Democrats Start Convention By Going Crazy

If you assemble a lot of Democrats in one place, you can be sure craziness will result. And I’m not talking about the ones who get so drunk they need hospitalization. The most notable excess so far came from the head of the California Democratic Party, who, egged on by a radio reporter who asked him about the “fact checking” of Paul Ryan’s convention speech, launched into a diatribe about how Republicans are Nazis:

“They lie and they don’t care if people think they lie,” Chairman of the California Democratic Party John Burton told KCBS Monday in Charlotte. “As long as you lie, Joseph Goebbels, the big lie, you keep repeating it, you know.”

I have listened to the audio of the interview, and as far as I can tell, Burton didn’t identify any lie that he claimed Ryan or anyone else told. So what he was talking about, God only knows. Maybe it was the automobile plant in Janesville about which Ryan turned out to be entirely correct. Burton continued:

“First of all,” he continued, “you’ve got Republicans who truly believe the Earth is flat, so I don’t know exactly what, you know, what’s going to do, but they, I think that when people figure out that these people say they do not care about the truth and they will lie and they don’t care if they lie because it doesn’t matter if they lie.”

Sure! Republicans “truly believe the Earth is flat!” Not only that, they are liars. Unlike Mr. Burton, apparently.

After Republicans protested, Burton said that he thinks Republicans probably are honored to be called Nazis:

“That was Goebbels, a big lie, they said they don’t care about facts. They’re going to lie so, I mean, that’s not pejorative to them, they probably wear it as a compliment,” he continued.

Eventually Burton offered a classic 21st century non-apology for his smear:

After the Obama campaign and others distanced themselves, and Republicans pounced, Burton issued this statement: “To correct press reports of my recent comments about Republican lies, I did not call Republicans Nazis nor would I ever. In fact, I didn’t even use the word…If Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, or the Republicans are insulted by my describing their campaign tactic as the big lie – I most humbly apologize to them or anyone who might have been offended by that comment.”

So Burton wasn’t correcting his own remarks, he was “correct[ing] press accounts of my recent comments about Republican lies.” What was wrong with the press accounts? He didn’t call Republicans Nazis, he merely equated them with Joseph Goebbels. So what was Goebbels, a Democrat? Burton’s apology was conditional: “If Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan or the Republicans are insulted by my describing their campaign as the big lie”–“if?”–“I most humbly apologize to them or anyone who might have been offended….”

Clint Eastwood obviously got under the Democrats’ skin, and their response has not exactly been elevated. Thus, today AFSCME President Lee Saunders went nuts in a speech to the Democrats’ Wisconsin delegation. Well, he was probably trying to cheer them up; they have had a tough couple of years:

An empty chair had been brought on stage before Saunders started speaking, but he ignored it for most of his speech.

“I don’t know if you noticed, but you see this chair? I don’t know if you noticed that he actually walked in with me. He’s invisible, he’s sitting right here. He’s been listening to everything I had to say,” Saunders said. “So I want you to welcome Clint Eastwood.”

“I’ve got a couple of questions. I’ve got a couple of questions I want to ask Clint Eastwood,” Saunders continued as dozens of attendees cracked up. “But first, buddy, what do you have to say for yourself? I didn’t hear you.”

“Clint’s been sitting here for the past hour. He doesn’t have anything to say for himself. Mitt Romney has nothing to say for himself. Paul Ryan has nothing to say for himself,” he said. “We’ve got to make our voices heard. We’ve got to speak loud and clear. If we do that, we will win in November.”

“Dirty Harry, Dirty Harry, make my day,” Saunders yelled, knocking the empty chair off of the stage. As the applause died down, Mike Tate, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin chair, took the stage. Pausing for a moment as he took the podium, he grinned and said, “And it’s just Monday, we’ll be here all week.”

I certainly hope so! The Dems’ craziness will not endear them to voters.

Then there is the more significant question whether Americans are better off now than they were four years ago. The Democrats, as we noted yesterday, have squirmed to avoid answering that fundamental question. The Democratic Governor of Maryland admitted, in a rare burst of candor, that we are not better off, but then was forced to recant. But what the Democrats say in answer to the question: Are you better off today than you were four years ago? is mostly irrelevant. If they answer Yes, they will be exposed as hopelessly out of touch with the travails the American people have suffered during the Age of Obama. If they answer No, they will admit what everyone knows to be true, and will essentially stipulate that it is time to change administrations.

The Democrats are going crazy because they see a tidal wave approaching, much like the one that swamped them in 2010, when, as Barack Obama said, they took a “shellacking.” So we can understand their hysteria. But that doesn’t mean we condone it.

UPDATE: One more crazy phenomenon in Charlotte: Many of the Democrats in the media are trying to follow the Obama administration’s lead by referring to Bank of America stadium as Panthers’ Stadium, because–I guess–the Democrats don’t want to be associated with banks. But Bank of America Stadium is NOT called Panthers’ Stadium, just as, to take only one example, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome is not called Vikings Stadium. The willingness of supposedly independent reporters to ignore reality in hopes of being of service to Obama is comical and, some would say, crazy.

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