History

I was thrilled with the speech itself, especially loving the focus on working class issues. Sirota says: "The speech is probably the most populist national speech Obama has given." and I agree with that wholeheartedly. It looks like Obama is solidifying his attacks on McCain from a populist point of view, and that is great news for our chances of winning and for the pressure it will put on him to actual pursue this progressive politics while in office. It's also not an easy living up to the hype when the last speech you gave at a democratic convention is widely considered to be one of the best given in the last 10 years. Well done.

What did you think?

Thoughts on the convention

I've been able to catch pieces of it live, and other parts on youtube.

• The Ted Kennedy tribute was moving, and seeing him speak was something else. For events that are usually nothing more than showpieces, that was genuinely powerful.
• Anyone who reads this site knows my feelings on Hillary Clinton, but I've got to say, she has shown an amazing amount of class. She could have mailed it in, she could of stolen the headlines, but instead she did exactly what she needed to do. Her speech was good, but her calling for Obama's nomination to be approved by acclimation was truly phenomenal.
• Peter DeFazio and Austin Goolsbee talking about fair trade? David Sirota did it, and there may be hope for Obama's trade policy after all.
• Gov. Schweitzer is awesome, and should be parked in front of a microphone between now and the election.
• Joe Biden showed his strengths yesterday by devoting 95% of his speech to attacking McCain. More of this, please.
• This type of crap is pretty depressing.
• Speaking of depressing: I know he's gonna be at Obama's speech, but how the fuck was Wes Clark not on stage last night? Sure a national security night featuring only pro Iraq war people is a great message to send, it's just that he's a better speaker than any of them (Except Clinton) and he was against the war from the begining, you know, like that guy we nominated.
• There has been some criticism of the Obama campaign editing the speeches given at the convention. Sadly, they robbed us of what would have been the best line of the whole event, courtesy of Dennis Kucinich:
  

  “They’re asking for another four years — in a just world, they’d get 10 to 20.”

• Corruption Defined: Matt Stoller, Glenn Greenwald, Jane Hamsher and others discover something fantastic: So let's get this straight: The Blue Dog Democrat (the openly corporate whore wing of the democratic party) has a party... paid for by AT&T, who they might have just helped by being the lead group to flip and pass this thing. AT&T gets amnesty from aiding President Bush spy on Americans courtesy of the Blue Dogs, while Blue Dogs get cocktail weenies and free booze from AT&T. What a wonderful system we've got going here. Be sure to check the link for the video of them trying to interview the attendees. Give them credit, at least they know they have something to hide!
• This tool makes word clouds from anything, and here are clouds from the speeches given at the convention. I can't tell you how awesome this thing will be for the Republican National Convention.
  
• I'm actually really excited for tonight. In addition to that whole history thing, I'm pumped for the speech, especially if the rumors are true and it's focused on working class issues. The bar couldn't really be set higher with that whole 80,000 people thing, so let's hope for the best.
  

Clinton's Speech

Anyone have strong feelings about Hillary's speech last night? Almost everyone in the press (virtual, print & televised) seems to be loving it – and it was a great speech – but I wasn't as moved as I was by her concession speech back in June. Then again, I saw the concession speech as unequivocally supporting Obama, which most of the media did not for some reason.

"Were you in this campaign just for me?" is exactly right, though.