Conventional wisdom says the conventions are awful. Conventional wisdom is correct. – Spectator Blogs

My friend Kerry Howley heroically tried to find something nice to say about the conventions now mercifully past; I’m made of cheaper stuff and have written a piece for Foreign Policy that’s a little less enthused by all this cultish, hagiographical absurdity. Sadly the editors removed the line: “Perhaps every aborted fetus perishes for Jesus” but, well, as you can see, if you dig beneath the surface the Democratic party is pretty much as repugnant as its Republican counterpart.

My, how each party is doing its best to make the other seem strangely electable. If Republican arrogance grates, Democratic smugness is just as aggravating.

[…] no sentient person can possibly watch these pep rallies and think he or she wants to have any part of either party. By their nature, parties are cults, but their creepiness is never better displayed than at their quadrennial conventions. The theme of this week, always present in the background and sometimes stated quite explicitly, is that the United States and, hell, the world too, is lucky to have Barack Obama as its savior and protector.