Republican Eloquence
September 2nd, 2008A friend asked me today why at least one prominent Democrat seems to abandon the party in times of war to support the Republican candidate for President. I immediately thought back to John Connally, Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman and couldn’t find functional equivalents for the Republicans. Why? Because Democrats since the 1960s have been split between pacifist and realist, and that makes it more likely that a prominent leader will bolt for fear that the left-wing will not allow a liberal President to do what is right militarily if the situation calls for it. George W. Bush today mentioned that McCain was not broken by his experiences in Vietnam and so he would never be broken by “the Angry Left.” I thought that was a solid line, though it wasn’t as good as his remark about Laura Bush being there in his stead and that being a “trade up.” Fred Thompson gave a great speech and Joseph Lieberman has rocked the crowd: “Eloquence is no substitute for a record.”
The GOP has always known how to throw a punch at their convention. Democrats do it sometimes, but we haven’t had a William Jennings Bryan or Harry Truman in a long time.