I seem to remember, as a child, being sort of fascinated by the political conventions.
Now I find them sad and embarrassing. Part of that is the proliferation of media removing the novelty from all things. Part of it is your correspondent getting old. But the most important part is the endlessly depressing fact that politics is one percent about governing and 99 percent about winning the race.
A while back someone asked Barack Obama what he’d do his first day in office, and his answer was a great one: Sit down with his White House counsel and undo everything George Bush did to eviscerate the Constitution. More than a one-day project of course, but exactly the right idea.
Except that the Constitution, what it means and why it matters, is too abstract and “intellectual” for people. Ideas don’t play in Peoria, or whatever. Americans don’t do nuance, as somebody said. Meaning: Americans are simps.
So along came the ridiculous FISA bill, which in its final, voted-upon form actually went further in dumping on the Constitution than the Bushies hoped. And Obama had a choice between protecting the document or appearing “tough on terror,” or some such nonsense and he chose, not surprisingly but sadly, some such nonsense. Obama and his people just had the national stage to themselves for a week and the only person to bring the subject up was… John Kerry? Nice to see him seem pissed but, you know, maybe a bit late.
Obama did make a nice speech Thursday, and not a rah-rah one. He is a charismatic, sharp, gifted guy. But, again, those gifts have been developed into skills in order to persuade people, not actually address problems.
I’ll probably vote for him, since the other guy increasingly seems nuts and/or a fraud. But other than Dubya mercifully riding into the sunset, I see nothing to be excited about.
