Will Big Mac Supersize Himself? (RNC Night 4)

Live-blogging and updating as needed...

Before this gets going, a couple of thoughts about the past day's events. First, as awesome as Sarah Palin was, the fact remains that all we've really seen of her is two public speeches. Who knows how she'll do in a gotcha press conference where if she doesn't know who the Acting Associate Deputy to the Assistant Undersecretary of Interior Basketweaving Ministry for Kreplochistan, she'll be labeled "Dan Quayle in a skirt" and howled off the stage? (Nevermind that Obama can't think without a TelePrompter.) Until we see her under fire and in the debate against the Plagiarist, I think a little restraint would be prudent. Naturally, if she takes down all challengers like a caribou in season, then by all means, let's get crazy!

For McCain, the task is to not appear that he's older than Methuselah and clueless to the simpering zeitgeist of whining Americans who ARE in a "mental recession." People have been rewarded for being stupid with their housing choices and those who paid their bills are feeling like fools for doing the right thing. Unfortunately, today's mewling public is looking for freebies from government to provide succor for their follies and the Dems are more than willing to offer up the wealth of producers in a brightly-colored fascism-flavored shell. McCain needs to tell these moochers to suck it up, but probably won't.

I hope he doesn't tell his Nam war stories again for the zillionth time. Everyone else has told his story and we get it - time for what he's going to do in the next four years, not what happened nearly 40 years ago. I hope he doesn't feel the need to share his enthusiam for rewarding invaders, preach about his membership in the Church of ManBearPig, and bash Big Whatever in the hopes of sounding as liberal as his opponents. A choice, not an echo, is an old slogan and Americans really deserve a real choice between freedom-cherishing conservatism and fascist liberalism.

• The PBS panel is pontificating that McCain needs to tell the conservatives in the party to STFU and try to appeal to the moderates and independents who are pretty much sworn to Obama this time around. Not 24 hours after the Moose-Slayer fired up this crowd and the country, they're demanding he make moves that would put him back in the dumps where he was a week ago. They keep harping on the meme that po' widdle Mac wanted the wrong-about-everything-but-the-war Joe Lieberman on the ticket, but the mean ol' con-swerve-a-tives made him go against his wishes and put that nasty conservative on instead. Well, of course they'd like that, wouldn't they?

• The first half hour has been dull white people making bland speeches about whatever. I haven't been paying attention, but caught about 75 mentions of his war wounds. Yawn...

• They showed a short film about 9/11 that laid out that Islamofascism was at war for us for decades, since 1979, before that Tuesday morning. They didn't mention Clinton's feckless non-response and only implied the message that McCain would keep us safe. PBS followed up with Pew polls that show that people are more concerned about the economy than terrorism. Unmentioned is the sad fact that due to the success of Dubya's security policies, we haven't been attacked and since we haven't been hit again, it allows the people to go, "La-de-da, I sure think that Obama fellow is cute and we need a change. What's the harm?" Plenty, idiots.

• Lindsey Graham is on now pounding Obama's blind opposition to victory in Iraq. It sounds like they're going to mine the "I'd rather lose a campaign than lose a war" line even more. Unfortunately, people want to hear about what he'll do about the price of groceries more. They'd better tack back to that, too. Graham was blah and he's an invader rewarder, too, so screw him.

• They finally ran the video about Moose-Slayer. Nice, but rote. I need to take a trip to Alaska sometime. My mom always wanted to go for a cruise.

• Tom Ridge, another pro-abortion pal of McCain's who was teased as a Veep possibility, is out now boring me stupid talking about McCain's dedication. The crowd doesn't seem enthused much and I'm not either. Jeez, all these guys are dull and would've been pure death as running mates. Palin was a brilliant choice, but as I wondered last night, can the top of the ticket get some sparks going?

• Intro film for Cindy McCain was enlightening. I new about her charity work, but it was news to me that she was into car racing and had "a mother/son drift racing team." Why the hell haven't they shown her doing this?!? Moose-Slayer is hawt because she's badass naughty librarian, so can you imagine what a tall, blonde rich chick with a beer warehouse who races cars would do for the image?!? Jeez, are these campaign people morons?!?!? (Well, yeah...) Her talk was a little beauty queen plasticish and ran long. Energy lulling even though it's noble what she's talking about. (I'm catching up on videogame news now.)

• The McCain intro film opened heavily with his war record, but added film of him in captivity that the oral accounts lacked. It also shows that he was a handsome mofo 35 years ago. This is all redundant to anyone who's been watching, but I suppose this is aimed at John and Jane Q. Public who are just tuning in for the first time.

• Jeez, here we go again. Some asshole protester has crashed the arena and is waving a big sign reading, "YOU CAN'T WIN AN OCCUPATION". Again I ask, how many Republican protesters crashed the Denver Nuremberg Rally? The guy is still in the rafters, yelling and triggering chants of "U-S-A-!" from the crowd. In this supposedly speech-chilled land, how come this guy is free to be a jerk? Lucky for him, Mac wants to close Gitmo. (I'd waterboard the f*cker.) Oh, look, another one. Mac grins it off. This is getting ridiculous. How the hell did so many protesters get in or are they all MSNBC staffers?

• He tossed a nice shoutout to Obama, treating him as if he wasn't a fascist death cult leader. Spare me. I know, I know...take the high road, but sometimes being polite is stupid.

• McCain called out the Republicans who got corrupted by power - "We lost their trust." - and then followed up with his stupid "God's Children" blather regarding invaders. You're mixing your message, pal. So far, nothing specific. The full text of speech is here. Let me take a peek and see if anything other than "We're cool" bromides. BRB...

• OK, I'm back and there's not much and, sadly, he's going to tell the story of his captivity in Hanoi. Again. Perhaps it's meant to fill in the people just tuning in, but it's been done to death. Expect wags to put this up with the cracks about John Kerry, "who served in Viet Nam, by the way."

• An interesting passage:

When I was five years old, a car pulled up in front of our house. A Navy officer rolled down the window, and shouted at my father that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. I rarely saw my father again for four years. My grandfather came home from that same war exhausted from the burdens he had borne, and died the next day. In Vietnam, where I formed the closest friendships of my life, some of those friends never came home with me. I hate war. It is terrible beyond imagination.

I’m running for President to keep the country I love safe, and prevent other families from risking their loved ones in war as my family has. I will draw on all my experience with the world and its leaders, and all the tools at our disposal - diplomatic, economic, military and the power of our ideals - to build the foundations for a stable and enduring peace.

Does this sound like a man who wants "endless war", as the hysterical ninnies of the Left shriek? The Left has bashed Dubya for not having seen real combat - "chickenhawk" ring a bell - and said that he was too cavalier in sending other off to war. They claimed that John Kerry would be smarter because he had a few paper cuts in Nam, but now that a man who has genuinely suffered the ravages of war is in the running, it's no way, Jose! He's a WARMONGER! Why the flip? Hmmmm...could it be that he's the wrong party? Duh. Clinton's draft dodging was noble and Bob Dole's war-ruined body was just old. Only the history of the Dem matters.

• OK, the war stuff played better than it read. It showed McCain as a humble patriot who learned to appreciate his country in trying circumstances. But I think this is going to strike a chord with those not in thrall to the Obamessiah's spell because Obama's smug arrogance, borne of believing his own hype and fed by the Treason Media, is off-putting to anyone not in the market for a Messiah.

• The post-show reax on PBS are more positive than mine except for Mark Shields who just hated it because he's a lefty. Phony token conservative David Brooks kinda sorta disagreed.

• It's hard to remember that this shindig only ran three days - shortened by the mediocre hurricane Gustav - because it felt like five. Whoever designed this video wall stage needs to be run out of show biz. People all over are complaining about how goofy it looks and I agree. With the solid blue and green backgrounds, I wonder how long it'll be before someone chroma keys weird stuff behind him. (Heck, I want to put him in Dagobah!)

• Nightline showed this website where you can get signs for the ticket:


Cute, if silly. More fun than this one for sure.

They also showed all the fat cat parties that both the Dems and Stupids held. Surprisingly, they really concentrated on the Dems, including Pelosi's ultra-rich-only penthouse bash. Since the Dems control Congress, they're getting the most grease, but I can only surmise that Brian Ross calling out this phony "party of the little guy" was mostly due to the stormtrooper tactics used against their producer, footage of which was shown.

• Charlie Rose's wrap-up was uneventful, I'm tired with a busy weekend, and a rain front is blowing my TV signal around, causing drop outs. G'nite.