Hands up for all who’ll be watching any bit of the national party conventions. Yes, I’ll avoid it, too. None of them has been on the excitement level even of a State of the Union address. If there’s something huge, a stupendous announcement, or an election-risking gaffe, conventions or presidential addresses are rebroadcast so often any of us can catch it on cable TV or online.<\/p>\n
The news gradually is filling with advance coverage. Today’s Wall Street Journal has a lengthy essay<\/a> on how to reclaim conventions to have impact. It doesn’t really address how a couple of days of arguing about platform planks will excite cable TV viewers. (Ever notice how the platform never is heard about again?) That’s the business end of the convention. At night, well, will either convention approximate for the first time either a tent revival or an organized music fest<\/a>? Or even the ennui of New Year’s Rockin<\/a>‘ Eve?<\/p>\n A month ago the Journal poked fun at the Democrats’ attempts to hold an environmentally conscious<\/a> meeting. Actually, this was a fairly neutral news article, but it made me cringe at some spots and gape at others. Liberals still have issues with Coors? The ecological angle is mined still, even this morning in a local paper (Denver’s): Aren’t offset<\/a> exchanges unnecessarily complicated for a publicity stunt? In the meantime, the Dems might have some engaging Hollywood acts, but when they’re on TV producers return us to the booth for experts to chat to us. Imagine, falling back on C-SPAN for tunes.<\/p>\n How are the Republicans? Their official convention Web site has a page<\/a> on its green impact. They’re not saying much about why we voters need to watch. The comic strip Doonesbury<\/a> claims McCain’s party planners are stocking their show with has-beens and fuddy-duddies, but news sites with basic keyword searches show nothing confirmed. The cartoonist is having some fun on his own, perhaps. The GOP in the past has leaned toward country music, though lots of Nashville’s finest either avoid endorsements in either direction or are even … not conservative.<\/p>\n In the end, cable television allows for greater convention coverage while at the same time tempts everyone to find dozens of other programs to watch. The enthusiasm is such that you can hear a balloon drop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hands up for all who’ll be watching any bit of the national party conventions. Yes, I’ll avoid it, too. None of them has been on the excitement level even of a State of the Union address. If there’s something huge, a stupendous announcement, or an election-risking gaffe, conventions or presidential addresses are rebroadcast so often […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-culture"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":87,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/07\/loosen-up-kerry\/","url_meta":{"origin":478,"position":0},"title":"Loosen up, Kerry","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 9, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Friday, July 9, 2004. Here's how Johns Kerry and Edwards can win big in November. This is also how they can lose, as it's the same trick. Kerry and Edwards in a public forum do a cheer\/yell like the one that cost Howard Dean his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":533,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/08\/hollywood-1-critics-0\/","url_meta":{"origin":478,"position":1},"title":"Hollywood 1, Critics 0","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Mr. Boo Klist -- liking audio books nearly as much as printed ones -- now wants to recommend a new movie that's gotten ho-hum reviews, Kevin Costner's Swing Vote. Even the critics I like get stuck on the probability of its premise, that a presidential election through odd circumstances depends\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mr. Boo Klist"","block_context":{"text":"Mr. Boo Klist","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/mr-boo-klist\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":863,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/01\/turn-rupees-to-scruples\/","url_meta":{"origin":478,"position":2},"title":"Turn Rupees to Scruples","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Report: Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire. Why, everyone should see Slumdog Millionaire. It's a cross between Oliver Twist (book and any movie version) and WALL-E. Other lead characters: Fagin, Artful Dodger and Eve. The plot: fish-out-of-water-into-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire. (Shouldn't reviews now and then be as short as possible? Complete write-ups, not capsules) In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":426,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/06\/hang-on-hilly\/","url_meta":{"origin":478,"position":3},"title":"Hang On, Hilly","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Be like Huck, Sen. Clinton: Hang in until the delegate count passes the point of no returns, when the opponent has that crystal majority of pledged delegate votes. Oh, that's coming up soon, isn't it. Republican campaign underdog and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Thursday [May 8, 2008] that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":370,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/11\/solitary-union\/","url_meta":{"origin":478,"position":4},"title":"Solitary Union","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"While the news last week has included the strike of the Writers Guild of America that began Monday the 5th, it hasn't been the most important event. A new attorney general, the same Pakistani dictator, Congress for the first time in George II's 6 1\/2 years overrode one of his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":347,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/08\/merge-merge-left\/","url_meta":{"origin":478,"position":5},"title":"Merge, Merge Left","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\"WASHINGTON (Wire Services)\u2014 Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation Monday, driven from office after a standoff with congressional critics over his honesty and competence. 'I have lived the American dream. Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father\u2019s best days,' said Gonzales, the son\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":484,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478\/revisions\/484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}