Partisan

Argh. I was going to be a good citizen and watch the Republican convention coverage, despite my feeling that I was unlikely to be persuaded by any of the major speeches. But I have been listening to all of 20 minutes of it, and already, I am nauseous. The amount of 9/11 references, the evocations of Bush's "strong leadership" (including his "courage" in going to Iraq for the turkey photo op), the jingoistic group singing (!), the rampant war on terra hoorah... gah. I can't do it. I just can't. Not even in the name of informed citizenship.

Edited to add that Michael Berube has an amusing take on the convention. c/o jimbo in comments at ADPR.

Comments

[DM]

I'm with you. I gave it a try, and that was about it. One question. Out here in the academic wilderness (I miss CA), only PBS was covering the convention; I did not see it scheduled on any of the other major networks (I don't have the big news networks). Is that happening back in CA? Are the big three essentially ignoring the Republicans the way they did the Democrats?

[Claire]

Everybody outside America hates Bush. I think that should sway the American voters a fair bit. I felt sick looking at them too. Wrinkly old lizard bastards.

[Faith]

I tried, really I did. I made it for about 45 minutes, then I figured I had sacrificed enough. I'm terrible, but there you go.

[cindy]

I sat through McCain (but I was crocheting at the same time, which made it bearable) but Rudy was too much. After seeing them milk 9/11 for all they could (I mean parading out the widows?!), it was making me ill. I was determined to watch it because, as my dad says, you need to keep an eye on the enemy (only he means the Dems), but jeez!

The 9/11 exploitation was inevitable, I know, but I still found it remarkably upsetting.

[yami]

I couldn't even handle the morning highlights reel on NPR... bleah!

[Rana]

Upsetting, yes. And I heard rumors that some of the delegates showed up wearing bandaids with purple hearts on them, to mock Kerry. Oy.

I don't know what the regular news coverage is like -- our local news stations are, well, incompetent. So I watched the previous convention on PBS, and had intended to do the same with this one, but the audio coverage alone was enough to turn me off. I would have been throwing things at the tv otherwise.

[Harrison]

Lol, too funny. I just wrote a post on my blog asking someone to watch the convention so that I wouldn't have to. I don't know how much I'm going to be able to take, but I feel it's an obligation to watch it... if only for blogging material.

[Rana]

Atrios has a few open threads for that purpose. More heat than light in them,unsurprisingly. (There is some funny stuff, though -- apparently Michael Moore stood up and bowed when the conventioneers booed him.)

[Gollum]

The purple heart bandaids isn't a rumor. They really had the gall to do that (see DailyKos and Atrios). Sickening. I can only hope decent Americans are offended and it backfires on them, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Rana]

So they did.

I'm not a big one for the military, but the insensitivity here is breathtaking.

[DM]

Is it me, or is David Brooks on crack? I am not watching the convention, and am instead listening the the summary on the Newshour. Tonight it was Ahnold, your governor and, I guess, mine, even though I am out in the wilderness for now. The segment contained comments from Democrats and Republicans alike (including Tom McClintock) explaining how our recent budget was a sham, and in some ways (McClintock speaking) worse than those from Davis. David Brooks, a nice guy and one of the better Republicans out there, has to be on crack. With a straight face, he told Jim Lehrer that Ahnold has made California governable again. Nothing serious has been done, no one has bother to deal with our state's huge and growing problems, but somehow, by smiling a lot and having a good time, Ahnold has made California governable again.

[New Kid on the Hallway]

Nah, none of the big networks are covering it - it's just PBS again. Not that the networks are running anything GOOD against it. Myself, I'm watching US Open tennis. Have no desire even to try to watch (so y'all are better people than I am, but I have avoided the racking nausea...).

[Harrison]

David Books is a crack. I had the same reaction during the DNC. (I wrote a post, De-Brooks, for the love of God!) But no one listened and he's back. Sniff.