The DNC and the RNC

It’s convention time in the United States in the build up to the presidential election this November. First of all the Democratic National Convention was held last week in Colorado. What an amazing spectacle it was. I have never seen anything like it. The speeches were incredible – Michelle Obama, Ted Kennedy (who has recently had brain tumor surgery), Bill Clinton (Bubba), Hillary Clinton, Al Gore (who used to be the next president of the United States), Joe Biden, and of course the man himself Barrack Obama! (The messiah??). His speech was absolutely amazing – and then the fireworks! I thought we were back in Beijing again! If that speech doesn’t inspire the American people I don’t know what will:

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/28/dnc.main/index.html

Just one side thing I’ve noticed about the Democratic ticket. Let’s take “Obama – Biden”, and add a couple of letters in and you get “Osama Bin Laden”! Is this intentional, or just a coincidence? I thought it was quite interesting that I spotted this so I did a search on Google to see if any one else had spotted it, and guess who had spotted it. Yes, you’re right, Fox News (more about them later). Check this out:

http://buzzfeed.com/nickdouglas/fox-obama-biden-osama-bin-laden-coincidence-t

And now onto the Republican National Convention this week in Minnesota. It’s definitely not the spectacle that the DNC was last week. It may be because of Hurricane Gustav which turned out not to be “the mother of all storms” as was predicted. I saw Laura Bush and Cindy McCain speak on the first day of the convention and I thought I was watching a telethon for hurricane relief rather than a political convention! The hurricane hadn’t even struck at that stage! George “Dubya” Bush and Dick “Shotgun” Cheney decided not to show up at the RNC (which must have been a huge let down for the organizers). They instead decided to respond to Hurricane Gustav (I guess making up for their pathetic response to the much more severe Hurricane Katrina three years ago). At the convention they were saying "We are Americans first, Republicans second" - translation - "If you're not a Republican you're not an American".

The speakers at the RNC so far haven’t exactly been inspiring. Yesterday Joe Lieberman spoke – oh whoopee! He was the running mate for Al Gore in 2000 and now he’s a Republican! They also had Bush speaking by satellite from the White House – what, couldn’t he even bother to show up there? Today is Mitt Romney, so I think it will be good to watch “Mitt the Mormon” – I actually like him believe it or not. And then the long awaited talk from VP nominee Sarah Palin (who? – exactly!)

Guess what, I’m currently watching Fox News and they have a countdown timer to Palin’s speech this afternoon! Good grief! And they for real? Fox News has been really painful during the RNC. They are just praising the Republicans so much. “Fair and Balanced” – yeah right! And as for their contributor Karl Rove – probably the most evil man alive! I’m going to stick with Wolf Blitzer in The Situation Room in CNN. Oh, yesterday I saw a musical interlude during the RNC, and yes, you guessed it, country music! And I saw people in the crowd with cowboy hats – hell, how painful!!

Now onto this Sarah Palin, the VP nominee for the Republicans. Before McCain announced her on the weekend I had never heard of her at all. McCain has been talking about the lack of experience of Obama, but I’m sure Palin has far less experience (by just being governor of Alaska). This will either be a really good move for the Republican ticket or a disastrous move. She will attract those Democrats disgruntled with Hillary not being nominated, or the white men from the south won’t want a woman in the White House. For example:

“I’m voting for McCain”

“OK, why’s that? Because of his experience? Because he’s a war hero?”

“No, cause he’s white, and a man”

It was revealed this week that Palin’s daughter is pregnant and unmarried. I know that’s not a big thing in this day and age and we shouldn’t attack people’s families, but this has got to be a big thing for the Republicans, especially those “Christian Conservatives”. All I know is that Sarah Palin’s voice sounds like a chainsaw cutting through metal!

I was asked the other day why I was a Democrat being a Latter-day Saint. As everyone knows Utah is the most Republican state in the country (considering 58% of the state are LDS). Congressman Jim Matheson is actually a Democrat and LDS and from Utah (amazing but true!) I really agree with what he said in an article in Deseret News:

"As Mormon Democrats, we share a strong sense of duty to family and community."
(http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,600108572,00.html?pg=1)

Harry Reid is a well know Democrat as he is the Senate Majority Leader, and also LDS. I also agree with what he said in that same Deseret News article:

"I believe strongly that Democrats have many of the same issues at heart as do membership of the church… as a party, we believe it is our moral responsibility to care for the less fortunate and for one another."

The Democrats definitely do that, the Republicans don’t. It’s very hard for me to understand why so many Mormons are Republican (a party that favours war and guns!)

The previous president of the church, Gordon B Hinckley, was asked this once: "Given the platform and positions taken by the Democratic Party, can you be a good church member and a Democrat?"

He answered: “Yes, I think so. I don't know why you couldn't. It depends on what you believe as a Democrat in terms of some things. There are some things we don't subscribe to. We've got lots of Democrats in the church, lots of them, and they are good people. I don't worry about that too much.”
(http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976791034)

He's right you know. We don't always support ALL the policies of the political party we support.

So come November I’m putting my full support behind Obama and Biden. It’s what America needs – it’s what the world needs. If Americans vote in McCain as president then I’ll finally be convinced that America is full of idiots! (Let’s hope not…)