Monthly Archives: August 2004

Some Quick Thoughts

I was on the floor tonight, and spent some time with the Minnesota delegation. I shot some footage from the floor and from the press area where I watched the main speeches. Then I hurried back to where I’m staying, and, after another long, hot, sweaty day in New York, stopped in the bar for a beer–OK, two beers–before turning in. Tomorrow I’ll post more extensive comments, along with a »

Night Two

wasn’t bad but, for my money, it fell well short of night one. Of course it could just be me. I tend to like the more cerebral stuff. For all I know, Arnold and Mrs. Bush may have won the president more votes than McCain and Rudy G. In any case, here’s my quick take on what I saw: Michael Steele — He was an impressive guy more than 15 »

Thune Charges Into Lead

Tom Daschle has spent millions of dollars on television ads, beginning months before any campaign was otherwise underway. Only recently has John Thune begun his media campaign. But the latest South Dakota poll shows Thune with a two-point lead. There are a number of signs that the tide is turning against Daschle. Daschle’s basic problem is that he can’t tell South Dakota’s voters anything they don’t already know. His whole »

Row on Radio Row

Last night at around 8 p.m., Al Franken, who is here on behalf of Air America, got into a shoving match with Laura Ingraham’s producer. The two men argued about whether Franken had agreed to go on Laura’s show and then reneged. The producer started to walk away, but Franken chased him, yelling insults, and the altercation followed. Here is a photo: As I recall, this isn’t the first fight »

Faux Controversy of the Year

Or maybe of the decade. I mean, of course, the teapot tempest over President Bush’s purported sudden defeatism in the war. The idea that Bush may suddenly have changed his mind and decided that the war is a loser is so ludicrous that the current media storm can only be accounted for by panic over the prospect of the Kerry campaign’s implosion. Michelle Malkin tracked down the transcript of the »

One last look at last night

This morning, a colleague asked me what I thought of a legal brief recently filed in opposition to a motion I wrote in one of my cases. I answered, “oh, you know, it’s just a bunch of lawyer talk.” I was joking, partly. Unless a lawyer is committing malpractice, everything he or she says or writes is lawyer talk. Good legal writing takes the less offensive forms of lawyer talk »

Clueless

I don’t think we’ve commented yet on the abduction of two French journalists by Muslim extremists in Iraq. The extremists are demanding that France rescind its ban on the wearing of head-scarfs (as well as religious accessories worn by members of other religions) in public schools. In attempting to secure the release of the journalists, France has taken pains to point to its record of support for various Muslim and »

Leaving a sinking ship?

Wayne Rooney, at 18 one of the very best forwards in the world, has left my beloved Everton to play his soccer for Manchester United. Everton received about $30 million which could rise to about $40 million depending on various contingencies. This is nowhere near Rooney’s value, in my opinion. The deal was completed just four hours before the transfer deadline, but became more or less inevitable on Friday, when »

Gen. Franks Endorses Bush

It’s official: General Tommy Franks just told the bloggers that he is endorsing President Bush for re-election. This was the first time, I think, that he made the announcement. Franks sat down at a laptop to do a rather silly photo-op, impersonating a blogger. Our interview wasn’t supposed to come until after his upcoming appearance on Hannity’s show. But I couldn’t resist asking, “General, can we ask you a question?” »

Sean’s Smackdown

As I mentioned yesterday, Bloggers’ Corner is only about twenty feet from Sean Hannity’s booth. The action is fast and furious. A few minutes ago, Terry McAuliffe appeared on Sean’s show. They went at it pretty hard, arguing about Vietnam and the war on terror. McAuliffe was stumped when Hannity asked him whether Kerry was lying when he said he spent Christmas in Cambodia. I posted a little footage of »

Boydot’s paradox

Rudy Boschwitz is the former United States Senator who represented Minnesota for twelve years, from 1978-1991. He is a friend for whom I was proud to serve as treasurer in his 1996 campaign. His life story is a tribute to the United States that he has never tired of retelling. As a child, he came with his family to America when his father had the foresight to leave Germany upon »

I knew him when

Michael Steele, the lieutenant governor of Maryland, will speak to the convention tonight at around 9:00. Years ago, Steele, who is African-American, worked at the same law firm I did. The few times we discussed politics, I found him to be more conservative than I was. That may no longer be the case, but John J. Miller accurately describes Steele as a “rock-ribbed” conservative in this portrait for NRO. I’m »

Night One on Video

I made a ten-minute video of highlights from last night’s speeches. If you caught them on television, it may not add much, other than putting the speakers in the context of the audience, and conveying a sense of what was going on in the hall. It’s a big file, over 50 MB, so don’t even think about it if you don’t have a good broadband connection. And even then, give »

How Reagan became Reagan

Our friend Steven Hayward is the author of The Age of Reagan. Steve is a gifted, ambitious and audacious historian. The first volume of his two-volume history was published in 2001 and covers Reagan’s ascent to the presidency in 1980; the second volume, on which Steve is working, will cover Reagan’s presidency. When he completes the second volume The Age of Reagan will constitute a conservative counterweight to Arthur Schlesinger, »

Last Night at the Garden

Here are some more detailed thoughts on my observations inside the Garden last night. First, John McCain. He got a warm reception from the crowd, but nowhere near as warm as Giuliani’s. Of course, his speech was nowhere near as good as Rudy’s. But I don’t think I’m the only Republican partisan who doesn’t quite trust McCain. Not as a soldier or as a man, but as a Republican. He »

A media meltdown?

Glenn Reynolds explores the sorry performance of the mainstream media in the current campaign and uses our struggle with the cowardly lion of Portland Avenue to illuminate it in his column for TechCentralStation: “A media meltdown?” We are grateful to Glenn in his capacity as the proprietor of Instapundit for shining his spotlight last Thursday on our continuing efforts (summarized here) to bring Jim Boyd to justice last week. This »

Giuliani in perspective

With Rudy Giuliani’s speech still echoing in my mind, I’m looking for serious writtten reactions to it. Richard Brookhiser has taken the occasion of the speech to supply the perspective of Giuliani’s career as a public man: “Rudy!” A footnote: He mangles the Woody Allen quote, but he finished the column past midnight. John Podhoretz reflects on the speech itself in his New York Post column: “Stemwinder.” HINDROCKET adds: Shortly »