Oratory
I don't often watch campaign events on TV (debates, yes; convention speeches, no) but I did watch Obama tonight, and the man sure can give a speech. Rhetoric is rhetoric, but it's good to hear your own side stated forcefully, and it does remind one that we need to win an election pretty badly at this point.
Pete, seriously, you can't joke about it, you do need to actually vote in your swing state this year. Please?
Thank goodness my barely-there cable subscription includes C-Span. I have very literally never appreciated C-Span before, but listen: video feed from the convention with no talking heads.
I don't really feel prepared for the business end of the election year. Watch in awe as the inane and arbitrary media narratives take form! Listen as your teeth starting grinding at night! Cast your vote in a state where the electoral result is all but predetermined!
Ellen wanted to watch Bill Clinton last night (he also sure can give a speech, obviously), so we did, in between making some bread pudding and playing most of a game of '78-vintage Trivial Pursuit and getting hammered with surprising efficacy on white Russians. I'm not saying this is the only way to take in convention coverage, but it's one way. Really the important thing is that you take part in the process.
I'm taking Friday off and flying to Pittsburgh for the long weekend, meanwhile, so happy preemptive Labor Day.
Pete, seriously, you can't joke about it, you do need to actually vote in your swing state this year. Please?
Thank goodness my barely-there cable subscription includes C-Span. I have very literally never appreciated C-Span before, but listen: video feed from the convention with no talking heads.
I don't really feel prepared for the business end of the election year. Watch in awe as the inane and arbitrary media narratives take form! Listen as your teeth starting grinding at night! Cast your vote in a state where the electoral result is all but predetermined!
Ellen wanted to watch Bill Clinton last night (he also sure can give a speech, obviously), so we did, in between making some bread pudding and playing most of a game of '78-vintage Trivial Pursuit and getting hammered with surprising efficacy on white Russians. I'm not saying this is the only way to take in convention coverage, but it's one way. Really the important thing is that you take part in the process.
I'm taking Friday off and flying to Pittsburgh for the long weekend, meanwhile, so happy preemptive Labor Day.
2 Comments:
Kyle and I watched Obama's speech too (as I'm looking forward to with the impending football season, it's great that everything live is on earlier in the evening out here) and we both agree that it feels surprisingly good to see a correct worldview strongly articulated. I'm pretty sure the exasperating media garbage is all out there already too if you go looking.
If you want to feel even better about Obama's rhetorical abilities you can watch (or rewatch) this already kind of classic, excruciating John McCain speech from the night Obama functionally sealed the deal in the Democratic primary race (and gave his own finely delivered speech to a cheering throng earlier in the night).
I was just talking to a friend of mine last night about creating a list of things, entitled "If X happens, Pete will vote," along with the partner list "If Y happens, Pete will not vote."
For example, "If Vladimir Putin turns out to be a cyborg from the future, Pete will vote." or "If the new Coen brothers movie totally sucks, Pete will not vote."
Like McCain - that is an awful speech, I agree -, I just want to turn "challenges in opportunity into opportunties."
I see voting as an inopportune challenge. It's a lose lose, so if you want to convince me to stop joking about it, just remind me what a loser I am.
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