Country First night

Coming in late after going to Weight Watchers meeting and seeing a play, I got to see the key parts of Tuesday night’s Republican National Convention in St. Paul on the “Country First” night. The lone popular Bush around, First Lady Laura Bush, gave a mildly partisan introduction to her husband, President George W. Bush.

Conveniently enough for Republicans there, W. wasn’t there. He had an excuse for being absent – He had been in Texas monitoring Gustav management/relief efforts – paying penance for his Administration having botched Katrina management/relief – and then was back in the White House, continuing to monitor Gustav and Ivan. (He spoke to the convention, after Laura Bush, by satellite.)

Vice President Cheney, one of the more unpopular other Bush Administration figures – outside of Republican circles – originally slated to speak on Monday night – took off for Europe and has skipped the convention altogether.

The centerpiece of the night was speeches by former Senator Fred Thompson (formerly of “Law and Order,” “The Hunt for Red October,” and “In the Line of Fire”) and Senator Joseph Lieberman. Thompson – in his folksy but punchy-assertive style (and in some graphic detail) – told Senator McCain’s dramatic prisoner of war story (leaving out the bombing of civilian targets and the appearances in anti-U.S. videos). He also added some red meat: attacking Senator Obama and the Democrats, at one point saying referring to “Barack Obama’s historic candidacy – historic because he’s the most liberal and most inexperienced candidate ever nominated.” Still, neither Thompson nor Lieberman, after him, were half as mean as the two Wednesday night speakers four years ago: Vice President Cheney and outgoing Democratic U.S. Senator (and former Georgia Governor) Jim . If Thompson had been this good on the campaign trail as (briefly) a presidential candidate, his candidacy might have gone further. (Thanks to Thompson’s campaign – short as it was – we’ve got Sam Waterson now as district attorney (having moved up from ADA) on “Law and Order.”

Lieberman was a curious case. Liberal, anti-war Democrats deprived him, as the incumbent, of the Democratic Party nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2006, even though he was Vice President Al Gore’s running mate in 2000 and had (again, briefly) run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004. You’ll recall that Lieberman’s presence on the ticket helped Gore immensely in Florida, where they really actually won. Lieberman is a moderate, but supports abortion rights. After keeping his Senate seat by running as an independent (Connecticut has a tradition of Independent elected officials), Lieberman has caucused with the Democrats (one of I believe three independents to do so) and kept his committee chairpersonship.

(Lieberman says he backed McCain because they’re friends, because McCain asked, and because he and McCain see eye to eye on the conduct – and continuation – of the war in Iraq. Lieberman and the old John McCain’s views overlapped in other areas too, but not so much Lieberman and the new John McCain (even with Lieberman’s claim that ‘there is only one John McCain.)

But all eyes were on Lieberman and the Republicans last night. Would Lieberman blast Obama and the Democrats in a way that would tempt the Democrats to deprive Lieberman of his committee chairpersonship – if they didn’t need his extra vote to give them a 51-49 advantage only in the Senate. And how would the Republicans in the audience greet this man who they had essentially deprived of the vice presidency not once but twice. In 2000 Gore-Lieberman actually won Florida – and thus the election – but Republican operatives and Republicans appointed to the judiciary stole the election for Bush-Cheney. And in 2008 Senator McCain was dead set on tapping Lieberman as his running mate. But when McCain’s aides floated Lieberman’s name and the name of another support of abortion rights. former PA Governor Tom Ridge, it became clear that the Right – already suspicious of McCain for other reasons – would push some states to vote for a different vice presidential candidate – thus triggering a big convention brouhaha.

A few things that surprised folks: Lieberman backed McCain the person and McCain on the war and looked directly at the camera and urged Democrats and independents to vote for McCain-Palin. But he also stood McCain – and implicitly himself – up as models of bipartisan, anti-interest group consensus building. He said that in two years in the U.S. Senate, Obama has shown no proclivity for bipartisan cooperation-building and has not taken any power Democratic Party interest groups. McCain also hinted that Obama lacked the experience – saying at some point that “Obama was (essentially) a nice young man, but . . . “ So Lieberman went more after Obama than folks were expecting. We’ll see if this puts Lieberman’s chair-person-ship at risk. Lieberman also praised Governor Palin and her selection (someone selected instead of him). And then Lieberman surprised in a different way – the Clinton years – for their peace and prosperity. Looking for votes from HillaryCrats, the Republicans in St. Paul knew what to do more quickly than folks at the Dayton press conference. Those folks had just sat there stunned when Sarah Palin praised Gerald Ferraro and Hillary Clinton in part for blazing paths for other women.

(Two other women at the convention last night were Senator McCain’s wife, Cindy, and their adopted daughter Bridget (originally from South Asian India) – whom the Bush campaign used to defeat McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign when – in a whisper campaign – they suggested that John McCain and an African American woman had been involved and parented Bridget as their child.)

Interspersed among this speech clips – on CSPAN – were clips from two counter-convention events: the Ron Paul-oriented rally (we watched part of Ron Paul’s speech on CSPAN – he even came out against the war on drugs!) and from the protests and police response outside. We watched a discussion among reporters as to whether the chemical agent the police in St. Paul (now a relatively progressive city) had used against protestors, mainly anti-war protestors.

(Here's a protestor mimicking the posture of a dead U.S. "detainee" - a la "Taxi to the Dark Side").

P.S. Not so flattering things have come out about two of the candidates. Stephanie and I got up early to go back to Deam Lake Sunday morning and were frustrated that CNN was carrying updates on neither Gustav nor the Saturday campaigning. Instead, we watched a bio piece on Obama with some interesting tidbits (see also “Chinks in the sheen”). Obama voted “Present” more than 100 times in the Illinois state Senate, on many controversial issues, rather than taking a clear stand. Accused corrupt Chicago businessman Tony Rezo’s family essentially bought part of a house/lot for Obama and his family. The documentary also suggested that Obama’s anti-Iraq war stance was quite tactical. Once in the U.S. Senate,

On the other hand, a wave of information has come out about Governor Palin which may be less than flattering. She presented herself last Friday in Dayton as an opponent of park – including the infamous Alaska “bridge to nowhere” and federal “earmarks” for Alaska projects. Actually, before she opposed the bridge, she was for it. While she has curbed Alaska’s traditionally voracious appetite for earmarks, in Wasilla she had the city hire a lobbyist who helped the city garner more than its share of federal earmarks – working with the recently indicted Alaska king of earmarks, Senator Stevens. Like many social conservatives (but not always Senator McCain), she may also support the teaching of intelligent design theories in public school science classes and opposes stem cell research. (Like Senators Obama and Biden, Senator McCain and Governor Palin apparently oppose the proposed amendment to the federal constitution banning same-sex marriage.)

Governor Palin’s selection has certainly solidified Republican support for the ticket (including among National Rifle Association activists). Whether her selection turns out to help the McCain ticket with independents and Anglo lower-middle-class voters remains to be seen. The Right loves the idea that the liberal media has unfairly gone after Palin, even though Obama himself has NOT attacked Palin and some of those asking questions about Palin’s selection are not liberal (whether media or politicians).

(Pictured below is Governor Palin doing a sound check at the Excel Energy Center early this morning.)

-- Perry