The RNC
and DNC were chock full of sound bites.
One bit off more than the other could chew, and swallow; you be the
judge. I watched the DNC almost in its
entirety. The parade of governors and attorneys
general to grace the podium in North Carolina seemed endless. I had my favorites; those who said what I
hoped was the God’s honest truth; not the media’s truth, or the truth that is created
in backrooms of partisan lobbies.
Truth speakers
Michelle Obama spoke from the heart; bless
her’s, because she wasn’t saddled with her husband’s agenda. Bill Clinton may have spoken the truth as
only he could know it. He spoke plainly
and told us the secret formula that the republicans had contrived to trickle
down was made from simple arithmetic.
The 42nd president seemed like the only one up there
qualified to tell the truth. He found an
economy ravaged by 8 years of Reaganomics where 2 coins were dropped at the top
and hoped would find a poorer hole like a pin-ball. He worked through the 90’s to do things the
Democratic way; from the middle out, not giving favor to the most privileged
and hoping a random silver ball will land in the lap of middle-class
America. Bill said he left office with a
balanced budget. I know there are many
who will refute this, but the numbers lie somewhere in that truth-keeping
lock-box. I do know he spent the next
decade watching his successor deliberately dismantle everything he had done
whether it was right or wrong. Joe Biden
was angry; he was passionate if not pedantic.
He stated his praise and loyal friendship for his boss. He told more personal stories than the
republicans. He told why he was Joe
Biden; he told passionately why he was the VP that 4 years had shown us. A law student told us the future women would
see in a Romney-Ryan administration. She
spoke of fighting battles they had won. I knew that was the truth. Romney and Ryan would roll back time until
before Roe V Wade and women would feel the pressure of the decisions they
face. When the president spoke I
listened for sound bites of truth. How
many jobs did he create? Was it
enough? I have no doubt he saved
millions of jobs and the auto industry.
I have heard conservatives say the auto makers should be allowed to
fail. John or Jane Doe depend on the job
the industry provides them. The industry
goes, so does that job. Obama did the
compassionate thing with the families’ immediate future and ability to pursue
happiness in mind. The words rang true
to me.
I watched
as much of the RNC as I could take. I
had a strong sense that what I heard out of Paul Ryan’s mouth was fixed to
knock Obama out of commission. It felt
like the DNC at least made a little more effort to report the facts; not write
fiction as the convention goes. I really
felt the democrats had a plan, and the reiterated it well, even if it didn’t
pan out as planned. But we all know that
is really not Obama’s fault. That is the
fault of politics. It is the fault of
congress and people who loiter in lobbies.
Our president has said several times he is willing to listen to ideas
from anyone. He was humble in his speech and easily
admitted his failings, which is more than I ever heard from his
predecessor. I believe President Obama
is a victim of politics. If he loses in
November, his administration will be a casualty of frustration by a nation that
can’t read between 2 party lines. It
will be out of a frustration that the tea partiers and the libertarians were
never given a viable chance.
Too close to lie together
I am eagerly
waiting for the debates in October. Each
man may be forced to tell how it is; we may finally hear what Mitt Romney will
do to wrap up the close of the Afghan war Obama’s watch began. The moderator will see them side by side, judge
them, like God or an Idol judge and reveal to us, in real time, who speaks the
truth.-
