I recently visited the web sites for both the Democratic and Republican Conventions partly out of curiosity as a result of the news that Kanye West and Tony Bennett will be performing in Denver for the Dems, and the Beach Boys and some country acts that I don’t care about will be in St. Paul while attendees have the chance to visit the Larry Craig Memorial Men’s Room Stall at Minneapolis Airport (and I should note that that their political sympathies are primarily the reason why you won’t find any Beach Boys videos at this site).
I realize that construction is ongoing at both sites, but I should point out that, when you visit the Dems’ site, the first messages you receive pertain to diversity, faith-based caucuses (a first), and the fact that Lilly Ledbetter will address the convention a week from today. This is all good stuff, hitting populist concerns. There is also access to a “Convention 101” set of links providing a convention glossary, information on how delegates vote, and more on the super-delegates, something I wish the party would seriously consider scrapping after the Obama/Clinton dustup this year. And there is a link to tourist information telling people what to see and where to go in Denver, as well as a link directly to the convention blog, of course.
When visiting the Repugs’ site (where the first thing you see is the scary countenance of John W. McBush), there is about a one-second delay when navigating between links because they apparently want you to view the photo of one of the lakes in the vicinity; nice to play up the natural beauty after the first click or two, but after multiple clicks it gets to be a little ridiculous, always having to look at that photo (it kind of reminded me of the “How Not To Be Seen” Monty Python bit, and I was expecting to click on a link at some point, and then see the photo with someone in the foreground doing something silly).
Also, I think the display and text fonts at the GOP site are too big; not sure what they had in mind with the page design. I should point out, though, that they have it over on the Dems in one important category, and that is the En Espanol link; the Dems would be well advised to come up with something similar to that by next week. It is also not difficult to navigate at their site to access the typical information one would find, though I must tell them that, under the FAQ section, I for one don’t care how many balloons will drop when McBush and his surrogate officially win the nod.
And speaking of the Repugs, I thought it was amusing to read here that Sen. Norm Coleman basically said he wouldn’t attend the soiree except for the fact that it’s in his home state (keep trying to run from Dubya, Cheney and McBush, Norm; you’re part of their party too).
Update: And by the way, I realize the conventions are meant to whip up everyone into a fervor, but as I look down the list of speakers here, I know Steny Hoyer definitely has some issues, but the presence of this guy is just about too much to tolerate, given his seamy, cowardly capitulation on FISA; Kagro X has more here - Rockefeller opposed all FISA amendments, not just Bingaman's.
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