Bring it on already! Good thing I'm busy cooking so my lack of patience is not completely flared up. Trevor's in NY so I'm without my usual pre-game banter. Anyone else getting fidgety?
This is snooze-ville so far. PBS didn't show Kucinich, which by the pictures online might have been interesting.
I know, I looked around for Kucinich, too! I think they're showing video of speeches at demconvention.com - will have to check.
I still love Howard Dean. Lots.
The MSNBC panel is outright laughing at Pat Buchanan right now -- loooove it.
And Maddow is coronated more and more with every statement, if the crowd's cheers are any indication.
Ooh wait, now Pat B trying to play the crowd?! High comedy.
Eugene Robinson: "Pat, did you just get metaphysical on us?"
WOW! All of Denver now trying to boo Pat off the stage. This is the liveliest I've seen them this election season.
They looked for those types of anti-Obama Clintonites on the floor of the convention yesterday and couldn't find them. It's overblown. I agree with Eric Alterman in his assessment of them--if a Democratic party primary is that important to you, you'd better be ready to embrace the winner. But he's wrong about Nader supporters in 2000; he's using that line to makes his point to people who mostly have have no clue about the Green party movement of the 90s. He should know better.
Here's the question though...if Clinton had won, how many Obama-ites would be on board with her? You know, by the same token and all. I remember back in the spring hearing from quite a few that there would be no chance in hell...
Never heard that.
Ha!!
I did 
OK...I'm here now. I was eating at Cafe Istanbul. Go manti!
But yeah, I agree. Hillary needs a giant show of support for Obama. I'd also enjoy it dearly if she'd call out Darragh Murphy and PUMA PAC by name, and tell them to stop.
Wow, Chris Matthews killing time by being manic and crazy, forcing Keith Olbermann into long silences and "ummmmms." I think we are ALL ready to get this thing going.
On a side note, I kind of hope there's this slow a start tomorrow night bc I have plans for the first part of the evening. At this rate I won't miss a thing.
I'm nervous for tomorrow night. I feel like Bill Clinton is a loose cannon. On a positive note I am really looking forward to Joe Biden's speech! I
Did anyone else see the clip of Joe Biden tearing up before the Delaware delegation today? He was talking about the honor of being Obama's VP, but how the biggest honor was serving the people of Delaware for as long as he has. It was pretty moving.
Seems like pundits are selling Mark Warner's speech as "centrist gets mean!" We'll see how this goes...
Did anybody read Carville's analysis of last night? He said it was too touchy-feely, and the Dems needed to be meaner.
Yeah, I actually disagree with JC on that one. I like the positioning of Night 1 as being about the old legacy and the new hope, and the storytelling that needed to happen to bridge the two.
Of course, I also thought tonight would be far more pointed than it's been thus far. If MW doesn't pick it up, or HRC doesn't knock it out of the ballpark, I might have regrets about Night 1 too.
Hey, I like where he's going!
Bush failures --> McCain doomsday.
This China/business stuff is very effective coming from him... this is a typical R topic, but he's taking it away from them. To a casual viewer, this could be seen as very new.
He is hitting the points JC said needed to be hit. They needed to start pointing out the differences in Obama and McCain, and repeat the mantra that McCain is four more years of the same.
I agree, though, that last night was needed. With all the stupid rumors and rhetoric about the Obama's being anti-American, yesterday was needed.
BTW, on CNN, some commenter said Obama was "a muslin." I asked him if he had a swatch to prove it.
ha! btw, I feel uncomfortable using the abbreviation "JC" for Carville given all his Judas talk. 
Yeah I doubt Obama is a muslin...that is a very dated, 19th century type fabric...
He's nailing the economy right now. Just nailing it.
Pundits saying the critique was not nearly harsh or pointed enough... that I can see, for sure.
His economic stuff is to me what might grab the attention of an R or I tuning in. We need them to understand why their voting patterns aren't doing them any favors.
Eugene Robinson line of the night: "When is a Democrat going to get up there and say the word 'torture'?"
Ouch! Rachel Maddow HATING on the speech. She's pissed. "80% of the country thinks we're going in the wrong direction. You'd think the party looking to overthrow the ruling party would be running on that." Although we know RM is my girl, I'm still more positive on the speech than that, simply bc of those economic themes that I think we desperately need Rs, Is, and rural voters to hear.
But MAN do we need to get mean, and fast. Calling HRC, calling Biden!
Is that right, Mark Penn helped Hillary write tonight's speech@@@@
I heard that he helped write Bill Clinton's speech, not Hillary's. Cue Mary Beth's nervousness...
Ahhh! I'm so nervous now to see HRC. Bring her on!! Let's get the show on the road and end the ridiculous speculation that she is not behind Obama!
Yeah, I agree. I will be just thrilled if she's in top form.
Ahhhh! Marj, your favorite bearded one is speaking on MSNBC!
Goodness so far! I'm feeling very energized and comforted at this moment... SOOO happy she's bringing it!
It just hit me during one of the standing Os... there haven't been enough of those so far. I hope this is the start of higher energy speeches.
"No way. No how. No McCain. Barack Obama is my candidate."
Can she get any clearer for those PUMA wack jobs?
Question - Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Health and Human Services?
Hmmm... how 'bout Senate Majority Leader? Or the next Teddy Kennedy-styled liberal lion in the Senate? I feel like she's awake now, and her voting record will show it. At least I hope so.
She certainly is getting them fired up - and she's definitely fired on McCain.
One of HRC's best-ever speeches? I'd say so.
Keith O: "Grand slam. Out of the ballpark. Across the street. Across the bldgs across the street."
We've flipped over to The Daily Show, to watch the coverage of the first day.
Hee-lair-ee-ous
But more hilarious? The live blogging from Wonkette.
This goes back in the thread some, but Alterman is right about the Nader supporters in 2000. I was a Nader supporter. I was also a political idiot. What a stupid vote I made. Thanks to Nader and political idiots such as myself, we have George W. Bush. Go me!
If anyone still has their tv on, msnbc is doing these very cool interviews in the big crowds outside. These people are PUMPED UP! It's actually totally endearing and nerdy how much fun everyone is having... folks of all stripes going crazy cheering and giving analysis. We are all pundits in our own minds.
So, some final thoughts... I feel overwhelmingly positive about HRC's speech tonight. I truly think it will be remembered as an incredible moment for the Obama campaign and for Clinton herself. Tonight is a valuable reminder of the power of media and its role in creating stories that don't exist, or turning small tidbits into huge overarching news cycles that infect everything. For so long we've been talking about Clinton's reticence to support Obama, and all of that was completely disproven tonight. Yet that story has occupied us nonstop and fueled the fire for so much ill will. Nothing good came out of the story the media has been pushing at all costs, or the hype surrounding it.
That said, HRC was so smart, and so right, to call out those supposed diehards tonight. By speaking to them directly, telling them it is selfish to support the woman and not the values, and that it would be a betrayal to vote McCain, she enabled us to move on to a better place. Painting the picture of what's at stake by voting McCain is something we've haven't done much of this week, and I hope HRC is the first of many to start pounding that theme. But for me: the "diehard Clinton supporters" story is over.
A great night for Democratic politics tonight. Thanks, Hillary.
It was outrageously electrifying live. She was powerful indeed. And we needed just that so badly right now. A legendary speech. I don't see one single weak spot in the entire thing.And her delivery. Wow, just wow.
BTW, I have some HRC observations (as well as Denver stuff) over at the KNME blog (the what?!):
http://www.knme.org/newmexicoinf...nfocus/blogger/
I'll be posting stuff tonight and tomorrow as well, from the bicycle seat POV.
hello!!
KNME blog rocks!!
Items I want to hear mentioned (in the way they have slipped in mention of gay rights):
- investment in education & job training, not jails
- making sure we go back to being a country that *really* doesn't torture
- protecting *all* religious freedom, even and especially Muslims
- shoring up the separation between church & state
Those are the things that I care about that I haven't heard a peep about and that make me want something other than what we've had for 8 years.
All their talk about the new energy economy is about education and job training, and they think they can just not mention jails because in their worldview, racism doesn't exist. Only poverty does. So therefore, more working class jobs equal less jail. Maybe. Maybe not.
But come on Mikaela, all the rest is just *too* beyond the pale. As is any mention of Katrina. -- point out that the U.S. doesn't have just "poor people" but an entrenched underclass that is overwhelmingly not white? *gasp*
Gene, one thing I don't have a sense of from the tele is to what degree there's an African American presence at the convention...
Gene, the blog is fantastic!
Oh, no one's mentioned my favorite line of the night -- from Warner --
"In just 4 more months, we'll have a White House that actually believes in SCIENCE!"
Totally made me laugh -- in horror at the truth of it.
Yes! I laughed out loud, too. Those themes have been so quiet this election. I had a "whoa, he's right!" moment with that one.
Yeah, I just think there are so many opportunities to make *concrete* statements about just how much we're all in this together, which they're hitting pretty hard rhetorically but not specifically.
For example, when that woman from the tire company told her story about discriminatory pay, why not bring up the fact that equal pay for women also helps in the fight for equal pay for workers of all colors and ages!
Or when they're talking about all this "my story is an American story" crap -- which as far as I can tell is only a Horatio Alger rags-to-riches success story -- why not make the explicit link to the fact that each success crossing those class lines into power paves the way for others in *different* but *similar* circumstances to do the same?
In general, I like that they're staying positive and approaching themes that encourage hope and not cynicism (hello - why give that up just to be more "mean"?), but I think they're erring too far on the side of generalities in order not to emphasize divisions. I think you can acknowledge the ways we are divided AT THE SAME TIME you prove in big and small ways why our fates are tied & our work must be coordinated.
Loved that "neighbor" talk last night from the Massachusetts guy. That's what I'm talking about!
Loved seeing Biden's line:
"People don't want you to give them a handout, they want you to give them a chance."
Love that hint toward the structural underpinnings of the problem and the solution!
great points, Mikaela... perhaps you should consider live-blogging with us to discuss in real time?
In order (lotta good stuff in here, btw), I'll be hitting on the African American observations on the KNME blog. I'm sitting tight on that for now. I had a very firm conclusion as of Monday night, but realized now Wednesday 5pm ish it wasn't so firm.
However...
Just told Maggie in an e-mail that I've ridden past two pro Hillary "demonstrations" today. I shit you not. The first one, right outside the security gates took me by complete surprise. I could quite make out what they were saying, but as I got closer, it was, "we'll remember in November!" etc. etc.
It was like a time warp back 24 hours, like last night didn't even happen!
That Hillary could have reached such heights and have it go completely unfelt by some is amazing.
Anyway, here at a coffee shop at 17th and Wazee after trying to chase down the rumor of a traffic stoppage near here by protesters. Never saw it. Gitmo still empty...
Thanks for the Gitmo watch, Gene.
Loving that mental image of that empty waste of space and taxpayer dollars.
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