The Republican National Convention is in full swing in Tampa, Florida. These conventions remind this Brit of the annual Party Conferences held in the UK by the leading political parties.
They are, in reality, a meaningless waste of time and money. Afer all those who attend, cheer and speak are all batting for the same side. Now if there were an open audience it would be a different matter. As it is on the whole the crowd agree with whoever says what.
In the UK Conferences there are Party rebels who at times make waves, before they are unceremoniously booted out. It was a similar scene at the beginning of the GOP convention. Those who might challenge the Party line were quickly shown the door. Thankfully so were a handful of racists throwing nuts at a black camera woman. That does not mean that those attending are not like minded sadly.
It is both a source of amusement and dismay that one of the latest speakers was a rambling Clint Eastwood. We know that B Movie actors and the GOP go hand in hand but down the years Clint has made some excellent movies.
Perhaps his speech was aimed at scuppering the Romney election campaign. It did it no favours when all is said and done.
In America these self congratulatory speeches and conventions can damage the opposition. They are pushed out into the mainstream media with a great deal of coverage. They will not change the mind of hardline voters but the many flip flop ones could be influenced. Floating voters in the UK are often the people who truly dictate the election result.
Clint ad libbed his speech which could have been a good choice. It was not. So many of the well rehearsed speeches such as that of Ann Romney appear robotic. She almost had that Stepford Wife appearance. Clint had the appearance of a maniacal character in a horror Movie.
Clint chose to address an empty chair which was supposed to represent him addressing President Obama. A one sided conversation is lunacy. It might have been brilliant but it was not.
As a now aged, veteran actor Clint may be forgiven by some. He has nothing to lose when all is said and done. He has made and amassed his fortune. The economy for him now will be all about protecting the wealth he already has. It will not be about assisting the vulnerable in society or the less fortunate.
This convention has said over and over again that the new generation have not fared well inder Obama. Would they fare better under Romney? Doubtful. They may of course have jobs which pay a pittance and have no worker guarantees but even that is doubtful. The world is in a mess and leaders will have to make bold choices, especially if they want to protect their own backs.
Clint began, “I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, what’s a movie tradesman doing out here? You know they are all left-wingers out there, left of Lenin. At least that is what people think. That is not really the case. There are a lot of conservative people, a lot of moderate people, Republicans, Democrats, in Hollywood. It is just that the conservative people, by the nature of the word itself, play closer to the vest. They do not go around hot-dogging it.” Ad-libbing? No! Surely not. “So I — so I’ve got Mr. Obama sitting here,” he said, pointing at an empty chair. “And he’s — I was going to ask him a couple of questions.”
“I think possibly now it may be time for somebody else to come along and solve the problem,” Eastwood said, which was oddly not the most tepid Romney endorsement of the convention so far. He then proceeded to grill the chair. “So, Mr. President, how do you handle promises that you have made when you were running for election, and how do you handle them? I mean, what do you say to people? Do you just — you know — I know — people were wondering — you don’t — handle that. Okay.”
On it went with the crowd at one point shouting "Make My Day" Presumably that means that those in attendance were keen to get a gun and blow someone's head off.
Each GOP speech now has the regulation. "American" in it plus a nod to the fact that each generation expects that their children will do better than they. The latter is a fine sentiment but hardly a reality in the World. If it was each person would be living a luxurious life with no-one left to work cleaning, clearing drains and emptying rubbish. Just like in nature we all play a vital part in this world, or we can do if allowed.
As for "American", the way the GOP voice it, it makes me wince. It has hints of their birther issues. A sad affair all in all.
After Clint put some fire in the belly of the GOP convention and some laughter into other sources Romney delivered his speech. It was more of his bland, wooden, non persuasive words. It is hard to tell which speech did the most good and which the most harm to the Romney election campaign
It will depend on the political leaning of the listener and whether that person is sane or not
They are, in reality, a meaningless waste of time and money. Afer all those who attend, cheer and speak are all batting for the same side. Now if there were an open audience it would be a different matter. As it is on the whole the crowd agree with whoever says what.
In the UK Conferences there are Party rebels who at times make waves, before they are unceremoniously booted out. It was a similar scene at the beginning of the GOP convention. Those who might challenge the Party line were quickly shown the door. Thankfully so were a handful of racists throwing nuts at a black camera woman. That does not mean that those attending are not like minded sadly.
It is both a source of amusement and dismay that one of the latest speakers was a rambling Clint Eastwood. We know that B Movie actors and the GOP go hand in hand but down the years Clint has made some excellent movies.
Perhaps his speech was aimed at scuppering the Romney election campaign. It did it no favours when all is said and done.
In America these self congratulatory speeches and conventions can damage the opposition. They are pushed out into the mainstream media with a great deal of coverage. They will not change the mind of hardline voters but the many flip flop ones could be influenced. Floating voters in the UK are often the people who truly dictate the election result.
Clint ad libbed his speech which could have been a good choice. It was not. So many of the well rehearsed speeches such as that of Ann Romney appear robotic. She almost had that Stepford Wife appearance. Clint had the appearance of a maniacal character in a horror Movie.
Clint chose to address an empty chair which was supposed to represent him addressing President Obama. A one sided conversation is lunacy. It might have been brilliant but it was not.
As a now aged, veteran actor Clint may be forgiven by some. He has nothing to lose when all is said and done. He has made and amassed his fortune. The economy for him now will be all about protecting the wealth he already has. It will not be about assisting the vulnerable in society or the less fortunate.
This convention has said over and over again that the new generation have not fared well inder Obama. Would they fare better under Romney? Doubtful. They may of course have jobs which pay a pittance and have no worker guarantees but even that is doubtful. The world is in a mess and leaders will have to make bold choices, especially if they want to protect their own backs.
Clint began, “I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, what’s a movie tradesman doing out here? You know they are all left-wingers out there, left of Lenin. At least that is what people think. That is not really the case. There are a lot of conservative people, a lot of moderate people, Republicans, Democrats, in Hollywood. It is just that the conservative people, by the nature of the word itself, play closer to the vest. They do not go around hot-dogging it.” Ad-libbing? No! Surely not. “So I — so I’ve got Mr. Obama sitting here,” he said, pointing at an empty chair. “And he’s — I was going to ask him a couple of questions.”
“I think possibly now it may be time for somebody else to come along and solve the problem,” Eastwood said, which was oddly not the most tepid Romney endorsement of the convention so far. He then proceeded to grill the chair. “So, Mr. President, how do you handle promises that you have made when you were running for election, and how do you handle them? I mean, what do you say to people? Do you just — you know — I know — people were wondering — you don’t — handle that. Okay.”
On it went with the crowd at one point shouting "Make My Day" Presumably that means that those in attendance were keen to get a gun and blow someone's head off.
Each GOP speech now has the regulation. "American" in it plus a nod to the fact that each generation expects that their children will do better than they. The latter is a fine sentiment but hardly a reality in the World. If it was each person would be living a luxurious life with no-one left to work cleaning, clearing drains and emptying rubbish. Just like in nature we all play a vital part in this world, or we can do if allowed.
As for "American", the way the GOP voice it, it makes me wince. It has hints of their birther issues. A sad affair all in all.
After Clint put some fire in the belly of the GOP convention and some laughter into other sources Romney delivered his speech. It was more of his bland, wooden, non persuasive words. It is hard to tell which speech did the most good and which the most harm to the Romney election campaign
It will depend on the political leaning of the listener and whether that person is sane or not
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