Right-leaning bloggers covering the Republican National Convention are positively ecstatic this morning, falling all over themselves to describe a gratification no longer delayed.
John H. Hinderaker (“Hindrocket”), blogging on Power Line, gave high marks to Rudy Giuliani’s speech:
What made Giuliani’s speech great and the crowd ecstatic was, of course, his evisceration of John Kerry. … It is well known that Giuliani was once a top-notch trial lawyer who successfully prosecuted Mafia chieftains — not a job for the faint of heart. But his timing and delivery are beyond that of even a superb trial lawyer; in another life, Giuliani could have been a comedian. His facial expressions, his shrugs, were professional-quality ridicule.
Captain Ed at Captain’s Quarters saw “one clear distinction” between the GOP and Democratic Conventions:
Both conventions talked about war. One party could only talk about one that was concluded thirty years ago, while the other talked openly about the war being waged against the United States by foreign terrorists right now, a distinction that I hope was not lost on those Americans who tuned in to see John McCain and Rudy Giuliani speak.
The good Captain also shared an email from a reader who warns him not to make the same mistake as the bloggers in Boston. “You are all sounding like, ‘Whee, look at me! I’m a hick in the ‘Big Apple!” Do some professional reporting. Make us proud!”
Blogging on Slant Point, Scott Sala offered his own rationale for disposing of any shred of professional reporting in favor of this almost erotic perspective from the convention floor:
The night was moving. Being on the floor, surrounded by a collage of color and the roars of Republicans, I felt awed. I’ve been to rock concerts, rallies, wrestling matches and more, but my first political convention has been the best experience of them all. …
I knew I came here as biased media, a Republican among his own, but I didn’t expect to drop my journalistic resolve for utter release to the moment. I kept my camera clicking, but I wanted to hear the words so much I could not write. I was moved.
Utter release to the moment? Campaign Desk is still blushing.
Veteran Hugh Hewitt occupied himself with things other than skirts and elevators, talking to fellow conservatives and coming back with this assessment:
Kerry’s devastated and the pros know it. The Vietnam issue isn’t gone at all, but still eating away at his numbers. The buzz about his inability to respond effectively is turning into a buzz about how that inability equals an admission. The Kerry defeat will join liberal mythology of victimization — first Gore, then Cleland, then Kerry, the three musketeers of whining, examples that fathers teach their children not to emulate when it comes to the aftermath of defeat.
Not everybody’s a happy camper, however. Katharyn Jean Lopez of The Corner has a beef:
Not to complain, but … I am always being accused of being a shill for President Bush. And yet, our workspace is freezing — underneath a large air-conditioning tube and right by some kind of AC unit, all the way in the back. I’m not really blaming anyone for this unfortunate reality. I’m just pointing out that there are no perks for being accused of being a shill … the only perk is being right, when you are.
Courage, Katharyn, courage. Put some starch in that upper lip; stop already with (as Hewitt would put it) “the kind of whining that fathers teach their children not to emulate when it comes to the aftermath of defeat.”
Especially defeat to something as trivial as a noisy air conditioner.
–Susan Q. Stranahan
Susan Q. Stranahan wrote for CJR.