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The Belly Of the Beast

Stopped by the little National Review office on the second floor of the media tent a while back to introduce myself to Jonah Goldberg and Rich Lowry. Nothing of particular interest transpired, it's always hard to tell what people really think in these cross-party dialogues since the tendency is for both sides to adopt heavy cloaks of irony to keep the conversation fun and upbeat. Kate O'Beirne stopped by, back from a chat with Bill Kristol at which she learned that the Standard was not, in fact, creating daily print issues, which seemed to please her. On one substantive note, Rich and I agreed that it's really hard to say what should be done about the Falluja situation.

July 28, 2004 | Permalink

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Comments

Speaking of the belly of the beast, how fat does Jonah Goldberg look in person?

Posted by: blah | Jul 28, 2004 9:33:23 PM

Matt,

Are the TAP folks all going to the RNC as well, in the same spirit that NRO is covering Boston?

Posted by: SoCalJustice | Jul 28, 2004 9:41:54 PM

Trying to picture this:

"Hey, you're the famous blogstar Matt Yglesias!"
"And the infamous scourge of the left Rich Lowry. Good to meet"
"How 'bout that Fallujah, real mess, huh"
"Yup, by me dude, cluster most f."
"Yup."
"Well, see ya later, dude."
"Later"

I've always assumed these Harvard hyper-intellectuals do Bill & Ted impersonations as casual conversation.

Posted by: bob mcmanus | Jul 28, 2004 9:56:30 PM

Looking forward to an MY post on the Edwards speech.

I thought it was a pretty poor performance by his standards. IMO, he definitely suffered by comparison to Clinton and Obama (but he allegedly has a bad cold).

And I imagine Kerry will too.

But I'm sure the crowd will be so fired up when he speaks tomorrow, regardless of his rhetorical skills, and maybe he'll raise his game.

Posted by: SoCalJustice | Jul 28, 2004 11:16:06 PM

This reminds me of the scene in Anchorman where the rival news teams circle each other on the sidewalk. Next time you should bring Confessore and McGarvey with you.

Posted by: JP | Jul 28, 2004 11:31:33 PM

If that wasn't Edwards' A-game, I'd really like to see him when he's on. It may not have been a perfect speech, but it was still pretty damn good.

Posted by: JP | Jul 28, 2004 11:32:42 PM

JP, you think so?

I remember him being much better during the primaries. And he gave a few pro-Kerry speeches after the nomination was locked that were amazing.

Maybe I'm just bored with the "two Americas" theme.

Posted by: SoCalJustice | Jul 28, 2004 11:40:35 PM

The PBS commentators reacted in a pretty similar way. Shields and Brooks both thought it was less than his best effort, but both of them had seen him give that same speech many times during the primaries. The three historians on the panel hadn't seen him speak before and they all thought he'd done really well.

For me, this was only like the second time I've seen Edwards speak.

Posted by: JP | Jul 28, 2004 11:51:47 PM

That might be it. I was watching MSNBC and Christ Matthews and Chris Jansing both loved it.

I did some volunteer work for his campaign, and followed it fairly closely, and I really wanted him to beat Kerry.

But if he's still wowing people on what seems like an off night, that's a great sign.

Posted by: SoCalJustice | Jul 29, 2004 12:02:05 AM

And now I'm listening to Gergen on CNN talking about how he thought the "two Americas" part was particulalry effective.

It's all eye of the beholder stuff.

At any rate, I was thrilled when Kerry chose Edwards to be his running mate, although I wish the ticket were reversed.

Posted by: SoCalJustice | Jul 29, 2004 12:04:26 AM

TPM already posted:

"Friends who I watched the speech with, down on the floor just to his left, thought Edwards was about 75%. I don't know how much it appeared that way on TV. He may only have come off that way if you'd seen him a lot on the campaign trail.

His voice was slightly hoarse and cracked on certain phrases. He seemed to me like he might be getting sick.

Still, with all that, he has an irresistible charm."

Sounds about right.

Posted by: SoCalJustice | Jul 29, 2004 12:26:22 AM

Er, just wondering Matt. Is any tax payer money used to provide space for bloggers and other journalists to meet and greet, hook up to the internet, and whatever else? I'm losing count of the blogs and online articles I've read by people supposedly engaged to write about the convention and they discuss everything but. Most bloggers are writing about other bloggers.

Posted by: lookwhoimet | Jul 29, 2004 1:22:27 AM

Definitely not up to par, but OK nonetheless. His eyes looked swollen, I guess from the cold,and the lights seemed to bother him. He just didn't have the rhythm that he usually does, nor the spark.
But let him rest, then put him out on the campaign trail, and people will see how capable he really is.

Posted by: justa grata honoria | Jul 29, 2004 3:04:42 AM

Seeing as Jonah is the chunky, clunky Matthew Yglesias, I'm surprised that he didn't recoil in pain...

Posted by: ahem | Jul 29, 2004 5:02:16 AM

I thought the most important part of the speech was "We will destroy you."

Posted by: praktike | Jul 29, 2004 10:03:19 AM

pics of Jonah and the other NROites in some bar at this guy's blog:

http://jackdied.com/blog/

Posted by: sic semper | Jul 29, 2004 10:10:20 AM

At any rate, I was thrilled when Kerry chose Edwards to be his running mate, although I wish the ticket were reversed.

Hey SoCal, all you have to do is help get Kerry elected and reelected and you just might get your wish in 2012. ;)

By the way, I thought Edwards' entry onto the stage was just a great political moment, even though it wasn't part of the speech per se. I know TAPPED has been all over the music selection at the convention this week, but for some reason, with the audience going crazy the way it was, "Higher and Higher" just felt like the perfect song for that moment. Great political theater.

Posted by: JP | Jul 29, 2004 11:44:29 AM

pics of Jonah and the other NROites in some bar at this guy's blog:

http://jackdied.com/blog/

Yikes, this kid is dorky-looking. Conservatives are losers. And how do you not recognize Ramesh Ponnuru at an NRO social function?

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