Grading the Convention: A

Spot on (0.00 / 0)

They really know what they're doing.

Is anyone here old enough to have been to a pre-TV (pre-televised) convention? I'd like to hear what those felt like, on the delegate level.

---

by: JimC @ Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 06:22:31 AM CDT

Not prime time. (4.00 / 3)

The spouse read out something from the Globe about pundits carping that Bill Clinton didn't get a prime time spot.
Which reminded me that having the Convention in Denver and timing the agenda to show up in prime time in the West was the whole idea.  That's the part of the country the Democrats have to impress.  And the first step to doing that lies in recognizing that the people who live by Mountain or Pacific time often feel left out because the TV networks do their programming for the convenience of the Eastern Time Zone.

It would be good for the East Coast pundits to discover that the world does not turn according to their watches, but they probably won't.

Ron Brownstein is still referring to New Hampshire as "McCain Country."

---

by: hannah @ Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 06:43:55 AM CDT

I'm confused - (0.00 / 0)

Clinton was on at 9PM Eastern - prime time.

That was 6PM Pacific, 7PM Mountain (where the targeted states are).

Perhaps the pundits were complaining that it wasn't prime time Pacific - which would be midnight here?

Whatever. I didn't expect the Democratic convention to solve the time zone problem, when the networks haven't over the past 50 years.

---

by: elwood @ Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 07:42:43 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Wish I was there... (4.00 / 3)

Mike, you guys are having, literally the time of your life.

I've been waiting for someone to write about Bill's speech about Joe's speech.  I found myself surprisingly pleased and energized after President Clinton's speech... he said exactly what was needed and in a way that it needed to be said.

I felt perhaps like Joe's speech was less than I expected, but after Beau's EMOTIONAL introduction (not a dry eye in the house), I felt like there wasn't anything his father could say to make me more comfortable or happy with his place on our ticket.  Joe could have got up and said thank you and I accept, and that would have been enough for me.  He seemed uncomfortable with the format, having placards waved in unison with refrains in his speech.  For someome typically so comfortable in his own skin, I think last night's speech was hard.  Plus--- how do you go out and be funny and firey after that introduction???

All in all, I have never been more proud to be a Democrat or an American.  And I couldn't be happier with our ticket!

Waking up on November 5th with no regrets.

---

by: Kelly Nordstrom @ Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 06:54:02 AM CDT

Cold Feet (4.00 / 2)

Some Dems are scared because the election is near.

Buck up folks!

The giant finds its gait.

---

by: Jack Mitchell @ Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 07:13:05 AM CDT

Game on n/t (4.00 / 4)

---

by: JimC @ Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 08:26:07 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Not me. (4.00 / 2)

It's good to be a Democrat today!

It's time for a change and I need a nap. Or is it the other way around?

---

by: GreyMike @ Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 09:09:25 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

come and play the sax n/t (0.00 / 0)

This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.

   Dorothy Parker

---

by: JonnyBBad @ Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 09:58:33 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Kerry's speech (4.00 / 2)

was great. I loved the comparisons between Senator McCain and candidate McCain. Very effective.

---

by: jbd @ Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 07:43:21 AM CDT

Kerry's speech (4.00 / 4)

made me wish he had shown that passion and fire 4 years ago.

---

by: Kathleen O'Donnell @ Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 08:25:55 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

It's much easier, not being the nominee (4.00 / 3)

Like I know, right? But that's honestly what I think.

---

by: JimC @ Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 08:49:14 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I agree, (0.00 / 0)

I think he does much better with fewer voices telling him what to say (not to say that last night was extemporaneous, by any means!). I always thought he was a victim of his handlers in '04.

It's time for a change and I need a nap. Or is it the other way around?

---

by: GreyMike @ Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 09:00:25 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Bill? (0.00 / 0)

Only Kelly has commented on Bill's speech, which I missed. I assume he delivered?

Also, I want to mention my favorite line of Hillary's, which I think no one else mentioned. To paraphase: "When my mother was born, women couldn't vote, and my daughter got to vote for her mother for president." I love lines like that. We're a young nation.

---

by: JimC @ Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 09:14:58 AM CDT

Bubba got sway (4.00 / 1)

People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.  

They took us from record surpluses to an exploding national debt; from over 22 million new jobs down to 5 million; from an increase in working family incomes of $7,500 to a decline of more than $2,000; from almost 8 million Americans moving out of poverty to more than 5 and a half million falling into poverty - and millions more losing their health insurance.  

Now, in spite of all the evidence, their candidate is promising more of the same: More tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that will swell the deficit, increase inequality, and weaken the economy.  More band-aids for health care that will enrich insurance companies, impoverish families and increase the number of uninsured.  More going it alone in the world, instead of building the shared responsibilities and shared opportunities necessary to advance our security and restore our influence.  

They actually want us to reward them for the last eight years by giving them four more.  Let's send them a message that will echo from the Rockies all across America: Thanks, but no thanks.

 

The giant finds its gait.

---

by: Jack Mitchell @ Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 09:46:23 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Maybe the media aren't so exhausted (0.00 / 0)

Columbia Journalism Review (via Mediabistro): The 15,000
http://www.cjr.org/campaign_de...

Sixty-two are enjoying massages.

Seven of them are having their photographs taken with Captain Morgan, the rum-loving pirate who, for some reason, was credentialed into the convention. Captain Morgan wears a red frock coat and a frilly shirt and sounds like he was once told in a high school acting class to project his voice from his diaphragm.

One of them is frantically trying to engineer a meeting between Captain Morgan and Ted Sorenson, the painfully dignified Democratic legend who is finishing an interview with Tavis Smiley just as Captain Morgan bursts into the tent, T-shirts and Morganettes in tow. That person is me, and, in this, I am a failure. But, then again, we are all sort of failures here.

---

by: JimC @ Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 09:22:17 AM CDT

Almost forgot (0.00 / 0)

1,026 are drunk. This is as it should be.

---

by: JimC @ Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 09:34:07 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Obama had it right (4.00 / 5)

as Doris Kearns Goodwin opined late last night to Charlie Rose
(and I am going from memory) the people , including me, who thought the 'Clinton moment' was dragging on too long, we were wrong. Obama had it just right when he capped the night with magnaminity...the Clinton supports got their cathartic moment and Obama was not so weak as to fear it, he understood it. It worked purrfectly. Now they can heal, and we move forward together. We need change.

This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.

   Dorothy Parker

---

by: JonnyBBad @ Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 10:02:52 AM CDT

Loftiness of Spirit (0.00 / 0)

I spelled it wrong...drat.

Here's the proper spelling and definition

Magnanimity
The quality of being magnanimous,loftiness of spirit enabling one to bear trouble calmly, to disdain meanness and pettiness, and to display a noble generosity  
a magnanimous act  

This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.

   Dorothy Parker

---

by: JonnyBBad @ Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 17:30:44 PM CDT

[ Parent ]