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They expect 70,000 people to show up tonight for Barack Obama’s acceptance speech. I have this vision of St. John McCain in his PJs grumpily sitting in his Barcalounger and shouting at the tube words like "celebrity" and "anointed one." The last person so little fazed by the charisma of his opponent was Sonny Liston before he faced Muhammad Ali and we all know how that one turned out. McCain’s slogan ought to be "Bah, humbug!"
Obama’s vice presidential choice of Joe Biden means we’ll finally get the real version of the "straight-talk express." The old McCain Express used to be really something until St. John morphed into Bush III. Now the Express looks more like one of those old Wells Fargo stagecoaches after the Indians attacked it.
When you have nothing better about which to criticize your opponent, you try to turn his popularity into empty celebrity. Gee, isn’t it just terrible how all those people turned out in Germany to see and cheer an American presidential candidate? There must be something wrong with Obama that our allies actually love him. Funny thing is, when they cheered Ronald Reagan after he shouted "tear down the Wall," I didn’t hear the Republicans complaining about celebrity. And McCain’s favorite president was a former Hollywood star, too.
Obama ought to repeat another of Reagan’s favorite political slogans: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" (Or eight years ago for that matter.) Anybody out there think the Republicans actually improved things since they took over the White House and Congress? (OK, OK they only held Congress six out of the last eight years.) How can you be terrified about Obama spending us into debt when the Grand Old Party is the one that turned a Clinton surplus into a record deficit during the incredibly bad Bush years? Actually, independent sources tell us Obama’s proposed budget has a better chance of cutting the deficit than McCain’s. Despite McCain ads to the contrary, the same sources say Obama’s plan is better for the middle class than McCain’s.
At this writing, McCain hasn’t chosen his vice president yet, but I’ll take Biden over whomever St. John selects, especially if it’s Mitt Romney. Romney is despised by McCain, but his personal wealth offers the opportunity to keep up with Obama in the fall campaign. Biden will chew up any of McCain’s possible choices in the veep debate and have room left over for a bagel and cream cheese.
Expect that after Obama’s speech tonight at the jam-packed football stadium, McCain’s solemn ads will appear, making it look like Obama brainwashed folks into cheering for him. Maybe even libertarian Ron Paul’s crowds will be larger than our Johnny’s. Enthusiasm has become a dirty word to the McCainiacs.
One thing is for sure, the next time regular guy McCain is asked how many houses he owns, he’ll either know the answer or Joe Lieberman will whisper it into his ear. I can’t wait for Lieberman to speak at the GOP Convention just like I can’t wait until Zell Miller invites me to lunch or Brutus tells me the weather on the Ides of March is a great time to take a stroll around the Roman Forum.
Obama should remind voters tonight how the real income of the middle class under the Republicans has taken a worse dive than Jake LaMotta against Billy Fox. He should remind us he beat the Iraqi government in demanding we set a timetable to get the hell out of Iraq and McCain still hasn’t figured that one out. He ought to quote T. Boone Pickens, that celebrity oilman, that we can’t drill our way out of the oil crisis. It would be wise for Obama to state strongly our Constitution still says Church and State should be separate, it’s important the government not make decisions for pregnant women and denying gays the right to wed doesn’t make your marriage stronger just more hypocritical.
The last time the Republicans complained about their opponent’s lack of experience and his celebrity was in 1960 when John F. Kennedy blazed across the scene like a political comet. If the voters had listened, we would have had Dick Nixon as president and Watergate a helluva lot sooner.
Which politics offers more hope: "Change we can believe in" or "Bah, Humbug"? Tonight, the stadium in Denver will rock like it hasn’t since John Elway ruled.
