One Down, One to Go

So, the "news" is that the Democrats have nominated a ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And you certainly don't need a retired journalist to tell you that this isn't news. It's entertainment, but your faithful correspondent watched every minute of it, and it was a pretty good show.

Next week, the Republicans will nominate Donald Trump and Mike Pence. That, too, will not be news. But if Trump gets his way, it will most definitely be entertaining. I will be "there." 

The pandemic's impact has revealed these shows for what we already knew them to be -- television productions. As such, I'd give the Democrats a B. As they prepared their live-to-tape segments for broadcast, the editors failed to update the Covid-19 death totals cited by two speakers, including Michelle Obama.

Thus, the toll, which stood at over 170,000, was referred to as 160,000 and 150,000 in those two segments. You don't need carbon dating to trace the dates those pieces were filmed, all you need to do is reverse engineer the daily figures as certified by the CDC.

A cardinal rule of this kind of TV is to not let such embarrassing slips make it on the air; thus the reduced grade for the overall performance. The fix in such cases is a simple text line -- "At the time this interview was taped the death total was 150,000. Currently, it stands at 170,000."

Beyond that, the little Zoom squares of people clapping was sometimes silly and sometimes effective. The determining factor was how emotionally resonant the speech they were clapping for actually proved to be. Jill Biden's speech proved to be the emotional highlight of the convention, IMHO.

The final fireworks show in a parking lot outside the convention center with all he cars flashing their lights and people cheering was highly effective. As were the content creators, especially the Bidens, Obamas and Harris. Those speeches get an A.

***

Somewhere, strewn among my distributed possessions, is my press placard to the 1996 Republican convention. It was held in San Diego, where the GOP nominated Sen. Bob Dole to oppose the sitting President, Bill Clinton.

San Diego is such a beautiful city that landing there takes your breath away as your plane lands. It also traditionally was one of the most conservative cities on the west coast, and a big military town. It's become much more liberal in recent times.

As it happened back in '96, my hotel was the same one used by the Michigan GOP delegation, and we all left at the same time for the climactic night's proceedings, save for a few stragglers who had tied one on the night before and were too groggy to get out of bed. I joked and exchanged pleasantries with my former state's delegates, who were a friendly lot in the familiar way us Michiganders tend to be.

That year, I was coordinating coverage for my employer, Hotwired, one of the first media websites and the online arm of Wired magazine. My specific job was the producer of a daily political news site called the Netizen, and we had various reporters on the scene to serve our audience, which for the web at that time was substantial.

As I sat in the press section, which unlike the TV News area was distant from the podium, Sen. Dole was lit up as he spoke from a tiny peninsula thrust out over the arena filled with a massive crowd. He resembled a tiny silver finger bent at the waist, leaning into his moment.

***

Well, the Democrats have done their thing. We now enter a brief hiatus before the Republicans do theirs. Normally, each party gets a bump in the polls after these galas, so watch the polls this weekend.

Here are the headlines from overnight:

*  Joe Biden Accepts Democratic Nomination: ‘I Will Draw on the Best of Us’ -- Mr. Biden urged Americans to have faith that they could “overcome this season of darkness,” and he pledged to bridge the country’s divisions in ways President Trump had not. (New York Times)

* Fox's Bret Baier right after the speech: That was "the best he's been, as far as his delivery." Chris Wallace: "It was an enormously effective speech. Remember, Donald Trump has been talking for months about Joe Biden as mentally shot, a captive of the left, and yes Biden was reading from a teleprompter and a prepared speech, but I thought he blew a hole -- a big hole -- in that characterization."

* New York City teachers threaten to strike over reopening plan--The teachers union says Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to return to classrooms Sept. 10 imperils the health and safety of students and staff. (Washington Post.

* Trump said that he “appreciates” that supporters of QAnon, the far-right conspiracy movement, “like me very much.” Supporters of QAnon, which has been identified by the FBI as a potential domestic terrorism threat, believe that an individual dubbed “Q” has been leaving “breadcrumbs” of information online about Trump and others. [HuffPost]

* Former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor, who is endorsing Joe Biden for president, said that Trump asked if America could swap Puerto Rico for Greenland and frequently made disparaging comments about the Puerto Rican people. Taylor said that during the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2018, the president actually began tossing around the idea of “swapping” Puerto Rico for the autonomous Danish territory. “In his words, Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor,” Taylor said. [HuffPost]

* Airbnb bans parties amid continued coronavirus outbreaks. The ban caps house occupancy at 16 people. (C/NET)

* About 11,000 lightning strikes have sparked 367 wildfires in California. (New York Times) New satellite images show smoke drifting roughly 600 miles from wildfires scorching California. (CNN) Tens of thousands evacuated as California wildfires double in size--Wildfires sparked by lightning strikes in central and northern California have more than doubled in area since Wednesday. (Washington Post)

* American Airlines to cut service to 15 cities once terms on billions in pandemic aid expire--The service cuts would leave nine airports without any airline flights for at least a month. (Washington Post)

* A federal judge on Thursday said New York state prosecutors could have access to President Donald Trump's accounting records for a criminal investigation, siding harshly against the President and increasing the possibility the tax records could go to a grand jury before the November presidential election. (CNN)

* As the Dixie Chicks take Democratic convention stage, three generations of country singers challenge genre’s conservative stereotypes -- While country music expands its popularity on the coasts and some of the format’s young stars are outspoken about voting for Democrats, the stereotypical “country music listener” is still seen as a conservative from the South. (Washington Post)

***

My six-year-old granddaughter's assignment yesterday was to answer the question "Why am I special?"

Her answer was "I'm special because I like dogs." (I later suggested to her that there are many other reasons also.)

It strikes me that during our present circumstances, that exercise is one that we all should consider.

Why am I special? Why are you special? Let me count the ways. (If you like dogs, that certainly qualifies.)

These are indeed, as Joe Biden noted last night, dark times.l, So don't make them worse. Remember to connect.

"And anytime you feel the pain
Hey Jude, refrain
Don't carry the world upon your shoulders
For well you know that it's a fool
Who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder"

                    -- Beatles

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