Wednesday, September 01, 2004

GOP looooooove

Despite the fact that this convention has been "silent" on the economy, to quote David Gergen, despite the embarrassment that were the Bush daughters last night, despite the blatant ridicule of those living troubled lives in America (i.e. Guiliani's ridiculing of John Edwards' "Two Americas" message and Arnold's "economic girlie-men" slur) and despite the fact that it is only the third day, ABC's The Note sees fit to offer a long litany (31) of what has gone right and a shockingly short (2) and what hasn't worked, "yet" as they put it.

In contrast, The Note waited until the Friday after the Democratic convention to commend the DNC on 11 different items, and criticize them on 9 and offer a list of 6 things "we still don't know."

By all accounts the DNC was rated a success and it addressed a host of issues - domestic and WOT/Iraq related - not just Kerry's service in Vietnam. By contrast the RNC is a little like 'Johnny one note' citing the war on terror as the one and only issue. So what is it about this convention that gets ABC so hard and wet?

Answer: The attacks - the purple heart band-aids, Rove's criticism of Kerry's 1971 testimony, George H. W. Bush calling the Swift Boat ads "compelling" and all the "politically poetic" ways in which the GOP has managed to continue their smear effort of Kerry's service.

Kerry has not directly attacked Bush's service in the National Guard, but when his supporters do The Note makes an issue of the campaign's "inconsistency". When Republicans attack Kerry's Vietnam service, despite Bush's praise of Kerry's heroism in Vietnam, The Note refers to it as "good cop/bad cop" (and they mean it in a good way!).

When counting conservative media, you can happily ad ABC News' The Note to the list.