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REAL FUN BEGINS! |
 Sen. John McCain shows how high he can raise his arm at the GOP national convention. |
 Sen. Edward Kennedy got out of a hospital bed to rally the troops for Obama at the Democratic national convention. |
 Sen. Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination and sets the all-time TV ratings record for his speech. Unfortunately for him, Sen. John McCain broke Obama's brand new record just a week later while accepting the Republican nomination for president. |
Who would have thought
conventions would be hits?
of TheColumnists.com
As a former TV critic, I'm steeped in conventional wisdom about TV watching, starting with this sage bit of knowledge: Nobody watches political conventions except politics junkies, which is why the big networks now cut their nightly coverage down to a measly one hour's worth.
Then the ratings came in on Barack Obama's Aug. 28 acceptance speech as the Democratic party's nominee for U.S. President. He broke the all-time ratings record for any televised political speech anywhere on U.S. television: 38.9 million viewers. That's a blockbuster rating for any kind of program in these days of heavy competition for viewers from multi-media.
But hold onto your undies: Just one week later, John McCain's Sept. 4 acceptance speech as the Republican party's nominee for U.S. President broke Obama's all-time record, setting a new one with 38.9 million viewers.
As if my grip on "conventional wisdom" needed to be shattered further, I then learned that Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin had drawn another phemonenal number of viewers--about 37 million--for her acceptance speech the night before McCain's.
What does this tell us? Well, this is going to be a very tight race for the White House--McCain and Obama are nearly tied in the polls already--and all America is fascinated with it, just as the rest of the world seems to be.
But I'll state another good reason why those ratings were so high: Both conventions were turned into absorbing television spectaculars for all the various networks -- commercial broadcast, PBS, all-news cable -- that carried at least some of the goings-on.
The highlights for me:
* Sen. Edward "Teddy" Kennedy's amazing surprise appearance at the Democratic convention after months battling brain cancer that nearly everyone thought had ended his long reign as the top liberal voice in Congress. Kennedy's speech was vigorous and aggressive in its message that America MUST elect Barack Obama president because he's the new Jack Kennedy. As his relatives weeped joy tears for his enormous courage--Caroline Kennedy and Maria Shriver the most profoundly moved--Kennedy made that night an emotional event to remember always.
* The powerful speeches of Sen. Hillary Clinton and her husband. President Bill Clinton, that gave us two more nights of drama that settled forever the debate over how vigorously they might campaign for Obama, who defeated Mrs. Clinton by a narrow margin in the hard-fought Democratic primaries.
 |
 At left: Sen. Hillary Clinton urged the women who backed her in her campaign to unify behind Obama. Above: Sarah Palin became the world's most famous "hockey mom" after her speech. |
* The rousing speech by Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee Sen. Joseph Biden, who electrified the huge crowd in Denver with the first potent display of his new role as Obama's chief attack dog.
* Then, finally, the knockout speech by Obama, delivered before a crowd that filled an outdoor football stadium to capacity. Choosing to dispense details of his plans rather than soaring oratory, Obama demonstrated once more the charismatic appeal that has energized millions of voters who've stayed away from the polls in recent years.
* The poignant and powerful elegy to Sen. McCain's heroism as a POW in Vietnam, delivered by former Sen. Fred Thompson, which brought thousands of viewers to tears on the second night of the GOP convention in St. Paul. It clearly showed the single greatest strength McCain has going for him--an indelible record of service to his country before he ever entered political life.
* The rabid, but highly-entertaining screed by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani against Obama. I didn't believe a word Giuliani was saying, but he can sneer and smirk better than anyone in public life today and, while grinding my teeth, I thought it was a volatile blast that probably was highly effective.
* The humorous romp by Sarah Palin, whose cheerful recital of her suspicious "accomplishments," freqently broken up by rousing cheers from the GOP crowd, gave the impression she probably could make a piranha sonnd like a goldfish. I'll have to admit she's a charmer, but I'd want a whip and a chair before ever trying to work out a deal with her.
 |
 At Left, former Sen. Fred Thompson
tells the McCain story with dramatic flair. Above,former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani did some ripping and tearing at Obama. |
* And, finally, the oddball speech by GOP candidate McCain, who somehow managed to convince himself he's still going to change Washington even though he'll be saddled with the same set of Republican foot-draggers he claims he battled for the past eight years of GOP rule. I found it absolutely hilarious that McCain gave a speech that tried to distance himself as far as he possibly could from the party he'll be representing to American voters. I think he's depending solely on America loving him more than Obama in order to get four more years for the GOP.
As entertaining as both conventions were to me, I will say there were several low points. I cringed all the way through Sen. Joe Lieberman's speech on behalf of McCain because he kept identifying himself as a Democrat, the party he bolted four years ago to become an independent. And I thought former Gov. Mitt Romney's speech was strident, self-serving and baloney-stuffed.
I didn't once watch the regular ABC, CBS or NBC network coverage because it was on so briefly that it consisted mainly of stuff I'd already seen elsewhere. I watched mainly MCNBC, CNN and PBS. I thought PBS had high quality commentary that it restricted enough that it didn't interfere with the speeches we needed to hear. All the other networks overdid the punditry to a fault and seldom had anything remotely interesting to report from the floor of the convention halls, which used to be a rich and fertile territory in those days before conventions were settled in advance and everything staged for theatrical effect.
That said, I would say the most original and outright hilarious moments in the whole two weeks came on the final night when MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell was buried alive in GOP balloons while trying to do her standup from the convention floor. All we could see for maybe 20 minutes was the top of Andrea's head and her hand mike sticking up out of a sea of red balloons. When Tom Brokaw dubbed her "Boom Boom" Mitchell--I suppose because she did resemble a naked balloon-dancer trying to stay safely behind her balloons--I literally rolled on the floor with laughter.
All in all, it was a rabble-rousing two weeks of television, setting the stage for what is likely to be one of the all-time great political campaigns in American history.
©2008 by Ron Miller. This column first posted Sept. 8, 2008.
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