Saturday, July 31, 2004
Convention's Final Night
Dave just informed me that Alanis Morrisette performed on Sportscenter. Crappy popular music and Sportscenter have crossed paths before: in fact the downfall of Sportscenter began when Dan Patrick, Chris Berman, and other anchors appeared in Hootie and the Blowfish’s video. Who knew at the time the ramifications would be so dire? The Curse of the Blowfish.
Back to the Democratic Convention: I think Kerry did a pretty job of getting across a message and, perhaps more importantly, telling the American people about himself. This was never a problem for Clinton, but evidently poll numbers have shown that people don’t know that much about Kerry. Even I don’t, and I’m from freaking Massachusetts. Part of this is because, he hasn’t done anything that exciting or creative in his 18 years in office. You’d think he could have gotten a name on some sort of bill. Kerry seems to know this, however, and spent much more time talking about his childhood, his parents, and his war experience than anything he did as a Senator. We’ll see if he can get away with that for three more months. (Of course, I also couldn’t tell you anything about what Clinton did in Arkansas, and Bush didn’t do anything in Texas other than deny clemency for executions. Ok that’s probably not true, I’m sure he did something. The Texas governor does have the least power under state law of any of the 50 states, however.)
In covering the rest of the convention, I implored Kerry to lay out some policies that people could get a hold of and get behind. I think he said the right things: that he wouldn’t send troops to war unless we had to (without saying whether or not we would leave Iraq), that he would rebuild relationships with other countries. Most importantly, he tries to reacquire the patriotism that the Republican Party seems to have hijacked from the Left, which he is of course capable of doing because he is a war hero. Plus in saying he would implement the 9/11 commission recommendations, he puts pressure on W, who isn’t gung-ho about them.
After talking about security, Kerry attempts to steal another traditional Republican buzzword: values. Once he again, he does this fairly effectively, portraying Republican values as out of touch with the middle-class. I also like his message: America can do better, and help is on the way. Great. I totally agree with the first part, and I think enough people do to win Kerry the election. But they aren’t as convinced on the second part.
Kerry’s economic plan on the surface doesn’t inspire me. I am unsure about free trade and outsourcing, and whether its actually a good thing or bad thing. However politically, Kerry’s stance works. As for raising taxes on the wealthy, hell yes. Tax those rich bitches as much as possible I say. (Problem here: People think they are wealthier than they actually are. When Kerry says he will increase taxes on the top 1 percent, or whomever, probably something like 10-20 percent of the country assume they fall into the bracket. He needs to come up with a different way of conveying this.) Education policy, who cares? Can’t be worse than No Child Left Behind.
Kerry reiterates that he will extend Washington’s Healthcare plan to those who are uninsured. Whether or not this is feasible, or smart, I have no idea. But I will say one thing to some critics who have claimed that Kerry’s endorsing Universal Healthcare is undoable. Don’t be idiots. Look at other countries that have universal coverage and spend less a percentage of their GDP on healthcare than we do now, without coverage. It has to be possible. Next topic.
Kerry ends his speech with a message that he is the candidate of hope, of optimism. He implores Bush to join him in a positive campaign (conveniently right after a 4 day festival of pointing out everything wrong with the current administration.) Overall a good speech, maybe not in the way it was orated, or in the policies outlined, but in helping Kerry get elected. And that is all that matters.
Back to the Democratic Convention: I think Kerry did a pretty job of getting across a message and, perhaps more importantly, telling the American people about himself. This was never a problem for Clinton, but evidently poll numbers have shown that people don’t know that much about Kerry. Even I don’t, and I’m from freaking Massachusetts. Part of this is because, he hasn’t done anything that exciting or creative in his 18 years in office. You’d think he could have gotten a name on some sort of bill. Kerry seems to know this, however, and spent much more time talking about his childhood, his parents, and his war experience than anything he did as a Senator. We’ll see if he can get away with that for three more months. (Of course, I also couldn’t tell you anything about what Clinton did in Arkansas, and Bush didn’t do anything in Texas other than deny clemency for executions. Ok that’s probably not true, I’m sure he did something. The Texas governor does have the least power under state law of any of the 50 states, however.)
In covering the rest of the convention, I implored Kerry to lay out some policies that people could get a hold of and get behind. I think he said the right things: that he wouldn’t send troops to war unless we had to (without saying whether or not we would leave Iraq), that he would rebuild relationships with other countries. Most importantly, he tries to reacquire the patriotism that the Republican Party seems to have hijacked from the Left, which he is of course capable of doing because he is a war hero. Plus in saying he would implement the 9/11 commission recommendations, he puts pressure on W, who isn’t gung-ho about them.
After talking about security, Kerry attempts to steal another traditional Republican buzzword: values. Once he again, he does this fairly effectively, portraying Republican values as out of touch with the middle-class. I also like his message: America can do better, and help is on the way. Great. I totally agree with the first part, and I think enough people do to win Kerry the election. But they aren’t as convinced on the second part.
Kerry’s economic plan on the surface doesn’t inspire me. I am unsure about free trade and outsourcing, and whether its actually a good thing or bad thing. However politically, Kerry’s stance works. As for raising taxes on the wealthy, hell yes. Tax those rich bitches as much as possible I say. (Problem here: People think they are wealthier than they actually are. When Kerry says he will increase taxes on the top 1 percent, or whomever, probably something like 10-20 percent of the country assume they fall into the bracket. He needs to come up with a different way of conveying this.) Education policy, who cares? Can’t be worse than No Child Left Behind.
Kerry reiterates that he will extend Washington’s Healthcare plan to those who are uninsured. Whether or not this is feasible, or smart, I have no idea. But I will say one thing to some critics who have claimed that Kerry’s endorsing Universal Healthcare is undoable. Don’t be idiots. Look at other countries that have universal coverage and spend less a percentage of their GDP on healthcare than we do now, without coverage. It has to be possible. Next topic.
Kerry ends his speech with a message that he is the candidate of hope, of optimism. He implores Bush to join him in a positive campaign (conveniently right after a 4 day festival of pointing out everything wrong with the current administration.) Overall a good speech, maybe not in the way it was orated, or in the policies outlined, but in helping Kerry get elected. And that is all that matters.
# posted by Marmaniac @ 2:13 AM 
