Morning Jolt - Welcome to Tampa, Where Your Suit Has Sweat Stains By Mid-Morning






NRO Newsletters . . .
Morning Jolt
. . . with Jim Geraghty

August 28, 2012
In This Issue . . .
1. The Polls du Jour, Looking Okay
2. A Mystery Speaker for Thursday?
3. Welcome to Tampa, Where Your Suit Has Sweat Stains By Mid-Morning
4. What Do You Do With Chris Matthews?
5. Addendum

Here's your Tuesday Morning Jolt.

 

Enjoy!

 

Jim

1. The Polls du Jour, Looking Okay

Two polls this morning to notice: Quinnipiac puts Republican Linda McMahon up 3 over Democrat Chris Murphy in Connecticut's Senate race, the second survey in a week to find that result . . . McMahon was not supposed to be competitive, much less build any kind of consistent lead.

 

Secondly, CBS News has the presidential race almost tied, with Obama at 46 percent and Romney at 45 percent . . . It's a poll of registered voters. The sample splits 30.7 percent Republicans, 33.1 Democrats, 36 percent independents.

2. A Mystery Speaker for Thursday?

The Wall Street Journal gives us something to talk about for the next three days:

 

Republican convention planners appear to have a surprise planned for those tuning in Thursday night.

 

Buried deep in the convention schedule released Monday is a vague reference to a mystery speaker scheduled for the event's final evening. "To Be Announced" has a prime speaking slot late in the Thursday program.

 

By then, speakers from Mitt Romney's church will have taken the stage that night. The co-founder of Staples office-supply chain will have spoken about working with Mr. Romney during his time at Bain Capital. State officials from Massachusetts will have talked about the former governor. Olympians will have already thanked the presidential candidate for leading the 2002 Winter Games.

 

The only other speakers to follow "To Be Announced" will be Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Mr. Romney himself, suggesting that the unnamed guest may appear during the 10 p.m. hour when the networks all will be broadcasting the convention.

 

The good folks at the Journal offer a poll of potential mystery guests, but most are unrealistic: former Georgia Democratic senator Zell Miller, well-armed rocker Ted Nugent, CIA director David Petraeus, former first lady Nancy Reagan, heroic pilot Chesley Sullenberger . . .

 

. . . or Sarah Palin.

 

As they used to sing on Sesame Street, "One of these things is not like the other, most of these things are kinda the same . . ."

 

I have no inside information (yet), but at dinner with my NR colleagues, I pointed out that Palin is glaring by her absence from the program -- I mean Huckabee's speaking, and it's been longer since his name appeared on a ballot -- and that a surprise appearance would probably make the assembled delegates go nuts.

 

Of course, Nick Schultz came up with the only idea that could excite the crowd even more: "Hologram Reagan a la Tupac?"

 

(If you don't understand the reference, the deceased rapper appeared to "perform" at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts festival through the use of a hologram. Details here.)

3. Welcome to Tampa, Where Your Suit Has Sweat Stains by Mid-Morning

I concur with Jonah's assessment here, particularly the moistness.

 

When you talk to delegates and other GOP activist types, the mood tends toward cautious optimism about November. Some are more cautious and some are more optimistic. And in fairness a handful are full-blown ecstatic. But you definitely hear "pretty good" or words to that effect a lot. Romney's chances are "pretty good." Things look "pretty good." I feel "pretty good." Some of that reticence will doubtlessly melt away when the rhetorical red meat buffet finally opens up tomorrow night. An impatient desire to get this thing going (be it the convention, the party, the victory dancing) seems to inhabit every conversation.

 

Everyone -- and I really mean everyone -- is far less equivocal when it comes to Paul Ryan. I know there are skeptics who think Ryan might hurt the ticket with this or that constituency, but when it comes to the constituency of the dedicated party faithful, Ryan is a source of tremendous excitement and enthusiasm. He is a source of reassurance that Romney actually has something bigger in mind than simply being president. He wants to do things.

 

All of this is of course anecdotal. I'm sure others are having a different experiences and impressions. The only point where I know I am speaking for everyone is on the issue of the moistness.

 

Someone back home asked how I was doing, and the best word I could come up with was, "wet."

4. What Do You Do With Chris Matthews?

With the convention's first evening canceled, we needed some fireworks, and we all knew MSNBC would provide that, wouldn't it?

 

Chris Matthews -- looking surprisingly haggard for the first morning of convention week -- just decided to tear into RNC chair Reince Priebus Monday morning.

 

MSNBC host Chris Matthews lashed out at Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus Monday, attacking Republican campaign rhetoric and accusing presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney of playing the race card.

 

Referring to Mitt Romney's reference last week to his own birth certificate, Matthews said, "That cheap shot about 'I don't have a problem with my birth certificate' was awful. You are playing that little ethnic card there. You can play your games and giggle about it, but the fact is your side is playing that card."

 

Priebus' response while speaking to reporters a few hours later:

 

"We shook hands, but I will tell ya that someone from MSNBC, I don't know if it's a producer or somebody, has been trying to call us all day -- I'm sure it's to make amends, but there's nothing to make amends [about]. When somebody wants to take the prize of being the biggest jerk in the room . . . I mean, he made the case for us. This is the Barack Obama surrogate of 2012. This is what they're all about. They're going to be about division, they're going to be about distraction. And I've got to tell you, the brand of Barack Obama, hope and change and bringing us all together, it's completely broken. When people come to realize that you're not real anymore, you're not who you said you were, that's a big problem for Barack Obama."

 

Asked if he would go on MSNBC again, he said, "I'm happy to go on MSNBC. Joe and Mika, they weren't too happy about it. The feeling in the room was clearly there was a lot of unhappiness directed at Chris. I don't really care. If more than 10 people actually watched his show, I would actually care, but they don't, so, whatever."

 

I chatted with Priebus about the potential issues if Isaac hits the Gulf Coast badly while the convention is going on, and the issue of Mike Huckabee speaking Wednesday night. This was shortly after he spoke with Guy Benson outside; if you want to see Benson and Priebus try to act like everything's normal on camera as a torrential downpour begins, click here.

 

Allahpundit watched Newt Gingrich appear on Hardball, where he suggested that Matthews has his own knee-jerk associations of African-Americans with welfare and food stamps, and asks what the point is:

 

You'll enjoy watching Matthews being given a taste of his own medicine but this clip is more useful as a demonstration of why it's pointless for the two sides to talk to each other. The problem isn't that Tingles is willing to presume racism; the problem is that his presumption is irrebuttable, with subconscious racism the inevitable fallback presumption in cases like these when the accused protests vehemently enough. You're guilty, even if you don't know it. What possible good can a conversation with those parameters do except to provide a lazy blogger like me with easy content on a slow news night? It'd be more dignified for both of them if Gingrich just got up and left. Cede the airtime to some liberal guest who can come on and tell Matthews what he wants to hear. That's not a useful conversation either, but at least both participants would respect the other's good faith and sincerity. I'd prefer that to Dog-Whistle Theater.

 

Sure, "you're racist" arguments are wastes of time, full of bad faith, frustrating to listen to, and infuriating to take part in . . . but with the Left being what it is, and with the reelection of the first African-American president on the line, everything can and will be interpreted as a sign of hidden racism by the Left. It's why "that's racist!" is a punch-line on the right. It's a shame, because there is actual, genuine racism in this country, and in a better world, the concept of racism would not be adopted as this all-purpose slander to demonize political opponents. With each passing year, I think that the charge of racism carries less and less weight, because it's so overused, so implausible, so transparent in the partisan axe-grinding of its accusers, and so on. We all remember The Daily Show depicting that "the race card has been overdrawn" back in 2010.

5. Addendum

Ace reminds us that almost any city offers the potential for some natural disaster while hosting a large event like a national political convention:

 

The convention will always take place during hurricane and tornado season; is the suggestion that no party should ever select a city for a convention in an area hit by hurricanes or tornadoes in late summer?

 

What about floods?

 

The whole east coast gets hit by hurricanes. Maybe Boston's pretty safe, but NJ and NY aren't. If we're planning to have conventions in areas that don't experience tough weather in late summer... not sure which areas of the country are on that list. West Coast and southwest, I guess. High Plains and Norris Division. That's pretty much it.

 

Then again -- while droughts aren't spectacular to look at, they cause a great deal of human suffering.

 

Whenever something bad happens, I think we're predisposed to try to create some rule that, if that rule had been followed, we wouldn't be in the current mess.

 

But much of this is just fantasy. Chance can never really be outfoxed. The human brain simply is not up to the task of outwitting random happenstance.

 

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