Friday night I set up a second TV in the "man cave" so I could watch two channels for Republican Convention coverge. Mostly watched Fox News, Cnn and C-Span. I even checked out MSNBC for a few minutes but that is all I could take. Had my iPad for Twitter updates and various political websites. I have followed political conventions since 1956 but this is my first "twitter" convention.
Enjoyed Brit Hume's reminiscing about the spontaneous demonstration for Reagan at the 1976 Republican Convention that nominated Jerry Ford. The demonstration just went on and on and stole the spotlight from Ford.
On Saturday watched C-Span run acceptance speeches from past Republican Conventions. Most interesting was Goldwater in 1964. Fun to see all the female delegates smoking on the convention floor and the men with cigars in their mouths.
Past GOP Convention Nominee Acceptance Speeches C-Span played:
1980 – Ronald Reagan..... Great speech! I miss him! The country misses him.There was George H.W. Bush and a young George W. Bush.
1956 – Dwight Eisenhower ..... Interesting today but boring! Almost sounded like a "State of the Union" speech. Even talked about agriculture!
1964 – Barry Goldwater ..... I agreed with the speech but very angry and philosophical and abstract. No wonder we lost. Richard Nixon was there too. Yes, the "Cow Palace" is still in San Francisco. The 1956 convention was there too.
1968 – Richard Nixon ....... a great speech but he was a fraud. Just proves a great acceptance speech does not mean a great President. But, we have learned that in the last four years.
2000- George W. Bush ...... not bad. Nice to see Jack Kemp in the audience.
I saw all of the speeches at the time they were made (yes 1956 too!) but it's interesting to watch them with the perspective of time and events that followed. Also seeing people that would go on to become Presidents later.
On Sunday CNN had a good hour and half biography of Mitt Romney. On the whole, quite balanced. Fox News Sunday had a good interview with Mitt and Ann Romney.
All weekend I felt like a kid in a candy store. I do love political conventions.
