I understand that, and I gave you its source. Russert is a reputable journalist, so I don’t see the difference between believing what he said or believing what you might see in a newspaper article.
Federal matching funds are for campaigns, not conventions. As I explained before, it is only a very recent phenomenon that candidates are settled on before conventions start. Conventions used to be the place where debates were held, ideas expressed, platforms hammered out, and party candidates actually competed for delegates’ votes.
It was an unimportant, parenthetical, editorial comment inserted into an OP that was about putting a pretty face on tyranny. This was the important paragraph:
Poor choice, I say, and just as weasely as the list given above. I say show us your true face. Make John Asshole your keynote speaker. Put him up there to boast about the new powers you have given him — to hold us in custody indefinitely, to sneak into our homes while we’re away, to inspect our activities in our churches, to read our e-mail, to find out what books we checked out from the library, to listen to our phone calls, to peer into our medical, mental health, financial, educational, and bank records, and to listen in on conversations between attorneys and clients in federal custody — all without probable cause and all without notifying us about what the hell they’re up to. Put the man behind the podium who will tell us that the Statue of David is obscene. Give us the face of your party that opposes gay marriage and other basic human rights. Let the world know exactly what we’ve gotten from you for the past four years — reckless spending, growth in government, new bureaucracies, new deficits, new wars, loss of freedom, increased corporate welfare, new trade restrictions, new capitalism-choking regulations, and loss of all international credibility — and how we can expect more of the same for the next four years if we elect you. Put someone up there to show us why opposition to the United States in some countries is now approaching 100%.
I apologize for snapping at you. I’d rather you’d stay, but focus on what matters. There’s no sense in swatting at a couple of gnats when the whole room stinks of camel’s ass.