By Beauty Damned

It Seems To Me...

I'm finally getting around to commenting on last night's speeches. I really only watched Sharpton, Edwards and Mrs. Edwards.

Reverand Al Sharpton's speech was true to his form. He deviated from his script pretty heavily and hit on a lot of things that other speakers were apparently too reserved or cautious to approach with the same abandon and righteousness as Sharpton. I would expect nothing less from him. I've always liked Sharpton. Despite the many wisecracks and deprecating comments that have been made about him over the years, he is a great man and a great speaker and I have the utmost respect for him, his cause and the values that he preaches. His scripted speech was wonderful, but his improvised additions were evidence of his deep and genuine convictions. (Hat Tip to Cul for that). It's hard to choose my favorite part of the speech, but I really liked this:

Look at the current view of our nation worldwide and the results of our unilateral foreign policy. We went from unprecedented international support and solidarity on September 12, 2001, to hostility and hatred as we stand here tonight. How did we squander the opportunity to unite the world for democracy and to commit to a global fight against hunger and disease? We did it with a go-it-alone foreign policy based on flawed intelligence. We were told that we were going into Iraq because there were weapons of mass destruction. We’ve lost hundreds of soldiers. We’ve expended over 200 billion dollars at a time when we face record state deficits. And when it became clear, that the weapons were not there, the president sought to shift the purpose of the war and to challenge our patriotism.

We are also faced with the prospect, in the next four years, that two or more of the Supreme Court Justice seats will become available. This year, as we celebrated the anniversary of Brown vs. the Board of Education, this court voted 5 to 4 on critical issues of women’s rights and civil rights. It is frightening to think that the gains of the civil and women’s rights movements of the last century could be reversed if this administration sits in the White House for four more years.

This is not about a party. It is about living up to the promise of America.

John Edwards was magnificent. Despite the fact that I would prefer not to have either a President OR a Vice President who voted in favor of giving Bush the authority to go to war, we don't have much of a choice now. But relatively speaking, we've done the best with what we had as far as I can see (though I wouldn't cry if the ticket were reversed). I really respect John Edwards' experience as a plaintiffs' trial lawyer and I believe him when he says he really cares about balancing out the social and economic spectrum and minimizing the inequalities in this country. I like him fine. A hell of a lot more than I like Dick. And though John Kerry would never have been my first pick as President, he'll do.

Elizabeth Edwards created a healthy contrast from Teresa Heinz Kerry in that she is more of an average American woman. She speaks with clarity and gets right to the point. I liked that. I also liked Teresa Heinz Kerry a great deal for her eloquent language and wisdom and a whole host of other traits that shown through during her speech the other night. Mrs. Edwards brought balance to the whole picture. She seemed to exhibit her own very down-to-earth personality.

As usual, the mood and spirit of empowerment was ruined for the folks at home by the irritating news correspondents who are covering the convention. It doesn't matter what channel you're watching, these idiots are the scourge of the earth as far as I'm concerned. A bane on the entire political process. Countless jaded, useless talking heads with nothing of value to contribute most of the time. Just their vapid commentary like the idiot who said "I don't know...I think John Edwards might have come off as too perfect." Oh shutup. I mean, have an opinion, by all means, but does every remark have to be cynical or aimed to distract from the reality of what is happening?

Aaron Brown is another dumbass when he asks ridiculous questions of Al Franken like, "is the party on the floor the same party that is at the podium?" How do you answer such a completely useless question? "Yes, we're all democrats here" or "No. It's weird. I have no idea why all those people were cheering like maniacs every time one of the speakers opened their mouth!" or how bout, "I have no idea! I don't even know what the hell that means! What am I doing here?! Where am I???" Wait, who's the president? Oh yes. That's why I'm here. To change all that.

Anyway, that is my biggest bitch about this convention. The media that already sucks so profoundly on a regular basis is out in full force, probably pounding caffeine all day and getting (as well as dishing out) their daily dose of all the inanity, twice the self importance and three times the nauseating cynicism while living up to nearly nil when it comes to their general responsibility to the public. But I guess we should be pretty used to that by now.

Posted by Maria at July 29, 2004 03:57 PM | TrackBack