LIVEBLOGGING SHRUB

7:10 - A good 8 seconds before getting right into 9/11. And a strange applause line about "the killers".

7:11 - And the first WWII reference. We toppled Saddam's government in two and a half weeks. Yeah, just like Normandy.

7:13 - Ooh, "walking life", nothing like a nice Evangelical code-word to brighten any speech!

7:15 - "[Reagan's] spirit of optimism and decency are in this hall"... where do those purple heart bandaids fit in with that?

7:16 - Thinking back a couple minutes, he brought up 9/11, and segued right into introducing his family? Doesn't that seem a bit crass?

7:17 - "Our economy is growing again, and creating jobs" Well, 32k jobs are jobs. Are they good jobs? Or even just better than the ones we were losing?

7:21 - Translation: We will gut the social safety net.

7:22 - Please, George, by all means, keep talking about restraining federal spending, you have soo much credibility there!

7:25 - Ooh, job retraining. Of course, a lot of these people were already retrained after getting fucked by the manufacturing sector, but anyway. But money for community colleges is not a bad thing.

7:26 - Health savings accounts: substantial applause. Help getting healthcare for lower-income Americans: a few scattered claps. Gotta love those Republicans.

7:28 - I don't know, making medical liability reform a high campaign priority seems like something that could backfire for Bush. Of the four people on the two tickets, who's most prepared to talk about the issue? I'll give you a hint: He kind of looks like Luke Skywalker.

7:29 - A "home" is an abstract concept. If you live in an apartment, you have a home. We're talking about "houses" here. Was that a deliberate choice of words?

7:30 - "We must strengthen social security by..." uh oh "...helping younger workers..." fuck. [krugman]2-1=4[/krugman]

7:33 - Ahh, the Spanglish. Let the cameras of your station of choice now hunt for brown people in the convention hall. Watch out for Tancredo though...

7:34 - He grazed the issue of "science". We're waiting enthusiastically for stem cells to come up, sir.

7:37 - "Path to the future" replaces "turning the corner". What do I win?

7:38 - Ahh, disingenuous Kerry bashing. Eliminating tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that haven't happened yet is not increasing taxes. Sorry.

7:39 - "I support the protection of marriage against activist judges" CNN did not cut to Cheney or Giuliani. Note that Bush didn't mention the constitution. Is that a flipflop?

7:41 - I'd sure love to get into the Reagan presidency a bit further. Should we start in Nicaragua or Iran? How about with AIDS? Though I'm guessing that Rove's idea here, talking about "conservative values", is to play hard, hard to the base.

7:43 - He's going to have to get into Iraq soon (he's on the WoT right now). Let's see if he steps on the feet of anything McCain or Rudy said about it.

7:45 - Hahahahahahahaha, someone got in. And it yielded a stutter too!

7:46 - Saddam's "support for terror". A usefully vague phrase indeed. Vagueries will not help Bush explain how Iraq was a threat.

7:47 - And again! A woman this time. I'll bet there will be more.

7:48 - "Again, he refused (to comply)". That's a rather black&white way of putting it. Then again, we're talkin Dubya here.

7:50 - He's avoiding specifics in Iraq like the plague...

7:52 - "We soldiers of yours"? Did I hear that right?

7:54 - Does "victory" require necessary body armor?

7:55 - Bush gets a cookie if he puts the quote in context. Will he do it? . . . Survey says: Nope! By the way, the context was: Real broad sacrifice, and real accountability.

7:56 - Again, George knows what countries Kerry was talking about in terms of the coalition. Bush "respects every soldier", ironic since Kerry was talking about countries who didn't send soldiers, and just wanted their names on the list with the idea that we might give them favors and such.

8:01 - Useless analogy. If Germany had deep divides both ethnically and religiously, and didn't have a history of democracy, maybe he'd have a point.

8:03 - There's the "freedom is the almighty's gift" line again, returning from that March "oh shit, Falluja" press conference.

8:06 - And some self-depricating humor. What happened to "those weapons of mass destruction have to be around here somewhere", the joke that went over so well with the Washington press corps.

8:07 - He's pronounced "rather" as "rah-ther" twice in this speech. Is that a Texas thing?

8:11 - "By encouraging liberty at home..." That just reminded me that there has been no mention of expanding and continuing the Patriot Act in his speech. Must not have polled well.

8:12 - Okay, I need a drink.