Convention Night I

Convention Night I

John LeBoutillier
Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Here are thoughts and observations on the first night:

1. Before even getting to the first night of the Democratic Convention, we had the sad spectacle on Sunday night of the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball Infomercial for the Kerry Campaign!

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Have you ever seen anything like it?

Kerry was sitting next to the Red Sox dugout - surrounded by the cream of the Washington D.C. political and media Establishment: NBC’s Tim Russert, Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric (she is the girlfriend of Red Sox co-owner Tom Werner), Senator Joe Biden and former Ohio Senator John Glenn (who was attached all day Monday, too, to Kerry down at Cape Canaveral, Florida). Glenn’s new mission is clear: help Kerry win Ohio and deal a death blow to the Bush Campaign.

For the entire game - 3 ½ hours of prime time TV - the ESPN cameras recorded every facial expression, smile, frown, high-five and laugh of Kerry. Plus they interviewed him about the designated hitter rule and Pete Rose’s Hall of Fame chances.

So who at ESPN decided to use this game to promote Kerry for President?

This whole deal must have been cooked up way in advance because that afternoon, upon taking off from an Ohio airport and scheduled to fly directly to Florida, Kerry got on the plane’s intercom and told everyone, “we are diverting to Boston for the Red Sox - Yankee game.”

So these ESPN/ABC/Disney ‘suits’ clearly offered up a prime time baseball game for political purposes.

The Federal Election Commission should explore this ‘in kind’ contribution to the Kerry Campaign.

2. Now, on to the first night: the key word of this unfolding convention became clear right away: discipline.

The Democrats have - for the first time in memory - total party discipline which is evidenced all the way down to the ‘editing’ or ‘vetting’ of every word of every speech - including those of two former Presidents and one former Vice President.

They have cleverly decided not to bash Bush by name; instead, they are using this convention to ‘re-define’ Kerry from the Lefty Liar he is into a ‘Middle American War Hero Who is Just Like Us.’

And, so far, they are succeeding.

The contrast of Kerry going to Vietnam while Bush ‘shirked’ his duty in the Air National Guard is cleverly going to be used to close the one remaining gap in the polls between Kerry and Bush: who can best lead in the War on Terror.

By the time Friday morning arrives, more Americans will know of Kerry’s Vietnam ‘heroism’ - and his poll ratings will thus improve because of it.

The discipline they are exhibiting is aimed at not turning off moderates, wavering Republicans and the key group of undecided and Independent voters who will decide this election. You can bet that real, down and dirty Bush-bashing would bring the delegates to their feet in Boston but it would turn off these key voters watching on television.

So the Republicans better realize something: Kerry, Edwards and the Democrats this fall are coming to the game with one purpose: to win at all costs.

This focus and discipline - combined with the ‘passion differential’ mentioned in this space before (the Dems want Bush out more strongly than the Repubs want to keep Bush) - will make an otherwise awful candidate, Kerry, into the odds-on favorite to win in November.

3. As to the speakers last night:

Hillary was shrill and boring and totally insincere. What a phony.

Gore was better than expected because he made fun of 2000 instead of venting anger as he usually does. But he and Tipper need Dr. Atkins -and fast!

Carter has gotten so old! But he cleverly hit Bush on his poor service record and on Iraq.

Bill Clinton made his/their arguments sound so logical and good. Too bad he never did any of the things he claims he did.

Summation: they all did their jobs according to a well-written script - even down to having Bill Clinton end right at 11PM - for TV purposes. (In the past, these long-winded Dems have often droned on well past midnight and hurt their TV ratings.)

Message to G.W. Bush and the GOP: you’re in trouble. Your opponents smell blood and are really beginning to feel they can win; this was unthinkable - even to hard-core Democrats - a year ago, even eight months ago.

And we can no longer say, “Well, there is still a long way to go.” There isn’t; it’s only 100 days and Bush is declining on the economy and the Iraq campaign.

He may really need an ‘October Surprise’ to win.