So America is in the thick of political hoo-haa with the DNC happening in Boston all week(7/26- 7/29). The Republicans will have their big gala at NYC in a few weeks. If you were to believe the 24 hr cable news channels, it would seem that the world has come to a standstill and the only event happening on our planet is the race for the top govt post of the USA- the President, of course. 70 odd people killed in a violent bomb attack in Baghdad barely recieved more than 5 seconds of a mention.
I do not have too much of a recollection about these Conventions in the year 2000. I was very much in this country since August of that year. Aaah! now i get it. we did not have the TV at home. damn the idiot box!
But 4 years is a long time and my senses have matured ( I hope so!). And to no surprise the take home message still remains : Politics is the same game played all over the globe. Color, race, gender, nationality, sexual preferences - nothing, nothing matters when it comes to political behavior. I wont be the first person making an observation that " politics is a human trait, we all indulge in some form of it". Just that some run for public posts while some of us pursue the more trivial versions of it.
But i must admit that being a non-voting legal resident of this country gives me some kind of a devilish, sometimes even sadistic, power to observe the happenings here and yet not be too perturbed. maybe it is because i am not voting, so my opinion doesnt count. But then it doesnt stop me from commenting. does it? Or maybe it is because i have grown up learning to see through the seemingly glorious speeches delivered by all and sundry at the drop of a hat. There is one word to describe the latter emotion: disenchanted.
Ok, so lets stick with the alien theory for now. Assume that i still believe in the good will that politicians like to seem to dissipate(actually i have not lost hope in the political process yet, and thats a fact, mind you!!)
So Monday at Boston was all CLINTON. That man has the gift to impress. He came he spoke and he won hearts. One just did'nt want him to stop. Kerry owes him quite a bit for that booster. If Clinton says it , it sounds genuine, but if anybody else says it then its like " oh he's (or she's) just playing politics". And honestly, I was not as impressed with John Edwards who spoke wednesday as i was with Bill. Bill captivates his audience. Its a spell. I am curious to know if there are numbers which say how many of the GOPers voted for Bill just hearing him speak. I am darn sure many did.
Admittedly, I have been glued to the cable news channels all this week with MSNBC getting most of my eyeballs. CNN had its perch too close to the floor and I thought it was too noisy down there. And then Wolf or Judy never seem to want to ruffle a few feathers. Boring. Period. I occassionally tripped across to FOX just when it got a lil too sugary on MSNBC, if you know what i mean.
John Edwards makes funny tongue movements. And he pronounces the word "values" in a quirkily odd way. Those are the highlights I got out of his address on wednesday. Content wise, he was to the tee. But something tells me he is overdoing his "charm thing" and that seems "plastic" to me. He sure must have been a great trial lawyer. But nothing beat good ole' Clinton. Maybe Edwards may get there someday on the public speech scale.
I am curious. How much is actually banking on the "performances" at these conventions, in terms of election prospects? Many commentators devoted a lot of their time and energy trying to deconstruct the "personality" issues in this election. "this is the biggest speech of his life", " he better stick to under 55 minutes" , " he would do better if he kept that smile on his face while speaking" and so on. So does that mean that we, the public have made this into one hollywood (or bollywood) extravaganza. Why do I get this feeling that some among us have actually decided to choose our next leader(s) based on his or her looks and demeanour. Mind you, I am not saying that it doesnt count. Case in point being Clinton himself. But after all these speakers just get about 20 or 30 minutes to strut their stuff. Why are some of us holding them to the test for that little brief moment of time? I sincerely hope I am wrong when I say that voters make their decision based on how Kerry or Bush or whoever spoke or "performed" at a particular rally. Isnt it much more than just your hairstyle or the shape of your head?
So much has gone into the whole "image" concept, that it surely has spawned a whole new industry out there, pundits advising the people in the limelight to smile like this, wave their hand this way, button up the shirt and what not.
Isnt this phenomenon a love child of OUR fascination for all things perfect and clean and OUR ever receeding patience to give others a second chance?
Or are there other parents involved as well?
We as a consumer nation have voraciously demanded the very finest. Cut to the tee, sparkled till it blinds us, not a speck, everything in order, never a smirk, not a rough word: these are just a few of the demands WE have placed on public personalities. So it is market logic that these very people who we expect so much of behave to our tastes. Many a time we are bowled over by the sheen and the gloss of it all. Content doesnt matter as much as the cover. A well packaged nominee for president is "cool". Dean tripped on himself and that clip of him howling on stage was played endlessly on the media and that more or less sealed his fate. Like I read somewhere: " Dated Dean, Married Kerry". Apt!
Even after Kerry's address to the DNC on thursday (which I thought was extremely well delivered and hit the right notes), some senior guests on MSNBC were arguing/ discussing stuff like "how Kerry had to finish in 50 minutes instead of more" and so on (their reasoning being that the networks would have not kept airing Kerry if he had crossed 11 pm EDT). It required a visibly bemused Tom Brokaw to end the spat by saying that nothing like that would have happened and that Kerry would have gotten coverage until his last lines on that stage. How simple. Content was discussed only much later (after commercial breaks) on the shows. Even Chris Matthews was obsessed with how Kerry "performed" and so on. Give me a break, rather give Kerry a few.
Well, the channels are playing to the galleries (that would be you and me and such), and boy, wasnt I looking out for one little tiny glitch, a slip of the tongue, an error, a misstep, a mispronunciation, a guffaw. The more the image gurus try to perfect the person in the limelight, the more people like me want to catch them off-guard. How perverted, you may say. But hey, its all so hunky dory up there, I wonder are they human or programmed fail-safe robots? It gets quite boring when they all flash that whitened set of teeth, wear the crispiest of clothes and seem to do it all, know it all and distribute "hope" and "help" by the placard. So much for "perfection fatigue".
So its all boils down to the classic " chicken and egg" story. Nobody can quite agree on what came first: the impatient , perfection seeking viewer, the headline hungry news channels or the highly made-over clear skinned, well scrubbed candy sweet candidate.
All in all it was a great TV week for me, having watched so many hours of the DNC coverage. Quite a powerhouse that was: the Clintons, Gore, Fmr. prez Carter, old man Kennedy, Dean, the Libermans , Jesse Jackson and from the media: Tim Russert, Brokaw, Chris M, Blitzer, the Crossfire gang and the ever nagging O'Reilly. Did i miss mentioning Black Eyed Pea, Ben Affleck, M Moore, Natalie Portman and the suave Kevin Bacon.
They say the DNC was not the only thing that happened in Boston. 100s of other parties , debates , gatherings and mini conventions happened all over the city and that I think is the winning outcome : the ability to have dialogue. In fact the DNC was a well rehearsed show, pretty predictable and highly boring other than for the star speakers. Pity that for a person like me in far-away salt lake that is all the networks covered all day. Sigh.
Ending on an optimistic note, I should mention that such exercises in democracy and liberty is what keeps me going. Yes, it cost them 95 million USD to host this circus, but then whats 95 milli for a ticket that just among the 2 of them could easily be wroth about half a billi.
May the best candidate win. My choice (I cannot cast a vote yet) is Kerry. Make sure you vote for him as well.
Friday, July 30, 2004
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