No Speech! No Speech!

I didn't watch Sara Palin's speech last night. In fact, I haven't watched more than five minutes of the whole Republican convention, and I certainly am not going to waste time on McCain's speech tonight. Yes, I must hate all Republicans.

Then again, I watched even less of the Democratic Convention last week, so I must hate them too. Or perhaps it's this: I don't like to watch politicians making speeches.

This aversion developed in the mid-nineties when I watched one of Clinton's State of the Union addresses. I couldn't get through it without thinking, "you're not addressing the question! You're glossing over the subject!" And I liked Clinton. Once Bush took office, of course it was even worse: all the evasion and trickery, accompanied by a lack of ability to actually speak in public.

A character in Lawrence of Arabia tells Omar Sharif: "You answered without saying anything. That's politics." That's also convention speeches, only without the question first.

So given that you won't get any actual information from these spectacles, you're left with judging politicians by their charisma. Or in other words, you can try to determine whether the rubes will vote for this person because they don't know any better. I'm tired of playing that game. The rubes will vote for who they like. I'm trying to determine who I will vote for. I'd suggest you do the same.