Tagged: The Party Line

"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right? There are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement, and that government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. I mean, the president starts off with 48, 49 -- he starts off with a huge number.

When the United States was in the midst of World War I, U.S. Sen. Hiram W. Johnson, an isolationist from California, is credited with coining the phrase “the first casualty when war comes is truth.”  So it seems the same could be said for this year’s political campaigns.

This year’s campaign seems to be taking the “cut and paste” approach by both sides, and highlighting a minute piece of what a candidate says and creating a firestorm out of a dust-up. 

Before the convention, we heard a lot about the lack of Democratic enthusiasm among the electorate, but the delegates in the arena were not having any of that. It was obvious from the beginning, with Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker’s platform address, that the attendees started at a high energy level.

Modern national conventions are often described as being nothing more than “infomercials” for the two major campaigns and political parties.

But for those delegates attending the conventions, it is a chance to show the public who the members of the parties are and what each party stands for.

First, some background on how the delegates got to each party’s convention.  Both parties select their convention attendees in a series of elections, usually beginning at the local level and working their way up to the state level.

With the Republican and Democratic national conventions about to take place, it might be good to have a Convention 101 lesson. 

Don’t worry — there won’t be an exam (well, not until Nov. 6 — but there will be more study guides along the way).

First, we think of conventions as being unruly and hotly contested meetings, but unfortunately, modern conventions haven’t lived up to this historical image.