Once every four years, like the Olympics, the National Presidential Nominating Conventions are called to order. The politics is a matter for another blog, but I’d like to comment on the inspiration, entertainment, and excellence that is making this week’s convention far more relevant as prime-time TV than I expected it would.
I’m inspired by the unbelievable independence I’m seeing this week. This is, finally, TV worth watching. We may, for the first time, be on the road back to the being the kind of country the founding fathers imagined, at least when it comes to who leads us and how. Consider:
T. Boone Pickens, Aubrey K. McClendon (Chairman and CEO of Chesapeake Energy) and other citizens are investing less in the political process and more in the leadership process. They’re buying commercial time to express their ideas for change (in this case less dependence on foreign oil) and initiating a discussion with the country about it.
Dennis Miller, the comedian, went on Bill O’Reilly’s show and directly challenged the host of “The O’Reilly Factor” to call out Barack Obama (Thursday night’s guest) on his lack of candor regarding the success of the current military surge in Iraq.
“I think you’ve got an opportunity,” continued Miller. “This guy is smoke and mirrors, and no one’s calling him on it. This is the last gasoline station before the desert, because the last 60 days he’s going on the bubble. This guy has to be put on the record about certain things and nobody’s doing it.”
Senator Joe Lieberman was so independent in his remarks that it will cost him his committee chairmanships in the Senate as his fellow Democrats hold him accountable for his stance in supporting Mr. McCain. But he stood up for a friend, and told the truth as he saw it.
And, of course, the independence of John McCain in choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate is as inspiring as it is refreshing. I don’t know if they’ll win or not–or what kind of candidate she’ll turn out to be–but the spirit of it seems to have confounded the media so much, well, I suppose that is entertaining in and of itself!
Who’d have thunk it, that the Republicans would be the ones to be inclusive of women, inclusive of the guy who ran against them on the 2000 Democratic ticket, inclusive of all of the candidates who were part of the early days of the campaign (Romney, Giuliani, Huckabee, “Law & Order’s” Fred Thompson, et al), and inclusive of perhaps a new icon for the feminist movement. But that’s a longer story and we’ll have to discuss it in the next blog.
Now all we’ll need is citizen Congressmen instead of career politicians and we’ll be all the way back! Yes, it’s been inspiring, and there’s still more to come this week.
