Democrats Flunk First Night

Organizers of the Democratic Party's confab in Denver don't understand that politics is show biz.

Conventions are TV series, watched by people fleetingly, and must compete against better, more interesting programming.

And the fundamental flaw is that the Democrats seem to think that conventions are like university courses, meted out piecemeal to willing and interested students. Unfortunately, any messaging should be condensed all the time: positive about Obama but it must, at the same time, always slag McCain. This is because Obama is a newby up against a seasoned, experienced McCain who is perceived as safer unless annihilated.

McCain's team gets it. He upstaged the Democrats' whole evening by appearing on Jay Leno's Show right after the speeches ended as CNN pundits repeated themselves ad nauseum. He was on at 11PM Eastern and 8PM Pacific, prime time.

McCain's performance was fun to watch and he was funny, self deprecating about his age and on message. He gave back-handed compliments to Obama, Biden et al then played the tired old POW card over and over again.

Here's my guess as to the rest of this week's "show" line-up:

Tuesday night -- Hillary talks unity and McCain appears on David Letterman

Wednesday night -- Biden talks tough and McCain appears on Jimmy Kimmel

Thursday night -- Obama delivers eloquence and McCain goes on Jon Stewart's Daily Show. Or Fox.

Comments

[Ides]

The media controlled the narrative by excising the most interesting moments. No coverage of Kucinich's barn burner, no respect to Schweitzer's roof raiser. John Kerry gave a better speech than Bill Clinton but the press slept through it.

It had nothing to do with the DNC, it had everything to do with the ignorance of the MSM.

[neenj]

this is precisely why I watch on CSPAN

[NoSillyName]

I found it to be interesting, except for the musical sequences between speakers. If most people are watching a serious political event for entertainment, or worse, not watching at all then ya know what someone, probably de Tocqueville, said:

"In a democracy, people get the government they deserve."

[KNadine]

Ok, I get it now (just read bio). I was trying to find the point of this post. First of all, the convention has been just fine if you view it through PBS & C-SPAN where a lot of us have tuned in. Most of us don't consider politics like you seem to suggest as entertainment. Our livelihoods depend on this election so most of us could care less who goes on what Late Night show and what regular media outlets ratings are. At some point you Clintonistas are going to realize that people are ready for a new type of politics.

[Diane Francis - Huffpost Blogger]

Here's the attacks that will land and should be compelling programmed this week:
-- Frame the election in class warfare terms: rich against poor and middle class. Blast McCain who could not remember the $13-million worth of homes he and his rich wife own. Rush Limbaugh labelled John Kerry as having a "sugar daddy wife". So does McCain. Attack the massive tax subsidies awarded to rich homeowners like the McCains, amounting nationally to billions of dollars annually. One estimate is that mortgage deductibility and other homeowner writeoffs costs as much as healthcare for 40 million uninsured would cost. Spell it out.
-- Attack Bush, the most disliked regime in recent memory, and Republicans for a pointless and $1 trillion war in Iraq. Trot out Veterans-for-Obama spokesmen. Give facts and figures about the waste, casualties and lives lost.
-- Make the case that McCain is a very scarey, risky choice because of his age; his poor health risk; his anger; track record of personal immorality; impulsiveness and recklessness as a pilot. He left his disabled wife, who waited five years for him, for a much younger, heiress he is now married to.
-- Attack McCain's military record -- five crashed planes and years in a POW camp instead of death ONLY because he was the son of a big shot naval admiral.

[rock2casbah]

I surfed past the Leno show ater the first night of the convention. What came to my mind and was reenforced by seeing him was MSM preference to MCis. If you have to go on the late night talk show circuit to get attention you are scrapping the bottom when you still have a long time to go.

Leno, Letterman etc can't keep booking McCain weekly, As a matter of fact they are under restrictions as to how many appearances a candidate can make without allowing for equal time for the other candidates in an election.

They seem to have already violated this. It also reinforces the argument that McCain, Not OB gets MSM preference. Which was always a fact anyway.

[alphax]

Agree with you post 100%

McCain is constantly trying to upstage Obama and its not happening.
Obama appears in Germany.
On that day, McCain appears at a German Sausage house.

Obama receives enough delegates to be the nominee.
On that day, McCain appears in front of the 'infamous' limegreen backdrop.

McCain can't get big crowds, so he gate crashes a biker event.

Sad .. very sad!

[Kire]

Does anybody actually follow talking points like this anymore?

McCain and Palin are done.

Time to make sure Biden and Obama will be able to do the best job they can.

Nobody every really got stronger by knocking someone else down, they just got higher.

[herovillain]

The Carville/Begala fist-fight strategy that worked for Bill Clinton is not going to work for Obama. The 7-11 houses gaffe by McCain is potentially the turning point. Run with this, run with the economy. Sen. Casey said tonight that McCain is not a "maverick" but a "sidekick." It's funny and it is true. The polls are just starting to show that the negativity of McCain and Karl Rove's flying monkeys is starting to wear thin on people. Stay on message, stay on the economy, crack the jokes, and paint McCain as out of touch--push it just far enough to hint at the fact that he may be too old. Why not send an Obama surrogate out there on the Talking Heads to say that if McCain ran at the age of 47 it would have been a good thing, but his time and the era of his policies are over?--or something to the effect. Obama may be a bit thin in the resume but he does represent the politics of the future--a sort of international as well as a national populist. People get that. But, they still think McCain is what he claims to be. Anyway... Someone should perhaps point out that the Founders intended on politicians being inexperienced. That is why we have elections every two, four, and six years.

[scruffyandspunky]

I've got nothing against Canadians (being married to one), but, what exactly qualifies Ms. Francis to critique this American convention? Aside from that, I thought that it was a really warm and moving evening, capped by Michelle Obama's fantastic introduction of herself and her family, including her husband and children. I echo the sentiment of previous posts: this is REALITY, not entertainment, poor foolish pundits. It's time for all of us to get serious.

[Diane Francis - Huffpost Blogger]

It's very disappointing that scruffyandspunky would attack a viewpoint because he or she believes it comes from some "foreigner".
I'm an American from Chicago who happens to live mostly in Canada which apparently is a crime to xenophobes or people who don't do any homework before they attack.

[LizM]

As a fellow resident of Canada, I would be very interested in what you think of Senator Biden. Let us all know what you think of his speech!

[neenj]

you also happen to be a staunch Hillary supporter and it is your bias that is turning people off.

[RoloTomassi]

Your citizenship or where you currently hang your hat isn't the problem. Your negative-bias is the problem, and it permeates everything you write on this subject.

[11907281]

You "journalists" need to pick up on the fact we are tired of your treating politics like it's american Idol or survivor. Yes all the pundits were panning the first night, but that's only because it didn't give them something juicy to go over and over for hours on end. It seems like the people are growing up but the pundits are kicking and screaming they didn't get some non-issue to bump their ratings. Jon was right about "crossfire" and now I think that applies to most of the MSM.

[LenPict]

On a more fundamental note, Ms. Francis does realize that Leno, like most network programming, is tape delayed, so it's on at 11:35 on the Pacific Coast as well.

Unless McCain was on Deal or No Deal or something. And I'm pretty sure NBC had special convention coverage in the middle of prime time as well.

[lizr]

Leno is a Republican, always pushes hte Rep line.

[standard]

"Organizers of the Democratic Party's confab in Denver don't understand that politics is show biz."

"Conventions are TV series," [sic]

Actually, America's politics and its major parties' national conventions are nothing of the sort, accurately evaluating American politics requires (your choice of) extensive hands-on experience or serious study, the current Democratic National Convention is being run by arguably the most sophisticated political campaign team in modern American history, and evaluating the first night of any national party convention in isolation from the rest of the event is akin to announcing the winner of (your choice of) a professional baseball game or international cricket test match after half an hour of play.

Hubert Humphrey once said, "The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously."

[kallisti7]

Politics is not entertainment.

Sometimes it provides moments of political theater which can be entertaining, but those always used to be driven by political calculations not entertainment value. The Conventions are the height of political theater and serve as important symbolic events. Like sporting events, the beauty of the conventions lies in the fact that they are live and you never know what you'll get. But like sports you have to invest the time learning "the game" to appreciate what unfolds. Suggesting that politics and politicians change their game to lure peope who aren't interested in politics on its own terms is just stupid. Politics is the study of power and what actions are permissible. It is the framework we use to work out how we will live together. Those who don't recognize it's importance or aren't interested in its power to shape how we live don't need to be enticed. You can dumb down almost everything in this country, but you shouldn't dumb politics down. We need to elevate our standards and bring people up, not lower them. Television distorts our view of the world and makes people believe that real life should be more like TV. Well, we've had two generations grow up on TV now and is it really so strange that we have people viewing reality through the prism of televison and demanding that it correspond correctly? Real life is not like a mini-series, and neither is the Democratic National Convention.

[PixelMarx]

Why do people get cynical about politics? Because obviously politics is there to serve the ratings of the mainstream media? This is why people are turning away from the pundits and turning back to grassroots efforts to affect change. Change isn't changing the channel.

[LizM]

So, the point of this post is...what, exactly?

[JDD]

Good question.