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Written with Bernard A. Weisberger. Originally published at BillMoyers.Com.

We might wish the uproar from the convention halls of both parties these busy weeks were the wholesome clamor of delegates deliberating serious visions of how we should be governed for the next four years. It rises instead from scripted TV spectacles — grown-ups doing somersaults of make-believe — that will once again distract the public’s attention from the death rattle of American democracy brought on by an overdose of campaign cash.

No serious proposal to take the money out of politics, or even reduce its tightening grip on the body politic, will emerge from Tampa or Charlotte, so the sounds of celebration and merriment are merely prelude to a funeral cortege for America as a shared experience. A radical minority of the super-rich has gained ascendency over politics, buying the policies, laws, tax breaks, subsidies, and rules that consolidate a permanent state of vast inequality by which they can further help themselves to America’s wealth and resources.

On Wednesday, Jonathan Cohn asked if Paul Ryan's address was "The Most Dishonest Convention Speech ... Ever?" Now that Mitt Romney had his turn, I decided to answer the question.

Mitt Romney laid out his case to the American people last night. The speech was long, bloated with the sleep inducing poll tested patriotic treacle and banal pieties that have become inescapable on these occasions. Mitt Romney campaigns in prose, with a mind given to power point not poetry.

This Republican convention is the convention that assumes (hopes) that everyone has amnesia and will forget ... everything. They hope you forget that the budget was balanced before they got in last time, that the economy was doing great before they got in last time and that there were jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs before the got in last time. They especially want you to forget George 'W' Bush.

Their opponents shouldn't be too quick to call Republicans "crazy." It makes more sense to employ that time-honored investigative principle: Follow the money. Sure, they've said crazy things -- in their speeches and in their official platform. But crazy?