Friday, August 31, 2012

The Good, The Bad, And The Not-So-Ugly After All,...


This was by far the best speech I saw at the Republican convention. I know, Clint Eastwood is an actor, but he didn't appear to be acting here, with the stumbling and unscripted asides, and his theme, ultimately, is one I've stressed many times - especially when warning why we should vet Romney:

"We own this place." 

Clint's appearance wasn't Obama in 2004, or Palin on 2008, but it was a breath of fresh air and - considering the lack of talent on display so far - I was grateful for it.


Now this was an actor practicing his craft! 

Marco Rubio has performed this speech so often, his simple tale on the virtues of sacrifice comes off as slick, and false, and as manipulative as a puppeteer. Sorry - I got that wrong - his speech didn't, HE did in the telling, and all of a sudden I found myself disliking someone I've admired quite a bit.

You know that moment when someone, maybe a friend, finds fortune of some kind and they start making changes to accommodate it, until you're forced to tell them "you've changed - and not for the better"? That's what is happening to Marco. He's acquiring too much polish for his own good, reducing the best thing about him - that he can clearly and plainly articulate what this country is all about - to calculation, revealing his dark side once the authenticity is gone.

He'll never be Antonio Villaraigosa, thank goodness, but, ever so slightly, he's moving in that direction.


And, finally, after taking his own sweet time, glad-handing, while making it to the podium (and I was positive he'd HUG Orrin Hatch, because he's his main Mormon fixer in Washington) Mitt opened by immediately accepting the nomination he's coveted for the last six years, as though he was Gollum in The Lord Of The Rings, finally in reach of "the precious." I don't buy his claim to humility, and that condescending-as-hell "sad eyes" routine, with the slightly tilted head and wan grin, is as grating today as ever - four years of that is going to be excruciating - as are the cutaways to his wife, who has the eyes of a bald eagle deciding what chunk of flesh to tear next.

And the pandering - good God, man, make it stop! FOUR YEARS OF THIS SHIT?!? Paul Ryan loves his mom? Really? Never woulda caught that without you pointing it out (and Ryan laughing, pretending to not know the line was coming - jeez). Mitt also mentioned all the women speakers over the course of the entire convention and, though I didn't couldn't stomach watching the entire speech, I wouldn't be surprised to discover he mentioned that - if you listen carefully - you'll hear women actually speaking everywhere you go. (What's that in the background of my mind? It's Ann Romney on a digital loop saying, "We're the mothers.  We're the wives.  We're the grandmothers.  We're the big sisters.  We're the little sisters and we are the daughters. You know it's true, don't you?" Yes, you silly bitch, I know that everyone who isn't a father, a husband, a grandfather, a big brother, a little brother, and a son, has a vagina and won't shut up about it - got anything else?) And, considering - as a friend pointed out - Paul Ryan's iPod selection seems to have missed at least 3 decades, Romney's "classic Baby Boomer" playlist must suck.

Romney gives a better speech than Paul Ryan, which is a surprise, but he was most effective when he went after Obama. (The pause after saying, "President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans" was especially good.) He wasn't mean, but on-point, which is a fine approach for him. His 5-point plan is a natural rebuke, though not a stroke of genius, but that's not what is called for, to fix the economy, anyway.

The foreign policy section was also good. I heard it while driving in my truck and had to give him a nod.

All-in-all, it wasn't a great speech, but it wasn't bad, and left me feeling (as long as his cult stays out of the way) I can hope he succeeds - because I want our country to - though I still can't vote for him. The LDS's success is tied up in his and I can have nothing to do with that.

Will the Democrats go there? Get desperate and drop the depth-chargers?

We'll just have to wait and see,...

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12 comments:

  1. Dolan's benediction was pretty good too (it had me smiling at the end of it).

    Of the entire convention the only two speakers that had any political flair and sophistication. Bravo for them.

    PW

    the rest of it was a snoozefest, like going to an art gallery that was full of overly mannerist "artists" copying Mannerist artists -- like having to eat Postum for breakfast, lunch, dinner for a week...egads

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  2. Oh, and Ann Romney's speech was absolutely horrifying -- and I say that as a woman (who supposedly is supposed to know this super secret sisterhood/woman stuff that Ann was talking about).
    She sounded like countless scores of rabid, deranged feminists who, as a woman and thus a member of this secret society of sisterhood who just "know" these "truths", I've been marched off, lined up, and forced to listen to at various times in my life as part of my development as a young woman (one reason college or any club can be hazardous to one's health and sanity if one is not careful).
    Egads.
    PW

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  3. My favorite Eastwood line: "When somebody doesn't do the job, you gotta let him go."

    And will the Donks go there? I don't think attacking his faith will fly, after the stories told by the members of Romney's church.

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  4. Well, since Mitt said he liked firing people, and this was supposed to show what a tough, smart, businessman he was (and thus a perfectly inevitable president), I suppose they could have some fun with that.

    But they won't, because they're just as vapid and robotic as the GOP is now.

    I wish I wasn't just a poor peasant; I'd run ads to the effect of agreeing with Clint that the people need to know when to fire the bad help...so let's give them both pink slips on election day; let's tell them they need to reconsider their commitment to the company; let's tell them that they both were failures to adapt and not considered suitable for further employment at this time!

    PW

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  5. OK, I laughed at least three times reading this.

    Well written =)

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  6. Thanks, Dante - that's very big of you.

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  7. Do you seriously think that if Romney-Ryan win that Romney will precede every action as president with a "slightly tilted head and wan grin" or that Ryan will preface his official duties with a reminder of how much he "loves his mom"? Your analysis is too simplistic and trite. They are campaigning and are defining themselves to the electorate. This is necessary because of the leftist media which uses invisible ellipses to contort their true statements in caricatures.

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  8. Crack,

    I saw the speeches very much as you did but especially Rubio's. I'm tired of pols whose primary talent is delivering speeches, and Rubio has clearly given this one a few too many times. The Ryan pick is looking better by the day.

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  9. scrubjay,

    MY analysis is too simplistic and trite? Ann Romney:

    "We're the mothers. We're the wives.  We're the grandmothers.  We're the big sisters.  We're the little sisters and we are the daughters. You know it's true, don't you?"

    That's how you define yourself to the electorate to avoid the leftist media's invisible ellipses to contort true statements into caricatures?

    It IS a caricature! And a stupid one at that! I thought she was either retarded or on drugs!

    Try again,...

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  10. "Thanks, Dante - that's very big of you."

    This could easily be read as sarcasm. But, that doesn't matter. You called me a "Shruggie," and you were right. I am a "Shruggie." I have to make choices in an imperfect world. But, you opened my thoughts about the Mormon Church. To me, it's good to see people caring about their own, and also caring about others, as I've seen Mormons do. You (seem to) reject that part of it, but I don't. I've seen it first hand. I've also seen the big hand of the church come down to do things that don't make sense (I worked for Novell, and watched its destruction as Ray Norda bought WordPerfect at the advise of the elders).

    Now, this whole life/society thing is a big challenge. I sometimes wonder, "Is the pope a religious man, or is he merely someone trying to hold something together, that's incredibly hard to hold together? And if he is, is he a bad man, and what the hell does 'Bad Man' really mean anyway?"

    In the world of physics, it's hard to imagine things like "morality." Lightening does not care where it ends up: it just does, and if there happens to be an infant and her mother under the tree, that's the way it is. Perhaps the answer is "Good things are those that can attract enough people, like minded or sheep, to make a go at it." That's the depth of MY cynicism.

    So, in the course of wandering, when I meet someone also trying to seek truth, even when we come to points of disagreement, they aren't visceral, or even important, at least from my perspective. There are too few seekers in the world. I'm not saying I measure up to your expectations either, nor assuming that.

    In any event, I leave you with a thought from a poem that stuck with me from college. "Rage, rage, against the dying of the light." And I add, at least, do the best you can.

    Amen. (An Atheist's Amen, that is).

    Love you Crack. Goodnight.

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  11. "We're the mothers. We're the wives. We're the grandmothers. We're the big sisters. We're the little sisters and we are the daughters. You know it's true, don't you?"

    Everything looks fine to me but the last line. Do you think she wrote that herself, or merely read a speech?

    Hard to know, in this world of indirection.

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  12. Dante,

    This could easily be read as sarcasm.

    Nope - not a shred. And I enjoyed reading the rest of your thoughts, too. In some ways we're a lot alike (minus the shruggie bit.)

    I, too, care about people (hopefully, obviously) but I'd rather be Captain James T. Kirk than Joseph Smith or any of his manipulative "prophets." There's a BIG difference there, with morality and ethics, front and center, in a physics-based world.

    Do you think [Romney] wrote that herself, or merely read a speech?

    It doesn't matter - she didn't reject it as mindless pablum, which is all we need to know:

    Hey, D, I've got a penis - "You know it's true, don't you?"

    Do me a favor and just take my word for it,...

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