I've seen Romney, I've seen Bain.
I've seen Clinton speeches I thought would never end.
I've seen crazy guys talking to invisible men.
So I'll prob'ly vote Obama, again.
-- Jimmy Fallon channeling James Taylor
This week everybody was talking about the Democratic Convention
The best speech was definitely Bill Clinton's, but Obama and Biden also did well. Among the punditry, Obama suffered from unreasonable standards. A typical comment sounded a little like: He used to leap taller buildings at a single bound.
After the Paul Ryan lie-fest, Factcheck.org whined a little about Bill Clinton's speech: He gave them a lot of facts to check, but nothing much to write about.
The best single line of the convention was probably John Kerry's: "Ask Osama bin Laden if he's better off than he was four years ago."
But let's not forget the week's really important moments, like Julian Castro's 3-year-old daughter spotting herself on the jumbotron TV.
Or Jimmy Fallon doing his James Taylor impersonation. (Taylor really did perform at the convention, but this video comes from Fallon's show Late Night.)
... and where the race stands now
In short: Obama got a bounce from his convention, but Romney didn't. Statistically, the race is still close enough that Romney could come back. But doing so would require him to uncork some inner awesomeness that so far I see no sign of.
The longer version of that analysis is: Where the Presidential Race Stands.
... but I also wrote about something else
The Distress of the Privileged takes a sympathetic look at the experiences that lead to Tea-Party-style anger. When your privileges shrink, it can feel like persecution. I rely on a series of wonderful articles in the Owldolatrous blog, and tie them to a Pleasantville theme.... and you might also be interested in this
You may have heard that your religious liberty is in danger. A minister provides a quick quiz to help you determine if it is. Typical question:
4. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) I am not allowed to pray privately.
B) I am not allowed to force others to pray the prayers of my faith publicly.
Note to local TV reporters: Don't try to question Ann Romney about the issues that might interest your viewers. Lady Ann will tell you what the issues are and what you should be asking about them.
Jon Stewart did a wonderful job of contrasting Fox News' coverage of the two conventions.
Something I almost pulled into the "The Distress of the Privileged": the contrast with the kind of anger you see in Melissa Harris-Perry's rant on risk. She got tired of hearing about how the entrepreneur's deserve to be rich because of all the risks they take. "What is riskier than living poor in America?" she demanded.
When the privileged get angry, you get the kind of coverage the Tea Party got: reflections on what Obama must have done to rile these people up. But black female anger comes pre-discounted. "What got into her?"
Something to remember when Republicans complain about Obama's record on jobs:
No comments:
Post a Comment