It's like they are competing with the oscar awards show or something. The republicans do the same thing.

I wish they would go with a more modest stage. Th old school appearance would look more serious next to the flamboyant republican convention. And the money could go for better things.

Upcoming are two conventions of the major parties. The first time in four years where the parties are given prime time exposure where they control program content. It seems today that both parties squander this precious opportunity by putting on grand theatrical events void of the politics debates and the confrontation of the past. Why let politics get in the way of selecting a nominee with so much money at stake when running for office.

Forgive me for a minute because I going to transform in to that old Pepperidge farm commercial dude talking about how much better things were then!!!

You know ----

Back in the old days the politicians use to run on issues instead of clever wall street marketing imaging.

Back in the old days the politicians use to select, not hire, advisors to help them guide their campaign and not lead it.

Back in the old days when a politician produced a large group of loyal supporters providing millions of dollars to get in within striking distance of the nomination they would not just quietly follow the orders of party leaders and go sit at the back of the bus even if it was a nice seat with a great view.

On blogs, I have been accused of being a Hillary supporter( think the hip lingo is HILLBOT!), hopefully I can get them to change their minds, if possible, with the following statement.

If Jackie Robinson played baseball like Nancy Pelosi ran the congress and Hillary Clinton ran her campaign, Major League Baseball would be still be using powerful water canons and vicious attack police dogs to run black men away from baseball fields.

Back in the old days a party wouldn’t bet it’s political future on a weak political candidate by replacing close media generated associations of a tragic national event with the essential executive leadership attributes of national and foreign policy experience. An over hyped candidate who’s only claim to victory would be setting a new world record for Worst Political Disaster ever!!! One lousy delegate…you got to be kidding me. How goofy was it to think in Nov 07 that Rudy could beat Hillary when in reality he lost to RON PAUL!!!!

Boy how things have changed………for the better?

To help answer that question, let say compare the tape of the completed 2008 Democratic Convention with the tape of the 1948 Democratic convention. In the 1948 viewing, you would discover my political hero. Because of his short statue and moderate good looks, he wouldn’t have had a chance in today’s imagery demanding national political landscape. However, he was a man with a giant heart which meant so much more in the days of flicking black and white television sets. While viewing the 1948 convention, your eyes would capture this small man standing TALL at the democratic convention podium demanding that the party advance the Civil Rights agenda.

Of course, the cry from the convention floor was “Are you crazy!!!!” supported by a very valid concern that my political hero speaker was indeed splitting the party thus dooming the fall election chances for the democrats. Yes, back in the old days party platforms had teeth and where formed by practical political reality not poll driven analysis by high paid political neutral consultants.

Therefore, the cry that the podium speaker was indeed splitting the party apart and giving the white house, if not more, to the republicans was very valid and sound.

However, my hero was very persuasive in redefining, with the help of others, the democratic party as one for the advancement of women and minorities. Yes, the cost of that political shift was very expensive leaving the party now searching to replace the departure of the very strong loyal southern democratic base.

Things, did indeed look very bleak for the democrats in 1948, however, the story did have a happy ending when the democrats won the white house to the surprise of many.

The lesson learned from this historic democratic convention of 1948, was that WINNING is not EVERYTHING.

Yes, even in war, winning is not everything without as a solid foundation of principles.

To support that previous proclamation that winning isn’t everything, one would not have to go looking any further than recent political personalities.

For instance, would John McCain be walking up to the republican podium if North Vietnam would have observed the Geneva convention guidelines for prison treatment?

Just think how the statue of Colin Powell would have been enhanced if he stood on his principles instead of yielding to peer pressure of being a team player. If he would have walked out of the oval office over his principles, I am far more confident that he would be the one walking into the White House this January.

And sadly, I have to add someone that I believed had a very bright political future to this list. How in the hell did John Edwards believe that he could succeed by exchanging his principles for the prospect of the presidential prize. I believe he made a major political blunder but not only in the obvious sense. If I was his political advisor, I would have told him to revealed the affair on principles before the election and run as a strong and effective advocate of economic rights.

He would have received far more media buzz from the storyline “Can Hillary loose to a man that cheated on his wife!!!”. OK, I concede that the country cares more about a good looking man’s pants than FISA abuses and it would have been an uphill battle.

In closing (about time),I wonder if the book on the 2008 democratic convention will truly be as historic as the 1948 convention. I guess the answer will be yes if we have another great man or women like Hubert H. Humphrey step up to the podium.

...do yourself a favor: watch the convention coverage on C-Span.

http://www.c-span.org/

Avoid the talking heads and TradMed sensationalism that focuses solely on big names and horse race coverage. Watch coverage from gavel to gavel, covering speeches being made by ordinary Americans (teachers, Iraq vets, Iraq vet family members, etc.) discussing issues that are far more pressing to the American public... as opposed to the TradMed coverage which is sure to focus on the Hillary/Obama meme and the like.

http://www.c-span.org/
____________________
"We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can't bomb it into peace."
"Power to the peaceful..." --Franti

I say that because I am not crazy like some would want to you believe, but because it was the last democratic convention where dissent was addressed by the delegates. The cry would come from those that claim that it hurt the democratic party and open dissent over the Vietnam conflict resulted in the republicans taking the white house in 1968.

The cry was to prevent the party leaders from deciding the nominee in a smoked filled room by shifting all of the power to the voters with a primary system.

So many fell for this partial truth motive with it’s hidden implication that if we only had a convention like the republicans that suppressed dissent over the Vietnam conflict we would have been victorious in 1968 which is truly silly.

The proof of such a silly statement is when examined under the light of reality one would discover that democrats moved away from a system that produced 7 out of 10 victories from 1932 to one that completely reversed that trend since 1968.

What caused this trend, it’s quite simple. We moved a way from a system where our democratic delegates and party leaders had more influence over the selection of the party nominee to primary system where the corporate “news” media and powerful financial contributors dominated the selection.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/25/AR200808...

When I read the above article in the Washington Post that Hillary Clinton wanted the VP Slot on the ticket I came to the conclusion that she was denied this opportunity , not by Obama, but the leader of the DNC when he forced the super delegates to commit to a candidate in mid June. The only conclusion is that the current nomination process is far worst than the one where men in smoked filled rooms decided the selection because at least Hillary would have had a fighting chance on the convention floor.

I have been called many names on AAR blogs that ranged from Hillbot to troll_monkey by those that claim to be Obama supporters. The truth is that we don’t have any way of determining the true identity of any blogger unless Guy succeeded in discovering my IP address. Those so-called Obama supporters may be Clinton supports trying to make Obama supporters look bad.

However, we might not know the true identity of a blogger, but we can judge them by their words and actions.

My words(some misspelled) in my post supported the position that I wanted the party to unite under a joint ticket of candidates I didn’t vote for and later discovered that my desire was prevented by our party leaders that thought it was more important to put on a grand show at the expense of shoving a candidate aside.

For those Obama people that shout this proves that I was just a Clinton supporter, I respond that my position would not have changed if it was indeed Obama that was the one that came out on the short end of the stick. Why some may say, the answer is that principles to me are far more important than any debate between any candidate.

In closing, I will return to my previous point that you are judged by your action and words more than what label that is pinned to your shirt.

It is hard to believe that we are in the same country since the 2000 election even though the flag has not changed.

It’s hard to believe that I am watching a democratic convention base of the principles of the 1948 convention, unless Howard Dean steps to the podium and release those super delegates that he strong-armed in June so that we can have this showy undemocratic convention today.

It’s seem that even the best HD setup of today fails to pick up the principles that were so clearly transmitted by those black and whites sets tuned to the democratic convention of 1948.

Howard Dean please reverse your mistake!!!