Nothin' from Nothin' leaves Nothin'...

or my take on the GOP Convention thus far.

well, i hit arnold down blow here and that sums it up in about 2 sentences.

Tonight we get a treat. OH, before we start, click here and put these images in your mind while i write about their speeches.

Zell Miller...the guy so 'betrayed' by the dems that he gave keynote address for Bill Clinton. you know what? i can buy that whole "the party left ME" business if he hadn't been in the middle of 'the party's business' for the last few years. suddenly 9/11 comes and the world changes? hardly.

well he gave a tough speech tonite. known as an orator i expected something from him, but was curious that the DEMOCRAT was the ONLY social conservative in a convention that needs their vote more than any other to win. I won't go into the right or wrong of the facts here (oh, but i WILL if anyone wants to tangle in the comments section), but i do want to talk about the speech itself.

Full attack and harsh. not a syllab about What Bush has done or what he will do. just Kerry the democrats pinned up on the bag for some punches...

*First you get a laundry list of why Democrats were ok but now they are not only different but DANGEROUS. i mean, no reasons...just trust him...right?
*Next a list of all the awful things Kerry's voted against. no context...but you know what? this isn't practice and context isn't needed for the real game. you just need to punch. i don't want to hear kerry explaining a damn thing. i want the COUNTER
PUNCH i don't want the context. the context is something my kids can talk about
in their political science class (god this is why i get frustrated by politicians too far out of the south or out of the blue collar world) The President is so weak Kerry needs to pick something and tag it with some strong, STRONG language. if the president has screwed this country, he better lay the accusation with the strongest words...if he won't he's the only one in this race that won't. I don't want to see Nader doing a better job at this than Kerry.
*Kerry hates every bit of millitary and every weapon we've ever had.
*You better be SCARED of him and you better hope to GOD that Bush can be there to protect us.

that's the speech. He brought down the house there but what about across america? These folks were dying for SOMEONE to give Kerry a black eye and that's what tonite was about. here's my final take. i think you can talk about what someone's done and that can hurt but you have a hard time selling the idea that someone is just AGAINST America. against our troops. its too much to try and get someone to buy. that is what he tried to sell today and i can't help but think it did two things. fanned the party faithful and had little positive effect on the undecided middle. he's selling more than the average person could buy. i could be wrong, but i don't think i am.

That being said, If Kerry won't fight this race, he may as well give it away.

i think he can fight.

DICK CHENEY'S SPEECH

God...it's 1/2 and hour long. i'm doing this for you dear readers...

*Cheney goes after Edwards first. He's a trial lawyer and they're all evil. Whatever. i'm a trial lawyer and they've been trying this crap for years. as for how it works with Edwards...? He once represented a little girl that had her intestines pulled out of her body by a suction vent on a hot tub that could have been prevented by a couple of screws. Cheney isn't on the little
girls side. that's about all you need to know.
*2/3 of this speech is about national security and what Kerry would do to hurt us. I was watching Chris Matthews this week and he made some comments i want to echo and expand upon here.

This election isn't just about the next 4 years. it is about the direction we go in the next decade. Do we want a country where we go it alone? where we don't move with our allies? the VP would have you think that this means getting permission from our allies. what it means is having friends. remember how skeptical they were about our evidence for an IMMEDIATE war with iraq? remember how it turned out they were right? Bush once said that we need a foreign policy with humility. he also says we have to protect our own intrests. those are not mutually exclusive traits. our future fights are going to be as much against groups that have no borders as it will be against other nations. this is a phenomenon of violence unlike any other time in the history of the world. do you think we need to wade into these uncharterd waters alone? on purpose? Anyone that mistakes snubbing your friends for bravery...or for the love of god...BRAVERY...that's like living in an action movie.

You HAVE to look at where we are. how many people are worse off now? how many people have to be laid off before it's bad enough to go another direction? how many MORE people have to be in poverty? How many more people have to be (newly) without insurance?

You have to ask if we are going in the right direction right now. i don't think we are.