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Hollywood producer Rob Long is in New York to do up the RNC alongside Warren Olney at KCRW — the station's Republican analogue to Harry Shearer, who went to Boston. On today's L.A. Times op-ed page, Long observes that the swag bags don't measure up to home.
Let's be honest here: Conventions are no longer about choosing a nominee, or conducting party business. They're boondoggles, junkets, enormous pep rallies. Midtown Manhattan, from Sixth Avenue west to Ninth, and from 32nd Street north to 44th, is just one big tray of hors d'oeuvres, so the least they could do is get it right. The expected thing — no, the decent thing — is to throw in a few freebies.Maybe I've been in Hollywood too long. There I was, standing in the great hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, surrounded by my fellow upbeat Republicans, and all I could think about was where was my bag of free stuff.
On Tuesday night, the Distilled Spirits Council came through.