Attack of the Moderates
Earl Appleby Jr. starts with day one of his GOP convention coverage as he did with the Democratic convention.
I am still waiting for the GOP convention to start. Last night the GOP seemed to be preempted and I watched the speeches from the MOP (Moderates On Parade) convention. Hugh Hewitt during the Democratic convention played a little game about how long it would take before you heard the words Al Qaida there. We can play a similar game with the GOP - how long before you hear about the scourge of abortion.
John McCain, who voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, delivered a mediocre speech that's largest reaction was to the mention of Michael Moore who was in attendance reporting for USA today. As Earl mentions he must have repeated Friends in the Democratic Party 50 times during that speech. I guess this was to pay back all the kind things speakers at the Democratic Convention said about the Republicans - oh wait, that didn't exactly happen. While McCain speech ended in rousing support for President Bush, the speech was mainly forgettable and not delivered very well.
Rudolf Giuliani did deliver a very good speech. It was well written and obviously Giuliani's heart was in it. I don't blame the Republicans for starting off with giving the credentials of President Bush as Commander in Chief since that is the bedrock of the Presidency. But Giuliani is a fiscal conservative and a supporter on the war on terror, but he is also firmly a social liberal. A culture of death Catholic of whom I am glad is not currently in any political office.
So who will be the first to talk about same-sex marriage, abortion, or embryonic stem-cell research? Possibly First Lady Laura Bush might do it on Tuesday or recent convert Senator Sam Brownback, but more likely Democrat Senator Zell Miller on Wednesday. I just wonder how many are there that actually support the majority of the GOP platform which is still very pro-life and in support of traditional marriage? How many just play lip service to it while supporting a different agenda?
While national defense is extremely important, terrorists can only dream of effecting the slaughter we permit daily at abortion clinics. Bin Laden boasted of his three thousand killed and Planned Parenthood and cohorts chock up 3 to 4,000 daily in abortion mills. We notice the gaping whole where the World Trade Centers use to be but we are immune to the gaping hole of the missing 43,000,000 in our population.
Oswald Sobrino at Catholic Analysis reviews the Republican platform and declares it Catholic Friendly.
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Jeff, I think your analysis is overly negative. For years the Republican party paid lip service to the pro-lifers in order to get their votes, but then when in office did their own thing.
But now we've grown and have become such a powerful voice within the party that nobody can get nominated without being pro-life. They know that for us this trumps any other issue.
We also have the Presidency. And GOP congressmen and senators vote overwhelmingly pro-life these days.
If the GOP wants to put on a moderate happy face and pretend that it is a socially moderate party and pay lip service to the social moderate (read liberal) voter, so be it. We'll still control the direction of the party, and with their votes, the direction of legislation. And even if a pro-abort Repub gets elected, they know that they'll have to appease us with some good judges. The thing is, for pro-abort Repubs, they don't really care all that much about the issue. If they did they'd be Democrats. They want the office, and if that means appeasing us to get it, fine.
The shoe is on the other foot now. And some of them are starting to realize it too...just check out Andrew Sullivan's blog lately.
We know what Bush had done and we know that he's going to nominate solidly pro-life judges to the supreme court next term.
This strategy may not be gloriously Catholic, but it works.
And as much as I find McCain's pandering to the media and Democrats irritating, he does usually vote pro-life (thought not pro-marriage), and I thought his speech was pretty good and well delivered.
Giuliani's speech was pretty good. Someone needs to convert that guy.