Late again...

...with this one, but hey, the guy lives in Seattle. I've got to say something.

As most sentient beings in the blogosphere now know, Ron Reagan will make a prime-time appearance at the Democratic National Convention. It's interesting on a number of counts, extending beyond the obvious appeal of having his familial name attached to our partisan festivities.

Ron Reagan's not a Democrat, nor has he endorsed John Kerry. That's how he's voting, but he's explicitly framed it as an anti-Bush vote. He's not blindly ABB, though. He's Anybody Viable But Bush, and his participation in the DNC may up Kerry's 'V' quotient among Reagan's fellow independents considerably.

The real news in his appearance is that Ron Reagan will do something highly unusual, and perhaps totally unprecedented, in the annals of political conventions. He will offer neither unbridled praise for our side, nor unrelenting criticism of theirs. He's actually going to use his time in the podium to talk constructively about a real issue that really affects the lives of real people.

Freaking revolutionary, that's what he is!

"If they had asked me to say a few words about throwing George Bush out of office, I wouldn't do it," Reagan told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "This gives me a platform to educate people about stem cell research."

Having been a national delegate in the past, I'm pretty cynical about the goings on at the conventions. I've come to accept that the delegates are props, the platforms are propaganda and the whole shebang is essentially a political infomercial that just goes on and on and on.

This really is news, though. Kudos to the Convention committee and the Kerry campaign for making it possible.