I used to be a political junkie. Every morning, I would scour Real Clear Politics. At lunch I would listen Rush Limbaugh. In the evening, I would watch Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann. I loved the gamesmanship, the specificity of parsing language both verbal and non-, the good-natured dismissal of a lesser mind’s point of view.
Every major presidential campaign is seared in my memory. I remember being saddened that a peanut farmer wanted to take that nice guy’s place. I remember voting for Carter in my 5th grade gym class, because I thought Mother #1 was going to. I remember photo ops in oversized military helmets and tanks. I remember “Read my lips.” I remember “Boxers or Briefs?” I remember “If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck....” I remember Tim Russert and his white board. I remember hanging chads. I remember windsurfing. I remember the lunch I was having when a former beauty pageant contestant was picked to be the nominee for Vice President.
I have long been a hawk circling for new pieces of political minutiae to devour. Since college, one of my favorite pieces were the political conventions. There was pomp and circumstance (but never “Pomp and Circumstance”), passion and vitriol, crazy costumes and crazier man on the street interviews.
I watched some of the Republican National Convention last night. Some. First, I forgot that it was on. Then, I was changing gutter guards. Next, The Beloved and The Kid and I wanted to watch Face Off. I tuned it at 10:00, and then later caught some of the rebroadcast in the wee hours of the morning. I'm so glad I did.
Fortunately the meat and potatoes of Day 1 was scheduled for 10:00. Potential First Lady Ann Romney spoke first, followed by keynote speaker and Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie. Both speeches gave me the thrill of what I used to like about these conventions, but sandwiched together made for a confusing hour of rhetoric. Rick Santorum who spoke earlier in the evening (which in turn was very late for me) was by far the most effective of the evening’s speakers, and the less said about Nikki Haley the better.
I got the direct impression from the 10:00 hour solely, that this first night of the televised convention was designed to address the concerns of women and especially the Democratic screed that the Republicans are in a war on women. But by putting Ann Romney and Chris Christie in the same hour, the Republicans muddled the message. Romney spoke extensively about “love” and then Christie told us to “choose respect over love”. Romney was measured and heartfelt; Christie was rushed and impassioned. Romney appealed to women everywhere with genuine remembrances of her shared humble beginnings with husband Mitt and lifting all of them up with a well-crafted call to arms: “We're too smart to know there aren't easy answers. But we're not dumb enough to accept that there aren't better answers.” Christie appealed to women by talking about his beloved mother calling her “the enforcer” and that “in the automobile of life...she was the driver.” He defines women according to his mother’s principal that “love without respect was always fleeting, but that respect could grow into real and lasting love.”
He then made a parallel construction with leadership, and spent the next 2000 words of his 2400 word speech talking about leadership. This brought about the most ringing dissonance, however. Romney was mostly successful in lionizing her husband; her broken syntax and carefully unrehearsed speaking style drove home that they are in fact compassionate humans. She could convince me to vote for her husband. Christie, on the other hand, was very successful in discussing good leadership, and most notably his good leadership. He did on occasion mention the presumptive nominee, but there should be no doubt of his intent. His slick and polished delivery sold me on his power as political figure and his future in the Republican party.
I know that the Republican National Convention had no desire to put both Ann Romney and Chris Christie on the same night. The first day of the convention was cancelled due to the impending arrival of Hurricane Isaac, but the decision to pair them together was made far in advance of the threat of foul weather. Weeks earlier, the broadcast networks refused to air any prime time coverage of the first night of the convention, the night that Ann Romney was going to speak. The RNC caved and moved her speech to Tuesday, consequently cutting down the time that Christie was to get.
I know not what I find more outrageous: the cobbled and muddled presentation that the RNC chose to give or the audacity of three broadcast networks to not expand coverage.
There are six broadcast networks that are available free of charge to anyone with a television: ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, The CW and PBS. PBS provides full coverage of primetime convention activities. FOX and The CW are choosing to air no coverage of the conventions. ABC, CBS and NBC are giving one hour of primetime coverage of each convention on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of each week. Except NBC will not air any coverage on Wednesday of the Democratic Convention, and instead do two hours on Thursday. They’re starting up Sunday Night Football on Wednesday Night, so both Joe Biden and Barack Obama will now be speaking on Thursday. No word yet if they will both be speaking during the 10:00 hour, or if CBS and ABC will just ignore the current Vice President’s acceptance speech.
I get that there is no money to be made off of political conventions, but public service is its own reward and the job of the public airwaves. I get that most people could turn to cable news networks or PBS to get full coverage, but I find it humiliating that repeats of Castle and Hawaii 5-0 and a new episode of Grimm are more important than the future of our nation. I get that the stars of political analysis and reporting are on the cable news networks now, but that’s because there is no large platform for them to refine their practices. I get that since Reagan redefined the presentation of Presidential politics, the conventions have become little more than political pep rallies designed to put the best face forward and to speak in platitudes that will incite like-minded individuals to action. But shouldn’t all Americans be given a chance to hear more than just a handful of speakers define their political party, not just the ones that have cable?
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder