned in last week for day two of the Democratic National Convention.

...

Compared to day two of the 2004 GOP convention, which drew more than 22 million viewers, the audience for day two of the 2008 convention was slightly lower, with approximately 600,000 fewer viewers.
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire...erman-draw-fewer-rnc-viewers-than-dems-day-2/
Click to expand...

Photo taken of the upper seats at 8:00 pm. I guess everyone was with weslinder at the Ron Paul gig.

Lil Pun · Sep 3, 2008

Prosperity?

rodrick_98 · Sep 3, 2008

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/03/romney.transcript/

Romney: We need change all right -- change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington -- throw out the big-government liberals and elect John McCain.
Click to expand...

what does he call '00 and '04? those small government conservatives really did the trick

DaDakota · Sep 3, 2008

How can the Republicans call the Democrats BIG GOVERNMENT with a straight face?

George W Bush has increased the size of the government more than ANY OTHER PRESIDENT.

And he has accrued the most debt.

Fiscal irresponsibility to the highest order by a House, Senate and President that had control for almost 6+ Years.

DD

Lil Pun · Sep 3, 2008

Doesn't sound very exciting there.

rodrick_98 · Sep 3, 2008

tell me this has been posted!

Noonan and Murphy lol
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CrG8w4bb3kg&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CrG8w4bb3kg&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

El_Conquistador · Sep 3, 2008

Guys, this is going to be good tonight. Palin goes after Obama's community organizer role. BEAUTIFUL

JunkyardDwg · Sep 3, 2008

Some excerpts from Palin's speech:

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin cast herself as a small-town outsider and "just your average soccer mom" on Wednesday as she introduced herself to the nation as John McCain's vice presidential running mate and fellow maverick.

In excerpts of the most anticipated speech of the Republican National Convention, the 44-year-old first-term governor also took a swipe at Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and what she called the "Washington elite."

"Here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country," she said in her prepared remarks.

Selected by McCain less than a week ago, Palin was addressing the convention — and millions of voters at home — amid questions about her qualifications and relative lack of experience.

The Alaska governor had top billing at the convention on a night delegates also lined up for a noisy roll call of the states to deliver their presidential nomination to McCain.

"I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids' public education better," she said, speaking of her home town of Wasilla, Alaska, with a population of about 6,500.

"When I ran for city council, I didn't need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too."

Before becoming governor, Palin served as mayor of Wasilla, she recounted, adding: "And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities."

That was a clear jab at Obama, who as a young man worked as a community organizer in Chicago, an experience he speaks about frequently on the campaign trail.

In another indirect barb directed at the Illinois Democrat, Palin said: "Here's how I look at the choice Americans face in this election. In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change."

In town for the speech were members of Palin's family, including husband Todd, and their children, including 17-year-old Bristol Palin, whom Palin disclosed earlier in the week was five months pregnant. Bristol Palin and her 18-year-old boyfriend, Levi Johnston, were expected to appear together as part of the GOP convention program Wednesday night.

The pair were with Palin when she greeted McCain at the airport earlier Wednesday.

McCain shook up the presidential race last Friday by picking Palin, a little-known governor less than two years in office. Since then, a bright spotlight has been trained on the life and record of the Republican governor who has bucked the state's political establishment.

Days after Palin made her debut on the national stage with McCain, the campaign announced her unmarried daughter's pregnancy. Other disclosures followed, including that a private attorney is authorized to spend $95,000 of state money to defend her against accusations of abuse of power and that Palin sought pork-barrel projects for her city and state, contrary to her reformist image.

The speech was Palin's first chance to fully introduce and define herself to the American public and to seek to explain how her experiences as Alaska governor would help galvanize the GOP ticket.

In the excerpts released by the McCain campaign, Palin emphasized energy policy, one of her areas of expertise as governor of a state that derives 85 percent of its general revenue comes from oil production

"Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America's energy problems — as if we all didn't know that already. But the fact that drilling won't solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all," she said.

Palin has been an aggressive advocate for drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, while McCain opposes drilling there. That difference was not touched on in the excerpts.

Palin said that in a McCain-Palin administration "we're going to lay more pipelines, build more nuclear plants, create jobs with clean coal, and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources. We need American energy resources, brought to you by American ingenuity, and produced by American workers.
Click to expand...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cvn_palin

Some zingers in there sure...but from those quotes she doesn't offer any authentic attack on Obama, on the issues he stands for, why the "change" he represents isn't what's right for America. And she doesn't make a case for herself as to why she's qualfied...being a member of the PTA isn't an argument. But alas, these are just tidbits.

Oski2005 · Sep 3, 2008

Thanks but no thanks indeed:

Major · Sep 3, 2008

JunkyardDwg said:

Some excerpts from Palin's speech:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cvn_palin

Some zingers in there sure...but from those quotes she doesn't offer any authentic attack on Obama, on the issues he stands for, why the "change" he represents isn't what's right for America. And she doesn't make a case for herself as to why she's qualfied...being a member of the PTA isn't an argument. But alas, these are just tidbits.
Click to expand...

I may be misreading the electorate, but this looks like a wreck. People are going to tune in to learn about her - not to hear someone they've never heard of acting like a normal GOP attack dog. I suspect the liberals will hate her, the conservatives will love her, and moderates are going to come away with a "what the hell's going on?" impression.

Cannonball · Sep 3, 2008

So, we won't be hearing about any REAL issues tonight? Good to know.

RocketFan007 · Sep 3, 2008

Palin has already given her speech? The major networks don't start airing the RNC until 9:00 CDT.

t_mac1 · Sep 3, 2008

JunkyardDwg said:

Some excerpts from Palin's speech:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cvn_palin

Some zingers in there sure...but from those quotes she doesn't offer any authentic attack on Obama, on the issues he stands for, why the "change" he represents isn't what's right for America. And she doesn't make a case for herself as to why she's qualfied...being a member of the PTA isn't an argument. But alas, these are just tidbits.
Click to expand...

let the fight officially begins.

but i always hate it when people blame the media for their problems from celebrities to now politicians. look, you enter this business where you'll be watched by the media 24/7. if you don't like it, don't enter. if you do, man up and stop blaming them.

t_mac1 · Sep 3, 2008

Cannonball said:

So, we won't be hearing about any REAL issues tonight? Good to know.
Click to expand...

well the mccain campaign spokesperson said this election is NOT about issues. so they're just following through.

it's a shame they say obama is just a speaker with a bunch of rhetorics and smoking mirrors, and yet this RNC has not spoken one thing about the economy or any other relevant issues facing america.

BigBenito · Sep 3, 2008

I had no idea that the liberals were elitist.... I'm voting repub.

Oski2005 · Sep 3, 2008

The speech was already released to the media.

Cannonball · Sep 3, 2008

Do you know I'm sick of? How every single interview is exactly the same because everybody is reading verbatim from identical scripts provided by the party.

I'm tired of hearing the phrase "a heartbeat away from the presidency" and I'm tired of hearing how Palin has "two years of 'executive' experience".

Lil Pun · Sep 3, 2008

I don't get Romney's speech.

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Republican National Convention Thread (September 1-4, 2008)

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