Convention Redux

I watched the Republican Convention for a while last night. I don't (surprisingly) have an essay on it in mind, but I did catch some interesting things:

- The G.O.P. delivered their most controversial message (the "motherhood and apple pie" speech) through the friendly voice of Senator Libby Dole. Her turn on a national ticket may yet come, though I suspect it would be as Vice President to a moderate Republican alpha-male.

- Speaking of alpha-males, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

- The Governator spoke extremely well, I thought, highlighting the American dream as dreamt by immigrants. He (and others) noted that the Cold War was won by a president who called it an "Evil Empire" and stood up to it strongly. Schwarzenegger also used his library of personal pop culture references to his great advantage, adding humor and a hint of star-struckness to the effects of his speech.

- Is Arnold the G.O.P.'s answer to Theresa Heinz Kerry? You know, strong European accent, a little strange, unorthodox and unapologetic?

- Richard Nixon was mentioned in a major Convention speech as an inspiration, and no caveat was added. That's a pretty telling sign of how far we've come from Watergate.

- The Bush twins are complete and utter losers. Not only do they have all the fashion sense of a 14-year-old, but they can't even deliver pre-written lines. In the corner of the screen I could see their speechwriter hanging himself from the rafters. Worse still, their abominable, interminable co-speech forced the Leader of the Free World to choose between lying ("I'm so proud of both of you") and going off-script ("You should be ashamed of yourselves! Get off that stage before I get a stick.")

- Never mind about Arnold being the G.O.P.'s Theresa Heinz Kerry. As soon as the freakish, blue she-rabbi pranced out on stage I knew that someone with a very subtle sense of humor had decided this was the best way to skewer the Ketchup Kween.