As with each day we've started here at the Republican National Convention, Wednesday began with a certain measure of excitement and uncertainty. Excitement, of course, because of the nature of the event; uncertainty, because the Republican National Convention planning committee has been pretty awful about providing schedule details in light of the cancellation on Monday. We started the day at the Mall of America where we ran into numerous Massachusetts and California delegates who were eating and shopping. There are no clothing taxes and it's a big, big mall. It's to be expected.
We then went back to the Crowne Plaza in Bloomington, which is the hotel of the Massachusetts and West Virginia delegations and had become our unofficial center of operations outside of our host's house. As we waited for the GOP Express to take us to the Xcel Energy Center, we got to interview Russ Weeks, who is trying to be the third Republican governor of West Virginia in seventy years. He believes that West Virginia is becoming more conservative (they voted for Bush both times) and is ready for conservative leadership, especially because of the proven energy reserves. "Coal is king in West Virginia," Weeks said.
It was interesting to see the myriad ways that the Harvard name falls upon conservative ears. There is a paradoxical response to the name. On the one hand, Harvard, famous for being liberal and playing host to the "East coast Ivy-league educated elite" is often villainized by conservatives as producing uncommon commentators who are out of touch with real, working people. One West Virginian used the Harvard credential as an excuse to challenge us to produce specific production facts about oil and coal. Suspicions we had about the statistics he was naming turned out to be proven by Googling some of the questions he asked us. On the other hand, the Harvard name commands a certain respect, admiration and generous willingness to help us out. Mostly, our reception at the RNC was warm with a few people treating us just like anybody else at the convention, while others would bend over backwards to help through tight spots and plead to well-connected people to get us in to exclusive hot spots around the convention. Meeting with members of the Texas delegation, dropping the name "Harvard Independent" guaranteed an immediate request for an interview on the delegate floor.
We took the GOP Express to the Xcel Center and started tracking down some of the people we had met previously. The larger-than-yesterday crowd had settled in for the second full day of convention activities, and speaking to people it seemed that everybody had settled into the groove of the convention; it lacked the novelty of the first day.
We walked past a room labeled "Chapel" and decided to go inside. It is a small room with shaded windows, and one thirty-year-old woman with a Fox News hat and McCain t-shirt praying. Looking up, we saw a gigantic wooden cross with Christian prayer material elsewhere on the table. For a Jew and a conservative Buddhist, we couldn't help but think that this was a side of the Republican party that they try to suppress during the conventions. There were no alternatives for other religions.
Exiting the chapel, we told the staff our concern: if there is a single chapel under the big tent that is supposed to be the GOP, there should be a space for people of other religions to pray. The chapel was a sign that the GOP was committed to representing people of faith, but only people of the Christian faith. The chapel staff was trite: "I'm sorry we can't help you."
The ethnic makeup of the convention also merits some words. The smaller speakers of the convention-certain CEOs, some citizens, and others who were given opportunities to speak on the Republican podium-would make it seem like the GOP is a diverse crew of multiracial American conservatives. The story told on the podium is very different than the story told on the delegate floor, or on the stands. Sad to tell, the Republicans as represented at the convention are still very much the white, Christian party. The non-white speakers could as well be speaking in spite of their ethnicity, not because of it and not indifferently toward it.
After watching the Romney speech from the club level, we split up. Nick went off to the Jewish Republican Coalition on the Suite level, while Tuan returned to the media viewing post in the back to watch the Huckabee speech with one of the Massachusetts delegate's wife.
On the way, Tuan went to use the restroom, and ran into to Tom Brokaw taking a bathroom break between broadcasts. Washing hands next to Tom, Tuan, star struck, asked Tom about the Romney speech. The discussion went to the effect of:
"Hello Tom, how's the broadcast this evening?"
[washing hands, gives that signature Tom Brokaw smirk] "Thank you for asking. It's been going well."
"What are your thoughts on the Romney speech?"
"It was a good speech. This will certainly not be the last we've seen of Romney, and he made that very clear tonight." [reaches for paper towels to dry hands]
Huckabee again demonstrated his ability to appeal to working class social conservatives with his usual brand of witty retorts and charm. He reasserted his support for McCain, appealed to some of Obama's own remarks (followed by criticism of Obama's "Excellent Adventure to Europe") and repeated many of his usual talking points from the primaries. Admittedly, not everyone from Tuan's post standing with guests of the Massachusetts delegation (with the media bloggers on the phone typing away on their laptops) were huge fans of Huckabee. The previous night, one of the delegates at the CNN Grille rolled their eyes at the mere comment that he was coming to talk ("Do not get me started on Huckabee..."). Despite that, however, everyone acknowledged what a "swell guy" Huckabee was (the ultimate working man's man). The previous night, Huckabee had been playing at one of the bars in town taking autographs and "chillin'" with the delegates. The response to Huckabee can best be summarized as one of "He won't be President, but gee whiz, he's just such an awesome guy..." The ultimate highpoint of the speech came when Huckabee pointed out that Palin had received more votes running for mayor of Wasilla than Biden had received running for President of the United States, at which point all 20,000 in the hall stood up roaring with applause. Definitely well-received, but the immediate response among from the guests was "Can someone check those numbers? It would be awesome if it were true."
Nick, meanwhile, watched the speech with The Jewish Republican Coalition, a thin coalition of New York and Midwestern Jews who were placed directly behind the TV screen behind the podium, with a blocked view of the speeches and events. One woman was a New York trial lawyer who used to be a prosecutor until she became a criminal defense lawyer and did medical malpractice law. She made it clear that despite concerns leveled about the GOP excluding non-Christian religions at their own prayer sites, the Jews of America must unite to vote John McCain president because he is the only candidate who will adequately defend Israel against its enemies. Barack Obama, she said, has agreed to meet with Ahmadinejad without preconditions, and has supported plans for a divided Jerusalem. She praised Christian conservatives for supporting Israel unconditionally. To her, and the others in this room, the choice was clear, even though there was a palpable grunt when Mike Huckabee, the speaker at the time, said that "the 3 sacred heroes were Jesus, Elvis, and FDR, not necessarily in that order."
For each of these speeches, there were a few characteristic commonalities that created assured crowd reactions. Whenever the speakers played to standard conservative mainstays, the crowd went nuts. There were a few arguments in the typical speech, like how Obama's cutting taxes on families but raising them on businesses has the effect of raising taxes on most families. But other than that, when the speakers weren't telling conventioneers how they get American values and the Democrats don't, they wielded heavy sarcasm to devalue the Democrats and energize the crowd.
During the Giuliani speech, the crowd started chanting "drill, baby, drill," in response to Giuliani's assurances of McCain energy independence. Most (definitely not all) of the Republicans here acknowledged that oil would have to be a bridge to the next energy technology. With "drill, baby, drill," one is compelled to ask exactly what these people have in mind.
Security is no joke to these Republicans. When Giuliani stated that Obama wanted to forfeit to Osama bin Ladin, one delegate shouted "never," and many others followed him. Giuliani's discussions of about Obama's alleged fear of using the phrase "Islamic terrorism" or "victory" in discussing the war on terror provoked similar jeers. In a complete turn-around, the Republicans have gone on the offensive with Palin's experience, and took it as granted that she is a tremendously experienced executive.
We did meet some other cool people: The Daily Show's John Oliver, Conan O'Brien's Triumph the Comic Insult Dog, and others. We also had some interesting conversations with Ron Paul and John McCain supporters who were supporters of their candidates but, when asked, didn't totally understand their policies.
In the end, despite the fanfare of the night, there were many people we spoke with who had private reservations. The Palin speech was very well-received, though many still questioned her policies and experience.
We look forward to the final day of the convention, with the newly built podium, where McCain will accept the nomination.
