More Conventional Thinking

Just returned from a weekend wedding in Houston--the unzoned dark heart of Red America, choc-a-bloc with ten-story parking lots and ugly modern architecture. Fireworks stands line the highways connecting downtown to the (ugh) Bush International Airport, and the SUVs are all supersized. A scary place.

At any rate, I'm a little conflicted about John Kerry's currently floating proposal to put off accepting the Democratic nomination at the party convention scheduled to be held in Boston at the end of July. Through a combination of smart planning and good luck, Kerry already avoided what I (and a few million other fretful Dem partisans) was really worrying about six months ago: coming out of the primaries with no money and no defense against the inevitable barrage of Republican efforts to "define" the candidate through negative ads. Opting out of the public finance spending limits and winning the nomination quickly, Kerry has raised more dough than any Democrat in history, and has gotten a further boost from the notionally uncoordinated spending of the "527s"--advocacy groups like Moveon.org, America Coming Together and others. Now I guess the fear is that the campaign still could face a variant of this "going dark" scenario, hamstrung by having five less weeks to raise money than the Republicans. So he can delay accepting the nomination, thus basically circumventing the rules that limit candidates to the $75 million publicly funded allotment for all expenditures after accepting the nomination, and keep taking in those campaign checks for an extra month or so.

I have to be honest here: if the Republicans tried to pull a stunt like this, I'd be screaming bloody hell. Sadly, the campaign finance rules are already so universally sneered at that this sort of stunt could have the unintended positive consequence of getting reformers on both sides fired up to reinvigorate the toothless and pathetic Federal Election Commission. So really the question is how this would play politically: the Republicans are promising to raise a stink, and possibly to stage a "counter-rally" during the convention in hopes that the networks would provide them equal time. I'm waiting to hear what Kerry's bud John McCain, a prophet without honor among his fellow Republicans for his steadfast support of campaign finance reform, thinks of this plan; if McCain speaks out against Kerry on this one, the press is sure to follow his lead.

Michael Tomasky at the American Prospect expresses concern that this maneuver could spark a backlash against Kerry that would more than offset whatever gain he'd realize from having five extra weeks to raise money. Tomasky particularly worries that the TV networks would just ignore the Democrats, especially if the president is speaking in prime time against Kerry.

I love Tomasky, but I think he's worrying too much here. Kerry can ensure media attention by delaying the announcement of his vice-presidential pick until his speech, and really, anyone who's upset about the Democrats' gaming the campaign finance rules isn't likely to abandon Kerry in favor of the most heinously pay-for-play administration since the Gilded Age...

Most exciting, though, is this note that Bruce Springsteen might stage a little counter-programming of his own against Bush's acceptance speech during the Republican convention in New York on Sept. 2 by offering a free concert somewhere. The Boss--a strong Democrat of decades' standing--would suck up media oxygen from the protests against the convention (which I'll be joining, but remain terrified about) and could offer a devastating critique of Bush's policies, virtually in real time. When I was daydreaming about how to counter the convention last year, a Springsteen concert in Central Park was the highlight of my fantasy program. If it comes to life, at whatever venue, I might have to get all my protesting out of the way earlier in the week.