Dry here, and f’n hot. Southwest Airlines to San Jose (hi Bill!) and then on to Reno. I wonder sometimes what they put in the SWA flight attendants’ water. Not quite sure whether I want some or whether it ought to be banned.
It turns out that the convention floor of John Ascuaga’s Nugget is not the best place to watch John McCain’s speech to the RNC. It’s not that there weren’t monitors tuned it, nor people watching – there were. It’s just that every moment brings a face you haven’t seen in n number of years, back slaps and “what are you doing these days?” Good clean fun catching up.
I finally got to watch the Maverick’s speech back in my room, streamed from the NYT, and my first impression was that Sarah Palin is a really good speaker.
It’s not that McCain didn’t give a great speech, because he did. It’s that formal speechifying clearly isn’t his favorite thing and he had a tough act to follow after last night’s buzz fest. You got the sense he knew that. His speech was short on rhetorical attacks on his adversaries – that work had been done over the previous nights – although there was the promise of donnybrooks to come for those as love a brawl. The story of his POW days – the formative experience of his life – was held late, and as a transition piece to the idea of selfless service going forward. And even as it warmed my heart, I had to wonder at the reactions he was getting from some of the delegates in the audience. As enthusiastic as they clearly were – almost drowning him out there at the end – many of these folks represent the kinds of cogs in the party machinery that McCain has tilted with before. Nothing in his speech tonight reflected any hint of future accomodation. In many ways, with Palin cementing the base, McCain seemed to be talking over the RNC delegates’ heads, speaking more directly to the muddled middle. As he hit his peroration – “Fight with me!” – I could almost hear the wheels of the party machine spinning up. We will fight with you, they seemed to say: First to get you elected, and then to bottle you up.
Which, they’d better be careful making an enemy of John McCain or else he’ll sick Sarah Palin on them. And Sarah Palin’s enemies are automatically added to the Endangered Species List.
Golf tomorrow, followed by serial debaucheries. Posting may be light.
Have a great time.
And, watch your six.
Many thoughts on the speech last night. The one that came through during drive time is the contrast between the two men at the top of the tickets. A best a nutshell I can put it in: One disdains his nation, and the other desires it.
Second thought: BhO has a mere scrap of both community organizing and international relations experience when compared to the just the spouse of his opponent.
Between the two couples at the top of the Republican ticket, there is more life experience and more actual action in serving the cause of others ( and not with a going in agenda for personal gain, either) than Obama can hope to get in a lifetime, as he has a 40 some year dead spot in his life for such endeavors. Add to it: Obama’s opponents don’t seem to have shirked the positions where accountability was a requirement to be allowed to do the work.
Catch up is going to be hard. Maybe Jimmy has a spare hammer.
Found this on “Grouchy Old Cripple”:
Powerful Women’s Motto:
“Live your life in such a way that
when your feet hit the floor in the morning,
Satan shudders & says…
‘Oh shit…..she’s awake!!”
Obama’s approach to public service reminds me of Kerry’s approach to military service:
Bring the movie camera, get some footage, and get the hell outta there.
Have a good time.
Remember. What hapens in Reno, stays in Reno.
…”my first impression was that Sarah Palin is a really good speaker”. I’m glad you said it first.
I just can’t get into McCain. Haven’t quite figured out why.
Richard Fernandez has an interesting little commentary on the two speeches at
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2008/09/05/both-sides-now/#more-211
His remarks about McCain are worth noting.
Possibly watched your A/C land into SJC from the top of a nearby hill last night. The weather was quite sultry and went out for a hillclimb after the speech.
You’re all onto it so far. McCain’s acceptance speech was what we all expected — I was able to listen to the speech from another room, though I still listened. Towards the end of the speech the tone reminded me of Peter Finch in “Network.” Mad as hell are we, too, Senator.
OTOH, the night before, Palin was more Reaganesque, and I had to watch that speech. We all sat and watched together. My 13 year old daughter has a new hero with Sarah (good on her!).
My beef with McCain is not with his strengths but with his weaknesses. Anybody hear a word about immigration? I may have missed it. How has campaign finance improved? Or ethics in our governing bodies?
God bless his service as a Scooter driver and POW, but that’s the only part of McCain that I know. The values he shares with Cindy high level, but are they Cindy’s values more than his?
First, he has to win, and then we’ll learn if we did the right thing. I do have firm beliefs that Palin is what she is.
[Lex, didja check Drudge's banner pic this morning? The full DEM (on the left)/ GOP (on the right) lineup is featured, and there's not a pantsuit in the poke. We're headed for better times, I tell you! Stilletto sprints will become the new national sport!]
Enjoy Reno! If’n you fly back through SJC, let me know. I’ll buy you a wee drap.
The little woman and I worked at John Ascuaga’s Nugget ‘lo these many years ago. Met there and got married, 21 years ago today.
(threadjack closed)
I’m feeling better about the Reps after this week. Now let’s see how the debates go. For some reason I don’t see Sarah Palin comparing herself to John Kennedy or having to say “That’s not fair.” Joe Biden better wear a cup.
I loved the speech last night. I thought the tone was pitch-perfect. He said what needed to be said in just the right way. He didn’t need to hit a homerun, not after Sarah! – but he did have things he needed to say.
I was especially impressed with is acknowledgement that both parties have failed America. In one statement he took responsibility for his own actions, laid blame at the feet of the Dems and distanced himself from President Bush – which he needed to do, pronto.
McCain*Palin 2008 – Change we CAN believe in.
My wife’s comment after the speech was that up to that point she had under-estimated McCain. It wasn’t just the speech, but the whole series of events including the selection of Palin and positioning against the Democrats that has turned the race upside-down.
McCain was brilliant in redefining the themes of change and reconciliation that, up until last night, were owned by Obama. McCain brings a depth of experience and credibility to those ideas that Obama cannot. They will go head to head on these concepts. Who can most credibly deliver them?
Sarah, on the other hand, is a brilliant brawler. I think we going to be hearing a lot of Heart’s Barracuda. Biden, will be, at best, a bystander. She’s going to chew up and spit out BHO piece by piece.
They are a package, and they complement each other perfectly.
Pixelkiller … I love your Powerful Woman’s motto. Gonna copy it down and hang it up on my wall! Thanks.
Marianne
Flatlander;
Maybe not so much on the cool themed music.
Ah, but the opportunity for an up and coming, talented individual to compose her new song!
“What happens in Reno, stays in Reno.”
I have always detested the thought, philosophy, and meaning behind that. Is it just me? Am I the only one who thinks “If you don’t DO anything you shouldn’t, then you won’t have to worry about it.”?
Maybe I’m just a stick-in-the-mud, cliche ridden old fogie at 54 with a corncob stuck where the sun don’t shine……….
Joe C … you, at 54, don’t seem like an old fogy to me, but then I’m 80 and still trucking.
But our Lex has an almost unparalleled ability to join in the hilarity and still remain composed and in control. I suspect he’ll do just that in Reno, and emerge unscathed, with some good reunions with fellow warriors, and some great golf games under his belt. More power to him, I say.
Marianne
Joe C,
We used to say “What happens on deployment stays on deployment.” I’ve seen people get into trouble with their wives or girlfriends not because of something they did, but because said wife or girlfriend heard someone else telling a sea story about what happened in some liberty port. Of course the guy doing the telling embelished on a few things, but the wife or girlfriend had no way of knowing that. As a result I have always considered statements like “What happens in X stays in X.” to be more of a warning to the people I’m with not to discuss what we did when other people are around.
Those who’ve read here for a while know that Lex attended _that_ Tailhook convention, was suspected, and cleared. Not until doing a rather scary flight, weatherwise, to go talk to the nasty JAG people.
I mean, I reckon the Hobbit knows where the shotgun is, and hasn’t used it on him yet…
When I was on cruise on Coral Sea we had a guy send back a video tape that he had made with his newly purchased video camera, to his wife. Besides the fact that it was of a topless beach in Palma-there were drunk squadron guys in the background which did not exactly set well with the wives back home-stuck with babies and such.
Accordingly said video taper was later given some “counseling” by his fellow JO’s-since it got the knives club in some distress. The video camera never left the ship the rest of the cruise.
I’ve never understood the belief that some married types had/have that the “word” won’t eventually get around. We had a married guy in our sq in England who was transferred to an outfit in Germany and returned one day to the old USAF officers club in London (the much lamented Columbia Club on Bayswater Rd) walking through the lobby one weekend with a women on his arm not his wife. As luck would have it there were a bunch of us from his old squadron in the lobby as well–including several wives and their husbands who knew and had socialized with the officer and his wife in question. Talk about frosty looks/stony
silence all round…… Anybody wanna bet the word didn’t get back?
Justthisguy: Since you brought the subject up, is it worth putting serious money down on the proposition that, “formally”/”officially,” “cleared” or not, Tail Hook was the reason Lex never made flag rank? Even given what little I know of his record I’m not seeing any other reason–unless he had the unbelievably bad luck to sit three promotion boards in a row comprised of not a single Admiral he had ever worked for. It’s not like every single branch of the armed services hasn’t become as PC politicized as the old Soviet Union or anything–especially having anything to do with the feministas. Of course Lex is too much of a class act to whine…..
I think Lex mentioned that he deliberately got off the fastest career track in order to spend more time with his family, so as raise ‘em up right.
Skippy,
Hence the saw “Never go on liberty with a man with a camera.”
Yes?
JTG/Virgil,
Here is another perspective- the Navy’s promotion/selection system in general works. But, to put on a star is a pretty damn steep pyramid and I can, without stopping to think about it, name 20+ outstanding officers who fell by the wayside.
There is definitely some politics involved. Helps to have a “Sea Daddy” (not the same thing as a “Sugar Daddy!”)
For a carrier aviator, the two “normal” paths to Flag Rank are Air Wing Command and CV/CVN command. To achieve either of those, you probably have to be ranked as the #1 Squadron CO in your Air Wing (certainly no lower than 2). There have been a few Admirals chosen who did not have either of those jobs, but not many.
To be eligible for CV command, you must academically qualify (based on College courses/grades) for Nuke power school and then complete it. It is an almost 2 year “detour” in being a Naval Officer. If you pass Nuke school/Reactor prototype/and pass all the licensing requirements, THEN you get to go be (one of the most hated people in the Navy) a Carrier XO. IF you do that well, you get a “Deep draft” command – LHA, LPD etc, IF you do that well, you get a carrier. IF you do that well, you MIGHT get a star.
Being a Carrier Air Wing commander doesn’t involve as much of a training track, but it is as high vis as being a carrier CO. The success of your command tour may hinge on a decision of a Hornet LTjg alone in his jet.
I know many many great leaders who never saw a star. I also saw a few who did get them who convinced me that Flag selection involved some kind of quality spread. (One of them is now a Congressman from PA).
Lex not getting a star may have been his choice, but even if it weren’t, doesn’t mean he wasn’t extremely good at what he did.
Hope that helps.
Nose
Well, yeah, I tellya, if I were President, and those baboons in Congress wanted me to sign any bills….
P.s. I mean I’m a total partisan for Lex hoisting his flag, as I’ve written here, more than once. Hell, he writes at least as well as that Morison guy, and they made him a rear admiral!
To dispel the curiosity on this, I wouldn’t have been eligible for major command at sea based on my performance as a commanding officer, as assessed by my air wing commander. I declined to compete for selection to major shore command, being unable to think of a shore command worth having that was worth uprooting my band of gypsies for. At some point it’s not about you any more. I reached that point several years ago.
Look at the bright side: If I’d have been a fast-tracker, there would never have been time for you to savor the pearls that coalesce around my keyboard.
Which, I know, I’m still working on that. But give us some time!
Understood. Lessee, now, how do I insert more sand under yer keys, so as to make you produce more pearls?
I read Nose’s comment above about what it takes to reach flag rank for as carrier aviator, I put that into what I know about how and which Helobubbas did or diidn’t select and what I’ve heard about how surface pukes eat their young, and how the submarine service aborts their young and then eats them, conclusion– it’s a hard service.
I think that’s why we all bear grudges against the statistically insignificant but personally very significant examples of jackasses that got promoted that didn’t deserve it.
Lex writes this:
“To dispel the curiosity on this, I wouldn’t have been eligible for major command at sea based on my performance as a commanding officer, as assessed by my air wing commander.”
Can you imagine Barack Obama writing that sentence? I mean you have to suspend disbelief long enough to imagine him in the military to begin with but still… Not happening.