Jeff Rosenzweig: From Here to Anonymity (RNC 2012, Tuesday)
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus got convention week off to a fine start by having his ass handed to him by Chris Matthews on Mondays Morning Joe. After a good cry in his hotel room, Priebus re-emerged to gavel the convention to order. Seconds later, the handful of conventioneers who had bothered to show up got a welcome break when he gaveled the session into recess for the day.
Monday also brought a slew of announcements about the hastily rearranged schedule for the rest of the week. Among other happy tidings, the Party of Doh decided to drop billionaire birther buffoon Donald Trump, while Bobby Jindal and Rick Scott both withdrew voluntarily, citing an urgent need to pretend to be doing something about hurricane preparedness. One prestigious speaking slot for Thursday night still remains unspecified, so its not entirely out of the question that theyre finally going to dig up Ronald Reagan and put him in front of a microphone one last time.
The Republicans did, however, get to unveil their snazzy US national debt clock, which immediately put me in mind of the ones they didnt have at their 2008 and 2004 conventions. It was the finishing touch to what the New York Times giddily described as a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired stage, which I guess would be an apt description if the architect had ever been a set designer for Max Headroom.
Yesterdays official theme was We Can Do Better and of course the balance of the week will demonstrate that, in fact, they cant. Tuesday, however, was We Built This night, so lets review what the Grotesque Old Party cobbled together from spit, chewing gum and bold ideas lifted from Ayn Rands wastebasket...