It's the convention, damnit!

It's the Democrat convention. We're supposed to call it the Democratic Convention, but that implies that it's the democratic process and not merely the convention, so I'll call it the Democrat Convention. I hope you don't mind.

By the way, I also call them the Florida Marlin, since the plural of marlin is marlin, not marlins as the major leagues would have us believe, but I digress.

The convention is a big pep rally, and I was never one to fall for pep rallies when I was in high school. The game was on Saturday and the pep rally was on Friday afternoon. I can't concentrate that long. The election is in November, right? Between here and then the repugnicans will come up with something to divert our attention from the issues at hand. That's what advertising is all about and it is certainly what politics is about.

So far, I've heard some music and seen some people jiggling around (pretending that they are dancing) and making believe (for the TV cameras) that they couldn't imagine being in a happier place than Denver. It's better than Disney World.

We'll hear some speeches by people who want us to get excited about the process and the people they are foisting upon us. We will be told that they can make a difference and that we should vote for them because the "status quo" stinks and, after all, where have we gone under them? Nowhere, mon ami.

We are supposed to believe that a better life awaits us if we vote for the guy who "grew up like the rest of us" and who came from poor beginnings to rise to the level of statesmanhood so that he could one day be the president of the United States. I'm all teary-eyed.
The son of a single mother from Hawaii can go all the way to the White House - gosh. Am I cynical? Maybe. What else would I expect to hear from the wife of a man who could deliver her hopes and dreams - money, fame and a lifetime of excess - and give a speech where she could make it sound like we are going to be a different country under his leadership. My cynical side thinks that the world is bigger than any man and nothing I see on TV is going to make me believe otherwise.

"You can make it if you try", she said. All you have to do is go to law school and be a minority and find some high-powered supporters who will place you on the biggest pedestal in the country - the pep rally of a lifetime.

And I can't help but think that Joe Biden feels like the guy who saw a punk kid promoted over his head and now must swallow a portion of his pride while the flavor du jour makes his run. It's the American way.

Meanwhile, when they ask you if you're better off now than you were 8 years ago, ask yourself if you were ever better off than you were 8 years ago at any part of your life and you will begin to temper your enthusiasm for politics and measure the convention as nothing more than an advertising campaign.

The campaign that begins before the presidential campaign.