Family first, country second

It is with a heavy heart that I write this final post. I was forced to leave Minnesota before the end of the convention to be by my father's bedside. He passed away at 1 AM this morning after a heroic battle against cancer. I am grateful for the time I got to spend with him during the last several years. He loved to talk politics. The 2008 election became a real bonding point for both of us. When the conventions rolled around I was reluctant to go. He said he wanted me to go so I could tell him all about it. I called him every day.

There is a lot of talk at these political conventions about "family values" and debates over which party has more or less. Nobody has the monopoly on them. My dad was a life-long Democrat but he proved over and over again that he was chock full of family values. No words can describe how much he will be missed.

Life on a stick

I haven't been to a state fair since I was a teenager living in Oklahoma. This week I had the chance to go again. The Minnesota State Fair was ending on the same day that the GOP Convention was supposed to start: Labor Day. As you now know, the convention was postponed a day. I took a couple of hours away from the politics to go to see what all the fuss was about. Generally the offerings haven't changed that much: livestock, rides, sno-cones, funnel cakes, indigestion, diarrhea, etc. Now, though, there is this odd propensity for putting everything on a stick.

At the Oklahoma State Fair in the '70s, the only thing found on a stick was a corn dog or a popsicle. At the Minnesota State Fair in 2008, however, everything is on a stick. I saw pork chops on a stick, bacon on a stick, waffles on a stick, walleye on a stick, deep-fried oreos on a stick, deep-fried candy bars on a stick. I'm surprised I didn't see sticks on a stick.

The other thing that I haven't seen before are the political booths. Fairgoers can stop by and get buttons, t-shirts and posters. Or they can give money. Al Franken and his opponent, incumbent Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman, both had a booths at the fair. Apparently, these political booths are lucrative for Minnesota politicians. Many people say Jesse Ventura's gubernatorial win  was due to his vigorous handshaking at his Minnesota State Fair booth. I am just glad the politicians don't attempt to put things on a stick. I can just imagine what we might find.

Yawnfest 2008

There is a noticeable difference between the Democratic and Republican conventions. Last night I was walking around on the floor of the convention hall (that's the delegate equivalent of a mosh pit) and the lack of excitement was palpable. The Republicans seemed like they were all sedated. The faces of the delegates all looked pained. The signs for McCain were thrust in the air half-heartedly. It reminded me of a wedding reception where the entire wedding party knew the marriage was doomed but they had to try and put on a good face.

Bush was only on the jumbo screen for eight minutes. Not enough time to erase all the damage he's done to the GOP. Fred Thompson tried to get the crowd fired up by discussing McCain's POW torture in excruciating detail. That didn't seem to work. He could have used a few more takes. Joe Lieberman, who can't really be trusted by either side, is no Mr. Enthusiasm. He always sounds like a bit whiner to me when he speaks. Last night he sounded like a traitorous whiner.

I don't know how the Republicans can invigorate their celebration, but they need to do something. Maybe Sarah Palin will perk things up.

Due to technical difficulties, I was unable to upload any new sketches last night. Until I can get back on track I will leave you with a sketch that I drew during the Republican Convention in Philadelphia in 2000. That convention boasted the arrival of the bloggers as credentialed journalists. There were only a handful of bloggers on site back then. At this convention there are hundreds. Sadly, not much has changed in terms of excitement.

Hackett job

In case you think all I do is go from Irish pub to Irish pub, I want to make something very clear: I do occasionally run into politicians. For instance, I rode the hotel elevator with Rick Santorum. I was tempted to ask him where he called home these days, but he was with his family so I refrained. On the shuttle bus to the Xcel Center I sat near Chris Hackett, a young Republican running for Congress against freshman Democrat Chris Carney for Pennsylvania's 10th District seat. He had to tell me the 10th covers the northeast corner of the state.

I overheard him say he was on the docket to speak Monday night. That all changed when the game was called on account of hurricane. His speech was set for 5 PM and was about two minutes long. He was one of only two challengers asked to speak. I asked him how he felt about the postponed convention. "John McCain exhibited the leadership we expect from our presidential candidate," Hackett replied. "He put America's needs first and the celebration second." Spoken like a seasoned politician. "That's one of the unique things about this country," he continued, "we put our fellow Americans first." I may not agree with all of his political views, but I agree with him about that.

Hackett was on his way to the airport to return to the campaign trail. He said he was excited to have been asked to speak but that he had no resentment about losing his spot. "When I heard the president had been reduced to eight minutes, I didn't feel so bad."

Good grief

One thing journalists do while attending political conventions is make pilgrimages to local hangouts to get quotes from the regulars. Often times the location is a pub and the quote is a bar tab. I certainly didn't want to forgo this tradition, so when my cousin John, no stranger to the Irish pubs in the St. Paul area, asked if he could take me to a bar, I said sure. The great thing is that it wasn't just any bar. It was O'Gara's. O'Gara's is the bar that occupies the space on Snelling Avenue that was once the barber shop of Carl Schulz.

You haven't heard of Carl? He was the father of Charles M. Schulz, creator of the comic strip, Peanuts. The Schulz family lived above the barber shop. Talk about a pilgrimage. I was standing in a holy place. Charles Schulz is still one of my biggest influences and a true hero to me. I had the privilege of meeting him a couple of times. When Schulz retired in 1999, I wrote a column called My Audience With Sparky (that was his nickname.) Less than two months later, on the day his final Sunday strip ran in papers all over the world, he died.

Inside the bar there is a wall of plaques and cartoons by Sparky. They even have a barber pole on the wall, honoring the spot where Carl Schulz cut hair. I spoke to customer Dave Dillon who said his mom and dad went to school with Sparky. "He was very quiet and kind of shy. They knew who he was, but they weren't close." I asked him if he was a fan of Peanuts. "Sure," said Dillon, "who doesn't love Peanuts?"

I'll tell you who ... John McNeil, that's who. John loved O'Gara's but he didn't like Charlie Brown and friends. He thought the strip was too manipulative the way it made kids talk about angst and loneliness. "It's an aberrant view of childhood," he complained. "Plus, I hate the statues." He was talking about the statues of the Peanuts characters painted by local artists in the fashion of the cows in Chicago and the dinosaurs in Pittsburgh.

I asked Dave and John how they felt about the current presidential race. They were both evasive, claiming to be more independent than anything. We may not know where the locals stand on McCain or Obama, but we know how they feel about Charlie Brown.

Finally, some protesters

If you have been reading my blog you know I have been keeping an eye out for protesters. Despite the fact that they were sighted in Denver I didn't have any luck finding them. In Minnesota my luck changed. Saturday I saw a small group of about 50 protesters. They were marching in favor of medical marijuana. They seemed very happy to be there (gee, I wonder why?) and were totally non-violent. They were yelling, "make bongs, not bombs." Sounds sensible to me! I don't know if this counts as a protest because there were only three of us watching.

Yesterday was the big sighting. According to reports, there were an estimated 10,000 protesters on the streets of St. Paul and 284 ended up getting arrested. I could see the massive protest from where I was standing, but the street was blocked and I couldn't get near them. Fortunately, I managed to run into what must have been a splinter group. It was only about 500 strong and they were marching down a street I could access.

I forged my way into the crowd and tried to speak to a marcher who had just dragged a trash can out into the street. I wanted to find out what he was protesting. Maybe he had a problem with organized trash collection. He seemed to be part of a group dressed in fatigues and wearing bandanas. As I approached the group I could've sworn I heard a woman in the group yell, "gather 'round, Radical Thematicals!" She was clearly some sort of leader and raised her hand to wave in the other members. Radical Thematicals? I wasn't quite sure I heard it right. I knew "Radical" was right but I wasn't sure about the second part ... except that it ended with "aticals."

Maybe they hated the conventions of punctuation and spelling and called themselves "Radical Grammaticals." That could make for some interesting protest signs. Maybe they were anarchists who just needed a vacation and answered to "Radical Sabbaticals." I needed to find out. "What is the name of your group?" I asked. She turned and pushed me away, saying, "we don't allow press here."

Hold on. A protester who doesn't want any publicity? "The constitution gives us both a right to be here," I said to her. "You have to leave," she said more firmly. One of her cohorts, who probably weighed in at about 275 lbs., body-blocked me out of the circle they were forming. As I stumbled back trying not to fall, the woman yelled, "We're just trying to be courteous." Maybe they are the "Radical Grammaticals." She clearly has no idea what "courteous" means.

A lull in the storm

The levees seem to have held in New Orleans and Hurricane Gustav was less dramatic than first predicted. But it was too late to save the party in St. Paul, Minn. Almost all of the events scheduled for the first night of the Republican convention were postponed or cancelled. Delegates gathered in the Xcel Center were encouraged to text donations to the Red Cross to help victims of the storm. John McCain said, "This is a time when we take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats." Someone should remind him we don't wear fedoras anymore.

Mother Nature just gave the GOP a gift. She saved them from having to listen to a speech by George W. Bush, while at the same time giving them the opportunity to publicly pretend to care about the less fortunate. You can't buy that kind of PR.

Republican storm watch

Everyone here in the Twin Cities is talking about two things: the storm on the Gulf Coast and the storm caused by John McCain's VP choice. The pundits are saying that the social conservatives are energized by the choice of Sarah Palin. I have yet to run into any Republicans who fit that description. Most people I spoke with are not happy about it.

Bea Horwath, 81, and her husband Lou Horwath, 91, were at the Marriott lobby bar in Minnetonka, Minn., after attending a wedding reception. Bea's cousin, Ray Allen, is the co-owner of Summit Brewing Company. They are a local Minnesota brewery and maker of Summit Pale Ale, which I highly recommend. Allen's granddaughter was getting married. Bea said she was hoping Mitt Romney would've gotten the nod. "I like his appearance, especially his hair," she said. Lou wasn't wild about Palin either but hoped that maybe she'd steal some of Hillary's votes. "McCain picked her so he could get to that oil in Alaska," he explained, grinning.

I also spoke with a younger couple, Angie and Tony Tesch, from South Dakota. They were both in the area to attend the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. (That's it! We'll settle this dead-heat election with a jousting tournament!) Both Tesches work in the environmental field and are opposed to drilling in Alaska. They also both support McCain and like his experience, but are lukewarm about the Alaskan governor. Angie is pro-choice and and says she can't relate to Palin's ideology.

Hurricane Gustav is pounding the Gulf Coast but its effects are being felt right here in Minnesota. The Republican National Convention has been put on hold to assess the damage. It will still be taking place, no doubt, but some of the key players will be missing.

Bush has decided to concentrate on the storm and forgo his opening night speech at the convention. There is still a possibility he will speak from a remote location. Some Southern politicians are staying home to clean up the damage. How will this affect the GOP's party in Minneapolis/St. Paul? Too soon to tell.

I don't get to use use color in the paper very much since the Post-Gazette's editorial page is printed strictly in black and white. Here is a full-color close-up of today's cartoon. You can see more of my non-blog cartoons by clicking here.

Minneapolis Airport

When I'm traveling to a destination like a political convention I try to keep my eyes open for VIPs. You never know when you might catch a glimpse of a famous celebrity or politician on the plane or in the airport. I stepped into the men's room at the Minneapolis airport and I saw a white-haired gentleman checking out the stalls. He was looking into each stall and then turning away with a dismayed look on his face. "You're not Larry Craig, are you?" I asked. He looked at me with digust, obviously not flattered at being compared to the Minnesota congressman who was busted for soliciting sex in the airport men's room.

As it turned out, the gentleman, who did look a little bit like Craig, was only checking the stalls because most of them were flooded with water from an overflowing toilet. The poor guy just wanted a dry stall and I was giving him a hard time. He left in a huff. Despite being in "guerrilla cartoonist" mode, I didn't pull out my sketchbook in the men's room. With my luck, I would've gotten busted for soliciting caricatures. Instead of a new sketch, I am reaching back into the archives for a cartoon I did in 2007.

McCain Mutiny

McCain has gone off the reservation! He has chosen a woman as his vice presidential running mate! Nothing against Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska. I am sure she is very nice. But just because she has ovaries doesn't make her Hillary Clinton.

McCain obviously believes that any ol' gal will do when it comes to wooing those disgruntled Hillary voters. That is an insult to women. The GOP is not a party with a good record of championing women's causes. This VP pick sounds like a gimmick to me. One that will probably backfire.

Today was a travel day for me. Tomorrow I will be exploring Minneapolis/St. Paul and preparing for next week's RNC blowout. I will post again on Sunday.