What Does It All Mean, anyway?
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jenna and Barbara Bush, and Zell Miller: three different styles; three different freakshows; three affirmations of my biases.
I assume that Arnold played well with the swing-voter, and at least he gave some persona of optimism.
I see this suggestion that Jenna and Barbara Bush might have had some appeal to parents who see in them their own tweens. Tweens are that marketer’s demographic segment of 9 to 14 year olds. Jenna and Barbara Bush are twenty two years old. It appears that it was Karen Hughes’s idea to give fuel to the sterotype of spoiled rich immature Bushes.
As for Zell Miller… The keynote speech is supposed to outline a political party’s philosophy with a flair of eloquence. In that vein, do we dare compare Barack Obama with Zell Miller? I suspect he worked in the way that negative campaigning works — the memes perpetuated. I hope he at least had the common courtesy of deleting some of the “chain email. Otherwise, the persona of Zell Miller… the verdict is in. I never thought we’d get from a staged major political party convention a primetime speech like Pat Buchanan’s 1992 harbinger. I was wrong. Expect Zell Miller to continue to make the rounds on the Sean Hannitys of the world; expect him to disappear from the Meet the Presses of the world.
Perhaps better to realign the speeches to better compare with the Democratic Convention speeches. Zell Miller’s speech thus sits next to Edward Kennedy’s as the “red meat for the partisans” speech. I don’t have to look back to say that Zell Miller’s was more bilous.* Arnold Schwarzenegger better sits next to Barack Obama’s speech. The theme is about the same: personal life story as party message as meaning of America. Where does that leave us with the Bush twins? Why, remember that cutesy “Kid for Kerry” who said that “Bush needs a time out”? (In four years, he’s going to be in his adolescence, brooding over whatever the then version of Black Sabbath is, thoroughly embarassed by his prior electoral political activism.)
What do I make of the Rudy Giuliani and John McCain speeches? McCain provided a lackluster speech, but that was enough… whatever extent that he gives Bush coattails is in play by his very presence. Giuliani provided a speech that probably better than McCain set the themes and tone: nostalgia for 9/11, a storyline from 9/11 straight to Iraq, and bash John Kerry. More importantly for Giuliani’s courtship of the conservative base for the 2008 election — endear himself with at least what he has in common with them: muscular military policy indeed.
It’s remarkable how quickly the storyline changed. At first, it was supposed to be the Moderates Stepping Up to the Plate — the most popular politicians in the nation (Giuliani, McCain, and Schwarzennager) — the backstory for the media to discuss about the fight between the moderates and the conservatives showing the “big tent” for the party. But that all changed fairly quickly, and excellerated with Zell Miller and Dick Cheney. This convention will be remembered for its negativity.
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* Updated: the Democratic Convention speech that comes closest to Zell Miller’s is probably Al Sharpton’s speech, where he ventured astray from his prepared and vetted remarks… and which was outside of primetime.