FacebookTwitter

About Paul Stanley

Paul Stanley is a commercial insurance executive, writer and former journalist living in Memphis, Tennessee.

People You Meet and Questions You Ask at Political Conventions

Part of the experience of a political convention is encountering all types of people in the hallways and on the city sidewalks. Some of the best talking heads the Democrats have are in town this week and on-message with daily talking points on why President Obama deserves a second term. But I think its the rank and file delegates who provide the more insightful conversation. After a long day of reporting at the Charlotte Convention Center, I stopped off at a restaurant a few blocks down the street to grab a bite to eat and wait on the rain to lighten up before moving on to my next event. I wasn’t looking for an interview when I took an empty seat next to a gentleman and his wife who looked like they were in town for a political event. And I was right. After a few minutes of small talk, they told me they were convention delegates from Iowa. Then the husband asked if I was a delegate. “No, I’m a journalist and I’m in town to cover the convention,” I replied. That’s when I told them I wrote for The Christian Post. Yep, you guessed it. We started talking [...]

By |2012-09-03T22:40:13-05:00September 3rd, 2012|My Blog Post|Comments Off on People You Meet and Questions You Ask at Political Conventions
Read More

Labor Day at the DNC; Wasserman-Schultz Addresses Faith Council

Most of the Delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte have arrived and are wandering around downtown Charlotte in an effort to acclimate themselves to the events of the next three days. Although it’s Labor Day in at the DNC, you won’t see a big union presence because North Carolina is a right-to-work state and the AFL-CIO reminds the Democrats of that fact every chance they get. A handful of big labor bosses will be in town but they won’t be spending big labor bucks on the convention. The highlight of the day is the Carolina Fest being headlined by James Taylor. My only other major convention experience was attending the 1996 Republican Convention in San Diego. If you can’t remember that far back, Sen. Bob Dole and former Secretary Jack Kemp were the party’s nominees. And in case you are wondering, they didn’t win but it was fun nonetheless. I drove in and parked as close to downtown as I could this morning but still had to walk about 15 blocks to reach the convention center. I picked up my credentials (maybe I’ll write a separate post about that process) before finding the media center. All the big [...]

By |2012-09-03T15:17:37-05:00September 3rd, 2012|My Blog Post|2 Comments
Read More

Heading to the DNC in Charlotte

As I write this post I’m sitting in the Nashville airport on my way to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Only as a child would I have thought I would find myself attending a gather such as this since my parents were involved in Democratic Party politics during my formative years. Many of my friends and their parents found themselves in the same situation, especially if they grew up south of the Mason-Dixon line. But I am not covering the event from a partisan perspective; instead, I will be covering it as a journalist. Besides my parent’s political involvement, my great uncle, Jess Lanier, was the mayor of Bessemer, Alabama and also served as the chairman of his state’s delegation at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, Illinois. This is the same convention that saw multiple protests over the Vietnam War and where police roughed up a number of journalism including Dan Rather when they attempted to interview delegates who were being escorted out of the building. Hoping that doesn’t happen to me in Charlotte. My objective will be simple: I’ll be covering how religion and faith are presented at the convention and what themes the Democrats [...]

By |2012-09-02T19:06:32-05:00September 2nd, 2012|My Blog Post|Comments Off on Heading to the DNC in Charlotte
Read More

CORPORATE WIFE? GIVE ME A BREAK

Below is an outstanding piece written by my friend Penny Nance, who heads up Concerned Women For America. It addresses Fox News correspondent Juan Williams comments about Ann Romney coming across as nothing more than a "corporate wife" during her speech at the Republican National Convention. No further introduction is needed since Penny sums it up so well. Maybe it's the fact that we just have too many professional commentators who simply must comment on every little detail at a moment's notice, but the comments by Fox News' Juan Williams following Ann Romney's speech yesterday were just not appropriate and, as a woman, I feel must not go unaddressed. I like Juan Williams as a commentator, he's a really nice guy, but I think he got this one wrong. Commenting on her performance, Williams said she looked, "like a corporate wife."  A corporate wife?  What in the world was he talking about? What could Ann Romney have done not to look like a "corporate wife?" Would a little less make up do it? Maybe if she would have worn her hair in a pony tail? I've got it. Maybe she could have worn jeans and a Planned Parenthood t-shirt. Would that have done it? [...]

By |2012-08-31T10:24:40-05:00August 31st, 2012|My Blog Post|Comments Off on CORPORATE WIFE? GIVE ME A BREAK
Read More

Did Labeling FRC a ‘Hate Group’ Prompt Shooter to Target Christian Nonprofit?

There has been much written about the unfortunate shooting Wednesday at the Family Research Council offices near the nations Capitol in Washington, D.C. The gunman, Floyd Corkins, entered the lobby with a bag that held about 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches and a 9mm handgun. Corkins shot FRC's building operations manger Leo Johnson in the arm. Johnson the subdued the shooter until the police arrived. Honestly, I don't know if I could have exercised that much patience if I had been shot. But Johnson's decision was the right one. I'm sure we'll get more details in the coming days but one remaining issue that warrants discussion is why the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies FRC as a "hate" group, along with the KKK and other neo-Nazi groups. Really - a "hate" group? Comparing FRC to a group that wants to exterminate non-whites is like comparing Billy Graham to Charles Manson. It is simply hard to wrap your mind around the similarities shared by the two. But one of the best op-ed's I've read on the issue is by one of The Washington Post's more liberal writers, Dana Milbank. Just as he makes the point that he doesn't see eye-to-eye with FRC's Christian [...]

By |2012-08-16T22:23:39-05:00August 16th, 2012|My Blog Post|Comments Off on Did Labeling FRC a ‘Hate Group’ Prompt Shooter to Target Christian Nonprofit?
Read More
Go to Top