This weekend, the New York Times had an op-ed from two sociologists, Michael Hout and Andrew Greeley, attacking the idea that Evangelicals are the Republican Party’s base. “We are repeatedly told,” they write, “they form the president’s unshakeable electoral base. But in truth, this claim is vastly simplistic: the fashionable image of masses of white […]
Last night’s speech from President Bush:
His taxes - his policies of tax and spend, of expanding government rather than expanding opportunity, are the politics of the past. Our politics - the policies of credit cards, of debt and deficit, we’re the politics of the future. We are on the path to the future, and we’re […]
Between a busy week and problems I’ve had with the UHF on my TV set (I use only cutting edge technology), I’ve yet to actually watch the Republican National Convention proceedings. I’ll rectify that tonight (suggestions for suitable drinking game welcome), but in the meantime I’m just sorting through news and blog coverage. A couple […]
Last night Greater Boston interviewed Gov. Romney, asking about the convention and his possible positioning for a Presidential run. What leapt out was one sentence he said - “American values have recently come under attack” from the Democrats - which simply had to be a reference to gay marriage. Emily Rooney said as much, while […]
Matt Yglesias groans when he sees the obtuseness of NYC’s anti-Bush protestors:
If there’s anything I hate more than the Farm Bill, it’s protestors. Absolutely hate ‘em. If people put all the time, energy, intelligence and ingenuity that they currently spend doing these things into boring jobs in Washington that involved ties and desks and offices […]
Some thoughts about the last night of the DNC…
Best moment of the evening by far was seeing the stewed anger on Tom Finneran’s face as Tom Oliphant turned to him and offhandedly said (I paraphrase), “Oh, you probably know what it’s like to be an accomplished legislator who’s unable to reach the executive level.” And […]
ED! MARKEY! CAN’T! STOP! SHOUTING!
Is he too nervous or tone deaf?
Best line of the night so far, from Chet:
WGBH was worried that all of its viewers were going to be inside the convention.
Pundit after pundit keeps on fretting about the 55 minutes projected for Kerry’s speech. I’m fretting, too.
I should have checked a little before saying that Lieberman’s not participating in the DNC. Not only has he been in town since at least Sunday, he’s on the roster for tonight’s speakers. Scratch what I said before.
I have a question of how these conventions are produced. What, specifically, is behind the annoying convention of overdetermined cutaway and reactions shots? You know, the tearful elderly black woman at John Edward’s mention of the civil rights movement, or the buzz-cut military man at the mention of fighting soldiers. It’s what’s what made the […]
Lest the reader think I’ve gotten too starry-eyed over the speakers at the DNC so far, let me say that I agree wholeheartedly with William Saletan’s gripes about Obama’s speech:
Two things about the speech trouble me….One is the Democratic Party’s exploitation of hostility to free trade. Obama, like other speakers at this convention, complains about […]
An item in Wonkette grabbed my attention:
It seems that with the Democrats in [Boston] the only people “famous for Washington” left in town are either Republicans or their spawn. In this edition of Wonk’d, after the jump, are your sightings of political animals from both Boston and Washington, including The Bush Twins, Joe and Hadassah, […]
Thanks to my friend David, I was able to secure a ticket for last night’s convention proceedings. As you can tell from the picture, the bleacher seats aren’t the closest in the house (how do people follow a sporting event from that high up?), so no hobnobbing went on, just watching and taking in the […]
Across town, Lindsay at Majikthise has a post making the astute point that the obsessive press coverage of bloggers at the convention stems from the affront to the professionalization of journalism:
Journalists see themselves as professionals. Self-regulation is one of the distinctive features of a profession. Just as doctors reserve the right to decide who can […]
The standard retort you get from Log Cabinites is “Well, Kerry’s no better than Bush, he’s against gay marriage, too.” But do people really believe that? Whether one is for gay rights or not, is there not broad awareness that the Democratic party is on the side of them — however much they have to […]