I’m taking off my hardcore Democrat hat and putting on my critic’s hat after the third day of the DNC. It’s too hot for a fedora, so I’ll don my trusty blue Kangol Ventair. It’s light for a thinking cap, but last night left me a bit light headed and not in a good way.
There was a perceptible dip in the quality and timing of last night’s programming. The best moments belonged to Stevie Wonder and John Legend:
The Obamas are a hard act to follow but with the exception of Hakeem Jeffries and the artist formerly known as Mayor Pete, last night’s speeches were uninspired in comparison. Shorter Adrastos: They failed to reach a higher ground.
Bill Clinton has attended or spoken at every DNC since 1972. His 1988 keynote speech was so bad that delegates cheered when he said, “In conclusion.” He rescued his national political career by cracking up Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show.
The former president has always been an erratic performer with a tendency to speak too long. Last night’s speech wasn’t as bad as 1988, but it was rambling and discursive. Clinton looked frail and sounded raspy. Some of the magic was still there but he stayed onstage too long. It was only a half hour speech, but it seemed as long as one of his SOTU addresses.
I broke down and spent some time on the Muskified tweeter tube last night. The verdict on Clinton’s mere presence was mixed. People who were too young to have lived through the Clinton Wars of the Nineties wondered why he was there at all. They’re also too young to remember that from 1968-1988, Democrats lost 5 of 6 presidential election including 4 landslides. In 1992, Bill Clinton brought the Democratic party back from the edge of electoral extinction. That’s why he was there. It was also a contrast to the RNC at which none of their former presidents, veeps, or nominees attended because of the GOP’s degeneration into a cult of personality.
As the evening droned on, I found myself asking: Where is Tim Walz? I was patient until Oprah made her unscheduled appearance. Like my late friend Michael Homan, I am not an Oprah fan. She has a tendency to make everything about herself and last night was no exception.
Governor Coach Walz is a tremendous asset to the ticket, but he didn’t hit the stage until 10:20 central. That’s way too late for the star attraction on a school night. The good news is that he gave a high energy and concise speech clocking in at just under 20 minutes. It’s just a pity that more viewers didn’t have the live Tim Walz experience.
The highpoint of Walz’s belated star turn was seeing his son Gus get verklempt as his dad spoke:
The Walz family saved an otherwise uninspired evening at the DNC. Here’s hoping they do better tonight and that Kamala Harris hits the stage earlier. I would prefer not to write a post called Waiting For Kamala.
The last word goes to ELO with an aptly titled song from the On The Third Day album:
It’s been instructive to see the commentary and the coverage of Gus Walz by the professional media and highly-paid punditariat. Apparently none of them did a lick of research into the Walz family and 17-year-old Gus’s condition. So they were 100% comfortable with assailing Gus and the entire Walz family. I understand one or two of them had a vestigial pang of conscience and took down their hateful posts. For which, I presume, they want a cookie.
Remember how exercised Republicans would get if someone noticed that Barron Trump was in attendance at one of the felon’s events? “The underage children are OFF LIMITS!” But this is now and that was then.