DNC Details

On the grand scale, these conventions don't really matter much.  The TV ratings aren't that high, there is usually little or no 'bounce' in polls based on them, and few minds are changed by what the speakers say.  However, I think it is interesting to watch them because they really display the kind of character and persona that each party claims for itself.  Thus, it is very informative to watch the DNC unfold.  In particular, I'd be curious to see the reaction from a normal every day Democrat at seeing what his or her party leaders say the party stands for.

Here is the opening salvo of collectivist propaganda from your Democrat party:

Government is 'the only thing we all belong to?'  Hm.  Yeah, I can't imagine why people think Barack Obama is a socialist, can you?

And this notion of being owned by the government, apparently, is just hunky-dory with the Dems at the convention:

Mitt Romney's response is as powerful as it is succinct (and accurate, at least according to the Founders):

"We don't belong to government, the government belongs to us."

Which philosophy would you rather live under?  Think carefully, as this is the fundamental choice Americans have in November.

On the first couple of nights, the non-primetime speakers overloaded the convention hall with speech after speech about abortion, choice, and unions.  It was so pervasive that even the liberal punditry (yes, David Brooks is a liberal) felt it was a mistake, or at least a misplaced priority:

In fact, it was only during the single hour of primetime coverage at the end that they suddenly appeared to care about being even remotely 'centrist'.  It really should be no surprise, then, to see lots of people running around with beliefs like this:

After all, if you submit yourself to being the property of the government, you really should have no problem being told what to do.  Oh, and there were more accusations of Republicans being Nazis.  Naturally.

It's amusing that the previously planned grand presentation of Barack Obama at the 74,000-seat stadium has now officially been moved indoors to a 20,000-seat venue...because of weather.  After all, there's a 20% chance of rain for that evening.  Like most evenings this time of year in Charlotte.  Some forecasts predict as high as 40%, but it seems much more likely that weather is more of an excuse than the real reason:

Footage of rows of empty seats at the stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers, as Obama spoke on Thursday night would have been be politically disastrous – an enduring image of the contrast between his campaign of ‘hope’ and ‘change’ in 2008 and his dour, negative struggle for re-election in 2012. 

And this is despite busing in thousands of people from cities up to a couple hundred miles away, too.

I think the most astounding thing so far, though, is what happened with the platform modifications.  I posted earlier this week that the Democrat party's official platform had removed "God" and pro-Israel language.  After several Dems utterly failed to explain why these omissions were made, they tried to do damage control in full view of the convention and put those things back in.  It backfired:

Now, it is bad enough that the Democrat leadership would actually try to cut out God and pro-Israel language from the official party positions, but I think it really says something about the extreme lack of leadership in those same leaders that they would be so shallow as to try to slip them back in simply for appearances sake.  I also find it informative how Villaraigosa did whatever he wanted to do despite the clearly divided reaction in the crowd.  The will of the people be damned, they had a political objective to achieve!

However, the negative reaction from the crowd -- and remember, these are perhaps the most Democrat of all Democrats in the country -- is stunning.  Not once, not twice, but three times the Democrats in the audience shouted down the addition of God and Jerusalem into their party platform.  And then, when Villaraigosa proceeded to insert the new language over the crowd's obvious objection, they booed him.

Once again, I ask all you normal, every day Democrats: is this a party to which you want to belong??

Oh yes, conventions are very informative for showing the nation who these parties claim themselves to be.