Summer is a time for TV execs to preview fall programming. So it is in politics, too. Conventions are previews for presidencies. What shall we watch for four years? Let’s look at the choices.
Bernie Sanders endorsed Hillary Clinton today, marking the official end of his campaign to become President and the beginning of his more-powerful-than-this-time-last-year campaign for major changes. This leaves us a Coke-Pepsi type of choice. Sorry, we’re out of root beer.
Clinton has been laying somewhat low, presumably preparing for the convention and general campaign. It’s certainly hers to lose. She’s got more money, she’s been through the election cycle many times before and has the connections and “ground game” to pull it off. The Clinton network has reach and power.
She’s the obvious choice of sane people of both parties. I mean, really… Trump? Please. He’s got bad judgement, a bad history, and is likely to lead us to war or disaster.
Okay. It’s President Clinton!
Maybe it won’t be President Clinton, though. It could be President Trump. The people want change, after all, and Trump would send a message to Washington that the system is broken and if it isn’t, it soon will be. Clinton has baggage, and political dynasty hasn’t been a recipe for success in our past.
How could anyone vote for her? She’s got bad judgement, a bad history, and is likely to lead us to war or disaster.
So. It’s President Trump!
Maybe we’ll be treated to a Bush-Gorian split decision, requiring a split Supreme Court to decide!
With either major party candidate elected, Congress will certainly be in opposition mode. Clinton’s every move could lead to mind-numbing investigations, warranted or not. Trump’s actions could cause Congress lock him up in the White House basement.
Which show would Americans like to watch for the next four years? Each will be previewed for the viewing audience at summer conventions. Each is a program with something for everyone – good vs evil, police drama, celebrity and spectacle. It’s equal parts awards and reality show, draped with flags and military ornament. Watch as ghosts of presidents past are invoked.
Remember, this year is the most important election year ever until the next one. It’s all about the Supreme Court! It’s all about trust. It’s all about the future. The other candidate is no good! Vote early and often!
I Don't Know What to Watch Either
I prefer Diet Coke and I am angry at the programming execs for cancelling “The Muppets”. I thought that was a good show, in my opinion.
The Muppets cancellation angered me and a younger friend too
They turned the corner when they replaced the showrunner after the 10th episode (during the end-of-year break) and the storylines were The Muppets vs the studio, not the Muppets in-fighting. We got all of 6 episodes there (Key & Peele were the first guests as part of that short cycle) and then ABC had the temerity to give both Disney and lifelong Muppets fans the finger.
It’s a stupid world in network TV (again). NBC, having lost their three-decade chokehold on Thursday night comedy, greenlighted and broadcast some 16 episodes of The Carmichael Show–the smartest comedy in a long, long time–and yet waited until the last moment to renew the show.
Tweedledeeb and Tweedledumb
I don’t think the country has ever been confronted with worse choices.
Set Wave
cgrotke said (on another thread):
“With coastal waves, one of the earliest lessons I recall was that there was a cycle to them, building up, building up, building up… and breaking, with the 7th usually being the big one…”
I recall the particular feeling of Reagan making Nixon look shrewd and statesmanlike, followed by W. Bush making Reagan look like a contemplative Philosopher of History in comparison. Now it seems that Trump is making all these rollers that preceded him look tame.
While we’ve got our wave on, one more take:
Big wave riders face many dangers, but none greater than being held down. Which means dragged underwater by a Giant then unable to get to surface before the next one comes crashing down. That’s what it’s been feeling like lately in this cycle…we’ve been holding our breath.. pressed for air… struggling to get out of harm’s way… before the next billow slides in.
Protip- alway go out with a life vest and back-up when conditions are hairy.
Smart pros alway wear the life vest. Kooks claim they were taken by surprise.
I did my duty
Well, I watched night one of the GOP convention.
It was an odd night, but appeared basically successful for them with no major catastrophes.
Odd? Yes. It began with an interview with Bill Kristol on the floor of the hall, a tigger without a bounce, lamenting that the GOP is the party of Trump for 4 months. This major Republican was fantasizing that the Libertarian Party would flip the ticket and put Bill Weld at the top, and then he could get behind someone.
The night’s theme – Make America Safe Again – was played out with speeches by legal immigrants that had been wronged by “illegal aliens,” a reminder that what truly matters is the lives of police, a short film and retelling of the attack on Benghazi, a bit o’ religion, the return of Rudy Giuliani, the wisdom of Scott Baio, Jeff Sessions and his ears, mothers of dead soldiers wondering why Clinton lied to them, and other supporting players.
The big moment was, of course, meeting our next First Lady Melania Trump. I had low expectations and she surpassed them, delivering a solid speech about fashion, America, her husband, and whatever Michelle said. She says she will dedicate her time in the White House to the issues of women and children.
There wasn’t a lot for the crowd to cheer for – there were smatterings of applause any time the Marines described blowing someone’s head off, cheers for mentions of police and God, and applause for vague American-ish concepts and phrases.
Most of the energy went into booing Clinton for poor judgment – her vast (bad) experience, they tried to show, was her Achilles heel.
Not My Favorite Foreign Movie
I too watched more RNC than is good for me and when I went to sleep last night, had a long series of weird dreams full of weird Fellini-esque characters in strange garb, among them Melania and the Donald. While it is true that my unconscious always makes me hum the Addams Family theme song whenever I think about the Clintons, the Trumps are almost as weird if not more so. I shake my head. Which of the two do we want? Neither, of course….
Night 3
I got to see some of Paul Ryan on night 2, and a bit more on night 3.
I try to watch these through a few lenses. One – what would the older, traditional Republicans in my family think of these arguments?. Two – what, if any, arguments might appeal to swing voters? And three, my own take.
The third is easy – almost nothing being said appeals to me personally. I can enjoy the spectacle – a mob, a Holiday Inn cover band, Jumbotrons on the fritz, the occasional break from the script or lone protestor being shouted down.
The other two are more difficult, and on Wednesday I watched the official RNC feed rather than C-Span. As soon as the Jumbotrons flickered out, the entire affair became closeups of the person speaking, and shots of the audience. No more wide shots of the room.
Within moments of my tuning in… I think about three sentences in… “we’re all gonna die!” Quite a bit of fear being stoked.
(I also heard lots of language used by the Sanders campaign – system is broke, we can fix things if we come together, change, future, etc. Paul Ryan’s speech was full of it.)
Cruz being booed was quite well muffled by the official RNC feed. It sounded like people were cheering at odd lines in his speech, but it was hard to figure out why until reading accounts afterward.
Trump’s son probably had the most “sane” argument for his father’s election. If I were his campaign, I’d pick apart this speech to go after the swing voters. He had a few ad-worthy lines.
The 4th
Night 4 was the night that appeared to have free open bars for the crowd. Much celebrating.
One of my personal highpoints was watching the GOP cover band do “You Shook Me All Night Long” while the room of red, white, and blue uptight folks danced along. New rule of thumb – a song can be judged by how many Texans wave their hats during it. AC/DC = almost all cowboy hats in the air.
They brought out women on night 4 – as many older, blonde, pant-suite wearing women as they could find. A few came across as somewhat charming, with southern grace and hospitality. (Know that they can rip your throat out, too, but in a charming way.)
Trump’s daughter – the one he finds hot – introduced him with a real story we can all relate to – helping Dad build skylines. I remember when my Dad sat me down and helped me with my first major city skyline…
Trump was the main event. W got a bit of a video showing parts of his life – it was mostly about development projects and not a mention of being on TV with a reality show for many years – and then Trump himself.
I have to be honest – it was one of his best performances to date. I’ve watched many a rambling Trump primary speech and this wasn’t like it. He stuck to the script and delivered what I would imagine most people in the room thought was a perfect speech. He was relaxed, tough, didn’t digress, but also didn’t come across as reading.
One highly interesting moment was when he directly made an offer to Sanders supporters, promising work on trade deals – no TPP and a revision of NAFTA. He, like other Republicans this week, lifted heavily from Sanders in tone and attitude, trying to gain some of that populist, change-oriented energy. (Will Clinton make a similar offer?)
One highly unusual aspect was Trump getting the room to cheer for LGBTQ issues.
Whomever did the balloons for this event should get an award. Rather than drop all at once, they were dropped in waves, making the falling seem endless. Add in the ticker tape and the giant beach balls dropped every once in a while and you have high quality spectacle underway. Matters not a bit, but credit where credit is due.
I’m not sure the GOP succeeded in uniting everyone this week, and probably got few converts, but they seemed to do fairly well given what they have to work with. That is, they didn’t completely implode, which was a possibility.
Like Lise, I have seen
Like Lise, I have seen too much of RNC than what’s good for me. I feel the same about the Dems. If it wasn’t for the Bernie bern this whole campaign would be a shut eye.
DNC Night 1
I sat through the GOP conventions, so it’s time to watch the Democrats.
First impression – Why did the stage designers put up a fence image behind most of the speakers? Their graphic pattern choice looks a lot like a wall.
Audience appeared to be more diverse than the GOP, in people and in a variety of signs and issues being represented in the room.
On to the show – the most notable aspect was the clear division in the room. At almost any mention of Clinton-Kaine there were boos and chants mixed in with cheers. It rattled some speakers. Some pressed on (Cory Booker) and for others it got under their skin (Sarah Silverman).
The Silverman moment was telling – she and Al Franken came out to do a comedy bit – obviously an attempt to show how Clinton and Sanders folks could get along, but it went of the rails. Silverman, like others, was seen as a sell-out and was met with loud opposition. Rather than being cool with it, she snapped that Sanders supporters were being ridiculous, which caused even more outrage. They tried to leave the stage, but Silverman and Franken came back out to the booing and said they were sent back to “stretch it out.”
Why stretch? It seemed that the convention chaos rattled the next guest, Paul Simon, who (I’m guessing) decided against whatever song he was going to play and did a last minute Hail Mary to perform Art Garfunkel’s signature song, “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” He struggled to hit notes, but it did have a semi-calming effect on the room. (I’m guessing he was going to play “America” but had doubts…)
The problems continued throughout the night. The vision of Sanders delegates does not match up nicely with that of Clinton delegates, and no amount of signs saying “unity” were able fix the wounds. It’s bad bedside manner to tell others to just get over it, but that’s what the Democrats attempted to do. It may have worked sans Wikileaks, but the truth about the DNC’s internal bias (rigging) doesn’t simply evaporate with a half-hearted apology.
Speakers kept trying to talk about how the Democrats had a positive vision, and how Trump could only talk about fear and how bad Clinton was… but then they spent a significant amount of time telling us all to be extremely afraid of Trump because he was very, very bad. He’ll take away your doodads and your whatchamacallits, and out thingamajig will be on the brink.
Where they did speak of vision, it was mostly wrapped around “for the children.” The official Democratic incrementalism calls for changes to occur, you see, but not for many generations. There is a side message of “get over it” for anyone who’d like to shoot a little higher and work a little harder.
Corey Booker will run for President one day.
Michelle gives good speeches. She has a natural talent for looking very concerned and serious.
And then there was Sanders. He got the prime spot of the evening, and the room erupted for him, but he quickly lost them. Supporters were with him, it seems, on each of the issues, but the new solution – to trust Clinton – went over like a lead balloon. His obligatory endorsement came across as forced. Sanders supporters saw a sell out. Clinton supporters saw an attempt at unity.
I’ve been in situations where something is very much wrong and everyone is told that things are fine. Day one of the convention had that feel to it. One relative at the Thanksgiving table is being a jerk, and everyone has to pretend dinner is going just fine. If the host asks, “It was a wonderful evening.”
DNC Night 2
My observing was mostly limited to the early hours. I watched the roll call of states, which is always an enjoyable part of any convention. It’s the part where the Chair says “Hey (State), you have X number of votes to cast. How do you cast them?”
What follows is a mini history and pop culture tour around the country. Each state and territory has a few moments to say why they are great (Home of the largest cheeseburger, known for our greased pig contests, and birthplace of Lewis & Clark’s mapmaker’s wife… Placeland!)
Night 2, while I watched, was on the historic moment of really nominating a woman for president. I think this was more meaningful for older folks than younger ones – most of us under, oh, 60 or so have grown up with the idea that a woman can do anything and find this more of a symbolic event. Nonetheless – the first woman to lead a two-party ticket was officially nominated.
It was a bit depressing to see that Clinton beat Sanders by roughly the number of super delegates, but it was expected.
Sanders has certainly done his part for Clinton – endorsement, endorsement, endorsement. There is no way they he can be blamed if she loses. The question for supporters is why is he suddenly praising someone who was, not that long ago, unfit for office and part of the problem? Was this a move to get a cabinet position? A key Senate committee? Was there a Clintonian threat to get on board or face future difficulties with your agenda? Time will tell. He fell on his sword for her. More than what seems required.
The rest of the evening I popped in from time to time. Hillary is a woman! She helped a person! Her friends like her! Trump is bad. We don’t want Trump. Fear Trump. Glass ceilings! Daughters!
I didn’t watch Bill Clinton. I assume he spoke for a bit too long about how he thinks we should vote for his wife.
USA!
Had other things to do and missed most of Wednesday night, but from what little I did see, the Democrats used the night to imitate Republicans in being “strong” and “secure”.
Delegates protesting all the war talk had lights cut on them, and were met with a rousing anti-Democratic chant of USA, USA to drown them out. I expect this from the GOP.
Anyone else watch? Did they pivot to the left? (Ha, ha, ha!)
I’ll try to watch Clinton this evening. (Trump made an offer to Sanders folks last week – I’m curious if Clinton will do anything. You know, For unity.
Day 4
Day 4 at the DNC. I watched some of the early day stuff and most of the evening’s events.
What’s with the USA chants, Democrats? I returned at one point to see someone from the military barking at us and a room full of people chanting “USA!” – something I usually find to be an obnoxious and childish response in place of real thought. It’s reptilian and creepy. And it sounds like we’ll be fighting people all over the globe in a few months.
After the military message it moved more to empowerment (Katy Perry!) and mom’s and children (Chelsea Clinton).
The big speech and historic moment, of course, was Hillary Clinton accepting the nomination and giving her acceptance speech. As with Trump, I’ve seen many speeches by these folks during the primaries, and as with Trump, Clinton a pretty good job of not being as annoying as on the primary trail.
I was waiting to hear what Clinton would offer Sanders supporters – Trump specifically mentioned TPP and trade deal opposition. Clinton did make a pitch to those who just joined her campaign this week (some might say were forced into submission) saying that the issues of Sanders’ campaign are now issues of her campaign.
It’s true, she has picked up some of the lingo and a few of the issues.
I heard lots of clever parsing of promises. People have the right to expect… promise. We all believe… promise. Not too many specifics, such as “I promise to do X, Y, Z” In many ways it was classic Clintonian speechifying – promising the infrastructure and the outfrasructure and everything in between. Bill Clinton, in the audience, was loving every minute of it.
I heard lots of great pandering. “And, we cannot forget the mothers of the first responders, from NY, on 9-11, and their friends and children in the 9th district of PA, and the unions in Michigan.Hola! ”
There was some more shouting down of protestors, as quick and coordinated as the protest itself. “Hillary!” is what you yell really loud when you don’t want to hear someone else.
My guess here is that Clinton supporters probably think she did a great job and has united the party behind her. I agree that it was one of her best speeches to date, and if you haven’t been paying close attention to her work for the last few decades it would sound pretty darn good.
…
So, both conventions seemed to be successful in presenting their case to their bases.
It’s clear convention goers of all stripes love the USA!, USA!, USA!
Both were vague on what to expect, but clear that the other candidate is no good. Which is very true! Do not, under any circumstances, vote for that other candidate.