Republican National Convention

Convention of the U.S. Republican Party. Held every four years, in July or August of presidential election years. The purpose of political conventions was originally to decide the party's candidate for the presidency, but that is now decided in a series of primaries and caucuses held in late winter and early spring. Now, both parties' conventions are purely made-for-TV events whose sole purpose is to give their candidate a convention bounce.

In 2000, the RNC is being held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

One of the stars of the show last night was Condoleeza Rice. What a babe! She's an academic (Stanford, I believe) and a foreign policy consultant for the GOP. And she's black. She made a comment last night that pretty much summed up the entire differences you face this election year. She said that she was a Republican because:

"This party sees me as an individual, not as part of a group!"

>She was not, like Colin Powell the night before, wringing her hands, pleading with the GOP to change their message. She was quite comfortable with the message just as it is, thank you.

Speaking of Colin Powell, who berated the entire audience with his admonition that Affirmative Action was the correct path: How many folks do you think the Democrats will allow to speak at their convention who tell them that Affirmative Action means nothing more than quotas?

The GOP seems to be more than willing to include pro-choice folks into the party. How many folks will be allowed to speak at the Democrats' convention who claim anything even close to a pro-life stance?

Who has the closed minds here?

An amazing fact in this year's GOP convention was that James Carville showed up at Philedelphia, walked into the convention, and was greeted with a friendly welcome. He's not exactly well-liked in conservative circles, and yet, the conservative folks at the convention managed the dignity to greet him with a smile. No, he wasn't lynched, quite the opposite in fact. Plus the fact that they actually let Colin Powell up there on the stage meant that the GOP is going for a more moderate road. I don't like his affirmative action ramble, but oh well. Better moderate than left.

On the other hand, imagine what would happen if Newt Gingrich walked into the Democratic Convention for a stroll. Here's an imagined sequence of events:

• Rushed by a mob of angry liberals and severely beaten
• Strung up on stage and pelted with large rocks
• Impaled on the spot, and after he's dead, the liberals come on stage to feast on his quivering flesh

A bit exaggerated, but you can be sure that he definitely won't be treated as nicely as Carville was treated in Philedelphia. All the more proof that the GOP is far more inclusive than the media or the donkeys like to say. Plus the fact that yes, believe it or not, there are decent people in the GOP, was largely ignored by CNN and the rest of the liberal media, who was happy repeating "rich white male" every 5 seconds.

Just like the Democratic National Convention, days of outings, entertainment, parties thrown by the large soft money donors, and some occasional rhetoric about how great they are and how horrible the other party is (with no recognition usually given to any third parties so as to avoid appearing like they're having an effect).

No strategy sessions, no debates, no discussions, nothing. It's all about trying to convince each other how correct they are, while showing the public only enough to make them think it's something important. In fact, the most important events that occur at a national convention are probably the parties thrown by the big money groups to "remind" the party of the donations and make sure the politicans "remember" them when the issues come around.

A show, pure and simple.