PARTY TIME!

It's no secret I'm a political wonk, so my fun re-starts this week with the Democratic Convention. I enjoyed the 2-yr primary run, but it gets longer and longer each POTUS election cycle. Hopefully, the end result will show that people like HRC and John Edwards gained NOTHING by starting so early. The party's get so uptight on when it's acceptable for states to schedule their primaries -- maybe they should be equally uptight on when it's acceptable to officially begin these campaigns, complete with strict guidelines and penalties that cannot be easily challenged in court. Let's see, what else...

The Selection of Joe Biden (not to be confused with the movie "The Seduction of Joe Tynan"):
I seem to recall a certain electronic correspondence shared between friends about 6-8 months ago, where I suggested that Biden be seriously taken as strong presidential timber. Having watched Joe on various political shows the past 12 months in particular, I could see he had a grasp of what is (mostly) needed to stop the madness and to move forward with making sense of it all. Joe has a son going to Iraq very soon, and therefore he has a (stronger) vested interest in the conflict over there. I've always believed that statesmen should not be allowed to make policy on issues they don't have a direct interest in -- sort of like the argument that if you don't' have children, you shouldn't be on the school board or make nasty comments about interactions between parents and their children in public. I'm not saying to ignore public child abuse -- we still, as a civilized society, have an obligation to uphold ourselves to a higher and rational standard. But I also remember being single and carefree, and being annoyed at the local mall by all the strollers pushed by parents who were walking at a snail's pace -- "how rude of them!" I thought, until the day I had kids that I was strolling in a mall, and it all came back to front. And so it is very similar with Joe -- he's past the mindset of working to make the world a better place for he to personally enjoy, and is now thinking and working to leave the world a better place for his children and his children's children. Joe makes sense of his complaints about the current administration's faults, yet he also knows that no administration can get it all correct, all the time, but at least cut your losses and move on, it's ok to admit mistakes, no one's perfect.
It seems that Obama shares the same sentiment in that this Biden dude got mad skills when it comes to foreign policy and Beltway protocol. Oh, stop it already with the soundbites that "Biden isn't an outsider"; as a moderate conservative, I don't care if you're in or out, I just want you to work harder to get it right, but don't take forever and a day doing it.
The Introduction Speech: OK, so there's the O, taking the stage in shirtsleeves (gotta be sure to convey he's a working man's man), and I get the sense that he's struggling here because he's always been the one to be introduced, he's always been the one to be propped up, not the other way around...suddenly the O seems lost, as if he forgot for a second who is actually running for POTUS. It's natural (to me) that the O slips a few times on the speech, he's in unfamiliar territory. He can't get out of there fast enough, you can see he's not diggin' this at all.
And then there's the Boss' song "The Rising" blaring between speeches, and we see Joe, also in shirtsleeves, jogging on stage -- is this to show the youth and vigor of these guys compared to the old man of the GOP? Of course it is!
The Joe Speech: Oy Vey, here we go. I'm sure they told him backstage, Hey, Joe, it's hot and humid out here, save it for later, don't go off on a tangent if you can help it. Joe has a few good zingers for McCain, and it's clear to see the O will use Joe as a foil since both Joe and McCain are long-time Senate members and adversaries. I like the move -- it makes for good theater, which we'll all see in the next three months.
Post-speech photo ops: U(we sold out long before this)2's "Beautiful Day" blares on the speakers to close it out...Joe getting a little too comfy and cuddly with Mrs O, while the O is polite to the white woman (kinda hard to kiss/hug with one eye on Mrs Drop Dead Gorgeous and the other eye on the old dude fondling my wife right next to me)...Then it's on to the handshakes -- this is where the Secret Service earn their money: Holy cow, these guys/gals are all business, they look like they just came out of a Men In Black convention, complete with shades. None of them look like they are enjoying this. You know what's on their minds, and so do the cameras, by the way. Let's not fool ourselves: We don't want another Bobby. But if anything goes down, we'll see it live and in various camera positions....OK, that went without a hitch, it's on to the Mile High City...
Speaking of Denver, my holiday season starts today: first day of school for the kiddies, and the wall-to-wall convention coverage begins, starting with Morning Joe on MSNBC, with a few peeks at Fox News, just enough to keep it "fair and balanced". The conventions have their moments between all the mindless party rhetoric: I love to see the many characters and personalities emerge on the floor, and that's just the TV people (watch for the jostling of face time at key events), and it's interesting to see who will deliver the keynote address and how they do it, 'cause you know it's either make or break for that pol, but my absolute favorite part of the convention is the night when the states announce their nominations -- there's always some drunk old man or woman who screws up their one shining moment..."Madam Chairman (hic), the great state of Ohio, home of (hic burp) the blah blah blah, pride of the Midwest, blah of the blah blah blah, would like to recognize (hic) one of our crown jewels (read: largest fundraiser)...(this is the part where former anti-war hippie sympathizer-turned-CFO of Dunder Miflin steps up, sweating like a hooker in church)..."the great state of Ohio (like we forgot already) nominates all 27 delegates to...our hope for change, peace, blah blah blah, the next president of the United States, (and by this time you are loading your revolver with one hand while searching your phone list for Angela Lansbury's number with the other hand)....
And we get to see this 52 times? Well, maybe not that long -- the networks know that no one's gonna bitch if they pull away from American Samoa's or Puerto Rico's turn so that we can see another bombardment of their fall TV crap they're shamelessly self-promoting (who knew Christian Slater was still alive?) or who's swinging the biggest dick of "the best political coverage team...EVER"...this is the part where I wish I had an Olbermann mute button, or hopefully his sushi will be (how do you Americans say) "tainted" tonight...please PLEASE don't make me switch over to CNN with Wolf (I peaked in 1992, but don't tell anybody) Blitzer and their ridiculous classroom setting -- I feel like I'm watching the college version of "Are you smarter than a fifth-grader". Yes, there's always FOX News, but I've put away my Hilter Youth Group uniform long ago (FOX does have better looking female talking heads, I'll give them that. They know which side their bread is buttered, plus they have to off-set those O'Reilly/Hannity ogres).

There's my prelim synopsis. I hope to post every day of the convention, to try and be more relevant to current events. Send me your comments, tell me who ya got, who bugs you, who you want to have a beer with, who's baby you want to have, you know the drill....