Political Convention broadcasts should have credits at the end:  starring... written by... produced by... directed by... cast in order of appearance... After all, political conventions have nothing to do with politics, it's all show business.  We live in the entertainment age.  Professional sports have been considered entertainment (as opposed to sports) for a long time and television news is now rated according to its entertainment value not for its news content. But I digress.  The Republican National Convention was another mindless display of how we approach politics in this country (the Democrats will be just as mindless).   It's a dog-and-pony-phony show with people wearing red-white-and-blue shirts and stuffed elephant hats (coming soon, stuffed donkey hats) screaming and yelling at whatever the scripted performers say on stage. Everybody knows what the politics are (including who the nominee is), so it's really just theatrical bluster! We all know it’s totally scripted (except for perhaps “mystery guests”.) The Republican Convention predictably went like this: The keynoter told the screaming crowd how great the future will be under their candidate, how wonderful the candidate and party line are (when the keynoter was not blowing his own horn); the wife delivered the required, soppy speech about her loving, caring, extraordinarily gifted husband and their wonderful children and grandchildren and their church and how much the party loves women; the vice presidential candidate slimed Obama and claimed his party can fix everything.  Then an aging actor told a few jokes (some in questionable taste) to an empty chair and the fawning crowd went wild.  And then the finale, Mitt, the man himself, the candidate, appears and the crowd becomes nearly hysterical on cue.  He says the same things he has been saying for the last 10 months only trying to sound really passionate about it and the crowd appears to go into ecstasy (a considerable feat considering it's Mitt Romney). The curtain comes down and everybody says “Wow, what a great show!”  It's all phony and a big waste of time and money but that's the American political way.   Coming soon to Charlotte, another meaningless example of your political parties in action, the Democratic National Convention. Stay tuned. 

Sideblog:  Judging from newscasts and internet buzz you hear more about Clint Eastwood and what he said than that guy, what’s his name, Romney?, who is running for president.