Convention coverage

Monday night, the first night of the convention, I was so exhausted I fell asleep promptly at 9pm. But  because of those crazy set of tubes and the proliferation of all things video, I was able to see what I had theoretically missed... Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama primarily.  Both what I had imagined reading the reviews in the times, but glad I caught nonetheless.

Onto the second night.  As I only have one TV in my living room (crazy, I know!), I had to switch back and forth to all the coverage, but I think I got the gist...!  As a whole, essentially all of these networks collect a bunch of their regular blowhards, spend hours prognosticating about what each speaker will say and how they will perform. Then after watching the speeches, congratulate themselves for being so smart. Although, true to form, each brought them own brand of ridiculousness to their coverage. CNN, I must admit, I watched least of.  Although they do have some expertise like David Gergen that can be worthwhile, as a whole their "personalities" and interaction with each other are almost too painful.  (And during the speeches their camera spends more time on the audience than the speaker, which is odd and annoying.) So my "reviews" are primarily of MSNBC, Fox and PBS. 

MSNBC, admittedly I watch the most in general.  But at this point, they are truly almost as bad as Fox, except that with MSNBC, I'm only pained by their insane execution as opposed to their execution AND content.  First, let me say, I'm going to take a wild guess that the person who produced the event for MSNBC is going to be fired.  Truly, who thought of putting them outside?  Chris Mathews' hair was constantly being wind blown (Oberman's doesn't actually move), the sound feed sometimes didn't work and when it did, it consistently had that echo-like scratching sound that was incredibly annoying, to the point of true distraction.  Naturally, Jon Stewart summed it up better than anyone could.  (Aside from Chris Mathews, his rant on James Carville, Michelle Obama's questioned patriotism and the Obama's kids had me howling - especially the Carville bit! OK, and the kids bit...!) 

While Oberman just loves to hear himself talk, stringing together words and sentences that at first listen  sound as if he might know what he's talking about, then just end up nowhere, Chris Mathews talks and talks, meandering into another land, leaving one to question whether early onset Alzheimer's is taking its toll.  He continued to insist that Hillary wasn't going to give it up for Obama, that she ultimately wanted McCain to win so she could run in 2012.  Although there may be threads of truth (if not shards) in there, he wouldn't hear any of Oberman's (rightly so) opinion that she'd be screwing herself more if she didn't go out there and fully support Obama. Weird exchanges, as usual, between that odd pair  But then who could actually hear a thing...  Only good MSNBC bit was watching Rachael Maddow get incensed (and serious) and then sneering at Pat Buchanan's insanity and inanity.  I hope this is an indication of what her show will be like.  She's a smart cookies, but when she tries to be a light hearted cartoon character, ala Oberman, she looks awkward and ridiculous.

I was actually surprised Fox was even covering the convention, but I guess they didn't have a choice.  Especially as they've now brought in Howard Wolfson.  As with their Republican brethren, Fox's tone was contentious and negative - refusing to let up on their theories that Clinton wanted Obama to lose (must have been texting with Chris Mathews), how team Obama didn't give Hillary the nod by truly vetting her seriously for VP consideration, Biden's comments 9 months ago about Obama not being presidential worthy, how the media was biased towards Obama - following him to Iraq with full on news crews, but not doing the same for McCain.  (God forbid they mention the different circumstances for the coverage.)  Wolfson was basically put on the hot seat, and the only one bringing a modicum of sanity to the conversation.  Although you've got to wonder what he's doing over there... 

As for PBS, they really should steal that "fair and balanced" line, as they are the only network that actually is. Intelligent, in-depthful, insightful conversations for the most part.  It got me thinking...  Naturally the PBS/WNET demo skews much older (imagine those little old ladies with their tote bags) and I couldn't help thinking that as I was leaning towards watching more consistently might mean I was closer to being one of those little old ladies... Frightening!  In all seriousness, however, Jim Lehrer, Gwenn Ifill, Judy Woodruff, Margaret Warner, Mark Shields, Michael Beschloss and even David Brooks, all impressive, bringing a mix of the historical perspective as opposed pure punditry.  And they broadcast way more of the "non-celeb" speeches too. 

OK, onto the the convention itself.  From my seat, not all that much excitement.  And this isn't because of the media, it's because of the speakers. Most seem to be primarily concerned about their own political future, with the Democratic party being a close second, while Obama just happens to the candidate that will represent them.  Maybe it's because he doesn't have enough "friends" or enough history for these people to speak of him in specific ways.  Not sure.  And in fairness, to be able to actually say whether this convention has been successful up to this point, you've first have to lay out what the objectives were, to see if they've been met.  Let people really come to know Barack?  Encourage/demand Clinton supporters to get behind Obama?  Make clear that McCain IS George Bush?  Atttack McCain directly? Maybe we're getting to the first few points.  But for my money, there's not enough of outlining how scary a McCain administration would be, what McCain really stands for  and how he's conveniently switched his positions in the last few months (not a maverick anymore). Theoretically the bulldog approach, the negative pounding should be coming from all of these people speaking at the Convention, and not Obama himself.  But no one's stepped up to the plate for this one.  Pat Buchanan scarily enough said it succinctly.  Obama's got to define who he is by defining what he's against. Although there have been moments, none of these speakers have done it all that well.

Mark Warner had a nothing speech.  It seemed more for Senate run that for the party or Obama.  He had some good lines certainly, ones that rang true.  But his rallying cry for going beyond partisan politics, although Obama's theme, sounded way too lofty.  Can someone just bash McCain?  (Interesting enough, Obama's camp moved up his speech to an earlier time slow, not giving him the prime time 10pm slot.  Obama's camp might have gotten a look at his speech?)

And then there's Hillary.  And I say, "Great speech, Hill!." In the first 30 seconds, minus the lengthy applause, she stated that she was a proud Obama supporter and that called on everyone to vote for Obama, whether they voted for her or him, that sitting on the sidelines wasn't an option - they had to get out and vote, and vote for Obama.  She had some great lines (paraphrasing a bit here) - "No way, now how, no McCain," "Obama is my candidate, he must be our president," "Sisterhood of traveling pantsuit" (scarily her wardrobe might be the most unifying issue for her women supporters), her "Twin Cities" line about McCain and Bush and the ".... before we keep going, we need to get going" line when talking about Harriet Tubman. She covered it all, including going after McCain a bit - although not enough in my mind. 

While watching her, I thought she did an excellent job.  Although I knew she had to get up there and support him, for the party and her own legacy, I still feared that the support may come off as tepid.  So I was thrilled.  The speech was thorough and flowed really well. In the end, all the reviews seem to be similar.  She certainly did a really good job (some thought excellent, others just good) passing the bar of expectations set, but ultimately didn't rise all that far above it.  She did what she was supposed to do, with the most important thing being to call on her supporters to follow her lead and vote for Obama.  But I  don't disagree with some of the "reviewers" that she really didn't go too much further than that. Not only was she not all that impassioned about him as a person, possibly proclaiming that she had "found god" (or at least Obama) after having spent so much time with him throughout the election as well as the last few months campaigning together.  But she didn't negate any of the "negative" things she said during the primaries - that he was an empty suit, that he wasn't ready to be president, etc.  At one point she said Michelle would be a great first lady, but she never said he'd be a great president.  It was more about the party than about him. And yes, she left open the door that if this campaign goes south and Obama doesn't win, she will be perched right up there on that political fence, ready to twist her words in her favor (claiming "I never really supported him - just the party")  ....She is nothing if not the ultimate politician. 

As much fun as it was to watch her to see if she did her "do", was watching Bill and Michelle Obama's reaction.  Bill looked along lovingly (knowing the cameras were on him, of course!), and seemed to look smug and satisfied when Hillary mentioned - in only one line - the success and prosperity we had during the Clinton years.  And Michelle... Initially I imagined her with the bubble over her head saying "don't fuck this up for my husband," but seemed to warm up when it was clear Hillary was getting it right.  Her too knowing the cameras were right on her. 

As usual, the best coverage of the night was on The Daily Show and the Colbert Report (Both links lead to full episodes.)  The Daily Show intro is hilarious as is this clip of Colbert below, for his bill Kristol comments and the Wizard of Oz Obama head reference (my thoughts exactly!.)  Colbert seemed to be on the softer side this evening... maybe he was just feeling under the weather.  Either way, well worth the watch.  Two more nights to go, and I'm already exhausted!