{"id":205,"date":"2004-09-01T12:43:03","date_gmt":"2004-09-01T12:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/?p=205"},"modified":"2004-09-01T12:43:03","modified_gmt":"2004-09-01T12:43:03","slug":"conventional-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/?p=205","title":{"rendered":"Conventional Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like a lot of folks, I was pretty impressed by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s speech<\/a> at the Republican National Convention last night. I was surprised to find myself watching the television coverage of the dog and pony event and more surprised to find myself a little entertained.<\/p>\n

And Arnold was entertaining. His speech was engaging. His delivery, despite his accent, was strong. His speech was, dare I say, inspirational. It had the words and conviction you want to get behind, even if you don’t necessarily agree<\/a> with its content. It was an interesting pick for a speaker — I certainly wouldn’t have chosen Schwarzenegger to stir emotions — but a good one. Arnold got an opportunity to prove he’s more than an actor. Apparently, he’s a legitimate politician.<\/p>\n

It also continued a trend of positive messages coming from the convention. What I’ve witnessed to this point is a message that stands in contrast to the negative message offered by that other<\/i> convention held not so long ago. The Republicans want you to believe everything is rosy. The war is going better than reported. The economy is an inherited problem rather than a creation of this administration’s policies. The Democrats want you to believe the opposite. The war is a failure. Our economic problems are the fault of the current president.<\/p>\n

I don’t completely agree or disagree with either position or party but, like most everyone, I lean one direction. Like many, my mind is already made up, making wonder why I spend any of my time watching these standing parades of like-minded people.<\/p>\n

But I can’t help myself. I’ve yet to check out the DNC speech<\/a> of State Senator Barack Obama<\/a> that caused a bit of buzz but I will. I’ll be sure to read the RNC speech<\/a> of Maryland’s Lt. Governor Michael Steele<\/a> to see if a local boy did us proud. But my expectations are low. I don’t expect to hear words that could change my vote. I only hope to glean a couple details from the personalities that stand at the podium.<\/p>\n

The conventions, like my mind, present a decision made up long before the crowds gathered. Let’s get on with the interesting stuff. Let’s debate. Let’s start pulling levers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like a lot of folks, I was pretty impressed by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s speech at the Republican National Convention last night. I was surprised to find myself watching the television coverage of the dog and pony event and more surprised to find myself a little entertained. And Arnold was entertaining. His speech was engaging. His delivery, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}