Day 1 of the Republican National Convention:Fred Thompson Sticks to His Script

If the speakers at a political convention are going to stick to the script, as the Republicans usually do, what better speaker is there than grade "B" actor Fred Thompson. Fred Thompson, who if he had had any fire in his belly during the GOP primaries might be the Republican nominee for President himself, obliged by reading his attack lines off a teleprompter. While criticizing Barack Obama for reading off a teleprompter.

Thompson, looking like he fell asleep in a tanning booth, either that or he had more makeup on than Britney Spears on a Saturday night, delivered a homespun, downhome cornpone kind of speech designed to show he is "one of us" as he attacked Barack Obama early and often. Not that different from what you'd expect from a guy who rented a beat-up pickup truck to campaign in for a U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee rather than drive his real vehicle. Fred Thompson belittled Barack Obama's historic Presidential candidacy by saying that the only thing historic about it was that Obama was the "most liberal and most inexperienced candidate for President in history".

In a delivery much more energetic than he showed on the campaign trail during the GOP primaries, Fred Thompson briefly touched on John McCain's POW experience before launching into an all-out assault on Barack Obama with all the usual right-wing rhetoric about "big 'gubmint' lib'ralism" and the like. It was a speech right out of the 1970's from Spiro Agnew, who resigned the office of the Vice Presidency in disgrace. Take some time off, Fred. Scrub off all that make-up or get out of the tanning booth and get in touch with real people who are suffering due to the economic policies of George W. Bush, policies which McCain says he will follow!

Later came the droning of "Holy" Joe Lieberman, the former Democratic candidate for Vice President in 2000, turned Independent, turned coat. A man who, in a party that supposedly hates flip-floppers, got a very warm reception indeed. Except when he lauded former President Bill Clinton in a surreal moment one might expect from the Twilight Zone. I never thought I would hear Bill Clinton praised at a GOP convention, but it just shows what a strange election year it has been, as I noted in an earlier article Election 2008, What A Long Strange Trip It's Been. Imagine, Bill Clinton, "The Prince Of Darkness" according to the GOP for years, being praised at a Republican convention!

As far as Holy Joe Lieberman speeches go, this one wasn't quite as boring as his usual long-winded lectures. Lieberman, Democrat turned Independent, turned coat, spoke of Barack Obama in a patronizing way, you know, a "nice young man who lacks experience" kind of tack. All in all, the night was about like what you'd expect from a Republican convention, lots of attacks on the opponents without offering any ideas or God forbid, talking about issues on the minds of the American people. People who have been floundering the last 8 years in a trickle-down economy.

If men like Fred Thompson and Holy Joe Lieberman, so called because of his self-righteous, condescending, droning speeches, would get out of their ivory towers and see how real people are struggling in what John McCain's economic advisor called a "mental recession", they just might learn how to make a speech offering real solutions to real issues instead of just the same old character attacks that have marked modern day Republicanism.

In a way, it's understandable. Anyone having to defend George W. Bush's legacy probably feels compelled to resort to the tired old attacks and the trickle-down economics that drive the engine of Republican politics. An engine that is running out of gas. A Bush legacy that hasn't grown any due to his "Mussolini on the balcony" rant about the "angry left" from the taxpayer owned White House. I don't consider myself either "angry" or on the left, but it was disgusting seeing the President of the United States delivering such an embittered diatribe.