Parting Shots

One night, after we left the floor of the RNC at the end of the speeches and went back to our Sirius spot on Radio Row, a man in a wheelchair approached us and introduced himself. It was the night Fred Thompson spoke, and this man, who said he was a lifelong Republican and a big supporter of Ronald Reagan, came over to us to lament.

"This is all nationalism," he said. "This 'Country First' theme and this idea of putting your very life before the country, to the point of it being a cult, all based on some ugly threat out there, it's all nationalism." He eventually brought up Hitler and the Nazis and the use of fear to put people into that state of mind.

It's of course been said before about Bush and the Republican Party, but I think it's important to underscore regarding this convention (and it's encouraging that a Republican delegate was saying this). We all become numb sometimes to the tactics, but we cannot forget that it was a chilling message they put out here, not to mention that it was a lie, since Republicans mostly put themselves first, well before people and the country.

The attacks on Barack Obama's patriotism -- on everyone's patriotism who was not following their decree -- were truly outrageous, even if we have gotten used to this crap, and the building up of John McCain as a Super Patriot War Hero demigod was insane. We all hope it won't work this time around, that many people have wised up. But the danger is that, just by juggling a few things, bringing a friendly face of Christian theocracy like Palin, and McCain talking about "change," might just bring in a enough for them to push it over. We must now work our asses off to get Barack Obama elected. I'm hoping in fact that the Republican convention might have done more to galvanize Democrats than Republicans. Let's all hope.

Leaving St. Paul now. I'll post some audio and video over the weekend and next week. And of course we'll be playing full interviews from politicians, delegates, conservative activists and others. Today, as we're traveling, we're playing a rebroadcast of coverage of the RNC this week; Back on the air live on Monday.