(politi)CON SEASON

[Chase]

So over the course of this week here in America as well as the next, the two major parties will stage their equivalent of "comic con", "anime con", "E3", whatever.

I know. y'all are super excited.

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THIS WEEK'S RECAP: REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION - CLEVELAND, OHIO.

This actually happened.

Donald Trump actually became the nominee... but how did his campaign do throwing a party big enough for an elephant?

Here's my three goals.

> Indict Hillary Clinton and point out the deficiencies with the Obama administration.

> Sell Self to Unlikely Voters. (women, minorities, LGBTQ)

> Unite Republicans behind the Donald.

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Starting with Hillary - this was something the GOP overdid it on. The entire convention slate was stacked with former and acting Republican politicians, as well as big names like 'Duck Dynasty' entrepreneur Willie Robertson, to common folk like pastors and police sergeants, to people involved with the Benghazi, Libya consulate attack - such as soldiers on the ground and even the still anguished mother of one of the four lost lives.

The ringing can still be heard in my living room - the chant of the week? "Lock. Her. Up." - in reference to the evidence presented against Secretary Clinton by FBI Director James Comey - who despite laying out what appeared to be factual malpractice of the office and endangerment of American lives through her usage of a private server and deleting of several leaked classified e-mails, recommended "NO charges" for the presumptive Democratic nominee.

The convention was used as a second trial against Clinton, where the delegates on the floor quickly turned into the angriest of mobs I've ever seen - lit up by incendiary speakers that made the case that Hillary was literally "Lucifer" at one point.

Outside of the Grand 'Ole Party - It's hard to see the Republicans' decorum being seen as a likely landing spot for undecided voters when it comes to incriminating Clinton. They had enough throughout the week to succeed, but they also maybe made themselves look bloodthirsty and ruthless in doing so. B-

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Day 4 of the convention was the brightest day for multiple reasons. It was the day Donald Trump officially accepted his nomination - and it was the day they allowed an unlikely face to take the podium.

Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and an openly gay man, took the podium before Ivanka Trump was to give her father her introductory remarks. He uttered the phrase "I am proud to be gay, and I am proud to be a Republican."

This mostly elicited cheers from the party that has traditionally sided with Evangelicals over the LGBTQ community when it comes to social matters - but -did- draw booing from the North Carolina delegation - the state that signed the HB2 bathroom bill - when he addressed that the country used to care about bigger things than "which bathroom people used."

It wasn't just gays that were given nods from the speakers and the Trump camp. Blacks were given encouragement to continue seeking justice for their community despite the party favoring Law Enforcement. Latin America was given some pandering despite Trump's anti-Mexican rhetoric. Ivanka provided one of the better speeches of the convention - attempting to convince the nation that Donald Trump was on the front lines of fighting wage inequality for women as someone with control of a pocketbook.

In summary, the Trump campaign looks to revolutionize the Republican platform, and went so far as reaching all the way across the aisle to disgruntled Bernie Sanders supporters on Protectionism to provide the party with a new influx of voters. B+

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This is where it all went south for the Donald however.

Starting with Monday, the division within the GOP quickly became apparent when the Ted Cruz supporting delegates in the hall opened the convention by calling for a vote on the rules and caused a minor disturbance the Trump camp had to extinguish. The vote didn't ever get called - and the dissenters were told to shove it.

Tuesday began the day where the rest of the country - from Liberals and Team Hillary to on-the-fence GOPers - were scrutinizing Melania Trump's apparent plagiarism of - of ALL people - Michelle Obama.

On Wednesday, Ted Cruz himself had been gifted a prime-time speaking spot at the convention - and he used to blatantly NOT endorse the presumptive nominee and rally the base - opting for telling the voters to "Vote their conscience" instead - causing the pro-Trump crowd (particularly the New York delegation) to begin insulting and booing Cruz off the stage. The defeated Texas senator doubled down this morning in an interview with the Lone Star State's delegation - claiming he would never be a sniveling puppy dog for Trump and wouldn't endorse a man who attacked his father and his wife.

This should go without saying, not all Republicans have bought in. D

AVERAGE - C+ - It was a party, and those who are party loyalists should be excited. We got to see how surprisingly, Trump's children are class acts. Outside of that, there was a lot of mishaps and there was also a seemingly obvious divide between Republicans in Cleveland experiencing the convention high from those outside of the Quicken Loans Arena.

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the Democratic Convention is again, next week - nominating Hillary Clinton. Will Bernie Sanders act out of turn or will he hold on to his word and keep his endorsement? Who's Hillary running mate?

[Maelstrom]

I applaud Ted Cruz for not falling into peer pressure to endorse a complete asshat. That's like a priest saying they're gonna support the next pope... only to find out that the next pope is the Westboro Baptist Church minister.

I'd have a bunch of things to say directly but these fellows do a pretty good of saying it... and in a far more entertaining way than I could ever manage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgbe8zDDSkI

That being said, Bernie Sanders proved himself to be quite the classy person. As a political celebrity and public speaker, I very much expect him to continue be a very influential person. Whenever Hillary makes a move or pushes a policy, I expect all the media to turn to Sanders and ask him his opinion of it. I have no doubt that Hillary will view him as a sounding board. And that makes for a very influential person. Bernie might be out of the race this time, but he will still make a difference.

[Combat]

I applaud Ted Cruz for not falling into peer pressure to endorse a complete asshat. That's like a priest saying they're gonna support the next pope... only to find out that the next pope is the Westboro Baptist Church minister.

I really am not a big fan Ted Cruz, since his policies and opinions don't really match my own among other things,* but I really have to give him credit when it comes to the Drumpf. For sticking to his guns and not endorsing him, especially after he insulted the looks of his wife and insinuated that Cruz's father was linked to the JFK assassination, he really showed that he wasn't a sheep who was submitting to the playground bully. Either way, this entire presidential race has been an embarrassment for all parties (literally and figuratively) and I really can't wait for it to end.

*(I'm also not a huge fan of his acting skills, but that was a while back. Maybe he would sound better now.)

[Maelstrom]

One more. And probably the most damning one....

You can't tell me you'd vote for this guy just to be a 'loyalist' Chase. Would you?

Did I mention Bernie was a class act?

[Deleted User]

Bernie is a sell out. He's selfless yes, but at the same time fairly tunnel visioned when it comes to helping all people.

[Maelstrom]

I'm back because some people still aren't convinced he's the scum of the earth.

I have more. Do you want more?

[Chase]

I've returned from camp...and I have a few things to say.

Bernie is someone who I ultimately respect, but utterly don't agree with at least 80 percent of the time. He put himself (probably partially because the Democratic National Committee was better at quality checking Sanders than the GOP was at checking Cruz.) in a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation where he ended all hopes of a Sanders party takeover by endorsing Hillary the week prior to the party's convention.

By doubling down on said endorsement, Mike is right in claiming he is indeed a sellout. That - to me at least - is infinitely better than being a liar and potentially stealing the nomination away from Clinton as many Sanders supporters hoped was the case. I know a lot of #NeverHillary Democrats were disappointed (and many of those were in attendance throughout the DNC's lineup of events.) - but by staying to his word, he can be the Democrats' answer to a disastrous Hillary presidency very, VERY easily (unlike Cruz, who may have sacrificed his own national political aspirations to stand behind the defense of his family. Many Republicans are very unhappy with his rebellion and the fact that he broke his word in supporting Trump from last year.) and ESPECIALLY a potential Trump presidency.

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Time to get my ass in gear and give the Democratic National Convention some grades.

DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION - PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

Three keys to success for the herd of donkeys last week:

> Dump (on) Trump

> Sell Clinton -or- Obama's America

> Get the Bernie-or-Busters back in the fold.

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Starting with Donald Trump... The Democrats did a very good job of making Trump look bad... and they did it in a way where they were able to secure Hillary's endorsement from Bernie Sanders (whose voters Trump was hoping to scoop up based on protectionism and political corruption alone.), while making America look like it already -was- great.

The slate of speakers included a Gold Star family, who lost their son, a Muslim American soldier, fighting under the Stars and Stripes. The father held up a brochure copy of the Constitution and asked Trump if he had even read it, drawing cheers from the Philly crowd. It featured husband and former President Bill Clinton showing the country he still has his special brand of oration "on fleek" (while tastefully avoiding mentions of Monica Lewinsky - as many Republicans such as much as myself added into the speech for the laughs.)

On top of that, Trump couldn't keep his Twitter mouthpiece quiet, criticizing the speakers and making an ass out of himself. I - begrudgingly - have to give it to the Dems. They played this one very well. A

....who in their right mind thought "on fleek" was something that needed to be trendy......I need to wash my mouth out with soap.

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The choice was to sell Hillary Clinton, or to sell President Obama's efforts the past eight years. Smartly, the Democrats played it safe and went with being the "Pro-America" party. President Obama himself referred to his efforts a total of 119 times throughout his time on the stage.

The Democrats don't get points for being risky though. It's easy for the incumbent party to make America look good. That being said, they did it well enough to where they were upstaging the Republicans a week later - making very Republican-esque appeals to American greatness by bringing speakers like military leaders to the stage to double-down on fighting ISIS. Many conservatives - including myself - took notice.

A Hawkish donkey is a surprisingly good look for a donkey. B

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The Democrats biggest downer of the week came in much the same form as the Republicans' the week prior. Except instead of trying the unify the party behind someone that thinks he doesn't need the whole party to win, Hillary Clinton passed on the more liberal wing of her own party altogether in favor of disenfranchised conservatives, centrists, and NeverTrump Republicans.

In much the same form and fashion the Cruz supporters in the arena wanted a rules vote, the Bernie backers raised hell on the convention floor prior to Day 1's scheduled speaking slots. Unlike the Cruzers, the Sandersistas continuously protested throughout the week - even going so far as to boo their aged champion when he doubled-down on his earlier endorsement.

Prior to that, the Bernie fans caught wind of a Wikileaks mass dump of e-mails from various high ranking officials in the Democratic Committee's brass. These e-mails seemed to indicate that the DNC was not very happy with Sanders' existence in the race and there appeared to be some game-rigging during the campaign being discussed. This led to Democratic Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schulz resigning and led to Bernie supporters being angered just before the party had begun. DWS later was allegedly made honorary chair of Hillary's campaign following her resignation, drawing the target back to Hillary.

Before all of THAT Hillary had selected center-lefty Kaine as her running-mate, an unattractive pick to liberals when Hillary had previously been seen campaigning with lefty-legend Elizabeth Warren.

Finally, the tone of the convention was more Anti-Trump and broad than it was focused on propping up the progressive movement. This indicated a seemingly apparent pivot to America's center in an effort to make the race a "Trump vs. America" race, as opposed to a "Conservative vs. Liberal" race.

It gave the impression that the Democratic Party was prepared to leave the Sanders campaign for dead. Not a good beacon of "unity". D

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AVERAGE - B- - The Democrats win the battle of bashes by surviving some early growing pains and appealing across the aisle in their race to destroy Donald Trump. It wasn't spotless, and there's still a part of the Democratic Party that is beside itself, but the major focus in Philly was making America look good, and it did just that. It was nice to see a little bit of hope for once.