The Republicans have nothing left to fling. Watch the news- there is no mention of them.
The first couple of days, they were making some media headway with their war room, and certain memes would trickle into the news cycle. Now, nothing but limp jokes about the Greek columns from the official McCain website and attempts to gain some attention by claiming McCain has made his VP decision. The PUMA movement has been defanged (if, indeed, they ever had any fangs to begin with), and have now completely devolved into farce, with commenters on PUMA sites claiming Hillary was speaking to them in code by wearing an orange pantsuit (apparently the “color” of the PUMA movement) and asserting that the raucous applause for Bill Clinton last night was… an attempt to silence him.
Meanwhile, the Democrats got to accomplish what they wanted to do- unify the party, perform a grand set-up for Obama tonight, build the stature of the party and highlight some new blood in the Democratic party, marry Bush to McCain and draw some real contrasts while reminding America how good things were under Clinton and Democratic rule, and lay some good wood on McCain while respecting his service. No one will be able to claim McCain’s service was dissed, but the Democrats did get some solid licks in.
Granted, things could go horribly astray tonight, but I don’t have any reason to think they will. I think Obama will once again rise to the occasion, and we will get a great speech and the part of the country who has not been paying attention will get to meet the nominee.
And the best thing is what is to come- the train wreck that will be the GOP convention, and that can not be understated. It is going to be a disaster. The Democratic convention was forward looking, positive, hopeful, and constructive. For all the talks of disunity, this party is unified and ready for battle. Contrast that with what we can expect to see next week.
First, we know for a fact that the GOP, unlike the Democrats, will not be able to control themselves. They will launch attack after attack at Obama, and try to destroy him. It will fail, and they will get savaged in the media, who were all present at the DNC. The best thing about the babble all through the Democratic convention is that they will feel duty bound to do the same during the RNC, and they will be shocked and taken aback by the viciousness of the GOP. Bank on it. Either the gild will come off the McCain maverick/respectful lily, or we will have to realize that McCain wants to be President but can not even control his own convention. I will take either narrative for 1000, Alex.
Second, the Republicans actually are not unified. Just yesterday their platform took a step toward the troglodyte right, as a call for a ban of ALL stem cell research, public and private, was placed in the platform. The base currently hates their candidate, and are trying to will themselves through this election with a greater hate for Obama. They have NOTHING positive to say about McCain; it is all anti-Obama all the time. Not only will this not play well with the middle of the electorate, but it also provides minute-by-minute opportunities for them to over-reach and go to far in the attacks.
Third, forget about the PUMA’s. Ron Paul is going to outdraw the RNC. Hell, half the Republican party is not even attending the RNC.
Fourth, it looks like Hurricane Gustav is going to make a guest appearance on the first night of the convention, giving us all sorts of opportunities to remember the Katrina response. It looked a little something like this:
Even better, Bush is speaking the first night.
Finally, McCain is a horrible speaker. Just tragic. There may be camera angles that can hide the growth on his face (a result of his skin cancer), but there is no camera angle that I am aware of that covers up grating diction and shitty delivery.
So, if things go well tonight, I think we can consider this convention a real success.
maya
There’s just one problem with your analysis: You underestimate the drawing power of Yankee Daddy.
greynoldsct00
My concern remains that the polls are still so close and that such large chunk of the public still think McCain is a good idea. I sincerely hope you are right and they fall on their sword next week. The potential hurricane will be icing on their shit sandwich.
Conservatively Liberal
I agree John, the contrast between the unity of the Democratic convention and what will be the Republican convention should be jarring to say the least. I think the Democrats deliberately kept the convention ‘cool’ because they know that the right is going to melt down between the infighting, their crazies going after Obama and the Paulites. Toss in the protests and you have the makings of an epic failure.
If Gustav turns into a hurricane and hits the south coast (and I really hope it does not!) then the icing will have been put on the cake that the right will fall into, face first.
The Moar You Know
They’ve got plenty left to fling (shit really is an inexhaustible natural resource) but to no good end. Their last best hope – trying to exploit a divided Democratic party, got a axe in the back thanks to both Hillary and Bill, who, to their credit, did not pull a Ted Kennedy and instead handled what must have been a bitter moment for them with elan and class.
They literally have only one thing left – Obama is black. Let’s see if they can exploit that with skill, or if someone highly placed will go Michael Richards and start yelling about the uppity “nigger”. I’m betting pretty heavily on the latter.
ThymeZone
In ppGazspeak, we call this Damning With Faint Praise.
And of course, in BJLand, this is Bad News for Obama.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled ridicule.
Incertus
I see think alike, John. I think it’s official–God hates the Republican party now.
Warren Terra
I don’t know if you’re right John – you may not have been a Dem long enough to truly internalize our ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory – but from your keyboard to the FSM’s eyes!
seeker6079
(Hysterical, painful, drawn out laughter…. Goes on for some time. Takes deep breath, wipes eyes, chest still heaving a bit.)
Seriously. You can’t POSSIBLY believe this, even for a second. You haven’t demonstrated much of a tendency to ponies and unicorns naivete before, so why now?
I mean, come on. Words cannot even begin to describe how wrong and idealistic that quote is. The themes within the mainstream media coverage are set: when the GOP is vicious, it’s tough. When the Dems are somewhat less than polite it is the politics of personal destruction.
When somebody slanders Obama it is a problem for the Dems because of how America is nervous about him. When somebody points out something negative about McCain it is a shocking personal attack on an honourable man. (P.O.W! P.O.W! P.O.W!) And so on, endlessly.
“…feel duty bound to do the same during the RNC”???? (Hysterical laughter starts again. Doesn’t stop.)
4tehlulz
Me too. Maybe
Mitt Romneysome GOP delegates will show up in black face.The Thinking Man's Mel Torme
Really. Are you drunk already? Still new to how it works on the Dem side? May I direct you to Mr. Somerby for a primer?
Tweety may have seemed redeemed last night when he asked that turd Mike Murphy “where in sane America” he could find anyone who thinks the Clintons will vote for McCain, but by next Thursday he will be giving full vent to his lurid McCain man-crush. He will be but one among many.
Bank on it.
Paul L.
I am sure that explains why Obama’s supporters screamed Mccain “cheated” after the Saddleback forum.
Of course to really see grating diction and shitty delivery take the teleprompter away from Obama.
dbt
Sadly, all I can say here is “what seeker6079 said”.
South of I-10
Gustav sucks. That is all.
dmsilev
PUMA’s color was orange? Really? If I look at PUMA PAC’s homepage, I see nary a trace of orange in the logo, the page colorscheme, anywhere. It’s more likely to be a shout-out to the Great Orange Satan, indicating to the dirty hippie bloggers there that she is now under their control.
Or, possibly, it was chosen because it looked good on her and contrasted nicely with the color scheme of the podium. But that’s just crazy talk.
-dms
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
I think there’s something to what seeker said, but I wouldn’t put it past the Paulbots to crash McCain’s party hard and loud. Not to mention what the fundies might do if they’re feeling like Alex Forrest again. If Gustav shows up as Katrina II, this could be comedy gold.
Which, of course, is good news for John McCain, who had to deal with five and a half years of conditions worse than this…
The Thinking Man's Mel Torme
Uh, exsqueeze me, but we passed “Katrina Fatigue” 2.5 years ago. Everyone knows New Orleans is fulla shiftless coloreds who did nothing but wait for Whitey to pick them up in limos and hand them checks, which they immediately used on hookers and giant cocaine rocks anyway. The fact they moved back and are prepared to repeat the pattern just shows the irredeemable nature of the Negro race, which dovetails nicely into the libtard insanity of electing You-Know-Who.
KCinDC
What media would that be? Presumably not the McCain worshippers that we have for media on my planet.
And do you actually believe the media will give the Ron Paul anti-convention even a hundredth the coverage they gave the PUMA idiots? I hope you don’t have any money riding on that.
Conservatively Liberal
Johnny Boy is getting “prickly”, via the GOS:
McCain response in interview bolded
My my, he sounds a bit testy. Great diary about it at Kos.
KCinDC
I’m going to assume for my peace of mind that the people hoping for a repeat of Katrina for possible political advantage are spoofs.
Andrew
A Dem PAC really needs to blanket the cable channels with “Where’s Bin Laden?” ads next week, especially the evening Bush is going too speak.
The Other Steve
Behold the great Greek Columns!
Tax Analyst
I left out the rest of it because there was nothing in it that could possibly bear repeating.
Thanks for playing “Balloon Juice”, Paul L., you did not win, but as a consolation prize you’ll be receiving the “Home Edition” of Balloon Juice. If you play with yourself long enough maybe the next time you come back here you’ll be able to make sense to some small degree.
Yes, in case you were wondering, I worded it that way on purpose.
While you’re at it, why don’t you help yourself to a heaping moundful of shitty diction, you feckless troll.
PeterJ
And in other weather news:
Seems that praying for rain upset God and now he’s sending a hurricane.
I think it would be better if just the GOP convention gets flooded though.
Tsulagi
Love that one.
Baghdad Bob would be so proud.
Savaged in the media? Dream on.
Go Ron Paul!
fester bestertester
and they will be savaged in the media? huh? checking my calendar, i notice today is not april 1st, so, what gives? it’s been stated above, but i do not expect the media to take the wingnuts to task for going unhinged and entering pure attack mode next week. no, they’ll swoon over the mcmanly mcmaverickiness of the daddy republicans. and, did you forget, mcmanly mccain was a mcPOW? how many times do you think we’ll hear that next week?
and, this site allows me to get a lot of work done, being down all the time.
Grumpy Code Monkey
No they won’t. The big media outlets have a vested interest in keeping the GOP in power (or keeping the Dems out of power, whichever). Hell, you even created a category for the “Mainstream Media’s McCain Mancrush” — do you honestly believe that Tweety, Scarborough, Hannity, et al. are going to say anything critical about McCain or the party in general during the convention? Do you think CNN will air Obama ads attacking McCain (the way they aired McCain ads attacking Obama during the DNC)?
At worst it’ll be backhanded slaps about how the GOP aren’t being “tough enough” on Obama.
John Cole
For christ sakes, KC, you have been commenting here long enough to realize that no one wants another Katrina. Jesus, that was some Paul L./Red State quality bad faith.
BH-Buck
I think you’re both off the mark here. These idiots have nothing to fling all week but lies and negativity towards Obama. Sure, they’re up to it. But anything that can come along and preempt the coverage can only be to their advantage. (A respite… some breathing room.)
jake
I don’t know about the rest of you, but thinking about the debates is starting to make me hot.
As for the PUMAs, I sincerely hope the SS is watching out for Hillary. Deranged, dissapointed loonies can be bad for the health.
Dreggas
Quite Honestly, I hope the republicans do implode at their convention. Nothing would make me happier. The truth is that even if they burned crosses on the stage and showed mock footage of bombing more brown people the media will just eat it up. After all burning crosses are not as elitist as greek columns.
zzyzx
John – I came to the exact same conclusion this morning.
gopher2b
Obama is going to kill him. It’s going to be kind of sad.
mark
The attacks on Obama have been as shameless as those on Kerry, but they’ve also seemed especially random as they’ve been throwing everything conceivable hoping that something will stick. I’ve been afraid to dare believe that they’re desperate, but now I’m thinking maybe so. Maybe it’s not just “rope-a-dope” but “give them enough rope”. Then Obama will have tons of material for ads. Kerry’s “senator vs. candidate” meme was a good start.
Jim
Well, reports now are that Bush won’t speak on Monday if Gustav hits anywhere close to New Orleans. Plus, as crappy as McCain may be, he will succeed on the “better than expected” grading curve that gave us Shrub. You may be right, however, in thinking this could devolve into another ’92 Convention Hatefest. The contrast to the Democrats praising McCain’s service will be striking.
Shade Tail
I have to agree with everyone else saying how naive it seems to think the media will savage the GOP for their viciousness. Some media people are starting to fall away from them, but they still have an impressive base to work with. I would bet almost anything that the media will do exactly what they did with the democrats: reduce the convention to tiny sound bites which they will then use to apply their favored spin. In this case, it will be talk about how the GOP goons sound “tough” and “good on national security”.
I really hope it won’t happen that way, but I’m still quite certain that it will.
Evinfuilt
Lets see what happens.
CNN will report on overwhelming Republican Unity
They will be praised for not being open racists
Coverage of non-attendee’s will be nill
Ron Paul Convention will get a pass
They WILL bring up Bob Barr and how little support he’s taking away.
Then Rudy 911 will make a grand 911 speach and all the 911 flags will fly 911 911 911!! And CNN will say how important a speech it was, how it reminded us of what is truly important.
All I can say, praise be the the FSM that I have CSPAN. I actually have up on MSNBC last night and got to enjoy the convention (and anytime it got boring, Dirty Jobs was on.)
gbear
The democtatic convention, in many ways, has been a revolution that was not televised. The media is sitting right in the room but doesn’t get it (with the exception of Juan Williams, who’s been on the verge of tears a number of times). If the message that’s coming out of this convention takes hold, it’s going to be because the word is spread on the ground, not over the airwaves.
zzyzx
Here comes the bounce!
Graeme
It’s been interesting watching the GOP (and their shills like Instapundit) react to last night. I think they’re finally worried.
I think they should be, but I guess that’s because I’m one of the ‘Obamacons’ that doesn’t exist.
For all the GOP nutters pining for a repeat of The Big One against Russia (and Iran, while we’re at it), I just wish someone would tell me how we’re going to pay for it. We’re already in debt over Iraq and Afghanistan (which the Chinese, Russians, and Saudis are bankrolling).
Look up the top income tax rate from the WWII era. It was 94%! How does that jibe with the low tax mantra coming from the Right? IT DOESN’T!
Why? Because it doesn’t matter whether or not you believe it god: YOU CAN’T GET SOMETHING FOR NOTHING!
*Ahem* Sorry about that.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to Obama’s speech tonight.
tavella
Dear god, the naivete. I know you haven’t been a Democrat for long, but surely you have been watching.
Graeme
That was supposed to read “believe in god.” I’m not used to comments working on this blog.
Sorry.
Notorious P.A.T.
Wow, what a good idea.
KCinDC
Sorry, John. It was Doug H.’s “If Gustav shows up as Katrina II, this could be comedy gold” that set me off, and I still find it pretty offensive.
KCinDC
Gustav may allow the Republicans at the convention to say “George who?”
handy
Your server sucks.
thomas
dmsilev call it right. HRC was bowing to the Great Orange Satan – in recognition of the DFH absolute control over the Dems.
Also, the republics are all bent because their candidate’s column no longer stands withhout chemical help; consequently their love of big pharm. We all know our candidate will rise to the occassion (and deliver a great speach.)
Lastly, John, you are obviously new to this tent. The mainstream will not treat both conventions equally. Paul will be much more ignored than we need to ignore Paul L, and everything will be huncky dory. Remember, Democrats need ot fall in love; Republics just need to fall in line and mainstream (the so-called-liberal-media) is part of the GOP.
Koz
This is supposed to be a joke, right?
We all know conventions aren’t as big a deal now as they used to be, but the 2008 D’s aren’t even dominating the news cycles this week. There’s still media oxygen left for the Ayers stonewall, McCain’s latest ads, on-air catfighting at MSNBC, faux-Greek column set, whatever.
Here at my workplace, we just laughed at the fact that Jay Mariotti just had a hissy fit and quit the Chicago Sun-Times. If I weren’t a political junkie, I wouldn’t even know the Democratic National Convention even existed.
Egilsson
“They will launch attack after attack at Obama, and try to destroy him. It will fail, and they will get savaged in the media, who were all present at the DNC.”
Jeez, for someone who was part of the Right Wing Attack Machinery, you sound pretty naive.
Are you kidding?
It’s like no one remembers 1988. To me, the parallels to 1988 are eerie. This crap works.
PK
I am sure no one is hoping for a repeat of Katrina. But if there is a Katrina like storm coming the only silver lining will be that it wipes out the republican convention from the TV screens. Comedy gold-No. Black humor-definitely!
Seanly
My predictions for the GOP convention:
Those evil GOP harpies like Leslie Sanchez on CNN will continue to crow about how wonderful McCain is while pooping all over Obama. Wolf Blitzer will continue to fellate PUMAs & McCain. The only difference is that the one or two Democrats per ten Republicans will drop to zero. Larry King will continue to have the Republican response or the Democrat response will have one Democrat and Leslie Sanchez (coz you can’t just let Democrats respond to Republicans) and Ed Rollins & David Gergen (coz they talked to a Democrat once).
DougJ
There were no Greek columns at the Hanoi Hilton, my friends.
Adam
The claim was that Clinton was wearing a orange pantsuit to signal that she was being held prisoner against her will by the Democrats, like the detainees at Gitmo… because they wear orange.
DougJ
Reminds me of my all-time favorite Jon Stewart line about Katrina “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva a job, but blackie, frankly I’ve seen you in better condition.”
Ben
Please, please, please let McCain decide to roll the fawking dice and bet it all on winning over Independents by picking the head of the ‘Democrats for Lieberman’ party or Tom Ridge. Please! The open rebellion! The walkouts! The beating of drums and calls to the barricades to defend blastocysts against condoms and stem-cell researchers!
Please Senator McCain, go out with a bang, not a two-month long whimper!
Delia
The chances for coverage of the Paul convention: about 10% for the MSNBC team and 90% for The Daily Show. Zilch for everyone else.