A vestigial artifact of a bygone era

So the Republican are holding a national convention. I'm too busy with the campaign to pay any attention to it.

And I know I am not alone. Lots of people are tuning this one out and will tune out the Democratic wingding next week as well. Here's Ed Kilgore on the demise of these quadrennial circuses. This week's speeches are just entertainment for

... a lot of delegates and other self-appointed spox for the party who will want to growl and rant about the Godless Socialist in the White House and his evil plans to disrupt the well-ordered lives of virtuous retirees and loot their savings in order to empower welfare queens and their spawn, the ever-threatening Roving Bands of Youths.

And what's the profit in broadcasting that? Not much, the networks have determined.

We still have national political conventions for the same reason we still empower a handful of states to exert enormous power over presidential nominations -- inertia. ...

The decision to bag [Monday]’s Republican Convention schedule may have been necessitated by the possibility of a weather disaster, but it was lubricated by the earlier decision of broadcast networks to forego live coverage entirely for Day One. Tampa is awash with journalists trying to find something interesting to write or talk about, in a pitched battle with party operatives trying to keep the whole show as boring as possible until the Big Chiefs get their unfiltered opportunity to address a Super-Prime-Time audience.

…it’s probably time to consign them to history.

That would be okay with me and probably with most of us. Meanwhile, I see Hurricane Issac is banging the Gulf Coast. Perhaps someone might notice that these things are ill-timed.