Friday, July 30, 2004
Ilana in '36
I'm glad that someone chose the 1968 Chicago riots as their most memorable Democratic Convention moment in the Useless Web Poll, because that's certainly mine. Because I was only eight, I couldn't have understood fully what was happening in the streets of Chicago, but memories of watching it have never left me, and I never approach a convention without thinking about it. (If you're not old enough to remember Chicago, a couple of good books about it are Chicago '68 by David Farber and Tom Hayden's memoir Reunion.)
It's hard to guess now what the most memorable moment of the 2004 Democratic Convention might be a few years from now. Perhaps, like 1996 and 2000, it will be hard to recall specific moments from this convention--unless either Barack Obama or Ilana Wexler gets elected president someday. The big moment probably won't be the "shove it" story that erupted on Monday. It seems to have had a brief shelf life--but it's by no means an isolated incident. In fact, it's just the latest skirmish in an ongoing battle between two western Pennsylvania adversaries--Teresa Heinz Kerry and Pittsburgh financier Richard Mellon Scaife, the man who brought you the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. Great. Now we've got that to look forward to under the Kerry Administration.
Recommended Reading: In Slate today, they're trying to figure out who wrote Kerry's acceptance speech last night. Will Saletan says it was Bush; Chris Suellentrop says it was Clark, Sharpton, and Dean. James Ridgeway of the Village Voice says it was cooked up by the DLC. He didn't much like it, although he liked the guy who delivered it: "a warrior exterior, but very private, somewhat sheepish, awkward--unlike most other politicians--and with a wife who doesn't take shit from the press. These two could become lovable."
I'm glad that someone chose the 1968 Chicago riots as their most memorable Democratic Convention moment in the Useless Web Poll, because that's certainly mine. Because I was only eight, I couldn't have understood fully what was happening in the streets of Chicago, but memories of watching it have never left me, and I never approach a convention without thinking about it. (If you're not old enough to remember Chicago, a couple of good books about it are Chicago '68 by David Farber and Tom Hayden's memoir Reunion.)
It's hard to guess now what the most memorable moment of the 2004 Democratic Convention might be a few years from now. Perhaps, like 1996 and 2000, it will be hard to recall specific moments from this convention--unless either Barack Obama or Ilana Wexler gets elected president someday. The big moment probably won't be the "shove it" story that erupted on Monday. It seems to have had a brief shelf life--but it's by no means an isolated incident. In fact, it's just the latest skirmish in an ongoing battle between two western Pennsylvania adversaries--Teresa Heinz Kerry and Pittsburgh financier Richard Mellon Scaife, the man who brought you the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. Great. Now we've got that to look forward to under the Kerry Administration.
Recommended Reading: In Slate today, they're trying to figure out who wrote Kerry's acceptance speech last night. Will Saletan says it was Bush; Chris Suellentrop says it was Clark, Sharpton, and Dean. James Ridgeway of the Village Voice says it was cooked up by the DLC. He didn't much like it, although he liked the guy who delivered it: "a warrior exterior, but very private, somewhat sheepish, awkward--unlike most other politicians--and with a wife who doesn't take shit from the press. These two could become lovable."
