I have to admit, I got bored watching the convention last night, because it ran like clockwork. I miss the old days of not knowing quite what Jesse Jackson and Ted Kennedy were going to do.
But I know this is better politics. It’s amazing to me the extent to which the two parties have switched roles: the Republican convention was a bunch of self-promoters free-lancing, the Democratic convention last night was a bunch of disciplined political foot soldiers staying on message. Here’s what one of Josh Marshall’s readers wrote:
I only have the 2004 and 2008 conventions to compare it to, and so far the democrats seem almost super-humanly organized on messaging. Every speech is hitting some kind of trifecta of explaining the party goals in philosophical terms, boasting of Obama’s policy achievements to move towards them, and taking a hit at Romney for having the opposite position.
The closest comparison, with most things this cycle, is the reverse-2004 analogy, where the RNC was a combination of love for Bush’s heroism and disgust at Kerry’s weakness. It seems like the Democrats at taking that level of discipline to another level, hitting across the entire spectrum of economic policy.
This may be the main story of the campaign so far: Democrats playing smart, disciplined, and very tough while the daddy party imitates a reality tv show. I hope this continues through November.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
I watched MSNBC all evening and was very impressed. Only Martin (Mayor Carcetti) O’Malley was disappointing. Before last night I thought that Dems might only see a minimal 1 point bounce but if the rest of the convention follows suit they may be able to pick up a couple more.
aimai
I agree completely. And hats off to whoever organized this thing and whipped people into shape. I think the Democrats as a party have finally realized that they are all going to sink or swim together and that the object here is to create and foster brand loyalty. I found myself taken aback by the open adulation for Obama not because I don’t think its deserved but because we democrats have been told we are holding our noses and “choosing the lesser of two evils” and “voting for another plutocrat tool” for so long that I had actually forgotten that we were getting a chance to vote for the motherfucking president of our united states. As Biden would say “that’s a big fucking deal.
I’m proud to get a chance to vote for Barack Obama again–sincerely proud and thrilled. There’s a fuckload of work still to be done, to be done every four years and every year in between, and its not going to be done by people bitching and moaning about how difficult it was. At least Barack and Michelle and the entire crew out there pitching last night get up every day and go to work on our problems, even if they can’t solve them for us.
aimai
Steve Crickmore
Kind of like Obama’s presidency, no kicking the ball away! It is a little too tightly scripted, leaves very little to chance and doing things merely on principle, if they don’t increase his favorable rating or help his campaign contributions won’t get much of look!
TR
Yep, amazing to see such a sharp, coordinated set of speeches. Damn good.
Raven
Goddamn weather is going to be a bitch either way.
Wag
@DougJ
This
@aimai:
And this, too
mamayaga
Re the coordinated message, it was interesting to see the full-throated support of gay marriage from multiple speakers, including MO. I’d half expected the Dems to throw that into the platform as a sop and then never mention it again, but apparently they have decided that history has spoken, and this is where we are going to go as a country. Of course, it’s another issue among many on which regular people led the way and the politicians eventually followed, but at least we’ve apparently gotten there with what looks now to be a majority of the country.
Ann Rynd
Those old conventions you are nostalgic for were covered by the networks for endless hours. Now with three hours total coverage and the constant drone of the pundits on the cable channels the message has to be condensed. It feels like being a fois gras goose force fed with a funnel.
But Michelle made a speech we’d never have seen 20 years ago. With all due respect to Ann Richards.
japa21
As has been pointed out many times by many people here and elsewhere, the GOP has been approaching this election like this is the same old Dem Party, curling into the fetal position at any attack.
It isn’t, and it is not just Obama. I think they learned the lesson of 2010, the old United We Stand, Divided We Fall mantra.
It was extremely satisfying to read some of the RW reactions to Strickland’s speech, talking about how he dissed Romney’s patriotism. This from the party of Obama is a Kenyan, needs to learn how to be an American, doesn’t understand the Anglo-Saxon relationship with Britain.
And Michelle, with all her grace and beauty absolutely wiped the floor with Romney without mentioning his name once.
Trakker
We’re seeing a united Democratic party that is visibly multicultural, proudly pro-gay rights, and enthusiastically supportive of women, military families, and the middle class. I think we’re going to get a permanent bounce from this.
HRA
Ok I admit I only tuned into the RNC when I wanted to hear the speaker -Christie, Rubio and took an antacid pill to watch Romney. I skipped Ryan and Ann.
Last night was done so well that my R man kept on saying this is how a convention should be run. I agree it is true for these times of everything fast and connected at a push of a button.
If you really want to see some conventions with action, those earlier than Jesse Jackson and Kennedy are the ones to look at. That was when it was uncertain who would win the nomination as each stated voted.
Elizabelle
about 9:20 a: C-Span caller to Washington Journal, Betty, a retired nurse. She’s killing it.
Former Republican, now lives in Florida with her boyfriend, who’s a Democrat.
Betty is white, formerly from Detroit; her dad was a Democrat and her mother, a teacher, remained Republican.
Betty: “This is not my mother’s Republican party. She would be horrified.”
Her boyfriend tells her that he was told, over and over again about Social Security that “you are never going to collect that money.
“Guess what, he’s been collecting it for 35 years. He is not going to listen to that on the ACA.”
Betty has 2 biracial grandchildren. Proud, proud grandmother, says they are excellent kids and she loves them as much as her other 20 grandchildren.
She’s got a friend who told her she would not vote for a “n*gger” so she is not going to vote.
Betty to friend: “We don’t use that word in our house.”
She kept telling her friend: “This is a different generation. It’s a different generation.”
WJ host Peter Slen let her talk a long time.
I hope Florida is full of wise ladies like Betty.
1badbaba3
Et tu, DougJ? Maybe you haven’t been keeping up with current events pal, but the dems have been kicking much ass now for about six years now. The media (lamestream and professional left alike) and other weak-knees persist in kvetching like it’s 1979. It is not your Father’s GOP anymore. And it sure as hell ain’t the cat herd Dems either. Believe what you see and revel in it, for it is very real.
Elizabelle
C-Span now: National Journal round-up on House and Senate races, from Charlotte. Chris Van Hollen, John Dickerson of CBS News and Reid Wilson, editor of Hotline
streaming live on nationaljournal.com and atlantic.com
#dailybriefings
MattF
Ya think it might have something to do with being run by a competent executive? You know, ‘that one’, from Kenya, so we hear.
Culture of Truth
This isn’t so new. C- Todd was saying the other day that the best organized convention by either party he’s ever seen was the Dems in 1992. I agree this one is impressive, but it’s not as if Dems are just coming to some revelation about unity now.
gelfling545
I watched little of the RNC but felt people could be forgiven for mistaking it for the Convention of Clinically Depressed Funeral Directors. The excitement at the DNC kept me watching long past the time I usually give up on political events.
Culture of Truth
RNC = Herding rabid cats
ellennelle
i would not call this disciplined at all. disciplined implies some conspiratorial decision to stick to the lock step, what it is and when to do it, etc.
this instead to me was more like a naturally emerging organizing principle, like birds lifting from a wire or the sea settling into wave patterns.
all those people were motivated by the same principles, from the heart and the head thank you very much, not by marching orders.
the best kind of movement.
Ann Rynd
@gelfling545: This. Funny.
slightly_peeved
@mamayaga:
It’s good that they do it regardless of strategy, but I can see a strategy behind it:
The Democrats want this election about a choice between alternative visions for America, rather than purely a referendum on Obama’s 4 years. To some extent, they’ve already succeeded on this point.
I think the Democrats want it to especially be a choice on issues such as health and civil rights, rather than a purely economic choice. There are very clear, simple lines to be drawn between the two parties on these sort of issues, and they are issues that Romney and Ryan have to stay strong on to keep their own base motivated.
Egypt Steve
What is best in life?
To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.
The D’s finally get it.
hep kitty
The Dem wimp factor seems to be gone so that’s a nice touch.
quannlace
Realized an obvious reason why the Republican convention was so mum about the wars and the military service. The Romney boys! 5 strapping lads who’ve never seen a day of service. And their excuse is they’re proving their patriotism by working on their war-approving Dad’s campaigns.
hep kitty
@Culture of Truth: Please do not diss rabid cats, which are much more appealing.
PurpleGirl
@quannlace: Yup. And the Democrats found a perfect way to highlight it — have the First Lady introduced by a mother of whose 5 sons, 4 are in the military. You don’t always have to actually say something but you can illustrate things in other ways.
danimal
While I don’t think the seventeen remaining Independents believe in or care about the Dem policy planks, they sure as hell care about whether a party can organize a two-car parade. The Dems can; the GOP didn’t. It matters.
Schlemizel
@1badbaba3: If you have paid attention the the Senate Dems you would see that spineless jellyfish party that has been talked about. As a group Congressional Dems have been somewhat better but as individuals there are still too many quislings.
Given that the GOP was silent on the social issues this year & the Dems have been very out front I believe we can guess what the polling is telling both parties about the direction the country is taking on these issues.
I have seen national conventions on TV since 1960 and been to a few State conventions. This is hands down the best I have ever seen the Dems and the worst I have ever seen from the GOP. Pasta willing this will really push the Dems to hold the Senate and if not gain control of the House at least cut the margin.
Villago Delenda Est
Rethugs love a deserting coward and hate a guy who volunteers for combat and gets a purple heart, and mock him for doing so.
Alice’s trip was reality based in comparison.
quannlace
Gotta say though, that Julian Castro is one shiny dude. A little more powder in the makeup room, pleasse.
(And I don’t think it was nerves. They showed him later with his twin brother and they both had a gleam to them!)
hep kitty
@Villago Delenda Est: Isn’t it funny how we all thought Kerry’s service would make him so very appealing to conservs? And we tried to recruit all these veterans to run back in ’04. While I loathed Kerry, I was completely sold on the idea.
But we didn’t understand Rove’s strategy back then. We were rubes.
jibeaux
I’m not going to count my chickens as there’s a couple of days left, but I’ll go out on a limb and bet that we’re not going to overshadow talking to an empty chair.
catclub
@PurpleGirl: I think she said she had four children who are officers, not sure they are all male. I could have missed that.
gene108
All this love for an organized Democratic party means jack-shit, if the Dems cannot rebuild their Party at the state and local level throughout the South.
Virginia looks to be the last Southern state to have a functioning and viable Democratic Party to challenge Republicans in statewide races.
hep kitty
@gene108: True dat, absolutely.
1badbaba3
@Schlemizel: Ah, yes. I believe you are referring to the imfamous Blue Dogs, who seem to be going the way of the dodo of late. Like everyone else who gets on the wrong side of Obama, they got trucked, but unlike most they haven’t accepted the offer to get back on board, so they will continue to exsist in limbo; too blue to be red, and too red to be blue, and too embarrassed to say they miscalculated and were wrong.
Obama is nothing if not magnanimous in victory.
cmorenc
@HRA:
Ryan was very interesting to watch, he came across as a charismatic weasel, a brighter version of Eddie Haskell from the old “Leave it to Beaver” TV show.
jnfr
I watched every minute via MSNBC and wasn’t even slightly bored. I loved it and I’m definitely pumped up for this election.
BC
@gene108: I don’t know, I think right now the South is out of step with the rest of the country, so it may be possible to box the GOP into the South and win elections with the rest of the country. Right now, Romney has the harder path to 270 electoral votes than Obama, and Obama is ceding the South with exception of Virginia and NC.
gene108
@1badbaba3:
If not Blue Dogs, then how do you get Democrats elected in the rural South and some Western states?
The U.S. Constitution is designed to give disproportionate representation to rural constituencies, so you need to be able to win these, in order to impose your Party’s will on the nation.
I’m not even talking about the state legislature races, which can have a disproportionate impact on Congressional races via redistricting and changing voting laws.
Rural North Carolina, for example, voted something like 80% in favor of banning gay marriage. How do you get a pro-gay marriage liberal Democrat elected in those districts?
You aren’t going to beat the Republicans into submission unless you crush them for several elections so thoroughly they are forced to change and as long as rural districts are now safe for them, they will be safe to obstruct till their little Grinch-like hearts content.
jibeaux
@gene108: Eh, Democrats have generally done well in statewide NC races. That may well change this year as we will probably get a R governor and maintain the R house & senate that flipped last time and then got redistricted to make it easier for them to keep. We have been hurt by having some Democratic governors of late who have been less than stellar. Still, long game and all, I don’t think we’re resigned to the Republican bin, since they suck at governing.
mamayaga
@gene108:
The Dems had actually made a start on this when Howard Dean ran the DNC. He has bounced after 2008, and replaced by the execrable Time Kaine and the whole 50-state infrastructure withered away. I know there are some on this comment board who brook no criticism of Obama, but that was his doing, and I believe it was a mistake. In my opinion, the impact of the Tea Party in 2009-2010 might have been blunted if the Dems had had more local presence around the country with the ability to respond quickly to local events like the town hall debacles.
gene108
@BC: It’s not about the Presidential election. It’s about getting control of the House, local governments, etc. and maintaining control of the Senate.
The President can’t do much, if Congress refuses to cooperate, as evidenced by the last 2 years.
mamayaga
@1badbaba3: The Blue Dogs were mostly in more conservative areas and largely got creamed in 2010. The Repugs may have done us a favor there.
Maude
@Villago Delenda Est:
I haven’t gotten over Limbaugh’s mocking of Kerry in 2004. I just want to see his chickens come home to roost.
Shawn Hannity used to insist that as his father was in the military, that meant he was too.
piratedan
@aimai: send your kudos to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, maybe she’s lucky, maybe she’s really this good, but she’s part of that Dem Girl Power crew that has her, Sen Gillibrand and Gabby Giffords in it and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Giffords on the stage tomorrow too.
Mnemosyne
@gene108:
I think we may be able to do it if we can get some neo-Blue Dogs, so to speak. A whole lot of the Blue Dogs are not necessarily social conservatives, but fiscal conservatives. Pro-corporation, pro-bankster. IMO, that’s what hurt them more than anything else in 2010 — they were unwilling to support Obama’s attempts to rein in the financial and health insurance sectors.
If we can find some Democrats in the South and especially the West who can combine a bit of social libertarianism with economic populism, I think that could be a winning combination.
Catsy
@gene108: I get sick of seeing this question, as if it was some sort of binary choice between the Blue Dogs we have now and hardcore lefties who can’t win in the South. It’s not.
The problem with the Blue Dogs (and especially with their Senate counterparts) isn’t that they have conservative leanings or don’t completely agree with the Democratic platform.
The problem with Blue Dogs is the way they bend over backwards to accomodate Republicans while fucking over their own party on procedural votes and going on TV to trash Democrats.
You can be a conservative Democrat and still be a team player.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@catclub:
Thanksgiving and Christmas must be fun in that household. Like having Aggies, Longhorns, and Sooners all in the same room.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@gene108:
Goddamned straight. And re-electing Obama will mean jack-shit if we can’t take back the House and build a solid majority in the Senate. That’s the one thing I want to hear shouted from the rooftops during these next couple of days.
1badbaba3
Being a conservative Dem shouldn’t require you to try and shiv the President for electoral success. Back in the day, pol’s like Tip O’Neill and Ted Kennedy used to ask what they could do to provide cover for southern colleagues so they would not appear too liberal. That way they could stay with the party on most isssues while keeping as much local cred as possible. But goddamn, sometimes yoeu have to take a fuckin’ stand, amirite? Have some stones, show some character, or get trucked. I’m talkin’ to you Evan Byah, Blanche Linclon, and Jason Altmire.
Waldo
@1badbaba3: Yes, quite right. And don’t forget Lieberman.
gene108
@mamayaga:
Just keep in mind the 50 state strategy was based on the fact the Democratic Party, at least for Congressional races, would recruit Blue Dogs, who may not vote with the national Party much of the time, but were important in getting Congressional majorities.
How do you win those rural seats, like Heath Shuler’s, without Blue Dogs?
The country’s population isn’t evenly distributed and the Constitution guarantees over representation for rural areas.
Putting on a good show, which this convention is, is nice but it isn’t the beginning of anything unless Democrats figure out how to recapture those rural seats they lost in 2010.
gene108
@Mnemosyne:
I don’t know. Once the national Democratic Party embraces something, like say HCR, it becomes toxic for people in R+ areas.
@Catsy:
What team? When your Republican opponent can run a negative ad against you saying you voted with Nancy Pelosi, what benefit is there in being a team player?
Right-wing media has made Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid into villains for a lot of people.
There’s a ton of noise from the right-wing wurlitzer that gets picked up throughout the country that makes being a team player hard for a lot of Democrats.
It doesn’t help, when Democrats actually do something that’s a BFD, but have left-wingers denounce it.
I don’t know the solution. I’m just stating a problem Democrats have in many parts of the country.
I don’t think the modern Democratic Party is going to have the money to out spend the Citzen’s United funded Republicans.
We can keep winning the Presidency, but I don’t have a rosie picture about winning the down ticket races, even with the demographic shift that’s coming.
Haydnseek
@Mnemosyne: Maybe, but it’s a hell of a tightrope act. Too much blue, you lose the election. Too much dog, might as well be a repub.
1badbaba3
I believe the impact of the 50 state strategy was to let individuals know that they were not alone. Surrounded and out numbered, perhaps, but let’s test it and see for ourselves. There may be more of us than they have led us to believe. Didn’t Saxby get pushed into a runoff? 30 years ago, with Jesse still prowling the streets, there is no way in hell the DNC would be anywhere near Charlotte, a place with a major road named for Billy Graham that you take to get to Jim and Tammy Faye’s theme park, just past Ric Flair’s place.
We’ve come a long way, baby. And with the President driving them to the low ground on the right that big middle gets ever bigger, deeper, and wider.
Unfortunately for the GOP, that’s wider, not whiter.
Mnemosyne
@gene108:
R+ areas aren’t electing Blue Dogs in the first place. It’s the areas that are transitioning and becoming more purple that are electing them. It’s places that are used to electing moderate Republicans where we can make some inroads. The area around, say, Liberty University ain’t ever going to be electing a Democrat no matter how conservative they are.
And, frankly, I think the problem that the Blue Dogs had in 2010 was that they refused to embrace Obamacare and ran away from it, claiming that they totally hated it and would work against Obama in Congress. Well, if you’re going to do the same thing the Republican says he’s going to do, what’s the point of electing you and not a Republican?
If the Blue Dogs had embraced Obamacare after it passed and gone around telling all of their constituents how great it was and how buying insurance was going to be so much cheaper and easier for them, I think a lot of them would have kept their seats. By running away from their greatest accomplishment, they looked like a bunch of assholes who didn’t believe in anything, and they got trounced.
If they had done that, then, ironically, the continued whining of the left would have worked to their advantage, because it would have put Obamacare in the center position between the left who thought it was too weak and the right who thought it went too far. I think that’s what the administration was counting on, but they didn’t count on the weakness and cowardice of the Blue Dogs running away from ACA.
Turgidson
@gene108:
Turgidson
@Mnemosyne:
Uh you got there first. I wasn’t plagiarizing I swear!
Mnemosyne
@Turgidson:
Hey, when something’s obvious, it’s obvious! And it’s really obvious that the Blue Dogs shot themselves in the foot by running away from Obamacare when they should have embraced it and found all kinds of people in their district who were going to benefit from it to show how terrific it was. But they got spooked by the teabaggers and Dick Armey’s coordinated “grassroots” campaign to oppose it and tried to run away. Frankly, they deserved to lose after that.
SiubhanDuinne
@PurpleGirl:
@catclub:
I somehow got the idea that at least a couple are daughters. At any rTe, five kids, four in the military, one each in Army, Navy, Marines and USAF. The youngest still in high school but mom hopes s/he will join the Cast Guard :-)
Sounds like such a cool family, and what a fantastic contrast with the five Rmoney boys who among them have never seen a day of military service, just like their dad. I like that the Dems never felt they had to make that point explicitly, but you know everyone in the hall, and a huge chunk of the TV audience, got it.
Really nice to see that Dems can get important messages across with warmth and humor and humanity, and not feel the need to be ham-handed in the delivery.
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
FYWP. Should be rate, not rTe. Should be Coast Guard, not Cast Guard.
What else did I miss?
Joel
@Mnemosyne: Exactly this. If you’re going to try and capture a republican voting share, you need to somehow appeal to something that the actual republicans don’t have. Most of the blue dogs were dead in the water in 2010, because they were put in congress on the backs of a wave election. If they had recognized that immediately, they could have gotten even more done in the short time they had. But it’s hard to see the forest for the trees when you’re sitting in the hot seat…