The 2008 conventions have really been the first presidential conventions I have kept up with in my lifetime, and as a youngster, my little impressionable mind has been taught a lot by our fine politicians. In fact, my mind is so overwhelmed with specific, factual party platforms right now, I’m not sure I’ll be able to fit anything else in my mind by the time John McCain takes the stage on Thursday night to accept his nomination, which he will have done by the time you read my column.
Onto more serious thoughts, I was in fact paying some attention to the last conventions, but I don’t think the 2004 election was much different than any other election. It was a Democrat and a Republican bashing each other’s war record and voting flip-flops. Of course, as I expressed in my last article, the same type of campaign tactics have made their way into this election. However, with this election, we Americans are genuinely feeling the problems with our economy perhaps more so than four years ago. Some analysts even throw around the phrase “Great Depression,” and even though that phrase may be over the top, it does show that people are getting scared.
Not only are there extremely pivotal issues, but there is also a very different pool of candidates this time. Barack Obama is young, and McCain has a history of doing things contrary to his party. Sarah Palin is a woman, obviously, and she is also a very random pick and another Washington outsider. I suppose the only dry candidate right now is Joe Biden.
All of these candidates have given speeches over the past two weeks, and I have sat at their figurative feet, watching events unfold on television. I shall now enumerate a few lessons that have made me a smarter college student.
1) Vice presidents are like trophy wives, and the more feminine and smoking hot they are, the better. Everyone admits this (namely CNN) but within the context of women’s rights and achievements and making history. However, I think the campaign badges that referred to Palin as a “chick” made it abundantly clear that the vice presidential pick is really all about image.
And although Biden is neither feminine nor smoking hot, he is still merely a strategic pick for Obama’s image. Obama is young and needs an old man to be his running mate. Not to mention Biden, who has no spine, suddenly believes Obama is the best way to change America even though months ago Obama was stupid and inexperienced. It’s amazing how quick these slutty people can become friends again.
2) Republicans don’t know what they’re talking about, and Democrats don’t know what they’re talking about less than Republicans. Guiliani underscored this at the Republican National Convention.
“[The Democrats] are in a state of denial about the biggest threat that faces this country. And if you deny it and you don’t deal with it, you can’t face it,” he said.
Too bad he wasn’t talking about the economy. Instead the RNC throws around propaganda about how “winning” is in sight and the terrorists are our biggest threats. McCain’s acceptance speech is even titled “A Safer and More Secure America.”
I agree with Ron Paul, who often seems more logical than either McCain or Obama, when he said in a speech at his Rally for the Republic: “No Arab or Muslim nation has posed a threat to us. We’re fighting third-world nations 6,000 miles from our shore … Yet our government tells us that they are equivalent to Nazi Germany pre-World War II.”
Contrary to Ron Paul, who wants to do these anarchic things like get rid of the Federal Reserve, our two main choices for president haven’t really proposed how they are going to make the dollar worth anything. While Obama may have robust plans for reformed economic programs, the older I get the more I begin to hate anything the government has its hand in.
3) The conventions are so deep that I don’t have enough space to enumerate all 95 thoughts I have about them. But I pray my comments are more meaningful than those of CNN pundits.
Matt Watson is the opinion editor of The Reflector. He can be contacted at [email protected].