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NRO Newsletters . . . Morning Jolt . . . with Jim Geraghty
August 27, 2012
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| Here's your Monday Morning Jolt. Enjoy! |
| 1. Breaking Late Last Night . . .
Oh, this is interesting: "The Republican National Convention opens this week with President Obama and presumptive nominee Mitt Romney running evenly, with voters more focused on Obama's handling of the nation's flagging economy than on some issues dominating the political debate in recent weeks. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows Romney at 47 percent among registered voters and Obama at 46 percent -- barely changed from the deadlocked contest in early July." So Romney's ahead by one percentage point in a D+9 poll of registered voters. I can live with that, for now . . . Oh, and notice this: "Fewer voters place great significance on other issues that have roiled the campaign, including newly minted GOP vice presidential candidate's plan to restructure Medicare, differences between the parties on women's issues and Romney's handling of his tax returns." |
2. Rain, Rain, Go Away . . .
TEMPLE TERRACE, Fla. -- The 2012 Republican National Convention is not a mess . . . yet.
But the story of this year's gathering of Republicans from near and far is a bit more complicated than we expected, with tonight's events canceled. Briefly Sunday afternoon there was a rumor of some events moving to Friday -- but because Romney's speech will not move from Thursday, any parties, events, or party activities held afterwards will be afterthoughts -- and with almost all of the convention-goers scheduled to fly out on Friday, probably sparsely attended as well. The other complication is that Isaac may make landfall Tuesday evening, right in the Gulf Coast. The states of Louisiana and Alabama and the city of Biloxi, Miss., have declared states of emergency; some evacuations are in effect in Florida and Alabama is considering them. While I have absolute faith that Governor Jindal and the state of Louisiana, National Guardsman, etc., will pull out all the stops for preparation, the eyes and minds of the nation may be more focused on the drama of the hurricane than the goings-on at the convention. But it's hard to begrudge RNC Reince Priebus and the rest of the convention organizers their caution. While most of the country is still dealing with drought, this part of Florida has been drenched in recent months; the local coverage suggests that one of the biggest worries around here is flooding -- the local ground just can't absorb much more. The last thing the Republicans need is some bus full of delegates getting stuck in a ditch somewhere -- if for no other reason, it would trigger another round of insufferably unfunny drinking-a-Slurpee metaphors in Obama speeches. A few more observations from Tampa . . . Security: It is a depressing statement on our age how the perimeter of a national convention site has to look like a war zone: chain-link fence after chain-link fence, concrete barrier after concrete barrier, armed guard after armed guard. Don't get me wrong, all of the security personnel are exceptionally polite and professional so far. It's just a bit dispiriting to arrive at a site where you hope to witness political history being made, and the first landscape you encounter resembles the DMV between North and South Korea. The Scale of It All: I keep hearing how my profession is dying, and that the need to generate healthy profits in an increasingly web-dominated world is corroding and squeezing the life out of journalism. Year by year, we hear about the end of various newspapers and magazines . . . and then you come to a convention like this, and find yourself squeezing through the crowds made up of the other 14,999 journalists here. The acreage of the workspaces, Google's lounge in the media center, the sheer number of workspaces set up for wire services, the networks, etc. is all pretty jaw-dropping. You will be pretty surprised who's here, too; I'm fairly certain I saw a sign for Cuban State television. Maybe they feel at home with all of the chain link fences and armed guards. The economics of covering conventions elude me, at least for a massive operation like the networks. Almost all of the national television news networks have affiliates in a city like Tampa or Charlotte year round, so if they had to cover breaking news in one of those cities, they could do so. For the conventions, however, the networks bring in almost their entire Washington staff, and mobilize almost literal small armies of technicians, planners, movers, producers, go-fers, runners, event coordinators, etc. to create several sets, run miles of cable, etc. All of this for four nights of live coverage -- well, now three, I guess. Then they'll pack everything up and move it all to Charlotte for another week or so. I'm not complaining, I'm just marveling at the enormity of the effort. I suppose the networks see this as one of the truly memorable television moments of a presidential campaign, and there's probably some one-upmanship -- every network wants to show off that they have the most complete coverage. Of course, that raises the question of how many hours they televise, which we'll reexamine in item three . . . Photojournalism! And now, the very finest photography of the Sunday night preparations that you will find, at least while using a Samsung camera phone: Tuesday night will feature a tribute to Neil Armstrong:  For three nights, the balloons will just tease us from above: 
The VIP seats:  |
3. Is It Time to Reinvent the Convention?
So, why do we have national political conventions anymore?
The only task that the conventions absolutely must accomplish is the official counting of the delegates and nomination of the candidate, and that will occur Tuesday afternoon. You see the conflict over the purpose at the conventions in the back-and-forth wrangling between the parties and the networks. The Democrats have either innovated or helped kill off the convention procedure by cutting the whole thing down to three days -- the Monday of their convention week is Labor Day, and it was also a cost-cutting measure. Of course, the second week of September is also usually the beginning of football season, so their Wednesday-night activities will be going head-to-head with the Giants-Cowboys. (Looks like the Democrats are counter-programming with Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren.) So the vice president's speech, traditionally held on Wednesday, is slated to move to Thursday, perhaps introducing President Obama. So the Democrats are effectively down to two nights, and the networks feel that fairness requires them to only cover two nights' of the Republican convention as well. And most of the networks may cover just two hours, from 10 p.m Eastern to 11 p.m. If there were any actual news that was going on -- i.e., any doubt about who the nominee would be -- the networks would probably return to something approaching their traditional live, multi-hour, every-night coverage. But the only thing going on at most conventions are speeches. (We can't count on the drama of a hurricane canceling the first night for Republicans every year, despite how we may feel right now!) Sometimes the speeches are genuinely newsworthy -- Sarah Palin's debut on the national stage in 2008, Obama's debut in 2004 . . . but I'll bet you and I could write or guess the content of most of the speeches already. Republican Convention Speech Bingo Options: "an economic philosophy that has fundamentally failed" "forty-two straight months of unemployment above 8 percent" "unleashing the potential of all of our domestic energy resources" "we did build that" "policies that are profoundly out of touch with American small businessmen and our entrepreneurial spirit" "they proudly boast, 'their plan worked,'; maybe for Solyndra executives, but not for the rest of us" "promises unkept" "Washington politics have never been uglier" "a focus on solutions that work" "reforming our failing schools by empowering parents" "repeal Obamacare" "stop government from stepping in between doctors and patients" "governors enacting innovative reforms""never apologize for America's greatness" Democratic Convention Speech Bingo Options: "straight months of private-sector job growth" "a vision that truly seeks to help America's middle class, instead of exploiting them." "back to the policies that created this mess in the first place" "fundamentally fail to understand the needs of America's women" "offering a policy for the 1950s, not the 21st century" "choice" "appealing to our worst fears and old resentments" "an administration that truly represents America in the 21st century" "safer at home and stronger in the world" "all of our fellow citizens can marry" "all of our fellow citizens can serve their nation, regardless of their sexual preference" "a balanced approach" "Todd Akin" "taking us backwards" "we've come too far" "fair share" The great Michael Barone offered a long, and fascinating trip down memory lane of political conventions in the Wall Street Journal's weekend edition. (Reading Barone's tales is like watching a prequel movie to today's political scene, with all kinds of familiar names popping up in younger forms: Harold Ickes, Bob Torricelli, Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, Terry McAuliffe, Tim Russert, Maureen Dowd, George W. Bush.) But Barone's best stories came from the chaos of the 1968 Chicago convention and other gatherings from decades ago when there was some doubt about the precise makeup of the party ticket. Peggy Noonan doesn't like the fact that the networks are losing interest in televising the conventions: Finally, the big broadcast networks plan to give the Republicans (and the Democrats) only one hour a night of TV coverage. They used to give all night, long as it took, and treat the proceedings with respect. What they give now, to the people of a great democracy fighting for its economic life in an uncertain world, is . . . an hour a night? For a national political convention? This is a scandal. Mock them for it. This isn't Edward R. Murrow in charge of the news, it's Gordon Gekko in charge of programming. I'm wondering if the networks will be more easily persuaded that if you're going to fly in your Washington bureau and spend untold sums to broadcast live . . . you might as well get more than two prime-time hours of programming out of it. Maybe the convention speakers need to break for commercials, the way NFL and NBA games do. |
4. Addendum
Oh, goody: "A Republican National Convention protestor was arrested while he allegedly carried a machete strapped to his leg, according to deputies." I expected to find the other kind of political hack here in Tampa. |
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