The Republicans Find Their Groove (and a Few Good Women)

During these two weeks I have discovered that as political parties, the Democrats and Republicans are simply incomparable. At least this cycle, the Republicans are the poorer sibling. The Republicans have much less money, their convention has smaller crowds, less energy, less food, and fall short in production.

The Republicans are very much still feeling the wounds of 2006 and a President that has disappointed them. One additional point of comparison is the number of elected officials at the conventions. Virtually all of the Democratic statewide elected officials were in Denver, and that is not the case for Republicans in St. Paul. The press here outnumber the elected officials.

One gets the feeling that many in the party perceived that this would be the convention to nowhere, and that the decision to steer clear of the McCain Express was survival instinct.

Yet after last night, the Republicans and the Straight Talk Express are, to quote Pearl Jam, “still alive.” Very much so.

For two hours last night they at least equaled the very best of what we saw in Denver and they may have had a crescendo all to themselves.

Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and Rudy Giuliani did what the Clintons did not; endorse their party’s presidential nominee with all their mind, heart, and soul. While Romney gave a good scripted political speech from his heart, Huckabee reached within himself to find the authenticity to genuinely ask us as nation to make the upcoming campaign a debate about ideas, and not a referendum on race. Giuliani gave one of the best speeches of the last two weeks by rediscovering the Rudy that led New York City and the nation following 9/11. By the time Giuliani was done, the Xcel Energy center was electric (by Republican standards) and it was clear that the convention had finally, 48 hours in, begun.

But last night needed to have a real authentic crescendo, and two good women delivered it. They gave this convention the one thing that Denver lacked, a surprise attack. In Denver, we knew what was coming, the expectations were high, and the Democrats delivered (no small task). In Saint Paul, we were introduced to assets the Republicans had kept hidden in the form of two women governors from the West.

This was Sarah Palin’s night. But what prepared her to be believable was the speech of Linda Lingle, the Governor of Hawaii.

Before yesterday afternoon I did not know Hawaii had a Republican Governor, let alone a female one. When I saw her name on the speakers list, I thought that putting her after Huckabee and Romney was about as intelligent as putting me after Karl Rove; mere fodder for channel surfers.

But when she began speaking she drew everyone in. She was quietly magnificent. She was so good that the woman next to me asked three minutes in, “Who is she?” and six minutes later, ”Why didn’t McCain pick her?” Linda Lingle communicated something far more important than words. Her competence and confidence raised the hopes of everyone in Xcel in regard to the quality of Sarah Palin. You could feel the collective relief and excitement build as people began to realize that if John McCain selected Palin instead of Lingle, Palin might indeed be something special. Linda Lingle told the nation that the Republicans have a deeper bench of governors than anyone knew.

As soon as Rudy left the stage, Sarah Palin stepped to the microphone. After the first few minutes where nerves seemed to distract her, she found her groove and helped the Republicans find theirs.

She delivered the two things every Vice-Presidential acceptance speech must:

1. Introduce yourself to the nation in a vice-presidential manner.
2. Explain why your running mate is the best person for the job.

She did a better job of this than most, and everyone in Xcel, and especially the press knew it. Afterwards you could hear countless Republicans say in unison, “We’ve got a chance.” Afterwards you could sense the press had just been given red meat, and they were visibly excited “We’ve got a race to cover.” As I listened I could not help but wonder what Obama, Biden, and the Clintons were thinking. I wondered if there were any high fives tonight on the Obama team.

We will see in the weeks to come, as the press and the public vets the two campaigns, whether Sarah Palin has the right stuff.

What is clear is that the Republicans have more than a few good women.

In fact they are so good, that John McCain has some work to do in his acceptance speech tonight. The last thing he wants to do now is leave the delegates and the nation daydreaming about a ticket that might have contained two Republican governors from the West.

Forgetting Myself

My wife Rachel is a tremendous centering force in my life. I need her just now.

My former student, Tom DeRosa, called me last night to ask if I would speak this morning at the breakfast meeting of the New Hampshire Convention Delegation. Having attended yesterday morning’s breakfast with an All-Start speaking line-up I instantly looked for a way out. So I played my “convention speaking invitation avoidance” trump card. It always works.

“Tom, I’d love to do it, but since I am vice-chair of the NH Executive Branch Ethics Commission I can’t endorse any candidate and my remarks would have to be neutral in connection to every election campaign."

Knowing that every such breakfast is a pep fest for McCain and Palin, I was not prepared for Tom’s reply

“Great, thanks for doing it. We need a second speaker and I couldn’t find anyone else.”

So, armed with another four hours of sleep, and coffee left over from last night, I dragged myself out of bed and to the Hennepin Room of the Minneapolis Hilton. Being in a second consecutive week of a sleep deprived state I had not noticed all the media in the room when I arrived. Rather I instantly went for the coffee and whatever gluten-free tidbits I could find.

Seeing another former student in the room, Allison Welch, I asked her if I was speaking first or second? She looked at me with pity and said she had no idea and curiously excused herself.

So I sat down and began to eat. You can understand why I literally inhaled all of my tidbits at once when the first speaker was announced: Karl Rove.

My friend Scott instantly looked at me, patted me on the back, and assured me that he’d be there for me next week as a pallbearer.

For the next 10 minutes I was simultaneously transfixed by Karl Rove’s rhetoric and wondering how in the world I was going to follow him with a soliloquy on what Alexis de Tocqueville had to say about “Democracy in America” with this audience.

“Hi, I’m Dale Kuehne, and I want to speak with you about a dead Frenchman.”

“Hi, I’m Dale Kuehne, and I’m having a heart-attack.”

There is no way to begin such a talk. But in the best tradition of the theater I went on with the show. The world did not end and no lives were lost.

If I had time to think I would have begun to obsess about how the press would report my talk. But I didn’t have time. Earlier this week, in a moment of weakness, I disregarded my first cardinal rule of political life–never do live TV—and I agreed to do a live TV spot at Noon on ABC. (As of today I now have a second cardinal law, never agree to speak following Karl Rove)

So even though I didn’t have time for a needed change of clothes I drove to the Xcel Center for my interview. Only when I got there, did I discover I was going to be interviewed live by Sam Donaldson.

At this point, I passed out of consciousness.

As the Broken Records sing, "If the news makes you sad, don't watch TV."

When I came to, the ABC staff were scraping the make-up off my face, and everyone was telling me what a good job I did.

Amnesia is a gift.

But when Sam himself thanked me for my contribution, I left ABC feeling a little too good about myself. I was deluding grandeur all afternoon.

But after the caffeine and adrenaline had subsided, I fell fast asleep in my seat tonight after the National Anthem. I instantly engaged in an epic dream rooted in an ego gone wild. It seems John McCain decided he wasn’t made of the right stuff and had withdrawn from the Presidential race. Sarah Palin was taking his place, and she was speaking with me about being her vice-president. To show how far my ego was misleading me, I said yes, and in so doing thoughtlessly threw away my career on the N.H. State Executive Branch Ethics Commission. Immediately, I went about writing my acceptance speak for tonight. “Change a Dead Frenchman Believed In." But before I could have my moment, I fell over and hit my head on the railing in front of me.

As I woke up I realized how much I am missing Rachel.

I need some serious centering and a change of clothes.

My new convention mantra, “Just Say No.”

When Did Blue Become Red?

I’m glad I’ve got tenure, because I am beginning to wonder if I have ever understood American politics. This two-week immersion into Presidential Campaigns and Conventions is completely altering my understanding of the two parties. Today helped me get in touch with a question that has been nagging at me for years:

When did Blue change to Red?

Back when I went to college, Republicans were associated with the word blue, and Democrats were associated with the word red. On election night the blue states were Republican states and red states were Democratic states. But since at least the 2000 election the colors representing the two parties have been reversed and that's not all that has been reversed.

I came into this convention experience with an understanding of the two parties that has proven to be largely upside down.

I assumed the Democrats were more disorganized, more poorly financed, less disciplined, and more angry than the Republicans.  I assumed the Republicans put on better parties, held more coherent conventions, not merely because they were more corporate, but because they were wealthier and more worldly wise.

I thought I might have exaggerated when I published the Slow Parade blog at 2:00am CDT this morning. I thought it was a fair reflection of the day, but I suspected that it was probably an unfair assessment of the Republican convention as a whole. Sitting with the idea for 24 hours has led me to the conclusion I got it right after all.

The two conventions are almost beyond comparison. The Democratic convention was brilliantly conceived, well financed, well executed, and from start to finish an experience of sensory overload in which they utterly controlled the message. Moreover, because they so overwhelmed the media with large quantities of scripted, disciplined events, none of us in the media had time to do anything else but absorb the message they created. (I think Sean Hannity is still trying to get over it.) It was a theme of technical beauty and the best convention money can buy.

After two days of the Republican convention, save for this morning breakfast meeting and the final hour tonight, it strikes me as two days of poorly executed missed opportunities. The nicest thing that can be said about the Republican Convention so far are the Volunteers from Minnesota. Today’s ‘Minnesota nice’ story come from the volunteers who came by to personally apologize to each and every member of the press in the press box, because the Secret Service was making them be strict and they didn’t want to hurt our feelings. The media guy sitting next to me from New York City asked the nice woman if she was a member of some kind of ‘cult.’ She just said, “No, young man, I’m from Minnesota.”

This RNC program started too late in the day to take full advantage of the news cycle. The Democrats gave the press 6 hours of intense programming for 4 straight days. The Republicans gave us 4-½ hours the first two days of the convention, and until Fred Thompson presented the story of John McCain, the convention was a non-stop argument for caffeine. It wasn’t that there wasn’t a story to be told, but it was told looking backward. The visual images, the dress, the music, the cinema asked those of us in attendance to look backward to an era that, for the most part, no longer exists and cannot be recovered unless it is presented in a compelling fashion. Good politics pays deference to the past while always looking ahead.

What’s worse is that there is virtually no caffeine available in the arena. Only 5% of the concession stands are open. It is gluten-friendly because it is actually hard to find anything to eat. (Really) Why the free-market doesn’t work at a Republican convention is beyond me.

Moreover, I think a case can be made that the Republican establishment is more angry about the nomination of John McCain, than Hillary supporters are upset with Obama, or the anti-war protesters are venting on everyone. The Republican Establishment channels their personal anger in passive-aggressive behavior manifest in substandard fundraising for John McCain.  The disapproval of John McCain by the Established wing of the party is clearly evident. The fact that the Obama campaign has raised $300,000,000 more than tells the story.

Yet before the Republican readers of this blog dismiss me as an agent of the Citizens for the American Way, Air America, the ACLU, or the Huffington Post, the truth is that during the last hour of yesterday's Republican convention two moments occurred that were deeper than anything we witnessed in Denver last week, and depending on how they went over on TV (and whether anyone was still awake to watch), they may have surpassed, in their own way, the crescendos of Denver.

The first was the story of John McCain, as told by Fred Thompson. It is a story so profound that there were moments when the entire audience and press corps were absolutely riveted. The room was so still and people focused their full attention on his story. Whether you like or dislike McCain's politics or personality, his life story, past and present, commands respect. I didn’t listen to the pundits tonight, but even those like Chris Matthews had to give McCain is due. To do otherwise is to live without any pretense to journalistic integrity.

But even so, Thompson’s telling of McCain's story took 2^nd place to Senator Joe Lieberman’s endorsement speech. It was understated, but so authentic that it emerged as the most poignant moment of either convention. It was a far better speech than the one he gave when he accepted the Democratic VP nomination 8 years ago. It was as if tonight he was unleashed to give his speech and he delivered. It took real courage for him to do it, but he crossed the aisle, and did it. Everyone in the room knew the price he was paying to give it, and as a result, when Lieberman nailed the delivery it was greeted with the loudest applause of the night. It communicated the message that despite their disadvantage in organization and money, the Republicans have reason to believe that McCain and Palin can make a case for their ticket that is so deeply compelling they might just win the election.

Which brings us to tonight and Governor Palin's acceptance speech. The enthusiasm building up to her speech is equal to the anticipation for Obama last Thursday night. The major difference being that the expectations on Obama’s were very high, whereby it is only the hopes that are high for her.

If she comes out and nails the speech and the landing, and then if on Thursday night McCain builds on the enthusiasm by improving on what Fred Thompson did last night, McCain/Palin have a real chance to win in November. But it won't be because they have the wealthiest, most organized, organization

Blue has changed to Red in many ways. Now I need to try and figure out why and how.

The Republicans Find Their Pulse

Blogging is a different form of journalism, if it can be called journalism at all. 

As many have you pointed out, there was a lot of news yesterday and it was undoubtedly an important day in the presidential campaign.  It was a dramatic day outside the conventional hall with the violent demonstrations and tear gas, the revelation of the pregnancy of Governor Palin’s daughter, and Senator McCain and Senator Obama each campaigning off-site. 

The reality is, however, that the “news” happened outside of the hall, leaving me to relay what I saw from the inside.  

Lots of deflation.  That was yesterday.

This morning, I felt this convention’s heartbeat for the first time.  It was at a breakfast sponsored by the New Hampshire and South Carolina delegations.  There were a host of speakers including Senator Dan Coats, Senator Lindsey Graham, Governor Buddy Roemer, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Cindy McCain, and others.  I don’t want to suggest there was no script or that people spoke without notes, but people clearly recognize that the parade has begun, and that if the parade is going to be worth watching they are going to have to step up and give it their own voice. 

It was a morning that people spoke from their hearts about why they support John McCain, why they are excited about Governor Palin, and what was most striking was that as the morning unfolded, you could feel the pulse of the room come alive.  Even more surprisingly, there was not a negative word spoken about Barack Obama or Joe Biden.   I can’t find in my notes a negative word spoken about the Democrats.  It was a morning when the Republicans realized that the order of the day was to find their own voice and remind each other what they believe and why. 

The press was there in droves and I’ll be utterly fascinated to find out how the event is covered.  Obviously, I heard the speech of politicians: eloquent oratory, bits of stump speeches, and sound bites.  What gave the morning a pulse was that it was fresh.  People were improvising.  They are pulling together in support of a Senator who has not always been welcome at party gatherings and Governor many have never met. 

We are promised three full days of convention beginning tonight, and there is no doubt that much of it is scripted.  There is also no doubt that some of the script is being rewritten presently.  But there is a collective sense of energy coming from delegates and leaders who realize that unless everyone steps up and elevates their game, this will indeed be a parade most painful.

I said yesterday that the Republicans had no rock stars that could compete with the Democrats.  They may prove me wrong.  I’ve heard all this morning's speakers before, and all of them were better than I had ever heard them.  The Republicans know the Democrats laid down the gauntlet in Denver.  The Republicans know they will have to dramatically elevate their game to have a chance.  If they have people who have the ability to do that, it may end up being a parade of great interest. 

Back to the Xcel Center.  With anticipation for a change.

Slow Parade

A wise person once said, “Be careful what you wish for.” After pining away for more than a week for an unscripted convention, today I got my wish, but it was not what I wanted.

I have been struggling for hours to compose this blog entry, because I have been desperately searching for an interesting way to describe the first day of the convention that wasn’t. To say that it was boring, wouldn’t do it justice.

So after searching my iTunes library for musical inspiration, I found it in the song “Slow Parade” by the Broken Records of Edinburgh, Scotland.

As long as we understand the word slow to mean ‘really slow’, like so slow that it is literally painful to stand and watch, the image works.

I won’t bore you with the details, because there are too few to be boring. Like any good parade, the Republican parade has all appearances being visually appealing. The stage, the lighting, and the balloons high in the rafters of the Excel Energy Center hold promise. What happened inside the Convention Center was simply this: The convention was convened at 2:30p CDT, and almost as quickly as it was convened it was adjourned for 2 hours. It then reconvened for some procedural votes, 15 minutes of Laura Bush, Cindy McCain, and 4 Gulf Coast Governors speaking of Hurricane Gustav, and was then adjourned. There was nothing was done today that could not have been done better tomorrow.

What made it worse than boring was the mood of the people in the hall. The delegates who paid a LOT of money to come to the convention knew it was a wasted day and were more than disappointed. The members of the media who are utterly exhausted from last week, went through the motions, but they all knew that despite the fact they were going to work hard all day and night the only news of importance was happening outside of the hall. One policeman in the hall summed it up best for those working the event when he stopped and asked, “Why is this so boring?”

I don’t know anyone who has high hopes for tomorrow. We still don’t know what the schedule will be, and I’m not sure anyone is losing sleep over it. There is nothing to suggest the parade will be anything but slow tomorrow, even if there are more people marching.

The inconvenient truth is that the rate of speed and lack of energy is not merely due to the appearance of Hurricane Gustav. If the measure of the quality of a convention in this political age is based on charisma and star power (and not the ability to govern), the Republicans have no one to match Ted Kennedy, the Clintons, and Barack Obama. There is no one in the party who can ‘perform’ the way those four can. I’m not sure the Republicans could match the 85,000 who attended Obama’s acceptance speech. If politics were a rock concert the Republicans could not share the same bill as the Democrats.

This is a slow parade.

But there is the prospect that on Wednesday the Republicans may have a “moment” that will enable their parade to not just match, but surpass the parade we watched in Denver. This moment may make the entire parade worth watching. This moment is the vice-presidential acceptance speech of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

The level of interest in Sarah Palin and her speech is growing exponentially as we learn more and more about her and her family. In Denver, the Democrats and Obama met very high expectation (no small feat). On Wednesday we don’t know what to expect from Sarah Palin, but the interest in her is becoming so intense that I would not be surprised to see the ratings for the evening break all convention records. If on Wednesday night, with the whole nation watching, she rises to the occasion, it will indeed be a moment of beautiful imperfection. If she rises to the occasion, McCain’s acceptance speech on Thursday night will also command our attention. “Who is this man who asked Sarah Palin to be his running mate?

I’ve never seen anything like this. None of us have. Which is why this slow parade is all of a sudden worth watching. Unlike Denver, we don’t know what will happen on Wednesday, and the tractor beam of curiosity is beginning to capture America.

In a world of political rock stars and well-financed political machines, the most unlikely thing has emerged. One of “the rest of us” has a chance to go to Washington, DC. Something unscripted is occurring. Something human is occurring and there is no one who knows how this is going to play out.

Today I may have been bored, but as the day unfolded and as I learned more about Sarah Palin, I found myself beginning to edge to the end of my seat in anticipation of Wednesday.

It may be a slow parade, but there is the hope it could become a thing of beauty.

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