I’m a guy who likes a witty line, enjoys the perfect bon mot and lives for lively debate and ripostes. Last night’s GOP convention, however, degraded into just petty nastiness. And, yes, I include Gov. Palin’s speech. Of course, it was their job to compare and contrast to the Dem ticket. I expected Obama to take some hits, fair and unfair. But, I got nothin’ but nasty sarcasm that got more and more tiresome as the night wore on.

Talk about running away from reality, I don’t think I heard President Bush named more than a half dozen times. Most of the time, you couldn’t tell the Republicans had controlled all branches of government for most of the past decade. Somehow, it was the fault of the Democrats that we’re in this mess. Huh?

And, did you hear what the Republicans are going to do to get us out of our economic pain?

Me, neither.

Meanwhile, I may not be the guy to make this observation (cf., my last two posts) but to hear Republicans talk about the sexism faced by Sarah Palin (and Hillary) gives me a great big pain in the butt. Not only has that party rejected each, every and all attempts to level the playing field for women in the workplace but the consistent position of the party has been to deny that such a thing as sexism even exists. Where were all those people now crying sexism when Clarence Thomas was nominated and Anita Hill was eviscerated?

The GOP has a problem with the press coverage of the vice presidential nominee because part of the media frenzy over this relative unknown has focussed on her last pregnancy — something they proudly displayed as part of her pro-life bona fides — and the current pregnancy of her 17 year old unmarried daughter. Gee, I don’t know that any of that has any effect on my assessment of Gov. Palin as a nominee, but I was sure as heck curious about her family life since I knew almost nothing about her before she was the nominee and I’m pretty plugged in politically. I wanted to know about John Edwards’ wife Elizabeth and their dead child, her illness and ultimately his affair. The GOP certainly put President Clinton’s sex life on public display and even John McCain told a joke that implied a lesbian affair between Hillary and Janet Reno. So, to me, dragging Bristol Palin into the mix is just turn about’s fair play. Just sayin’.

My fellow blogger Flibbertigibbit! translates the body language of McCain and Sarah Palin today. Back when Mayor Palin was running for governor, she and her husband had a private bet. The stakes were that if she lost she’d get the Big Dipper tattooed on her ankle and if he lost he’d have to tattoo a wedding ring on his left hand. I’m hoping Flibbi will interpret that, but it sounds to me like Todd might be a married guy who thinks of himself as a player when he’s off being a steelworker. He wouldn’t be the first and only blue collar husband who liked himself a fine lapdance now and again.

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