A Convention Is Sheltered by the Storm

[WhiteTara]

This is such an incredibly delicious skewering! A wonderful read to the end

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/us/politics/02watch.html?_r=1&ref=media&oref=slogin
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: September 1, 2008

It took resources, coordination and lots of volunteers, but the McCain campaign managed to push back the dreaded split-screen between St. Paul and Hurricane Gustav and save the Republican convention from a flood of bad Katrina memories.

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Times Topics: Republican Convention
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Organizers turned the political event into a pageant of penance and patriotic redemption, a chance to don sackcloth and ashes and get the disaster relief effort right this time. Viewers did not see Republican fat cats in limos or delegates in funny hats knocking back shots. In a convention hall so solemnly lighted it looked like a state funeral, the event became a fervent, flag-waving Hurricane Gustav fund-raiser led by Laura Bush and Cindy McCain. (One that, unfortunately, conflicted with the final hour of the annual Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.)

The storm even provided shelter for John McCain’s presumptive running mate: the McCain campaign released the news that Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, was pregnant just as television reporters in brightly colored slickers were swaying under lashing Louisiana rain and wind, shouting to be heard. For most of the day, the news about the Palins’ unwed pregnant teenager ran as a brief crawl beneath the latest hurricane images: swollen levees and toppled stop signs.
snip
There were no major orations at the convention about the presumptive nominee. Instead, the scaled-back convention pushed the notion of can-do compassion. Mrs. Bush introduced taped messages from the Republican governors in the Gulf States, who greeted convention delegates from the front lines of disaster relief. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas stood in a khaki work shirt in front of a Texas Air National Guard C-130 plane, as Louisiana evacuees were being escorted off. “You’re seeing Republican governors in Republican states doing a fabulous job of taking care of the citizens,” Mr. Perry said. “That’s what we do.”

And hair-do. Mrs. McCain urged delegates and viewers to donate to CauseGreater.com. And while she was impeccably elegant in a gold dress and pearls, her usual tightly pulled coiffure was styled in a loose, tousled chignon — an allusion, perhaps, to the hair-mussing winds on the Gulf Coast.

[notadmblnd]

1. But didn't it pretty much turn into the disaster that wasn't?

I mean, I'm sure there's storm damage but I don't think it was what they were hoping for.

[opihimoimoi]

2. Pubs faking their compassion and concerns....trying to clean up their dismal Katrina Act

They are Pandering.....

Fuck um.....

[KT2000]

3. OK, but.....

how are they going to get out of the debates?