Conventional wisdom

I'm doing my best to avoid paying much attention to the Democratic Convention. I'll probably do the same for the republicants.
I can't help but wonder just exactly what purpose a convention serves in 2008.

Back when I was a YoungGuy, the conventions actually has a purpose. The candidate was actually nominated at the convention. Oftimes I recall it was a close race, a fight. The favorite coming in didn't always win. Sometimes there was a surprise.

I recall it was the convention that selected the vice-presidential candidate. Although his say had some sway, it was not the presidential candidate who picked his VP. (Maybe it was but we just didn't know/realize it)

There was always a long, drawn-out and sometimes bitter debate on the party platform.

No more.

Who do you suppose is gonna be the Presidential candidate?
Who's gonna be the VP candidate?

The party platform? It's whatever the candidate says it is. (In actuality, it's what the candidate's handlers say it is. We can just hope the candidate reads it).

So, is the purpose to rally support for the candidate? It probably will among those political junkies at the convention. The rest of us? We pretty much ignore it.

But you know who is NOT ignoring it? The opposition party. They're scanning every word, every gesture, every nuance.

To find whatever they can to twist into a negative talking point. Into political mud. Something to use to get snarky, mean and underhanded.

So, I ask again, who is this convention for?

And why are the Democrats mining the political mud for the republicants?

Let them find their own dirt. They're good at it.

And so it goes.

Fay

Never seen a hurricane before.

Never much thought I wanted to.

That's about to change in the next 12 hours or so.

Can't say I'm much looking forward to it.

Except in kind of a perverse curiosity type of way.

We're hunkered down and waiting.

And so it goes.

Runnin' on stupid

How about a candidate who can't get anything right?

The Repugnicants' favorite septuagenarian John McSame, it now turns out, has stolen a song from Jackson Browne that he hoped to use to diss Obama. Who's dissin who?

Guess McSame figured no one would notice a little copyrite infringement as long as it was for his little slimy cause.

Guess again:

Jackson Browne doesn't want John McCain running on anything fueled by his lyrics. The singer-songwriter sued McCain and the Ohio and national Republican committees in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Thursday, accusing them of using his song "Running on Empty" without his permission.

The lawsuit claims the song's use was an infringement of his copyright and will lead people to conclude he endorses McCain. The suit says Browne is a lifelong liberal who is as well-known for his music as for being "an advocate for social and environmental justice."

The advertisement mocks Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's contention that if U.S. drivers got regular tuneups and drove on properly inflated tires, they could save the same amount of oil that would be gained by offshore drilling. According to the suit, "Running on Empty" plays in the background of the ad criticizing the remarks.

The campaign's lie in response?

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers disavowed the ad, saying it wasn't a product of the Republican presidential candidate's campaign.

And if you believe that, then let's continue:

The suit notes that other musicians, including ABBA and John Cougar Mellencamp, have asked McCain to stop using their work.

Theft is theft, McSame. Even you are required to obey the law. As shocking as that may sound.

Or, to put it another way, no law is safe in the hands of the McSame campaign. Think it would be any different if we allowed his slimy footprints in the Oval Office?

The current occupant seems to think laws don't apply to him. Why would McSame think any different.

And so it goes.

Ha!

And so it goes.

Race is run

The Repugnuicants have figured out a way to play the race card in the presidential race without appearing to play the race card.

They accuse Barack Obama of playing the race card.

“Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck,’’ Rick Davis, Mr. McCain’s campaign manager, said in a statement. “It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.’’

It's a sneaky strategy, but it likely isn't gonna work, because it's a bit obvious on whose side the truth lies.

Mr. Davis was alluding to comments that Mr. Obama made Wednesday in Missouri when he reacted to the increasingly negative tone, and negative ads that have been coming his way from the McCain campaign in recent days.

“So nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face, so what they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me,’’ Mr. Obama said Wednesday in Springfield, Mo., in remarks that he echoed throughout the day. “You know, he’s not patriotic enough. He’s got a funny name. You know, he doesn’t look like all those other Presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He’s risky. That’s essentially the argument they’re making.’’

It's the typical Repubnicant smear tactic. Just another way of swiftboating when the truth isn't in your favor.

Mr. Obama has made similar statements about the lines of attack against him before, and was even more direct last month when he said: “We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run. They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?’’

The McCain campaign’s decision to make the charge now that Mr. Obama was playing the “race card” comes as it has adopted a far more aggressive, negative posture towards Mr. Obama in recent days, trying to tar him as arrogant, out of touch and unprepared for the presidency with a series of statements by Mr. McCain and a series of negative ads – some of which have been condemned as misleading.

Playing dirty's nothing new. Repugnicants have been doing it for years. Decades.

But then again, when your candidate is John McSame, promising four (8?) more years of the same corrupt Republican administration that has placed this country in the quagmire it's in, what choice do they have?

Sometimes the shortest path is through the mud.

And so it goes.