“Promises Promises” reflects the barkeeper about Edwards speech.
Links to a transcript of Edwards speech and a real stream video from CSPAN.
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July 29, 2004
Billmon: Promises Promises
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first, billmon is right. then i looked at the video.
this stuff is what you would see at any convention of the chinese or north-korean communist party.
person cult, crappy music. flag waving, a crazed, starry-eyed crowd.
boring.
Posted by: name | Jul 29 2004 8:36 utc | 1
Obama’s speech was even better, having listened again. It’s in the diction of short clipped style and the way the content can be interpreted full of irony (not all intentional) and thus much more palatable than the pap served by JE.
JE’s speech would have been torture if done by and with the rhythem of an Al Gore.
Posted by: YY | Jul 29 2004 8:58 utc | 2
Can anyone find a link to the text of Sharpton’s whole speech?
Posted by: beq | Jul 29 2004 12:31 utc | 3
Billmon:
I think it would still be a good idea to drop in a few references to the entrenched interests defending the social status quo – if only for credibility’s sake.
Absolutely.
And this could be done so elegantly.
Both fore and aft–from the past to the future.
The past:
It is one thing for the Democrats to speak over and again that they are the party of civil rights, social security, and public schooling…
It is quite another to show how Repubicans opposed those advances at every step with canines and claws.
Use history.
Remind people of the historic votes, the historic quotes.
Let historical facts speak–Nay, let them scream.
Simple. Elegant. Screams.
The present:
Have them imagine a present in which the fights of the past were won not by the best in human nature but by the worst: the canines and the claws.
Have them imagine today’s world in the spirit of yesterday’s republican party.
Paint these scenarios vividly and with simple words.
Have them close their eyes and see an America in which social security and public schools don’t exist.
Help them along with this dark vision.
The future:
Now let them imagine the fights of the future.
Obviously Edward’s vision needs to be coupled with future reality.
Dare the voters to close their eyes and imagine what party will support universal health care and what party will fight it with every mean-hearted tactic possible.
Why is this so hard to do?
Why is it so hard to dare the public to imagine two past, two presents, and two futures?
[Aside: Just reread Orwell’s Animal Farm for the first time since highschool. The dominant theme?
The pigs are constantly rewriting the past to serve their present.
That’s one reason why I insist on the history lesson above–not to rewrite history, but to remember it cleanly, so it can’t be rewritten by the pigs.
Orwell’s Pigs are very greedy. They know to consume the future they must gobble the past, and let their colon work it over.
Of course we all know:
The past should belong to all animals equally.]
Posted by: koreyel | Jul 29 2004 14:36 utc | 5
@ annie:
Yeah. It’s too bad the others last night couldn’t deliver speeches like that. I had to mute the B(p)rozak guy but it was still weird just looking at him. He could definitely use some help if he intends to continue making speeches.
Posted by: beq | Jul 29 2004 14:40 utc | 6
I bet Koreyel could help him. 😉
Good points above K, Al did that a bit when he went off script. The place really rocked!
Posted by: beq | Jul 29 2004 14:45 utc | 7
I didn’t catch Dennis or Al, but here is what I did hear–
Bill Richardson : “dangerous world,” “enemies of civilization,” “our sworn enemies,” “they hate us for what we stand for,” and some line about the fight against al Qaeda being equivalent to the fight against fascists.
Gen. John Shalikashvili (Ret.) : “we must not be distracted from” killing terrorists, we need to share the financial costs of the war on terrorism so that it isn’t such a burden on our economy, not because we need someone else’s approval to do what is in our interests
John Edwards: “you cannot run, you cannot hide, we will destroy you.” We need international cooperation because “it is how we won the cold war, it is how we won two world wars.” We need “a safe & secure Israel,” after which he went on to address nuclear security threats (hello?). “Hope is on the way.” (he did say hope, not help)
No wonder the Dems threw out Medea and didn’t allow any mention of the word “peace” on the floor. I “hope” that is why Dennis got recognized w/ those votes.
Posted by: b real | Jul 29 2004 14:49 utc | 8
@beq
Text of Al Sharpton’s Address to the Democratic National Convention via WaPo
Posted by: Bernhard | Jul 29 2004 14:53 utc | 9
Ironically, listening to Chicago NPR’s in-depth retrospective of the 1968 Convention, it’s riviting. No wonder they’ve built a wee cage for the protesters, eh?
Last night DemoCon 2004 was back to nearly complete shite- I’ll allow that, as always, Sharpton has some great lines.
I still hold that Obama was great, though. I don’t expect anything but pandering claptrap from Kerry tomorrow. Too bad, it was fun for one night anyway!
If you didn’t catch it, Mike Moore made a speech as well, it’s here. Within he says:
I think that when it comes to that day people will know what to do. But I would not have the Democrats spending any time attacking Ralph Nader. All right? That is the wrong way to go. What the Democrats should be doing, and I have heard Kerry say this, is we need to give, we need to give those who are thinking of voting for Ralph Nader, a reason to vote for John Kerry. That is the right answer.
ok, then… still waiting for that bone.
Posted by: æ | Jul 29 2004 15:33 utc | 11
I kind of liked this part from Moore:
“A few weeks ago I was flipping around on the dial and I came across a NASCAR Race on FOX and there was NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. FOX asked him, what did you do the night before while you were getting prepared for the big race? He said, ‘Well, I took my crew to go see Fahrenheit 9/11.’ And then he said, and ‘I think all of America should see this movie.’ I fell off the couch! I said a little prayer for George W. Bush. I’m thinking oh, my God, I hope he’s not watching this race now and eating pretzels!”
Posted by: beq | Jul 29 2004 15:54 utc | 12
Just heard the Sharpton speech on Democracy Now. Now that was a fine one. “Living up to the promise of America.” The promise. Too bad he had to sneak that type of sense into the building.
Posted by: b real | Jul 29 2004 16:43 utc | 13
Yeah, it’s always great fun watching the Dems try to walk that tightrope, seeking to fire up the rank and file while not frightening those skittish corporate donors in the Military/Industrial/Financial complex.
Things may look promising this year for winning the Presidency, but unless and until the Dems find a way to diminish the influence of big money, we’re going to be locked into a downward spiral, where Repugs use the office to do major damage and the Dems — when they get in — never manage to do more than slap a few Bandaids on this cancer.
Posted by: prof fate | Jul 29 2004 17:36 utc | 14