Convention Thoughts: Fred and Joe

Okay, I have to admit, I didn’t watch any of the Democratic National Convention.  I just didn’t think that I could palate any of the rhetoric they are famous for.  Actually, I was pretty immersed in watching several DVDs that I had on my list to watch.

But for some strange reason, I find myself with no DVDs and extra time to watch the Repbulican National Convention.  So, last night I listened th President Bush, Fred Thompson, and Joe Lieberman.

President Bush was mediocre.  He really isn’t a great speaker.  And I can’t remember much about what he said.  I actually remember more from Laura Bushes interview on NBC that I do from President Bush’s speech.

However, the real heart of last night’s speeches were the talks by Fred Thompson and Joe Lieberman.  If it were a competition for best speech my award would be given to Fred Thompson.  He very respectfully told the story of John McCain’s service to our country and set up his character.

The best line from Thompson talk, and for the whole televised evening was this: “Now, being a POW certainly doesn’t qualify anyone to be president, but it does reveal character. My friends — (cheers, applause) — this is the kind of character that civilizations from the beginning of our history have sought in their leaders — (cheers, applause) — strength, courage, humility, wisdom, duty, honor.”

While I am somewhat bothered by what appears to be the over emphasis on McCain’s POW experience, Thompson set it up in a way of reverence and respect, that I couldn’t help but open up and try and understand who McCain is.  While I couldn’t help but look at Thompson and wish that he were the nominee because of his eloquence and his political ideals, he sold the McCain bill very well.

Lieberman was a great follow up.  He talked about how the best vote isn’t down party lines, but for what is right for America.  This poses a great question, and something that we need to ask ourselves every election.  I wonder what we would say if it were the other side saying it about our nominee.

I don’t agree with a lot of the political views of Lieberman, but I enjoyed his speech very much.  He didn’t do a great job at convincing me that McCain is my president, but I feel that he might have done a good job for the independent voter who hasn’t made up her mind.

Overall, it was a good night.  I am glad that I had the time to watch it.  I am excited to here Sarah Palin’s talk tonight.  I have seen her speak when she was selected as McCain running mate, and I was very impressed.  I suspect that she will do likewise today.

One More Thought about the Convention

I know that it is well passed. And this post is probably going to be boring to most, but it concerns me greatly. So, I need to write about it.

First of all, from what I can tell there are supposed to be roughly 1200 delegates at the convention from the third district. And I understand that sometimes it is difficult to fill every position, but I find it hard to believe that they couldn’t fill 120 of those positions.

That is 10 percent of the positions went empty before the voting even started. Only 1080 delegates voted in the third district and this is amazing to me. I haven’t been to convention before, but it seems to me that this is either a sign of why grassroots doesn’t work, or a sign that the Republican Party is struggling.

More frustrating to me is those who had their credentials and left. I understand that there are some who had very good reason to leave. And perhaps these fall down numbers are within that range. But simply put. We need to have more dedication to our party.

For the second round, the delegates who voted dropped to 1046. We lost 34 delegates. That’s roughly 3% of the original 1080. Now maybe most of those were the Stone Fonua and Joe Ferguson crowd. If so, that tells me that they really aren’t party people but candidate people, and their precincts need to be more aware of who they elect.

Then for the third round we had drastic drop of 12% from the original voting total. I would have to assume that the major of these people were Leavitt supporters who were too upset to vote for either Chaffetz or Cannon.

How can you do that? You represent your neighborhood. You hold a responsibility to vote for them. If 24 of you would had stuck around and voted for Chaffetz, he would have won. If all of you had stayed and voted, then Chaffetz would have needed 85 of your votes to win.

Sure, I am not sure that Jason could have got those 85. But when people think about it. If they didn’t wanted Cannon over Chaffetz, then they almost handed Chaffetz a win. If 15 more people who supported Cannon in the last round had made the same decision as those who left, then Jason would have won.

I just can’t believe that there were 126 good reasons to leave the convention early. I had to get home to my family and take care of things at home. I know of at least one candidate who had a dance recital he needed to take his children too. But both of us stayed for the last vote.

I guess, I shouldn’t be too surprised about this, but the second district had 368 people drop out.  That is 35% of the original 1046 who showed up to vote in the first place.  I just don’t understand it.  We need people who are more dedicated.

Okay, you can criticize me for having left after the third round and not staying to deal with the bylaws of the party. But I had to draw a line somewhere. If I didn’t have so much going on these next few weeks, and had more time with my family I would have stayed. Not a good enough excuse, but at least I stayed to make the decisions that I believe my precinct was interested in.

I will do my best to be to the 2009 meeting and vote on all of the bylaws and other issues that are presented before us. I just can’t understand how 126 people couldn’t stay for 1 more hour.