NBC’s David Montgomery shared a rarely insightful piece of punditry that stuck with me last night. The first partisan showcase at his convention was likely a winner for John McCain, as Thompson trumpeting his heroic story and Lieberman reiterated his independent past. But in a truly telling sense, the night was as awkward as that dreary old Democrat’s bone-dry jokes.
When Joe defended President Clinton, McCain/Feingold, and Judicial moderation, it landed with deafening discomfort. His role was to highlight a bipartisan theme. But the Republican establishment he spoke to wanted none of it.
The President of the United States, the man who has lead his party since 2000 and in many respects still does, was tucked half a country away in a satellite address designed to dodge the primetime. The organizers didn’t want Bush to be the face of the night, but they knew he had a role to play. He was passing the torch for the Republican’s legacy of power to his old rival turned protégé. Their teary eyes and cheers showed that the delegates- and the base at large-still love him. But his ten minute speech was outshined by two figures relatively new to the Republican stage. Of course old white men were the best heads they could muster, but last night Republicans clearly tried to co-opt the message of change. They made no mention of what they’d done the past eight years, and hoped the TV audience would forget Bush’s presence.
All this awkward drama reflects the tension of McCain himself. He’s two different candidates to respective electorates. To his right-wing base, he’s an evangelical mirror of Bush’s incompetence. Yet he wants to run as a moderate independent at the same time. McCain had gone negative in order to hide this basic contradiction. But his reckless VP pick last week could not illustrate the point any better.
It reeks of incompetence-and many Republicans seem to know it. The roll-out has been dominated by stories than any serious vet would have prepped for, or simply avoided. Now talking heads and elected delegates have been forced to defend a woman most of them have never met. Most Americans immediately realized how the pick undercut McCain’s core message of experience. She’s supposed to embody the idea of change and independence. But, like McCain, she can’t be a maverick and a right wing-nut at the same time.
The fundamental problem: this is a party completely out of touch and defunct of ideas, relying on slight of hand to hide their lack of direction. As Rick Davis admitted, McCain has no real policies to offer, and now counts on the charm of a feminine gun-toter to get him through. After a knockout Dem convention and an incongruous VP choice last week, the party is in shambles with a message that holds no water. The old hook has sunk, and the new line’s a stinker.