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Republication Convention HighlightsTHE CONVENTION THUS FAR... Jon Voight slams Obama, media and 'lunatic fringe' at Republican convention Republican Convention: Speakers hail John McCain, defend Sarah Palin First Night A Wash Demonstrators clash with police in St. Paul
GDO Report
NBC Mutes Conventioneer's Audio Response Feed During President Bush's Televised Opening speech ST. PAUL, Minn. — NBC Muted the crowd's audio response feed during President Bush's televised opening speech - Making the President appear as awkward as ever. President Bush, via satelite, delivered his endorsement speech for the McCain / Palin ticket , pausing in between lines to give conventioneers the opportunity to applaud and respond favorably to help bolster his message, which they did. But by killing the audio feed from the crowd's response, the president was left with long, dork-like periods of silence in between each line. In fact, President Bush even had a bit of a grin during each pause - making him look all the worse. Many who viewed NBC's airing of the President's speech felt that the move significantly detracted from the impact of his statements and gave the Democrats an unfair advantage. This was, of course, compounded by the fact that the Republicans lost one whole evening of their convention when Monday was cancelled because of the hurricaine Gustav threatening the Gulf of Mexico. The pauses would have seemed just fine had the feed not been silenced. And most would agree that President Bush needs absolutely no help in looking bad during his speeches, as he does a fine job all on his own. NBC didn't seem to have any such trouble during the Democratic National Convention. Of course, NBC would deny any deliberateness of their flawed television broadcast, so it would be fruitless to inquire - but the fact remains that they had an entire extra day to test and perfect their technology and performance due to Monday being cancelled. The FCC mandates that each nominee be given an equal amount of air time, but what difference does that make if one side has been technologically foiled in some way? More on the Republican National Convention:
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Jon Voight has some advice for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama: get out of politics and become an actor. Voight, one of the rare Hollywood stars who staunchly supports the Republicans, offered a tirade Tuesday to several reporters covering the party's convention in St. Paul. In a rant ripped from the pages of a movie script, the actor questioned Obama's experience, slammed the "lunatic fringe" protesting outside the convention and accused the media of generating the controversy surrounding the 17-year-old unmarried pregnant daughter of vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin. "You're going to try to make it a distraction, perhaps," Voight said to members of the media. "I suggest that we think - all of us here and the people listening to me perhaps - think about what that little girl is going through ... she's going through a lot of hell and we can make it worse, or we can take care of her." The 69-year-old, Oscar-winning actor is no stranger to problems within the family. He's been estranged from his own daughter, movie star Angelina Jolie, for many years after his divorce with actress Marcheline Bertrand. Voight also delivered a stinging broadside against Obama's bid for the White House. "Obama has a nice way of speaking. He can read a television monitor. He'd be terrific in my part of the world ... and if he didn't want to be in front of the camera, he could get a job doing voiceovers. He's got a wonderful voice," Voight said. "But he's being manipulated guys. He's got a speechwriter writing every speech, hitting every note that the American people want to hear. It's a science, and we think that that's a guy who can take care of our country?" Obama has "never made a major decision in his life," he added. "I want to know who can attest to this guy's character, except his wife." As expected, the Republican convention has lacked the celebrity wattage of the Democratic gathering in Denver, where stars including Spike Lee and Chevy Chase mingled with delegates on the convention floor. Celebrity has been a key theme in the Republican party's attacks against Obama. Presidential nominee John McCain launched an ad earlier this summer, which portrayed Obama as being the "biggest celebrity in the world," likening his ability to lead America to the vacuousness of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Voight also expressed his support behind President George W. Bush's war in Iraq and gushed at the prospect of meeting Palin, who is scheduled to address the convention Wednesday. "I think she's a magnificent choice," he said. "I can't wait to meet her." Voight is also promoting his upcoming movie An American Carol, a satire about an anti-American filmmaker who is visited by three ghosts who try to show him the true spirit of the country.
The former Tennessee senator gave Republican activists the red meat rhetoric they had been waiting for by lashing the liberal media, branding Democrats as elitists and holding up Mrs Palin, 44, as the beacon of ordinary American values. “She is from a small town, with small town values, but that's not good enough for those folks who are attacking her and her family,” he said. “Some Washington pundits and media big shots are in a frenzy over the selection of a woman who has actually governed rather than just talked a good game on the Sunday talk shows and hit the Washington cocktail circuit. “Well, give me a tough Alaskan governor who has taken on the political establishment in the largest state in the Union - and won - over the Beltway business-as-usual crowd any day of the week.” Republicans, incensed by the media coverage of the pregnancy of Mrs Palin’s daughter Bristol, 17, and claims that Mr McCain panicked into making an ill-judged choice without proper vetting, were delighted. “The selection of Governor Palin has the other side and their friends in the media in a state of panic. She is a courageous, successful, reformer, who is not afraid to take on the establishment.” During a comparison between Mr McCain and Mrs Palin, whom the McCain campaign has been portraying as a pair of maverick outsiders, he added: “Sound like anyone else we know?” He sought to dampen criticism of her inexperience – she has been governor of the sparsely-populated state of Alaska for 20 months – by drawing an implicit contrast with Mr McCain’s Democratic opponent Barack Obama, who has not held executive office and has been a senator for less than four years. “She has run a municipality and she has run a state. And I can say without fear of contradiction that she is the only nominee in the history of either party who knows how to properly field dress a moose ... with the possible exception of Teddy Roosevelt.” Mr Thompson also mocked Mr Obama for giving “a teleprompter speech designed to appeal to American critics abroad”, a reference to his speech before 200,000 Germans in Berlin”. He also poured scorn on Mr Obama’s slogans of “hope” and “change you can believe in”. Mr McCain, he said, had displayed “character you can believe in”. His experience as a Vietnam prisoner of war meant that “John McCain knows about hope” He explained: “That's all he had to survive on. For propaganda purposes, his captors offered to let him go home. John McCain refused. He refused to leave ahead of men who'd been there longer. He refused to abandon his conscience and his honour, even for his freedom.” Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential pick eight years ago, criticised his former party's nominee as an untested candidate unwilling to challenge powerful interest groups as both Republican John McCain and one-time Democratic President Bill Clinton have done. Playing his former party's spoiler, the Democrat-turned-Independent called McCain — not Democratic nominee Barack Obama — the best choice to lead the country forward in his prime-time address to the Republican National Convention. "Sen. Barack Obama is a gifted and eloquent young man who can do great things for our country in the years ahead," Lieberman said. "But my friends, eloquence is no substitute for a record — not in these tough times for America." The Connecticut lawmaker, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, argued that Obama has not reached across party lines to achieve anything of significance and has been unwilling to take on Democratic interest groups. Lieberman addressed the second night of the Republican meeting just eight years after he stood before a cheering throng at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles and accepted the nomination as Al Gore's running mate. He broke with his party over the war in Iraq and used his platformto attack Obama's national security record and hail McCain's. Seeking to reach beyond the Republican faithful gathered here, Lieberman said anyone who has ever contemplated voting Republican should do it this year. "Tonight, I want to ask you, whether you are an independent, a Reagan Democrat, a Clinton Democrat, or just a plain old Democrat: This year, when you vote for president, vote for the person you believe is best for our country, not for the party you happen to belong to," Lieberman said. Lieberman's speech also echoed the McCain campaign story line about Palin: That she is a Washington outsider who courageously took on fellow Republicans in Alaska. He painted McCain in a similar light, saying he's not "just another go-along partisan." Instead, he took on corrupt Republican lobbyists, big corporations and powerful colleagues in Congress. "That's why I sincerely believe that the real ticket for change this year is the McCain-Palin ticket," he said to cheers.
St. PAUL, Minn. -- West Michigan delegates and volunteers at the Republican National Convention support the decision of their candidate and the GOP leadership to cancel most of the first-day events because of Hurricane Gustav. In the Twin Cities, Michigan GOP committeeman Chuck Yob said many delegates, especially those from the Gulf states, have left to tend to business at home. He said there are efforts underway to secure contributions of both money and blood to help in the effort which he said transcends politics. "We have to do away with party politics and come together as Americans," Yob said this afternoon. "What we are worried about is those people down there." A star-studded lineup of speakers were supposed to grace the podium Monday, including President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Democrat turned John McCain booster U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman. Many of those speakers could be rescheduled throughout the rest of the week, according to Kent County GOP Executive Director Sam Moore. He said missing one day of the convention would not be devastating for the party in terms of getting it's message out, but that could change over time. "It depends on how big the hurricane is, how much damage is done and how long it's on the front pages," Moore said. "But it makes sense to suspend our politics for a day." Only the most vital functions necessary to get the convention under way will be scheduled Monday afternoon with activities planned to wrap up after 5:30 p.m. Many of the parties and other festivities that go hand-in-hand with a major political convention will not happen and all those attending say the mood is more somber and concerned than in other conventions they have attended. "Look at what happened three years ago almost to the day with Katrina," said alternate delegate Bill Womer, of Hastings. "I think its a very good idea to wait and see what happens."
ST. PAUL, MN. - Clashes between police and protesters led to 250 arrests near the Xcel Energy Convention Center in St. Paul, Minnesota where the Republican National Convention was opening, September 1 2008. |
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