Scenes From The Convention, Part 1
The state GOP convention kicked off a little like a sputtering jalopy. Chairman Stan Lockhart stood at the podium and went through the normal niceties recognizing the organizers and party types, but when it came time for the report on the credentialed delegates, it wasn't ready. So we waited. And waited.
Someone from the audience suggested a round of applause for men and women serving or who have served in the military. A great idea! said Lockhart, and asked everyone to stand. Then more awkward silence before someone shouted out that there should be a round of applause for the Utah Jazz, and the Jazz got an ovation. More waiting. Then someone suggested applause for the spouses of military men and women. Sure! said Lockhart. Then he took the initiative to offer a resolution supporting David Archuleta in his American Idol competition, which drew applause.
Finally, Sen. Curtis Bramble, who was in charge of credentials hurried onto the stage and made the announcement of how many delegates were certified to vote. The delay was a challenge to the report by Mike Ridgway, a Salt Lake County Republican gadfly, who had been elected at his caucus, but was specifically denied credentials by the county party's executive committee.
Ridgway wasn't seated, and he unloaded on Lockhart and party leadership. A little more on that later.
Balloonatics
The Friday night before the Saturday convention, as preparations were underway for the main event, it became pretty obvious that David Leavitt planned to do a balloon drop in the main arena at the end of his speech.
Chaffetz, according to a Republican on the scene, was incensed and didn't want the balloonacy to interfere with his speech. He challenged the balloon drop up and down, scouring the rule books, but came up empty.
So when Leavitt's speech ambled as near to a crescendo as it would get, about six rows on the floor, including the area where press was seated, were buried in balloons (although about a third of them never dropped) as a smattering of applause washed over the arena. I don't think the placement was an accident, since smothering reporters would have kept us from writing about . . .
The Worst Campaign Video
Those of you who were there know what I'm talking about. Those who weren't will never fully appreciate the utter awfulness of Leavitt's slickly produced, astonishingly vapid and Velveeta cheezy intro video.
The whole thing starts oddly enough. A firebell rings, a fireman grabs his boots. Is it all worth it? he asks, climbing into the truck. Then there's Leavitt, at the firestation. Why's he there? It's unclear. But apparently this is what Leavitt does, loiter out at firestations to inspire the firefighters.
"There's always hope," he exhorts. "When we work together, there's hope."
The fire engine rolls out, cue music: Lee Greenwood's "God Bless The U.S.A." Open with shots of Ground Zero after Sept. 11. Flooded streets in New Orleans. Then the predictable inspirational fare, people working together, slapping each other on the back, smiling, families, churches, scout troops, if I recall, with the words like restore, rebuild, renew, resolve, over the inspiring images.
Then the payoff: A fireman lifts a child and cradles him, carrying him out of the burning house. For me, it reminded me of the famous shot after the Oklahoma City bombing, but that's probably not what they were going for. It is, of course, our fireman from the intro, inspired to great things by Leavitt's message of hope.
Back at the firestation, Leavitt delivers the capstone.
"We're at a decisive moment in this nation's history. We've got to come together," he says.
I guess that was the message and he did little to elaborate on it during his speech which took up the remaining few minutes. Even for Mike Leavitt's kin, this was a roundabout, cotton candy way to make his case. This audience was a thousand plus of the most politically committed Republicans in the state and they wanted specifics. They were missing, and the absence was made so much worse by what followed.
-- Robert Gehrke
Someone from the audience suggested a round of applause for men and women serving or who have served in the military. A great idea! said Lockhart, and asked everyone to stand. Then more awkward silence before someone shouted out that there should be a round of applause for the Utah Jazz, and the Jazz got an ovation. More waiting. Then someone suggested applause for the spouses of military men and women. Sure! said Lockhart. Then he took the initiative to offer a resolution supporting David Archuleta in his American Idol competition, which drew applause.
Finally, Sen. Curtis Bramble, who was in charge of credentials hurried onto the stage and made the announcement of how many delegates were certified to vote. The delay was a challenge to the report by Mike Ridgway, a Salt Lake County Republican gadfly, who had been elected at his caucus, but was specifically denied credentials by the county party's executive committee.
Ridgway wasn't seated, and he unloaded on Lockhart and party leadership. A little more on that later.
Balloonatics
The Friday night before the Saturday convention, as preparations were underway for the main event, it became pretty obvious that David Leavitt planned to do a balloon drop in the main arena at the end of his speech.
Chaffetz, according to a Republican on the scene, was incensed and didn't want the balloonacy to interfere with his speech. He challenged the balloon drop up and down, scouring the rule books, but came up empty.
So when Leavitt's speech ambled as near to a crescendo as it would get, about six rows on the floor, including the area where press was seated, were buried in balloons (although about a third of them never dropped) as a smattering of applause washed over the arena. I don't think the placement was an accident, since smothering reporters would have kept us from writing about . . .
The Worst Campaign Video
Those of you who were there know what I'm talking about. Those who weren't will never fully appreciate the utter awfulness of Leavitt's slickly produced, astonishingly vapid and Velveeta cheezy intro video.
The whole thing starts oddly enough. A firebell rings, a fireman grabs his boots. Is it all worth it? he asks, climbing into the truck. Then there's Leavitt, at the firestation. Why's he there? It's unclear. But apparently this is what Leavitt does, loiter out at firestations to inspire the firefighters.
"There's always hope," he exhorts. "When we work together, there's hope."
The fire engine rolls out, cue music: Lee Greenwood's "God Bless The U.S.A." Open with shots of Ground Zero after Sept. 11. Flooded streets in New Orleans. Then the predictable inspirational fare, people working together, slapping each other on the back, smiling, families, churches, scout troops, if I recall, with the words like restore, rebuild, renew, resolve, over the inspiring images.
Then the payoff: A fireman lifts a child and cradles him, carrying him out of the burning house. For me, it reminded me of the famous shot after the Oklahoma City bombing, but that's probably not what they were going for. It is, of course, our fireman from the intro, inspired to great things by Leavitt's message of hope.
Back at the firestation, Leavitt delivers the capstone.
"We're at a decisive moment in this nation's history. We've got to come together," he says.
I guess that was the message and he did little to elaborate on it during his speech which took up the remaining few minutes. Even for Mike Leavitt's kin, this was a roundabout, cotton candy way to make his case. This audience was a thousand plus of the most politically committed Republicans in the state and they wanted specifics. They were missing, and the absence was made so much worse by what followed.
-- Robert Gehrke
3:54 PM
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2 Comments:
You should have done what I did - decide how you were going to vote before the speaches, then wander around so you don't have to listen to them!
Of course, if you were there as a member of the press, you had to watch the videos. I'm diabetic - those videos would have sent my blood sugars into the stratosphere!
I will be proposing a new convention rule at the next State Central Committee meeting. NO CAMPAIGN STUFF ON THE CONVENTION FLOOR. No balloons. No putting information (propoganda) packets on seats. No signs. No walking around with other candidates like you were heterosexual life partners. It is distracting, time consuming, and annoying.
Thank you for your well thought out comments- very astute. I know that Leavitt and his people are very angry at Jason Chaffetz and would like to believe it's all his fault that Leavitt lost. The reality is that Leavitt had every advantage going into that race and blew it- big time.
Leavitt didn't lose that badly because of Chaffetz. He lost because when it really counted, he could not convert. When you build yourself up THAT big- you'd better be able to deliever. Instead, he treated the people in the room as though they were too brainless to notice the complete lack of substance and positions. 'Trust me to figure it out when I get there'. That doesn't work with people who actually care about our countries problems.
It's hard to lose and anyone who worked as hard as Leavitt did would be very disapointed. I don't blame him for being upset and could certainly understand if he chose not to support either of the remaining candidates. However, the unholy alliance with Cannon was the most colosal error in judgement yet. He not only proved himself a hypocrite, but spit in the face of his own supporters and, just as importantly, financial contributors. He somehow managed to not only lose but commit political suicide while doing it. He'd have a hard time running again and convincing anyone- either the public or potential donors- that he's worth supporting after his hystronics this time.
The big winner with all that was Cannon who managed to beat Leavitt this time while helping Leavitt scuttle his own future political potential under the guise of 'friendship'. Well played Mr. Cannon- perhaps Mr. Leavitt should reconsider who the REAL threat to him was.
I wonder if any of the parents of the kids Cannon (who was personally seen giving signs to the kids and Leavitt's paid staffers) manipulated into doing some pretty unethical things are at all bothered? I'd be VERY ticked if my child were so badly used by someone they worked hard to help and clearly had misplaced admiration for. THAT would make an interesting news piece.
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