Political conventions

Between school starting, moving my wife to Elkhart to start seminary, life has been busy. I've been trying to watch the political conventions but this week listening to the Republicans has been a struggle. Tonight, Romney, Huckabee, and Giuliani and now Phalin have all talked about going to Washington to change the "entrenched elite" the "beltway establishment" and to change the government. It seems they have forgotten that a certain President Bush has been in office for eight years, and that Republicans have controlled Congress for six out of the last eight years.

It was particularly interesting to see Mitt Romney criticize the "eastern elite" and the eastern establishment. I can't imagine too many people who are more eastern elite or establishment than Mitt Romney.

I found Huckabee to be interesting because for the most part his speech was a reworking of the stump speech he used when he campaigned for the Iowa caucus. The Lava soap line got laughs back in December - even from the folks who still use it to bathe. His folksy manner was one reason he won in Iowa.

As for the others talking tonight, Giuliani and Phalin are doing their best to criticize Obama but I am hearing little in the way of what they want to do with this government they criticize but which they want to control. Actually they want to maintain control of the government they seem to detest so much.

Some other comments or questions:
Can the Republicans chant anything besides, "USA, USA,....?"
The crowds at the Republican convention seem to be amazingly white.
I think the Republicans are better at being mean than most Democrats. Karl Rove, Cheney, and earlier Atwater come to mind. I am sure Carville and other Democrats can be jerks but they do not seem to be quite in the same league of meanness.
I always wonder what it is that conservatives want to conserve. Let's drill for oil everywhere, build nuclear powerplants, lay pipelines, the environment be damned. Then there is the constitution and the way our civil liberties and privacy have been infringed during the Bush presidency.
Can the Republicans chant anything other than "USA, USA....?"
Do the Republicans consider George W Bush to be a Republican president or do they just skip back to Reagan?

And finally I want to thank John Stewart for helping cure the nausea which had been settling into my stomach after I sat through the convention speeches this evening.