The 2008 Republican National Convention Pt. I

They looked like a collective mass of drooling banshees as they danced to Earth Wind & Fire. It was sad; it was a horrid scene of melting faces and bad dancers. This was the Republican National Convention. A party that dare not echo "4 more years" as they did in the serious summer of 2004. A scene that drew national anarchists and pseudo-military retaliation. A convention that was interrupted by the glaring reality that faces us: our warm earth.

I don’t make these judgment calls on the art of dance because of my clear partisanship, but because I can’t stand the Country First stiffness. As I looked at virtually every cable outlet and saw the beam of confusing rhetoric called the Republican National Convention coming from my TV, I got scared. I got scared because after all these mad years, this party has not taken steps to appear inclusive or unifying--especially against the backdrop of the first woman Republican VP candidate.

Say I was a swing-vote, unsure of where the winds would take me. Say I was an apolitical person and this was my first election I were to cast my power. Say I was a woman and a Clinton supporter who cared deeply about econo-security measures and the historical moment rife with gender identity. Would I want to hear the ever ironic "experience to hold the Oval Office" debate? (Most people running for the job for the first time don't have previous job experience doing the job.) Would I want to hear the insane argument that the Alaska energy paradigm equates to unilateral diplomacy with Russia? Would I be insulted that choosing an unknown woman would automatically garner my vote? If I was someone riding the fence, I would certainly hope the Palin move wasn't merely political.

Governor Sarah Palin is unequivocally impressive. Most were curious; others confused. “Who was she?” They thought. John McCain picked a nobody/somebody. In blackjack parlance, this was a necessary double down that needed to happen with stakes so high. But, oh..this convention is so confusing. We move from the red meat fodder from Fred Thompson (non-unifying) to Joe "Switchback" Lieberman and his mono-insistence that those slightly left of center should be--you guessed it--country first. And we end Wednesday with Gov. Palin serving attack after Republican attack on character and public service credentials of her opponents. I scratch my head and my ass, and I wonder, just who is this Convention is for?

Which Americans does she speak of?