Unconventional Convention: Unity Uber-Alles and Henry Fonda

So the Democratic Convention is ensuing and it's difficult to sift through the infuriating coverage to figure out what is the most frustrating aspect of the whole carnival in Denver. However, no matter what I think of Bill Clinton, I will give him credit: he gave a good, concise speech. As soon as he concluded, the cable news channels bailed, going to commercials as John Kerry began to speak, sending me to C-SPAN (when the cable news channels returned from their breaks, they went to their respective pundits). If a speech occurs at a convention but nobody sees it, did it really happen? And why is it that Kerry began giving interesting speeches practically the moment his candidacy concluded unhappily in 2004? As they say, what's up with that?

On MSNBC only Rachel Maddow and Pat Buchanan had the fortitude to say that the Democrats have thus far done a rather poor job of supplying their myrmidons with "red meat," vis-a-vis John McCain, though Clinton, Kerry and Joe Biden all took some solid swipes on Wednesday night.

Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann have continually embarrassed themselves with their slavish, party-line coverage. When some complain about the "liberal media," I'm certain they're talking about these two. The hyperbole was off the charts. Olbermann's orgasmic squeal as Hillary concluded her speech the previous night--"Grand slam!!!"--was cringe-inducing. I hate to be one of those people unfashionably stuck in reality, but Hillary never contradicted her own primary-season statement that McCain is certainly prepared to be commander in chief--just like her, of course--whereas Obama just has some silly speech.

Mark Warner's sleep-inducing drivel of a "key-note address" indicates that if Obama loses, he's probably the Democratic #2 frontrunner behind Queen Hillary for 2012. The "key-note address" is simply a spotlight for the "rising star" of the Democrats. For the Republicans, it's the spot reserved for some zany character to emerge like in some soap opera: four years ago, Democrat Zell Miller, this time Rudy Giuliani. Oh, and Joe Lieberman is speaking at the Republican Convention. So much for genuine conservative principles: for the GOP, if you're pro-war, you're one of us!

The truth is, I want to see an unpredictable convention like in the good old days, when parties actually had people in them that fought with one another about ideas and principles. For the most part, the conventions of today are somnolent affairs. We need drama, we need the stakes to be high. What we need, in short, is Henry Fonda.