Tale of 2 Cities

I'm back home after a very fascinating experience at the RNC in St Paul. It was really a privilege to have been able to attend both conventions this year. The biggest difference I felt between the DNC and RNC events was tone. I know I'm biased but I swear in Denver, there was a general sense of happiness, order, comradery, and excitement. I kept wanting to learn more, do more. The tone in St Paul was much more negative, bitter, and frankly, scary. In St Paul, everyone was chanting "fight, fight, fight", "drill baby drill" and also "USA, USA, USA". In contrast, I heard "yes we can" and "we want change" all over Denver. I think the differences in the chants are important.

Other observations:

• Both conventions seemed to be a lot about images vs issues. But the RNC had much less substance, in my opinion, than the DNC. For example, the tenor of anger and complaints at the RNC were quite high and gave the illusion that we have Barack Obama to blame for our current spectrum of crises. The RNC did a good job of making Obama seem like the incumbant.
• There seemed to me to be more "Bush bashing" at the Republican convention! By funny luck, I spent a great deal of time with a former Senator from a large state. With margarita's loosening his lips, he told me George W Bush is a "stupid ass" and a bad result of "sperm". He said Bush likely ruined McCain's chances as Americans are mad at the Republicans.
  
• Met Todd Palin and his family. Very nice, small town folks in awe of this moment. Very blue collar. They seemed to have the instant celebrity of recent contestants to American Idol or Survivor.
  
• Met David Brooks from the NYTimes who believes Obama will end up winning this. Said McCain's speech fell short.
  
• Someone told me they saw someone acting like a conductor in front of McCain to help him with the flow. Not sure if that was seen on TV
• Some members of the press rumor that there will be tough news coming out about the Palin family this week. But this is all speculation.
  
• The "drill baby drill" theme was frighteningly rampant at the RNC with tons of stickers and signs being doled out. Somehow, drilling and abortion topped the themes at the RNC while the economy and war topped the themes in Denver.
  
• Lots of protestors in St Paul -- I didn't see any in Denver, though I'm sure they were there
• Met a very close member of the McCain family who said the Bristol pregnancy was a "clusterfuck" and she's really overwhelmed and "freaked out" about becoming a teenage mother, getting married, all under such a tight microscope (who can blame her?). The McCain's really worked hard to help the Bristol's get through this week. The Palin family was put on a plane back to Alaska immediately after the Thursday night convention festivities.
  
• Incredible chatter about the "liberal media" at the RNC. I attended a luncheon for Cindy McCain where Elisabeth Hasselback was the MC and she was very negative and oddly emotional (got teary after "Proud to be an American" and the Pledge of Allegiance).
  
• In fact, I felt the "liberal media" was made to be more of an enemy than Al Qaeda in St Paul. I'd like to do a study with the # of times "liberal media" was quoted in St Paul vs "terrorism" and "Al Qaeda" to back this up.
  
• Another interesting study should be the demographics of each convention. It was pretty obvious to everyone how overwhelmingly white the RNC was compared to the DNC. I guess this was to be expected, but the differences to me seemed overwhelming.
• At the Cindy McCain lunch and in her speech on Thursday, she talked about her "hero", a Rwandan woman she recently met who has experience great tragedy and heroism. No doubt, she was right. But I met this woman at the lunch and she only spoke French. I spoke with her in French and understandably, she was incredibly in awe of this experience and overwhelmed. Her partner told us she was very shy and really shocked at her high prominence at this event. Again, I don't discount this woman's incredible journey, but I couldn't help feel that she was being used.