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Using 9/11 as the backdrop former mayor Rudy Giuliani stoked the war fires to a fever pitch in the climatic speech of the evening. The irony is that the Administration whose incompetence led to 9/11 has the arrogance to use 9/11 as its call to arms.
Up until that point the crowd seemed strangely disengaged and their reaction to Cheneys entrance was muted at best .
Perhaps the 250,000 protesters the previous day had left its mark but Giuliani saved the night for the hard right believers.
Believe it or not, Michael Moore was in the press row and created more excitement than most of the speakers .
His raising two fingers for two months while the crowd was chanting four more years was a great moment.
Later he wrote; " But what's all this talk about New York being enemy territory? Nothing could be further from the truth. We New Yorkers love Republicans. We have a Republican mayor and governor, a death penalty and two nuclear plants within 30 miles of the city "
PBS offered the most unbiased and best analysis and their interview with John McCain , after his purposely moderate speech, was most telling.
McCain shared with Lehrer, Shields and Brooks that " this election will be decided on what is happening in Iraq and if it continues to flounder ~ Americans will choose another team and he has full confidence in John Kerry if that were to happen. "
And therein lies the real story of this convention for the moderate Republicans are uneasy with the performance of the Bush administration and are obviously the vote target of the kerry campaign. In many ways, conservative Republicans are having an identity crisis and it showed in the many unenthusiastic crowd shots.
Giuliani gave away the upcoming strategy as the election draws near when he exclaimed " Your either with us or the Terrorists " ~ for that will certainly be the Bush strategy when the alert level rises just before the election in November.
The question I and many concerned Americans ask is WHERE IS THE CALL FOR PEACE ?
Kerry has a golden opening to make that case while still maintaining a strong military presence .
This is the perfect opportunity for Kerry to proudly raise that banner and rekindle the flickering flame of his progressive anti-war base.
If he fails to seize this opportunity he may well lose this election .
The world and millions of Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, wait with bated breath.
Bush lite will not carry the day.
Allen L Roland
Catch me on Radio every Monday / TRUTHTALK 7AM PST
STARTING WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 13TH / KYCY 1550 AM SAN FRANCISCO / WED 9 - 10 AM & SUNDAY 10 - 11 AM
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