Could Someone Point Me in the Direction of a Servicy Maverick?

My piece for The Guardian's Comment is free America about Day Two of the GOP Convention, "Servlicious Servitude in St. Paul," is now up:

The convention centre is very small and populated by very white people. It looks like a glorified high school gymnasium decorated for a high school reunion, the theme of which is "Service: The Courage and Service of John McCain." Hey, did you say something about service? If anyone had asked me, I would have suggested "Service: The Servicy Courage and Servlicious Service of Servicemeister John 'Service' McCain."

But enough about John McCain. The talking heads are chatting about his veep nominee Sarah Palin. Pat Buchanan is practically drooling as he enthuses that Palin "embodies the entire Republican platform." Chris Matthews, in his ongoing quest to make me celibate, says: "I think we just hit Pat Buchanan's erogenous zone." Ugh. Correspondents wander the floor of the convention center, conducting interviews with a series of Republican hacks who show various levels of enthusiasm for Palin and a consistently tepid confidence in the vetting process by which she was selected.

The convention is called to order. Flags. Anthem. Matthews calls the singing of the national anthem a "heroic moment," and all I can think is that the standards for heroism really aren't what they used to be.

Read the whole thing here—which serendipitously serves as a bit of a companion piece to rrp's post below, as I get into the competing narratives of the conventions.