From WNYC in New York, this is on the media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield. A political convention is a party's chance to present its most winning self,

to proudly declare under the eyes of the nation that this is who we are. This is what we stand for,

and this is who we stand with. Of the particulars,

the speakers in Cleveland this week left, no doubt. America has a huge problem. It's a disaster,

sad with a capital S. You know, we have stagnating wages. We have skyrocketing health care costs,

doubling of the debt, the threat of ISIS, the rise of China. We learned the killer was an illegal alien gangbanger from Mexico.

We must not be afraid to define our enemy.

It is Islamic extremist terrorism. And for a nation that has lost its footing, its identity,

its very soul, there is but one cure. And here probably is where the RNC most departed from form,

because that cure did not include the requisite appeals to unity or even faith.

No, the party that for 50 years has called for limiting the role of the federal government

now says that the republic's fate rests on the federal government and specifically one singular

pair of hands. I will restore law and order to our country.

Nobody knows the system better than me.

I alone can fix it.

I am your voice.

Doom and gloom is the alpha and omega of political campaigns.

We're used to that.

And we're used to politicians using exaggeration, fabrication, misdirection,

and downright deception to paint America as the stagnant hellscape they intend to resurrect.

But the passion with which they wielded those whoppers and the sheer number of them, isn't this?

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