Tigers in Detroit

Detroit, Tuesday—Democrats looking forlornly for hopeful signs can take satisfaction from the Republican Convention’s having opened without the traditional benediction. What happened is that the minister who had been engaged to invoke the blessings of the Lord at “12 o’clock,” showed up at 12 o’clock—midnight: on the understandable assumption that political conventions are sinful affairs, which can logically be expected to begin at night.

So let’s see, we have a) the missing benediction. What else? Robert Strauss, Democratic National Chairman, was interviewed on television and his line of analysis was interesting, namely that candidate Reagan in 1976 had faulted the Republican Administration for much the same sort of thing he is now faulting the Carter Administration for! Bob Strauss is a likable and foxy old bird, but the trouble with his line of argument, if it becomes a principal inventory item in the Democratic defense, is that it is neatly dispelled with a single shaft: Reagan was right both times. I.e., we did, indeed, under Nixon-Ford, spend too much money on this-and-that, and not enough money on defense. But the appropriations for this-and-that, as for defense, were made by Democratic Congresses. The idea, this time around, is to elect not only a Republican President but also a Republican Congress.

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

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Detroit, Tuesday—Democrats looking forlornly for hopeful signs can take satisfaction from the Republican Convention’s having opened without the traditional benediction. What happened is that the minister who had been engaged to invoke the blessings of the Lord at “12 o’clock,” showed up at 12 o’clock—midnight: on the understandable assumption that political conventions are sinful affairs, which can logically be expected to begin at night.

So let’s see, we have a) the missing benediction. What else? Robert Strauss, Democratic National Chairman, was interviewed on television and his line of analysis was interesting, namely that candidate Reagan in 1976 had faulted the Republican Administration for much the same sort of thing he is now faulting the Carter Administration for! Bob Strauss is a likable and foxy old bird, but the trouble with his line of argument, if it becomes a principal inventory item in the Democratic defense, is that it is neatly dispelled with a single shaft: Reagan was right both times. I.e., we did, indeed, under Nixon-Ford, spend too much money on this-and-that, and not enough money on defense. But the appropriations for this-and-that, as for defense, were made by Democratic Congresses. The idea, this time around, is to elect not only a Republican President but also a Republican Congress.