Whose speech had highest rating at recent presidential conventions?

It wasn't Barack Obama and certainly not Mitt Romney. So was it Bill Clinton or Clint Eastwood? No! Democratic Vice-President Joe Biden topped the ratings.

According to Nielsen ratings 14.7% of the 289.7 million in the U.S. in homes with televisions watched Joe Biden's speech at the Democratic national convention. Obama managed 13.7% and second place with Mitt Romney coming third at 12.5%. Former President Bill Clinton came in fourth with 10.9%. Clinton however was competing with the NFL opening game. Clinton had more viewers. The rather bizarre performance by actor Clint Eastwood at the Republican convention had 9.9% for his viewing audience. The three major U.S. networks had an hour coverage for each of the two conventions. Perhaps the 43.6 million people who tuned in to see and listen to Joe Biden expected him to make some historic gaffes as happens often in Biden speeches. I include three memorable gaffes by Biden. Biden certainly certainly does not denigrate his opponent Hillary Clinton in order to become Vice President of the U.S:

“Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be Vice President of the United States of America. Let’s get that straight. She’s a truly close personal friend. She is qualified to be President of the United States of America. She’s easily qualified to be Vice President of the United States of America. Quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me. But she’s first rate.” — Sept. 10, 2008, speaking in Nashua, N.H.

In describing Barack Obama Biden gets all tongue tied in politically incorrect praise:

I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” - Jan. 31, 2007, describing Barack Obama during the Democratic primary. Biden later apologized.

Finally Biden appears to be counting challenged but at least he had the spelling correct:

Look, John’s last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number-one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs.” — Oct. 15, 2008, speaking in Athens, Ohio.

God, Israel, and damage control

Oops! The Democrats omitted reference to God and to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in their 2012 platform. Republicans attacked and so damage control was the order of the day.

As shown on the appended video Antonio Ramón Villaraigosa Mayor of Los Angeles and high profile Latino representative in the drama chaired the session that suspended the rules and introduced the amendments. To introduce the amendment itself Ted Strickland was chosen. He has a Master of Divinity degree and was former governor of Ohio. This is all meant to show that the appropriate high level Democrats all love God and Israel.

When the vote is taken the chair is obviously perplexed at the result. The vote needs a two thirds majority to pass. Instead of somehow arranging an actual recorded vote which was obviously much too complicated for the Democrats the chair was given the responsibility of assessing the decibel levels.

This might work had the will of the convention attendees been clear. But it was not. As you can hear on the video. The result is not clear. To his credit Villaraigosa accepted this and so voted again with almost exactly the same result. Puzzled the chair took a third vote with the same unclear result.

No doubt Villaraigosa knew that the amendment was supposed to pass and so he declared that it had passed in the opinion of the chair on the third vote. There were quite a few boos. We can expect the Republicans to gloat on this result and use it to go after the Democrats again.

The Democratic Party, they can claim, is filled with atheists and anti-Semites who boo God and hate Israel. It is not clear who originally removed the clauses from the 2012 platform when they were in the 2008 document.

No doubt many think that it is not really appropriate to incorporate reference to faith in a political platform. The United States is not supposed to be a theocracy. However religion obviously plays a huge role in U.S. politics. Imagine if you can the uproar if the Democrats had chosen an Imam to announce that reference should be made to Allah in the Democratic platform! Marketing of the Democratic brand must be carefully managed so as not give offense while attracting votes.

Every U.S. president has taken the position that the status of Israel should be decided through negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. However the Jewish lobby is also very important in U.S. politics. Proper rituals must be played out to show that Israeli demands are front and center in American politics. American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) members were apparently involved as the 2012 Democratic Platform was drafted. However they may not have read the final text.

When the Republicans, including Romney. used the omission of required references to Jerusalem to question Obama's pro-Israel credentials obviously action had to be taken immediately. Obama apparently personally intervened to have references to God and Jerusalem as the capital of Israel put back in the platform. As you can see from watching the video appended the Democratic convention is far from democratic.

Democrats restore God and Jerusalem as capital of Israel to Platform

After reference to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was removed from the 2012 Democratic platform the Republicans rushed to the attack. The reference had been in the 2008 platform. Faced with a Republican attack questioning Obama's credentials as pro-Israeli appaently the president directly intervened to ensure that there would be an amendment to the platform that would say again that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

Robert Wexler a member of the platform committee said that President Obama intervened directly to support the motion the JTA(Jewish Telegraphic News) reported. Wexler said: "They are returning the language to the 2008 situation...The president directly intervened to make sure this amendment happened." Democratic insiders described the omission of the reference as an inadvertent error!

Romney had a field day with the issue saying:“It is unfortunate that the entire Democratic Party has embraced President Obama’s shameful refusal to acknowledge that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. During his visit Romney had stated the Jerusalem was Israel's capital. However Romney did not mention that the Republican party had altered their own statement about Jerusalem being Israel's capial. Originally they had said Jerusalem was Israel's undivided capital but "unidviided" was removed, as was a promise to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.

Actually both Republican and Democratic administrations follow the same official policy that the status of Jerusalem should be settled by negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. In fact initial statements from the Democratic National Committee were not that the omission was inadvertent but that the aim was to bring the platform in line wiith the fact that it has never been the policy of any president to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. But the reference to final status negotiations also appeared in the 2008 platform along with the statement about Israel as the capital of Israel.

No one seems to know how exactly the statement about Jerusalem being the capital of Israel was left out. It is rather surprising since apparently AIPAC officials were present during the drafting of the platform in Minneapolis last month. However apparently the group did not see the full final text.

The appended video showing the vote on the amendment that would restore the reference to Israel as the capital of Israel is astonishing. The chair obviously does not like the first vote. It is not clear which side won. There is supposed to be a two thirds vote in favor of the amendment. The only faiir way to decide would be to have a recorded vote. Of course there was no intent to do that. Those with experience in ramming motions through would just declare the motion carried as if there were no doubt whatsoever and go on to the next bit of business.

The chair is perplexed and has another vote. The resullt is no less unclear. So he calles a third vote and then declares the amendment carried, eliciting many boos from the crowd. They call the meeting a convention but it seems more like a circus and it is certainly not democratic. For more see this article.

No doubt the Republicans will point out that the Democratic party is full of atheists who boo God and do not want him in the Democratic platform. But even worse they boo Israel and do not want to say that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.