The best two weeks of my political junkie life

I’m sure I’m not the only one coming down from the high of two consecutive weeks of political conventions.

It hasn’t been easy, but I’m learning to cope with the lack of balloon drops and crazy red, white and blue pins. Let’s take a look back at these past two weeks and reminisce, shall we?

The Republican National Convention, which took place two weeks ago in Tampa, Fla., featured big-name Republican politicians  such as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker;  former Sen. Rick Santorum; Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; and Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney.

There was constant talk of how hard their parents or grandparents worked as immigrants in coal mines to achieve the American Dream.  With an overarching theme of “We Built It,” referring to a misquote from President Barack Obama, the RNC focused heavily on the ideas of personal responsibility, entrepreneurship and small government. Republicans also made a point to ask people if they are better off today than they were four years ago, obviously expecting an answer of “no.”

Overall, the convention went quite smoothly until Clint Eastwood came out as the surprise guest speaker and went on to chat with a chair that apparently held an invisible  version of Obama. It was an odd and uncomfortable 15 minutes.

Then, the Democratic National Convention took place last week in Charlotte, N.C.
North Carolina was an interesting location for the DNC because it is a right-to-work state, extremely hostile to labor rights and has the lowest percentage of unionized workers in the country at 2.9 percent. Traditionally, organized labor has been one of the Democratic Party’s biggest fundraisers, so the choice of North Carolina to be the convention’s host state was a slap in the face for them.

Notable speeches at the DNC came from first lady Michelle Obama, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, U.S. Senate Candidate Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts, former President Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

The DNC’s themes focused on personal responsibility and hard work, community building and ensuring every American has an equal opportunity to achieve the American Dream. Barack Obama argued that we are better off today than we were four years ago.

He also said with more time in office, he will continue to make us better off and move us “Forward,” the slogan of Obama’s 2012 campaign, rather than the “change” of 2008.
These past two weeks have been every political junkie’s dream. I’ll be honest that I’m going to miss every single teleprompted minute of it dearly. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, though: only 22 days until the first presidential debate.

­— sydhoffe@indiana.edu