The RNC: A Year Later
By David Anderson
It was just over a year ago that the RNC came to town and gave our
strippers good money, Sarah Palin infused Mall of America department
stores with a stimulus package, and I told the singer-songwriter Five
for Fighting—who played a few songs for Norm Coleman at one RNC
party—that I loved his music. (It is good dental office music...you
know the song, the one about life not being easy for Superman.)
I was reminded of all this as I made a trip to the Twin Cities last week. I passed the Xcel Energy center, the site of last year’s conservative fete and a tear welled in my eye, a memory of almost being tear-gassed as I attempted to get to Governor Tim Pawlenty’s Whistle Stop Welcome.
A year later the country seems eons away from the 2008 Battle Royal. America’s teen father, Levi Johnston, has left sweet Bristol and is traveling often to the lower 48 to file reports about his almost-mother-in-law taking bubble baths. All the while he's seeking reality show stardom or at least a Playgirl spread. Meanwhile, Meghan McCain is still blogging, but on topics like her hair and a life of exstensions. And according to Time, Joe "The Plummer" Wurzelbacher has quit the Republican Party because of the party’s overspending. Joe is the greatest.
On a recommendation from a friend, I picked up a recently released book, The Battle for America 2008, by two Washington journalists. It is a riveting account of how Obama and McCain came to be the contenders in a showdown for the ages. And it’s full of wonderful memories of those September RNC days when Palin went off script and said: "You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick."
Probably the high-point of her political career.
Not to be a complete and utter narcissist, but the best thing to come out of that convention was probably my Sarah Palin Rap, High Sticking Hockey Mom.
It helped Mpls.St.Paul Magazine win a national magazine award for online content, and its mad flow caused Garrison Keillor to say of my performance after witnessing the spectacle, “he’s got a lot of energy and verticality.” True story.
Thank you for being my muse, RNC. I miss you.
I was reminded of all this as I made a trip to the Twin Cities last week. I passed the Xcel Energy center, the site of last year’s conservative fete and a tear welled in my eye, a memory of almost being tear-gassed as I attempted to get to Governor Tim Pawlenty’s Whistle Stop Welcome.
A year later the country seems eons away from the 2008 Battle Royal. America’s teen father, Levi Johnston, has left sweet Bristol and is traveling often to the lower 48 to file reports about his almost-mother-in-law taking bubble baths. All the while he's seeking reality show stardom or at least a Playgirl spread. Meanwhile, Meghan McCain is still blogging, but on topics like her hair and a life of exstensions. And according to Time, Joe "The Plummer" Wurzelbacher has quit the Republican Party because of the party’s overspending. Joe is the greatest.
On a recommendation from a friend, I picked up a recently released book, The Battle for America 2008, by two Washington journalists. It is a riveting account of how Obama and McCain came to be the contenders in a showdown for the ages. And it’s full of wonderful memories of those September RNC days when Palin went off script and said: "You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick."
Probably the high-point of her political career.
Not to be a complete and utter narcissist, but the best thing to come out of that convention was probably my Sarah Palin Rap, High Sticking Hockey Mom.
It helped Mpls.St.Paul Magazine win a national magazine award for online content, and its mad flow caused Garrison Keillor to say of my performance after witnessing the spectacle, “he’s got a lot of energy and verticality.” True story.
Thank you for being my muse, RNC. I miss you.
© 2008 MSP Communications, Inc. All rights reserved
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