The New York Times tells me that Michelle Obama's speech 'electrified the party faithful.' If only that were so. Electrify, electrocute, electroplate -- give the useless wankers some kind of a jolt, anyway.
I watched a little bit of Michelle's mawkish, smarmy performance on YouTube. Couldn't even make it to the five-minute mark. Nauseating stuff.
In the cutaway shots to the 'party faithful', I must say they didn't look very electrified. In fact, they looked barely animate, as if Dr Frankenstein's galvanic apparatus had fallen just a bit short of imparting the full vital spark to his patchwork of carrion, leaving the poor thing a kind of twitching shambles.
Oh, the various disjecta membra were waving their banners dutifully, if a bit robotically -- like those gaudy boyos who used to follow the Pope around with ostrich-feather fans -- but their faces wore a frozen look of dogged cheerfulness, as if they were really sincerely trying to feel something, and not quite succeeding.
It is amazing to me how relentless the reportage has been on these 'conventions'; you really don't dare turn on the radio; though there has literally been no news at all from either of them, by the gold-standard criterion(*). And how can people who scribble or talk all day for a living bear to parse and re-parse the three or four threadbare slogans that constitute Amurrican political discourse? I'm amazed they don't run barking mad, tear their shirts off, set their hair on fire, and run bare-tit and ablaze from the Platitude Palace.
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(*) If a dog bites a man, that's not news. If a man bites a dog, that's news.
Comments (20)
Just listen to the inimitable Alex Cockburn's take on media coverage of conventions (around minute 49):
Posted by sk | September 5, 2012 9:44 PM
Posted on September 5, 2012 21:44
Drivel or dribble? I like the idea of all the stenographers sitting there drooling.
I just read a take on this is the most exciting election ever. Eyes on the prize, folks.
Posted by Save the Oocytes | September 5, 2012 10:50 PM
Posted on September 5, 2012 22:50
I heard that the news that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel zapped some life into the drones.
Posted by Happy Jack | September 5, 2012 11:04 PM
Posted on September 5, 2012 23:04
I have to admit, I kind of liked the speech. I still ain't voting for Obomber, though.
Posted by JTG | September 5, 2012 11:13 PM
Posted on September 5, 2012 23:13
Though some observers think it was the reference to the Supreme Being. Apparently a lot of Dawkinsites in Charlotte, a very satisfying development from my point of view; the place and the people deserve each other.
Hard to believe that convinced Democrats would ever balk at any pill, no matter how big or bitter, concocted in the Promised Land.
Whatever their objection, it was sat on right smart, warn't it?
Heh. They deserve it, the self-stultified idiots, and a lot worse too.
Posted by MJS | September 5, 2012 11:15 PM
Posted on September 5, 2012 23:15
Now, if you want to see some real bullshit artistry, take a look at Clinton on tv right now.
Posted by JTG | September 5, 2012 11:15 PM
Posted on September 5, 2012 23:15
A lot of people whose opinions about anything else I would ordinarily respect liked the speech. I think it's Stockholm Syndrome. Happens to the best of us.
Posted by MJS | September 5, 2012 11:17 PM
Posted on September 5, 2012 23:17
I caught the last few minutes of Clinton. For dog-faced impudicity, it's Bill for the win every time. I particularly loved the smug little half-second smirk at the very end -- he was so clearly telling himself, Yeah, I fucked 'em again, and they loved it. As usual.
Posted by MJS | September 5, 2012 11:31 PM
Posted on September 5, 2012 23:31
Purely for the sake of my sanity I'm not watching any of the election bullshit. I can't take it.
None of it matters anyway, we're screwed any which way it goes.
Posted by Drunk Pundit | September 6, 2012 12:27 AM
Posted on September 6, 2012 00:27
You've got the right idea, DP.
Posted by MJS | September 6, 2012 1:01 AM
Posted on September 6, 2012 01:01
Fadduh Smiff sez:
I'm amazed they don't run barking mad, tear their shirts off, set their hair on fire, and run bare-tit and ablaze from the Platitude Palace.
Shit, man... I'd pay real money to see that.
Posted by Mike Flugennock | September 6, 2012 1:18 AM
Posted on September 6, 2012 01:18
Bill C gave a boomer-gen speech
None of the peanut brittle ringing rhetoric of jfk
Quite complete ...like early Elvis
A well digested synthesis
Gives an idea how lagged convention speak is
Clinton gave a speech up to the highest Contemporary tele evangelist standards
If it nauseated you ..you have no aesthetic distance
It was a first class. Up dated
compleat anglers Performance
He came he cast he conquered
Posted by Op | September 6, 2012 7:31 AM
Posted on September 6, 2012 07:31
Hooked perhaps ?
Posted by op | September 6, 2012 9:37 AM
Posted on September 6, 2012 09:37
'Dribble' would have made sense too, but it does sound more like 'drivel' upon rehearing Alex.
Leni may have passed away 9 years ago but her notions live on in the standards she set for shot-making, framing of the leader, etc. when she captured another party's 'convention' that began on September 5. These are still an eagerly awaited part of advanced courses for cameramen and directors. As for intellectual self-defense from these wiles, here is something that can be part of our coursework.
Posted by sk | September 6, 2012 10:35 AM
Posted on September 6, 2012 10:35
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHs2coAzLJ8
English subtitled Triumph of the Will
Posted by Anonymous | September 6, 2012 11:11 AM
Posted on September 6, 2012 11:11
nice owen
Posted by anne shew | September 6, 2012 12:03 PM
Posted on September 6, 2012 12:03
rib it erm eow eau
Posted by anne shew | September 6, 2012 12:19 PM
Posted on September 6, 2012 12:19
Michelle Obama, then Clinton. Just saw an article about Richard Trumka's talk. All reeling in the gullible, but also pandering to those who believe the liberal bullshit. Trumka says labor is all in for Obama. What a shock. Take a good look at Trumka. He's been living on the Pittston strike forever. But now he is (literally) just another fat cat. If he gets much jowlier, he is going to have to prop open his eyelids, as they say Aristotle Onassis had to do. When people say that the liberals are the workers greatest enemies, they have a point, for sure.
Posted by michael yates | September 6, 2012 2:48 PM
Posted on September 6, 2012 14:48
Are u expecting
A public confession?
Btw billy thrusted one howler at us
Most unfilled jobs
Are the result of
Unqualified applicants
Nice way to sell the big ED fairy tale
Yup we need to retool ourselves
Sure that's the problem
Lump of wrong skills
Posted by op | September 6, 2012 3:00 PM
Posted on September 6, 2012 15:00
Skills? Offer a higher wage and somebody will bite. Would that make it the Lump of Unrealistic Expectations?
Posted by Happy Jack | September 6, 2012 4:59 PM
Posted on September 6, 2012 16:59