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July 31, 2004
 I tried watching Senator John Kerry speak at the Democratic Convention in a video feed yesterday, but the line kept breaking up.
I had read that Clinton had given a powerful speech and was wondering how the patrician Kerry would perform. What would he come across as?
I only got bits and pieces of the Kerry daughters saying how wonderful and sensitive their dad was and fragments of Kerry's speech. I caught lots of martial imagery and rhetoric in Kerry's speech.
From the bits that I saw it was a tightly scripted choreographed spectacle--a Hollywood production.
What suprised me was how much of the content of the Convention was so Republican---lots of patriotism and defence with Kerry. And with John Edwards, there was lots about the values of "faith, family, responsibility, and equality of opportunity."
Aren't these guys meant to be liberals in the US sense? Kerry came across as being strong on national security, especially with that opening line of reporting for duty. He was all about being tough and safeguarding the US and foreign policy machismo.
This was a theme of the Democratic campaign:
It is difficult to judge these events at a distance--from Adelaide Australia when you cannot experience the convention as a live fed.
Maybe Kerry had found an appropriate and compelling way to enlist Vietnam in his campaign against Bush and Iraq. Maybe it was all about Vietnam as a touchstone for Iraq and being a better commander-in chief than Bush?
Was that what was meant by Kerry needing to do if he was to touch all the right emotional buttons?
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Yeah, but they're worried about being seen as "too liberal", so they're trying not to scare off the "middle voters". No-one wanting a "liberal" president is going to vote for Bush; but some who are considering the Dems might still buy the Repubs line that they're "weak on national security".
Both camps will be trying to play for the centre, which means minimising their weaknesses.