DAY 2:
Janet Napolitano, Governor of Arizona: 5. It is often the job of the officeholder from the other party’s nominee’s home state to play attack dog, because presumably you know the opponent more intimately than the rest of the country because he’s from your state. Gov. N. failed miserably in this task. Her worst line was “Arizona has seen lots of native sons run for president. Barry Goldwater. Mo Udall. Bruce Babbitt, and now John McCain. Goldwater Lost. Udall Lost. Babbitt lost. Now that’s one Arizona tradition I’d like to keep going this year.” AWFUL! Who claims as a virtue that your state has a poor track record for presidential candidates?
America’s Town Hall: 6. I just can’t keep a straight face listening to Jennifer Granholm of Michigan talk about creating jobs. It’s clearly a subject she knows NOTHING about.
Federico Peña: 7.5. Why wasn’t this guy leaked as on a VP list? He’s Hispanic, from a swing state (Colorado), and a former Clinton Admin. sec’y of energy and transportation, which means he can talk about nuclear non-proliferation, high gas prices, and crumbling infrastructure.
Bob Casey: 6. Abortion gets one-sentence. So much for outreach to pro-life Catholics uneasy about the war and the economy.
Lilly Ledbetter: 7. I felt like I was watching the Democratic version of Suzette Kelo. Sure she’s got a compelling story. But I don’t see that just because a legislator opposes a particular bill, say the Fair Pay Restoration Act, they are automatically anti-woman.
Mark Warner: 7. He looked good, but the speech rambled a bit. At this point, I’d like to offer a brief discourse on Democrats’ vision for energy, the economy, and global warming. Warner said “[W]ith the right policies, within 24 months, we’ll be building 100 mile-per-gallon plug-in hybrid vehicles right here — with American technology and with American workers.” Now to me, that seems slightly pie-in-the-sky. The Congress need merely wave a wand, and within 2 years all our energy troubles will go away. Biden hit on similar themes on Wednesday – promising these 5 million “green collar jobs.” Again, it just seems implausible to me that Congress can simply pass a bill, and from the ground will miraculously sprout forth 5 million new family-supporting jobs that can be held by 45-year old unemployed assembly-line workers in the swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Unless they’re planning for straight-up FDR-style CCC type jobs.
Hillary Clinton: 9. She gave a GREAT speech (here I second Larry Kudlow’s assessment). First off, I liked the orange outfit a lot – wasn’t red or blue like everyone else, looked good against the background. Her “sisterhood of the traveling pantssuit” and “twin cities” lines were both great. It was mostly about her, not much about Barack, but I think she said the right things – particularly the “Were you in this for me or for the mom on minimum wage?” set of lines.
Last 5 posts by Daniel- Tom Barrett's Savings Plan - June 8th, 2010
- C.J. Abrahamson on J. Stevens - April 11th, 2010
- Why always Bill Bablitch? - March 24th, 2010
- Suhr on Nixon on Health Care - February 23rd, 2010
- Did the USCCB Foresee Dead People? - February 8th, 2010
Now that the DNC had your full critical analysis put away in the “very important information box”, how do you feel overall about the DNC convention? overall? And, I wonder if you will be so full of praise and flowery rhetoric when the Republicans convene. Because I would like to see you use your “fair and balanced coverage” with the Republicans.