I Have A Culture Wars Headache

The RNC did my head in, but at least Barack looks a lot better to me now, and I have remembered why I'm a liberal Democrat, even if the other liberal Democrats sometimes make me want to poke them with sharp sticks.

OMG, as my students sometimes say.

Here follow some comments on the events of the past week, in no particular order:

1. Cutest moment of the RNC--Piper Palin licking her hand and slicking down baby brother's hair firmly, with the camera GLUED to her.

2. Fred Thompson did a damn good speech. I disagreed with, like, every word, including the 'the's and the 'uh's, but it was a good speech.

3. Giuliani is funny, and easier for me to relate to than most of the GOPers. I did find the spectacle of the former mayor of New York City carrying on about small town values slightly awkward, but what the hell.

4. For a party that has of late prided itself on not being the party of victimhood, the RNC was kind of a victimfest. "Oh, poor us, the liberal media elites don't like us. The Democrats control Congress. No one appreciates our small-town values. We have no one in Washington except a president we don't much like anymore and therefore won't mention to represent us. Woe are we. Government stands in our way." It was kind of fascinating. I was tempted to ask if they'd like some cheese with that whine, but that would probably immediately identify me as a Chardonnay-drinking liberal elite.

5. I can't believe that Sarah took the father of Bristol's baby to the RNC with her. I realize that they're trying to spin him as a future son-in-law, yadda yadda, but honestly, what kind of message is this? Get my daughter pregnant and I will take you to the RNC, put you up in a nice hotel, and let you preen in front of the media? The kid should have been home, working at 7/11 to raise money for Pampers, and watching his girlfriend wave to the cameras on TV. I wanted to smack him.

6. OK, thought experiment. All these self-righteous right-wing morons who've been so very understanding and nice about Bristol's pregnancy--yes, O'Reilly, Dobson and etc., I am looking right at your hypocritical smug mugs--I just want you to envision for a moment what would have happened if Chelsea Clinton had announced when she was seventeen that she was expecting a baby. Yeee-hah! Yes, it would have been a slaughter. It's not that I object to them being decent for a change, it's just that I object to their being decent only for the families of people they like.

7. I am gobsmacked and entranced by the Republican Party's sudden and total conversion to liberal career feminism.

8. Cindy McCain's green dress was cool, but that yellow shirtdress thing was just too weird.

9. Laura Bush was classy as ever, and I appreciate that she stood up in front of the whole RNC and made them listen to some nice things her husband has done.

10. Sarah's clothes are great.

Liberal media elite signing out.