Now that Mittch-A-Sketch Romoney has made his vice presidential nominee selection, one thought keeps occurring to me: Why should anyone now care about the Republican convention? Granted, they'll have speakers, including the national debut, so to speak, of Paul Ryan giving his speech, as well as Mittch-A-Sketch's acceptance speech.
But, having named his vice presidential choice so early, two weeks prior, it's hard to see how the convention can provide much beneficial excitement or drama, or interest to your average citizen now that we pretty much know everything that's going to happen there.
Granted, vice presidential selections have been made prior to conventions before; however, to the best of my knowledge, not this long before.
Naming the vice presidential choice the weekend going into the convention, as McCain did in 2008, can actually help stoke interest in the convention since the vice presidential choice will be speaking soon after having been announced as the nominee.
However, by the time the Republican convention rolls around, most people will have heard about the selection of Paul Ryan and many, if not most, will have been exposed to Ryan on national television. It seems to me the momentum of the excitement of his selection may wane by convention time.
And, since everyone knows Romoney will be the nominee, there's not much other excitement or drama to expect there, either.
Granted, one could make the same argument about the Democratic convention, since it's the incumbent president and vice president who will be giving speeches and the actions of the convention are pretty much a foregone conclusion, save for the speeches. So, the argument might be made that there will be just as little, if not less, to pique people's curiosity.
The difference is that one convention where everything is already pretty much known and decided will feature the current President and Vice President of the U.S. The other
will not. That's a major difference to me.
My point?
This makes me wonder whether Mittch-A-Sketch may have shot himself in the foot by taking away what little incentive there might have been for folks to tune in to the convention to begin with, to learn more about all the excitement of his vice presidential nominee. With two weeks to go until then, it seems to me that excitement will have diminished significantly.
This may also be further evidence that Romney felt the campaign was not going so well for him. Not only does the choice of Paul Ryan show that Romney is still trying to solidify his position with Republican voters at this late stage in the campaign, but that he was so concerned about it that he was willing to give up the one major advantage that a political convention can give him: a lot of excitement, drama and enthusiasm.
It also begs the question as to whether the selection of Ryan so soon might give Romney a little bit of an early "bounce" in the polls, with all of the hoopla over the selection itself. Similarly, it will be interesting to see if this diminishes any bounce in the polls from the convention due to a potential loss of excitement and enthusiasm.
Am just asking.