More RNC Day 2 Notes

*On the one hand, we agree the Bush Twins turned in a pretty lame performance. On the other, well, they are 22. Karl Rove stunt casting? You be the judge. (Jonah Goldberg isn't impressed. Referencing Dawson. Nice.)Andrew Sullivan thinks otherwise - look for increase on American Idol vote. Rove. Damn you. Instapundit.com has more on this.

*Meanwhile Survivor's Elisabeth Hasslebeck addresses the RNC. Didn't see it, but Andrew Sullivan is talking about her backside if that gives you any idea. He's doing pretty off the wall commentary - nice to have him back.

*What's wrong with the Kerry Campaign? 1. Too many chefs in the kitchen? 2. Worse than that: Joe Lockhart totally the savior. 3. Worse than Lockhart news: Bush team hasn't really gone that hard. (Are they like Spinal Tap? Bush-Cheney can so go up to 11 still - Love it. Rove, again. See also: magnificent bastard.) 4. What else does Rove have planned? "Somewhere, Karl Rove is sitting in quiet misery, gloomily considering the prospect that by the time he's allowed to open up on Kerry with the big guns, the poor sod may have already self-destructed. Takes all the fun out of it." 5. Worse Squared: Kaus is amused that the story is so big (possible Kerry Team Shakeup) that Howard Fineman can't spend time to dial it via blackberry. 6. Kaus, working double time, traces Kerry problems to campaign drinking Kool Aid about three weeks ago. 7. Can you even shake-up campaigns this late in the cycle? See also weakness.

Day Two of the RNC: The Arnie Show

Keeping up with the theme of titles from the few sparse posts here at Dispatches I had to throw in the "show" part. Now lets get down to business. Some things struck me about the Arnold Schwarzenegger performance. He actually threw in, not only references to his movies (can't lose 'A' material), but he also threw in the "girlie men" line. How do you compete with that sort of stuff. The Democrats should really get on the 27th Amendment issue - this guy couldn't lose.

"If you believe that government should be accountable to the people, not the people to the government...then you are a Republican! If you believe a person should be treated as an individual, not as a member of an interest group... then you are a Republican! If you believe your family knows how to spend your money better than the government does... then you are a Republican! If you believe our educational system should be held accountable for the progress of our children ... then you are a Republican! If you believe this country, not the United Nations (news - web sites), is the best hope of democracy in the world ... then you are a Republican! And, ladies and gentlemen ...if you believe we must be fierce and relentless and terminate terrorism ... then you are a Republican!" [Full Text of the Gov's speech]

The other crazy thing, was dropping the Nixon bomb. You have to love the rebirth of Nixon nostalgia. 2004, the year Nixon returned to the Republican Convention. That's awesome. It's kind of like throwing out props to really cool old pop culture stuff - like Alf, or Knight Rider, or original Adam West Batman - POW! KABLOOM! Nixon's Back!

The Rudy and John Show

James Lileks made me almost choke on a drink of pinot noir tonight. "Watching Rudy G throw down for the Dub. Opening line says it all: 'Welcome to the Capitol of the World.' Mwah hah hah! Quel cowboi, non? Everyone knows the capitol of the world is Brussels."

Of course it's funny mostly because it is true. And more so because the bean-counting metric-loving crackers in the EU claim they won the Olympics.

Contrast day one of the RNC to what Kerry-Edwards were doing? Fine, but sending Edwards out to talk about a "deal" with Iran. (Hugh Hewitt is having a field day with this.) Just a bad comparison. Giuliani-McCain talking tough vs. Kerry-Edwards talking a shady deal with our buddies in Iran. I smell a GOP commercial don't you?

The Kerry Show II

Jessica's Well, Instapundit, and Mark Steyn are all on board with the fact that John Kerry's real friends are the big networks. Jessica's Well's photo of Kerry, the NBC logo, the CBS logo, and the ABC logo is worth the price of admission. ""The story now is not John Kerry's weird secret-agent fantasies but the media's willingness to act as elite guardians of them. They're his real "band of brothers," happy to fish him out of their water, even if their credibility sinks in the process," said Steyn.

It seems to me that the polls and opinion are swinging towards Bush. I doubt it is the Swift Boats itself, and the new LA Times poll (Bush 49%, Kerry 46%) seems to bear that out (Political Wire suggests that Bush is "moving ahead on a broad range of measures"). But I think the whole episode has clarified the differences between the two men. The Bush we know, and that some don't like, versus the Kerry we don't know, and that some don't like.

The Kerry Show I

The reviews from Sen Kerry's stop at The Daily Show are pretty bad. Slate.com's Dana Stevens notes this, "From the moment the senator appeared and sat down on the gray sofa where, just last week, Bill Clinton basked in the audience's applause like a cat lapping up cream, Kerry's charisma was less than zero: It was negative. He was a charm vacuum, forced to actually borrow mojo from audience members. He was a dessicated husk, a tin man who really didn't have a heart. His lack of vibrancy, his utter dearth of sex appeal made Al Gore look like Charo."

You know, Kerry probably couldn't even get a show on CNBC. Zing! Because everyone knows CNBC's talk show lineup is gold. No wonder Kerry isn't making the rounds of real news. If you crash and burn on fake news, you must be trouble.

French Quagmire

Rand Simberg takes great glee in pointing out the mess and failure of French liberation 60 years ago. "Sixty years after Paris was seized by the "Allies," and the beginning of the American occupation, France remains a failed nation."

Cold. Sobering. Reality.

Victor Davis Hanson reminds us what is exactly at stake today and why I keep telling people that there is only one real choice in the US election. When the crap hits the fan, and it most certainly will again, I know who I want calling the shots.

"Most see us in a pause, or that the war has gone cold. While we have had successes, I think the next wave will crash soon, and we will be at it again. One cannot read daily of gassers, bombers, and killers arrested hourly worldwide and not imagine that some will not get through. And when they do, there will be a few bold and honest folk who will say, “Who trained them? Who gave them sanctuary? Who wanted them to succeed? Who sent them money” And the answers to all that will inevitably be Iran, Syria, elements in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia."

Celebs Against Bush

Celebrities are certainly entitled to their opinions but here's a question. What's the benefit of having Rebecca Romijin-Stamos in your MoveOn anti-Bush ad? She married John Stamos. I think that alone shows a complete lack of judgment on her part. Just asking.

Hawkeye Pierce to rescue West Wing

National Review's 'The Corner' spent some time today discussing the "West Wing". It appears that Alan Alda is going to be playing a regular character - a Republican one, even. Of course they bring up Alda's character in the Woody Allen musical "Everyone Says I love You" where his son temporarily starts spouting radical conservative thought - you know, like the right to bear arms. It's a funny bit, and Alda is literally beside himself as the archtypical New York Liberal.

Who cares, seeing Ed Norton dance and sing is worth the price of admission. (What happened to getting us some more John Goodman?)Let me get this straight. Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda. How could it possibly fail?

South Park Politics

I was very interested to read about the new Matt Stone/Trey Parker (South Park) movie. Okay, it's got puppets - which in my mind is always a dangerous and quite frankly creepy medium - and it cost $32 million ($32 million for puppets are you serious?), but "Team America" really seems to be the anti-Moore movie. The New York Times has a long article today on the subject.

It's not that the movie is stumping for George W. Bush, as Parker tells it, "If you watch the first 40 minutes of the movie, you'd think Michael Moore wrote it and Rob Reiner directed it. If you watch the last 40 minutes you'd think we were the biggest right-wingers in the world." He goes on to say how much they dislike both Bush and Kerry. I've had many conversations over the past few weeks with the 35 and under crowd and a lot (and when I say, a lot I mean all - I'm in Vancouver after all. You can't have all those granola and organic food stores and not expect the city put a little "hip" back into "hippie" right.) of them are anti-Bush and marginally, in that you have to eat your greens way, pro-Kerry. Which I still don't get - how you can think that if you hate Bush, you're going to love the Kerry White House. I'd actually be amused to see Kerry win, simply to watch him have to deal with far left wing who are throwing their support at him. Exit Question: Can you really be for Michael Moore and John Kerry at the same time?

The other aspect of the movie that sounds worth checking out, is that Parker and Stone are following the "WWJBD ethos" as in What Would Jerry Bruckheimer Do. That's fantastic - and remember its with puppets.

Increasing Tuition, More Students?

Impossible you say? Paul Wells is on the case trying to figure out some new study on tuition fees and whether the increase of them drives students away. It's interesting, and the steady diet of hippies here in BC bellyaching about student fees has my concern at an all time low.

I'm not sure, but I think this means we can increase it even more, attracting even more people to University education. And in a neato side effect, that extra money, surprise, surprise means better education. And if you keep scrolling, Wells has tons of stuff on the subject and why higher tuition fees are a solution. Engarde Hippies!

John F. Kerry: The Average Joe Simple Life

Reality Show possibility for the fall 2005. John Kerry traveling around the country being regular average Joe. Nevermind. On a serious note:

Mickey Kaus notes today's amusing Kerry talking points. In response to the Bush announcement of troop reductions in Europe and Asia, Kerry advisor and potential wannabe Sec. of State Richard Holbrooke said, "I know that the Germans are very unhappy about these withdrawals." Ah, the Kerry Foreign Policy platform: Making the Germans happy again! Steve Martinovich at ESR has more on this.

Meanwhile, back to the John "I'm an average Joe, Bush is the rich fat cat" Kerry show. Doesn't everyone fly around their hair dresser for a trim while they are in Oregon? Double bonus: Kerry's extreme sports fetish, what up?

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