Karol Markowicz

Let’s be real, the warm-up acts are never the draw. For every Jimi Hendrix opening for the Monkees (true story) there’s, well, every other opening act you’ve ever sat through to get to the main event. But the Republican National Convention has, for better or worse, managed to flip that on its head. The most memorable speakers, so far, have not been the stars. On Monday, Nikki Haley and Tim Scott did great. But Monday night’s most important moments came from Rep. Vernon Jones and Mark and Patricia McCloskey. Jones talked about supporting Donald Trump and what kind of havoc that wreaked in his own life. The McCloskeys spoke of being ordinary people who had been threatened at their home by the mob we see on our TVs.

In 2004, Democratic senator Zell Miller spoke to the Republican National Convention in New York City. Focusing on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Miller spoke about being a Marine and how partisanship should be put aside for patriotism, especially in a time of war. ‘What has happened to the party I've spent my life working in?’ Miller wondered.His speech brought the house down. I was in attendance and no speech from that convention was more memorable than Miller’s. Compare Miller’s speech to the one given by Republican former governor John Kasich to the Democratic National Convention on Monday night. Miller spoke of patriotism and past instances of statesmen putting aside their partisan strife to work together for a better America.

What was that? That was the question the internet was asking as the disjointed first night of the Democratic National Convention kicked off in Milwaukee. ‘It’s time to let them know what we stand for,’ said Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in the made-for-MTV montage that opened the virtual convention. This night did not accomplish that. The night started out calm. Actress Eva Longoria spoke in muted tones as if she were hosting a telethon raising money for children in Africa. The first major speaker was New York governor Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo has been on a victory tour touting his COVID-19 accomplishments and tonight was no different: ‘Our way worked and it was beautiful.’ ‘Our’ way was losing 32,000 New Yorkers.

A major Associated Press report this week dove into New York’s nursing home COVID-19 death count and found the numbers outright wrong. The story was shocking. Reporters Bernard Condon, Matt Sedensky and Meghan Hoyer noted that ‘unlike every other state with major outbreaks, New York only counts residents who died on nursing home property and not those who were transported to hospitals and died there.’ But it wasn’t new. In fact, AP had sounded the alarm on the miscount as early as May. They learned New York’s Health Department wasn’t even trying to count the numbers: ‘New York's Health Department told the AP May 8 it was not tracking how many recovering COVID-19 patients were taken into nursing homes under the order.

Walk along the leafy streets of any neighborhood in so-called 'brownstone Brooklyn' — Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn Heights — and you’ll see 'Defund the Police' in many a home window. Owners of $3 million brownstones proudly proclaim their agreement with a fringe policy, designed to remove resources from police squads, as a solution to police violence. How exactly less funding for police will result in better policing is unclear, but virtue signaling of the kind that has rich people pushing for fewer resources for poor people doesn’t get tangled up in the details. The details are specifically grim. The New York Post reported on Monday that 'between Monday, June 29, and Sunday, July 5, the city saw 74 shooting incidents with 101 victims'.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is on a publicity tour to cover up his disastrous handling of the COVID-19 crisis in New York and point the finger at red state governors for managing it differently. Puff pieces on his administration have appeared in People magazine and on the website for the governor’s favorite television station, CNN.  Chris Cillizza’s interview with Cuomo did not include any mention of the fact that the New York death rate was not just the highest in the country but one of the highest in the world. That a significant portion of New York’s population dying from the virus can be considered a win for the governor is a true liberal privilege.  Cillizza let Cuomo say absurd things like ‘We tested both theories. We have the evidence. It's numbers. It's irrefutable.

At one point in tonight’s Democratic debate in South Carolina, Mike Bloomberg referred to the other candidates as ‘contestants’. The evening certainly felt like a raucous gameshow. The moderators had no control whatsoever. Everybody had a good time. There will be some nice parting gifts, such as nominations to secretary of State or other offices, should there be a Democratic win.Elizabeth Warren’s campaign is dead — it has been for weeks — but she insists on dragging it around and sticking its rotting corpse in the faces of the other candidates. She’s not happening and no ‘selfie line’ (actually just a photo line) is going to change that.

Unlike the previous snoozers where all the candidates pretended to like each other, the debate in Nevada ahead of their caucuses, was exciting. It’s what happens when six politicians, picked to be on a stage together, stop being polite and start being real. But it’s unlikely to make a blip of difference. For one thing, most of the candidates didn’t do what was in their self-interest. Joe Biden had one real job — take the nomination away from runaway train Bernie Sanders. Instead, he let the Mike Bloomberg media campaign get into his head. Bloomberg isn’t on the ballot in Nevada and he isn’t on the ballot in the next contest in South Carolina either.

After all the fakery of the 2016 election, the hot sauce in her bag, the ‘chillin’ in Cedar Rapids’, Hillary Clinton has finally told, ahem, her truth. And that truth is that she really hates Bernie Sanders. It’s a truth clear to anyone who had watched them during their last go-round. She bristled when she spoke to him. This nothing socialist from some state with three electors was trying to defeat her, Hillary Clinton, whose turn it was to be president. It was obvious. But then suddenly, when the 2016 primary was over, she needed him. His voters were angry. He had lost and it seemed like the fix was in. Hillary needed them to show up for her, so she put on her best smile and made nice with Bernie Sanders.

There’s a funny silence where the complaints about ‘money in politics’ used to be. The latest numbers on amounts spent on TV ads have billionaires Mike Bloomberg and Tom Steyer at $153.1 million and $116.5 million, respectively. Yet no viral pieces have been written, no passionate speeches given about their corrupting influence. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have given lip service to them, sure, but it’s been very muted. Warren told Rachel Maddow that Bloomberg is ‘skipping the democracy part of this’ because his lack of fundraising means he can’t participate in the debates. Of course, anyone who tells you they believe Warren actually would want Bloomberg in the debates is lying to you.

The big news on Monday this week was that latecomer billionaire presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg had ‘surged’ past Sen. Kamala Harris in a new poll by Hill-HarrisX. By Tuesday the big news was that Harris had departed the race. Was it Bloomberg’s stellar 6 percent showing that did it? Unlikely. The Harris campaign had had issues, as documented in a recent New York Times piece detailing the deep mismanagement of her campaign. One of the death blows in the piece was this line: ‘Today, her aides are given to gallows humor about just how many slogans and one-liners she has cycled through, with one recalling how “‘speak truth’ spring” gave way to “‘3 a.m.

Nikki Haley, the first female governor of South Carolina, has a book out this week. Titled With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace, Haley has been making the rounds to promote it and has managed the rarest balancing act of the Trump era: criticizing him when necessary but not going into full-on Trump Derangement Syndrome.Haley appeared on NBC News with Savannah Guthrie this week and the clip went viral because of how hard Guthrie went after Haley. Liberals on Twitter applauded but the clip also made the rounds of my non-political Facebook universe commending Haley for her calm demeanor and grace under pressure. Guthrie focused most of her questions not on Haley’s book but on Haley’s opinion of Donald Trump and Haley swatted them easily.