August 31, 2008

Gustav provides cover for Republicans in retreat

What to do with the most unpopular president in modern history when you have to have him speak at your convention? That's a problem.

And what about the even LESS popular vice-president, who'd already been scheduled to speak?

Hell, what could you do when the Democrats just put on the most rousing, inspirational, amazingly brilliant convention in the country's history?

Meeting in the same town with two symbols of Republican neglect and hypocrisy, the collapsed interstate bridge and the Minneapolis bathroom where Larry Craig took his wide stance, things aren't going to be too swell to begin with.

And with the first ever back-to-back conventions, your convention is poised to look simply pathetic by comparison, both in enthusiasm, crowds, message, and .. well, everything.

And on top of it, another reminder of just how badly your party has mucked up the country is steaming across the gulf and aiming at the same area where many are still living in trailers from the last disaster.

What do you do??

Well, you HAVE to pretend to really care this time around, that goes without question.

And you use the storm as an excuse to keep Bush from getting anywhere near Minneapolis, and use the cover to cancel Cheney too. (Hey! Maybe hurricanes aren't so bad after all!)

But what about the woefully sucky convention itself? It'll look so bad coming on the heels of Denver that the entire party will be embarassed.

Well, let's see....

We could in effect cancel the entire program. Yeah, that's it.

Oh! I got it! Let's cancel everything and turn it into a telethon for hurricane victims! Brilliant! (Just don't remind Republicans that the money might be going to mostly black people or it'll fall on its face. Remember how before the storm was even over right wing pundits and talk show hosts were blasting the victims themselves for their fate and arguing against giving them government help? (But it was just fine to provide government help to those with huge second homes on the beach, like Sen. Trent Lott, whom Bushie personally pledged to help rebuild. Or the millions in aid to casinos struck by the storm.) Maybe just show white victims outside New Orleans.)

So that's it. Even though we were dead set against aid to black/poor victims of Katrina and we still haven't provided enough aid to make more than a dent in rebuilding, even though we mocked the victims at the time, now we can exploit another storm to our benefit.

We'll send McCain down to hang out with former super-lobbyist Haley Barbour, Governor of the only state, Mississippi, to get plenty of government aid, even though it was far from the hardest hit, but it was mostly well off whites who lost property along the exclusive coast in Mississipi.

But what about the evangelicals? Our big supporter Rev. Hagee said that God had sent Katrina because there was a gay pride parade scheduled in New Orleans. What's pissed him off this time? They wont' give a dime to people they think have incurred the wrath of God. So that's a problem. But hey, this isn't about actually raising money... it's about APPEARANCES like everything. Don't sweat it.

So we'll essentially cancel our entire convention out of shame.

But we'll get some good "optics" (I absolutely HATE that deeply stupid term, which reporters and pundits think is so cool to say. Can't just say "visuals" anymore... or you won't be "cool". And it's not freaking "optics" anyway. Optics are made out of glass, damn it.) out of McCain. Maybe put him in some hip boots and take some shots of him handing out water for a few minutes. All good.

Get rid of Bush. Check.
Get rid of Cheney. Check
Just give up on competing with the Dem convention. Check.
And pretend we're doing it out of concern for people we couldn't care less about a few years ago. Check.

2 Comments:

At 8/31/2008 10:46 PM, Blogger nicodemus said...

I'm afraid that for both sides, "Photo opps" are part of the campaign process. I mean during the floods when Obama was down on the Mississippi passing sandbags, do you think he was there working the entire week?

At least this time, the state and local authorities down there aren't just sitting on their ass thinking that the FEDERAL government has the role of "first responder".

I must say you really have a fart crossways this weekend. Do you sleep well at all at night or do you toss and turn with anger thinking about this stuff?
Are you going to have some pictures from the Labor Day picnic tomorrow? I'll bet your wonderful Gov. Blagojevich will show up! Speaking of unpopular incumbents...speaking of embarrassments. Why else would the Obama camp muzzle him at the DNC ?

 
At 9/01/2008 7:18 PM, Blogger The Inside Dope said...

I'm tired of pretending that Republican ideology is anything short of a disaster for this country, the world, and 90% of Americans. OK.

Please forgive me for not being meek and mild about it.

If you want to continue to support a party that puts wealth and priveledge at the front of the line for government help while ignoring the rest, go ahead.

If you want to support endless and foolish military conflicts around the world which are bankrupting the country and destroying our standing in the world, have at it.

But the thought that there are people as uninformed and mired in their thinking that they'd actually be in FAVOR of continuing on a path that has been disasterous on too many levels to count kind of pisses me off.

Again, forgive me for not embracing those who want to continue to ignore the constitution, rig the rules to ensure the rich get even richer while telling us to wait for it to trickle down.

I'm just done with being expected to PRETEND like the two ideologies are the least bit comparable as far as what the country needs.

We do NOT need more of Republican style leadership. We need to go back to what worked in the past and what is required to be better situated in the future.

You can sit there and continue to elect these thieving bastards because you're afraid you might have to pay a couple hundred bucks more in taxes if you don't, but to me, that's stupid.

I'm concerned about our people and our country, and I have no interest in acting as though the failed policies and mind-set of the Republicans is anything other than a proven failure. How can you pretend it's not, or think anything would change under McCain?

Hell, things are so bad, it's BEYOND worth what little risk is involved in allowing Obama a chance. He SURE THE HELL couldn't do worse than Bush and the Republican plutocrats.

I always resist the temptation to assume I'm right about political issues. I try to be open minded. But seriously, with 80% of this crap, the Dems ARE right and the right is dead wrong.

They had their chance, they did EXACTLY what they've always wanted to do, privatize everything, spend the country into dizzying debt, engage in reckless military adventures to benefit big oil.

Practiced the politics of division and used petty social issues to distract and pit Americans against each other while they literally looted the treasury.

Face it Nico, IT WAS BAD FOR THE COUNTRY.

I'd done pretending it wasn't.

As to photo ops, obviously all policians engage in it.

I'm personally glad that apparently McCain had the good sense not to go down into the area about to be struck, as such a visit would only cause more problems, with the massive security, press, etc.

It's more responsible to just stay away and stay plugged in from afar.

People don't need five aircraft and a fleet of limos and secret service vehicles and taking hundreds of cops away from their duties, snarling traffic, etc. at a time like that.

I guess McCain went to MS to hang with Barbour then got out. I think that was wise of him.

Apparently Bushie resisted the temptation to stage a huge theatrical production like he did when he spoke from in front of that cathedral down in N.O. after Katrina, and even he (or his people) had the sense to keep him away from ground zero.

And you're wrong about Blago.

I saw Hillary shaking hands and sharing some words with Blago on the convention floor immediately after she'd made her way to the mike at the NY delegation to move to make Obama the nominee by acclamation.

And one of the speakers was Tammy Duckworth, his director of veteran affairs, and she specifically noted what they'd done in IL and said it was thanks to the leadership of Blago or something like that. (there were even scattered cheers.)

And if you, or anyone, thought that the Feds (and all government entities) were going to do anything other than OVERreact this time around, you're silly.

Of course they weren't going to drop the ball this time. It just proves that they KNOW what to do if they actually take it seriously, have the funding, and most importantly, have people running the effort that are experience and know what the hell they're doing.

I'm sure they also benefitted tremendously from lessons learned during the failed Katrina response. So there's that small silver lining to that disaster.

 

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