Republican National Convention

Well I watched a fair portion of the Republican National Convention tonight. It was kinda by accident. I was flipping channels and ran into it on my local PBS station. I had forgot that it started tonight. I didn't catch any of the Democratic National Convention so I'm a little unprepared to compare the two. I will say that overall I was a little impressed. I'm not big on the "my party is better than your party" rah-rah that always happens at the conventions but I was happy to pay attention to the parts in-between where the speakers actually talked about issues and not just pie-in-the-sky ideals and other useless drivel. The commentary by PBS was excellent I must say. It really seemed to be devoid of bias - at least to me. And that's very impressive. I get so tired of watching the major news networks anymore because they seem to just seeth with bias - be it for or against a particular candidate or party.

I really do hope that the candidates this year are able to actually address some issues and offer real-world solutions or at least ideas for solutions to solve them. I don't expect one man to fix all the problems of our country but I'd like to know what kinds of things they are thinking about and what kinds of ideas they're able to come up with. I'm probably more interested in how they think rather than where they stand on the issues. Because let's be honest, knowing where they stand on abortion is nice but I seriously doubt many abortion issues will affect the Presidency in the next few years. Instead I'd like to hear of any ideas they may have regarding healthcare, or economic issues, or foreign policy, or terrorists, etc. It gives me an idea of what to expect from them when they are confronted with things during their Presidency.

In the case of President Bush, I already have 4 years of experience with him so I already have some idea as how he reacts in certain situations and what kinds of decisions to expect from him in certain cases and at the very least a glimpse at the man's character. And to me, character is one of the most important things to know about a President.

I will have to pay close attention to Senator Kerry in the next couple of months before election day to get some kind of idea of his character and what kind of President he would be if elected. I feel I'm a little behind in that regard as the Presidential Race has been going on for some time now. But honestly the early stages of a race don't interest me so much. I really have little patience for all the partisanism that drenches elections nowadays. I just wanna cut through all that and see the person behind the image as much as I am able. THAT is what will lead my pencil on election day.

I don't rightly know if I'll see any more of the convention this week but now that the Olympics is over I suppose I'm probably likely to catch a couple more hours of it before it's over. I don't usually watch a whole lot of TV but I kinda got used to it this last two weeks watching the Olympics. I really enjoy watching the Olympics. I don't care what other people say about them. I love watching the triumph of the human spirit and hear the stories behind the athletes. It really takes you away from all the conflict and turmoil in the world for just a couple of weeks as these men and women from so many countries come to compete - without biggotry and without violence and for the most part, with great sportsmanship and character.

And so it's back to work for a bit before bed. And here's to hoping that whatever happens on election day, that we have the best man in place to lead this country through whatever befalls this nation in the next four years.

-Travis