For a few choice and well worded observations on the Democratic convention, see JLF friend Peggy Noonan?s column today. See also Mitch’s CJ interview with her on the 2008 Presidental Race.
A few from the WSJ column today:
On Hillary:
She showed herself capable of appearing to put party first. I also believe she has come to appreciate both emotionally and intellectually The Importance of Being Teddy. She will not be the president of the United States the next four years, but she can ease herself into the role of Teddy Kennedy-esque fighter for her issues in the Senate.
On Obama?s speech in the football field tonight:
My own added thought is that speeches are delicate; they’re words in the air, and when you’ve got a ceiling the words can sort of go up to that ceiling and come back down again. But words said into an open air stadium?can just get lost in echoes, and misheard phrases.
From Obama?s campaign manager:
If McCain’s vice presidential nominee is Mitt Romney, “They’re doubling down on out-of-touch.”
On the difference between Republicans and Democrats:
Democrats in the end speak most of, and seem to hold the most sympathy for, the beset-upon single mother without medical coverage for her children, and the soldier back from the war who needs more help with post-traumatic stress disorder. They express the most sympathy?For those, in short, who need more help from the government, meaning from the government’s treasury, meaning the money got from taxpayers.
At Republican conventions they express sympathy for the middle-aged woman who owns a small dry cleaner and employs six people and is, actually, day to day, stressed and depressed from the burden of state, local and federal taxes, and regulations, and lawsuits, and meetings with the accountant, and complaints as to insufficient or incorrect efforts to meet guidelines regarding various employee/employer rules and regulations. Republicans have, that is, sympathy for taxpayers.
Neither party ever gets it quite right, the balance between the taxed and the needy, the suffering of one sort and the suffering of another. You might say that in this both parties are equally cold and equally warm, only to two different classes of citizens.
