September 1, 2004
THE BEST LINES FROM THE TWO BIG SPEECHES LAST NIGHT:
Governor Schwarzenegger (2004 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION, AUGUST 31, 2004
[T]he other party says there are two Americas. Don't believe that either. I've visited our troops in Iraq, Kuwait, Bosnia, Germany, and all over the world. I've visited our troops in California, where they train before they go overseas. And I've visited our military hospitals. And I can tell you this: Our young men and women in uniform do not believe there are two Americas!They believe we are one America and they are fighting for it!
Laura Bush (RNC, 8/31/04)
Many of my generation remember growing up at the height of the Cold War, hiding under desks during civil defense drills in case the communists attacked us. And now, when parents ask me, what should we tell our children - I think about those desks. We need to reassure our children that our police and firemen, and military and intelligence workers are doing everything possible to keep them safe. We need to remind them that most people in the world are good. And we need to explain that because of strong American leadership in the past we don't hide under our desks anymore.Posted by Orrin Judd at September 1, 2004 2:56 PM
Just a general comment on the overall tone of the Republican Convention:
When the British author Anthony Trollope visited the U.S. from August, 1861 to May, 1862, he saw much to criticize and much that was absurd; and of course he was visiting at one of the worst possible moments, when the nation was in the throes of civil war. But his conclusion was that our national pride was a vital force.
"A people that are proud of their country," he said, "will see that there is something in their country to justify their pride. Do we not all of us feel assured by the intense nationality of an American that he will not desert his notion in the hour of her need? I feel that assurance respecting them; and at those moments in which I am moved to laughter by the absurdity of their addresses, I feel it the strongest."
The Republicans on the whole are proud of our country; and the Democrats on the whole are not in the least proud of it -- at times they appear to hate it. And for that reason the Republicans are capturing the hearts of the majority, while voters are fleeing from the Democratic bandwagon in droves.
Posted by: Josh Silverman at September 1, 2004 6:24 PM