It’s a riot watching the PBS team. They seriously sound like they are all about 80 years old (maybe because they are?), talking about the young people looking good dancing; cracking old people jokes about Biden’s orthodontist; loving them some Stevie Wonder. It’s kinda funny (and a nice break from the MSNBC bickering despite my Rachel Maddow love)
Interesting historical tidbits: FDR and JFK did open-air, large crowd nomination speeches. Geez, does Obama know how to pick his historical precedents or what.
Best non-Obama line of the evening: “You need a President that puts Barney Smith before Smith Barney.” Whoever wrote that line should get a raise because that was freaking brilliant.
People were worried about the Greek columns for no reason. It looks fine on TV, very presidential, and I have to say that the full stadium is pretty damn impressive during the sweeping camera shots. That’s a whole lot of people there.
You might think it’s the second coming of JFK and FDR and MLK (and a little bit of Marilyn Monroe thrown in for good measure) with the frenzy that’s surrounding Democrats in Denver and the media that suckle at their breasts. But no, it’s just a man — a historic, paradigm-shifting, silver-tongued man — accepting his party’s nomination. In a football field. With a crowd of 75,000 expected.
Will Democrats ever stop loving Bill Clinton? We keep forgiving him over and over again for all sorts of stuff. Why do we do that? I mean, he did some crappy stuff over this past year and yet the roars and cheers keep coming.
Everyone is loving the Bill Clinton speech. Pundits, bloggers, the audience. Even Andrew Sullivan! It’s good to remind us that there was a time when America wasn’t hated around the world.
Hey, here it comes: Barak Obama is ready to lead America.
Nice touch on the “place called hope.”
Clinton did what he needed to do by reminding people that we’ve been through the “no experience” charge before. Was it enough to convince those that needed convincing. Who knows?
I’m torn between my inappropriate girl crush on Rachel Maddow and my absolute annoyance at Luke Russert. So it’s on to PBS for the rest of the night.
And again, I missed one of the best speeches of the evening. Jeez, John Kerry — would you warn me when you are going to be good? I will have to watch it online later tonight. I either need to leave work earlier or think about spending the night there so I don’t waste the evening waiting for the bus that never comes. Why do these politicians give the speeches they should have given when it mattered. First Hillary last night and now Kerry tonight (you can throw Gore into that group as well). Do you suddenly grow a pair after you’ve run and lost? What’s up with that?
It’s taking Biden a while to get warmed up (and oops on that Freudian slip) but now he’s hitting a stride. Kinda. No, no … now he’s really going.
Oiks … “absymal” “catastrophic failure” … these are strong, strong words from Biden against the Bush foreign policy and by extension, John McCain.
Change is the theme … get it? Because if you didn’t get it tonight, you are going to get hammered with it tomorrow.
I can’t wait for the vice presidential debate. Biden is going to slaughter the opponent.
Obama is throwing lots of love to Hillary. Are the PUMAs really stilll a viable voice of dissent? Because what looked like weakness and ceding of the limelight to the Clintons actually now looks like mastery of diplomacy and harnessing of their star power to the greater cause.
PBS commentators just keep reminding us of how old they are. Jim Lehrer making comments about the “youthful” David Brooks (who is frankly not that young) just makes them seem older than even John McCain. And that’s not an easy claim to make.
I know I shouldn’t get caught up in this stuff … it’s all orchestrated, it’s all just pageantry, it’s all just backroom deals and handshake agreements that will somehow end up hurting us or the party or something … and yet, I have to say that watching the roll call vote today gave me goosebumps.
It’s been a while since there’s been a roll call with more than one nominee but I don’t think allowing it to happen hurt anything. I think it went a long way to acknowledging that Hillary did indeed put up a good fight and deserved the votes she got (even if the 18 million is a fuzzy math number). And to have her call for the cessation of the roll call and instead nominate Obama by acclamation was pretty impressive theatre.
And I have to think that this is a moment that will never again be in my lifetime. Oh sure, there will be another female candidate for president (and this time she might get the nomination) and there will be another African-American candidate for president — maybe even at the same time again — and the next time the positions might be reversed. But these … these were the first.
And I was here. I saw it. I witnessed it. It really happened.
Why I picked it up: Another one of the 50% off bookshop bankruptcy sale buys. Plus, I really liked Dirt Music and The Riders (although I don’t think I understood that one very well).
Tim Winton writes about men. Not just any men but a particular strain of men — loners whose outward … stoicism (for lack of a better word) … barely covers the fraying emotional hold they have on themselves. “The school of Macho Romanticism, or perhaps better, Heroic Sensitivity,” the The New York Review of Bookscalled it. They are good men, hard men and, in many ways, shattered men. They could be American men (particularly of the John Wayne in the True Grit role) but — because Winton is Australian — they are not. And they sit out in their Australian landscapes which is as harsh and unforgiving as they are to themselves. Breath is no exception. Maybe because these protagonists are Australian Macho Romantics rather than American Marlboro Men, they are also supremely cognizant of their isolation, painfully aware of how close to the edge they are. There is something primal keeping them living.
It appears that while the major channels were talking to themselves or to boring Virginia wanna-be, probably gonna-be senators, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer gave one hellava speech. So I missed it. But again, thank goodness for the internets and their uncanny ability to not let a single moment of our collective history go unrecorded.
You could read the speech but watching it is way better. Don’t worry; it’s not too long.
Why are there no cable channels showing the Kucinich speech? It looks like he’s getting a good response (thank god for the intertubes). I actually would prefer to hear what he has to say as opposed to hearing the media talk to each other about Hillary Clinton.
If it weren’t for my love of Anderson Cooper, I would totes turn off CNN. Best election team, my ass. Please, someone give Carville and Begula new jobs far, far away from any television cameras.
Someday, a wife of a man running for President will get up in front of America and not have to talk about herself primarily as a mother, as a daughter, as a wife. She will be able to talk about Princeton and Harvard Law School without having to reference her humble roots as a corrective. She can proudly list her accomplishments including a stint as a high-power attorney and then as an executive in a major health care system without worrying about the thousands of “normal” people she is alienating. And she won’t have to worry that a dislike of her equals a vote against her husband.
In my obviously naive college years, I thought that Hillary Clinton would be the last time a potential First Lady would have to trot out the “I as woman am only defined successfully by my interactions with children, parents and spouses.” Think about how much should have changed in 20 years! Oh, innocence. How pathetically cute you are when you die.
I get it. I get that there are Clinton supporters who might not like how the whole thing played out. I get the anger over the sexism — subtle and not-so-subtle. But I fundamentally cannot believe that the 30% of Clinton supporters who say they will vote for McCain over Obama would have voted for her in the general election.
Look, I understand the protest vote. Hell, I voted for Nader. Twice. But when you protest vote, you vote for the person who’s even more extreme in your direction then what’s currently offered. You don’t protest vote backwards.
When a Democrat chooses the Republican over the Democratic candidate to prove a point or to make some sort of statement, they are no longer a Democrat and in fact, may never have been.
and 
(although I don’t think I understood that one very well).
is no exception. Maybe because these protagonists are Australian Macho Romantics rather than American Marlboro Men, they are also supremely cognizant of their isolation, painfully aware of how close to the edge they are. There is something primal keeping them living.