QandO

September 02, 2004

Liveblogging Republicon '04
Posted by Dale Franks

I'm not hearing much good about George W. Bush's Speech tonight. Again, it's embargoed, but what I am hearing about is that it's State-of-the-Unionish. If so, he may squander some of the political capital he's accumulated over the last week.

John Kerry is holding a midnight press conference tonight. Mr. Kerry's remarks will directly reference Mr. Cheney's lack of service. Kerry's also going to be complaining about the "attacks on his patriotism". This is just the repetition of the same kind of claim that Max Cleland made about his defeat at the hands of Saxby Chambliss.

Bt, no one has questioned Kerry's patriotism. They've questioned his positions, his votes, and his public statements as a Senator. But, twice during this convention, when speakers have referenced Kerry's Vietnam service, the crowd has broken into spontaneous applause.

Kerry's statements seem to imply that if you didn't serve in the military, you have no right to question him. That is outrageous. This afternoon, I just paid my American Legion dues for the next year. Does that mean I have more of a right to question Kerry than you do?

Not at all, and I would be the first to vehemently reject any suggestion that it does.

Your estimation of Mr. Kerry's fitness to serve as commander in chief is just as valid as mine. Any statement to the contrary is nothing more than an attempt to bully critics into silence.

Of course, if Kerry's position is that only veterans have a right to question his service, one wonders why the Swiftvets should be silenced.

The president is on the stage. Wild welcome from the crowd, which is hardly a surprise.

"Four more years!" the crowd is shouting.

Well, if this speech is just a SOTU laundry list, we'll see how long the enthusiasm lasts.

Very nice line about the bravery of our soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq making the veterans of Omaha Beach proud.

Ho-hum, so far. Obligatory introductions and cheers for the Bush family. Paeans to the No Child Left behind Act and Prescription Drugs for Seniors. Wild applause for the latter two, which is a bit odd since they both are somewhat less than conservative in orientation.

Oh, and Compassionate Conservatism. Can't forget that.

What is it with Mr. Bush and the blue ties? Red power ties, surely he's heard of them.

I'm still waiting for an applause line.

Now we're getting into the laundry list of policies.

Making the tax cuts permanent. How about cutting federal spending while you're at it?

Making us less dependent on foreign oil. Well, every president since Jerry Ford has promised that.

Freer trade. Huh. Does that mean you'll be eliminating your tariffs on softwood lumber, textiles and steel?

Yawn.

Now, this might be interesting: Reforming and simplifying the Federal tax code. OK, How? Oops, I guess that answer will come later.

Wait, wait, wait, now he's talking about job retraining? Job retraining? That'll pull in the voters.

Tort reform. As long as the Lawyers don't sue in Federal Court to have it declared unconstitutional.

Health Care reform. Rural health centers! Medical Liability reform!

Jeez, how did W turn into Clintonish Policy Wonk?

Uh-oh, It's back to the "risky scheme" of social security privatization. Oh, and schools will be even better because the Feds are getting involved.

Some of us think that a better solution would be to get the Feds out of school completely, and to shut down the Department of Education. I'm just saying.

Too bad that whole "Bridge to the 21st Century" idea was already taken. That would've been perfect for this speech.

Oh, cripes, now he's talking about frickin' Pell Grants! And he's giving us his URL!

Now he's hitting Mr. Kerry with the Tax and Spend Northeastern Liberal argument. Well, that's nice, but who's gonna pay for all this reform Mr. Bush has on his agenda? I mean, those Pell Grants are gonna cost something. Indeed, prescription drugs benefits for Seniors will, too.

He mentioned abortion, and the Federal Marriage Amendment and DOMA. Now's he's dissing Hollywood. Along with the speeches of last night, I think we can toss the "it's all moderates" argument.

OK, 42 minutes in, and he's now mentioning the War on Terror.

Apparently he's saving the big stuff for last.

Another protestor is being manhandled out of the auditorium.. The sign the protestor had said "Bush Lied, People Died."

Interesting intro to Bush's remarks now about Iraq.

Mr. Bush still argues that Saddam was a threat, and that we wasn't going to wait for it to become imminent. And, he says he'd do it again.

Now he's going through the list of good things that overturning the Taliban and the Ba'athists has produced. Democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq.

We will help them have more or less democratic governments, and our boys will come home with honor.

All of this, of course, is vitally important; I'd be the first to agree.

But not the stuff of applause lines.

Mr. Bush is taking Mr. Kerry to task, albeit far more gently than Zell Miller did last night. His criticisms have been fair, and have been confined to responses to Mr. Kerry's public statements.

The wisest use of American strength is to advance freedom.

As hard as it might be to believe now, the Democrats once thought that, too, before they became convinced that any use of American power abroad was nothing more than thinly veiled neo-colonialism.

Nice point to quote from a 1946 news article about how the American occupation of Germany had failed. Perhaps, muses Mr. Bush, that writer is writing NYT op/eds today.

Now, we're in the self-deprecating humor portion of the evening.

Some people think I have a little swagger, which in Texas, is called "walking".

Cute.

You know, this is just too much. He's doing the exact same kind of Speech that Mr. Clinton did in '96. That didn't hurt Mr. Clinton, because he was running against Bob Dole. Mr. Bush, on the other hand, is running against John Kerry, and...

On second thought, it's probably no big deal.

Finally, he's done. For the last couple of minutes, I was starting to feel like the Pope, asking Michelangelo, "When will you make an end?!" and hearing "When I am finished!"

This is a bad omen, if you believe in that sort of thing: The balloons aren't falling. Apparently, they are stuck in the roof. Some of them are coming down, but not the massive amounts of balloons and confetti you usually see. Just sparse bits here and there.

OK, now it looks like they're getting it to fall.

Well, I have to say, this is no better than a workmanlike effort for Mr. Bush. Perhaps this was the kind of speech Mr. Bush had to give, with a forward-looking agenda, but I would've preferred something a little more rhetorically powerful.

Still, if elections, especially presidential elections, are about the future, then a president asking for a second term has to present some sort of roadmap for the future.

It's difficult to tell whether this speech will be much of a help for him though. On the other hand, it certainly didn't hurt him, and it did help to cement the idea of what the differences are between Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry.

We'll also get another interesting contrast in about another half hour, when Mr. Kerry speaks. Based on the previews we've had of Kerry's speech for tonight, he runs the risk of looking very petty.

I don't think anyone's ever had a late-night rally on the closing night of the opposition's convention, especially one scheduled at the last minute. Quite unusual.

I think I'll take a little break, have a glass of port, and be back to blog live during Mr. Kerry's speech. The contrast should be quite interesting.

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