Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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We're On The Eve of Convention

Monday, July 31, 2000

From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Republican National Convention

The City of Philadelphia is ready. The streets are clean. The flags and banners are up. The cops are out. The restaurants have changed their hours to reflect late night needs of delegates and reporters. And everyone wants everyone to have a good time.

With the possible exception of the two alternative newspapers in town. On has a large drawing of an elephant and with a guy sweeping up after it. The headline? "Go Home".

The other has a complete listing of public events in town during the convention. The headline is: "GOP 'till you DROP."

The most interesting demonstrator I've seen so far was a guy carrying a sign which read, "I'm For Bush and McCain and Rechargeable Batteries." It was raining, so I didn't ask.

There was much grumbling among Republicans over the negative ad the Gore campaign has started running against Dick Cheney. "There's an unwritten rule that each party let's the other have it's week," one angry staffer said to me.

"These guys," I said, "didn't pay that much attention to the WRITTEN rules. Why do you think an unwritten one would mean anything?"

The interesting thing about Gore running ads against Cheney is: Gore is not running against Cheney. He's running against Bush. Everyone knows a Vice Presidential nominee has no effect on a Presidential election.

We all remember the best known case to prove that point: Bill Clinton won twice.

Last week things were chugging along at a pretty acceptable clip. But by mid-afternoon Sunday everybody was in town, the streets were jammed and the big question was "what parties are you going to?"

One young thing told me proudly, as I was waiting in the taxi line to go back to my hotel, that this was going to be her third party already. I allowed as to how this was going to be my fifth national convention, and wished her a good evening.

Credentials are all. There are two general paths to take to the credential game: First, you get every one you can get your hands on and hang them around your neck on as many lanyards as you can fit. There are people here who have so many pieces of laminated cardboard hanging around their necks they are in danger of sailing over the Camden River if a good breeze catches them just right.

The other method is to have no credentials. If you are important enough, you get into where ever you want.

The idea is to have a credential which allows you to get into somewhere that I can't go. It makes no difference whether I want to go or not. The issue is: CAN I go?

At both national conventions you will see people who spend a great deal of time looking more important than the person walking next to them.

With the lack of network coverage of the conventions MSNBC will be the destination station of most serious political junkies. SpeakOut.Com and MSNBC have come up with a way which allows you to participate by joining in a national dial-poll.

You watch MSNBC, you fire up the old hard drive, you connect to SpeakOut.com, and you're a part of the action.

Click here to get the scoop. It takes just a couple of minutes to register and you're ready to tell the pollsters what you think.

For a complete listing of Monday night's convention events, click here.

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