Live Blogging the DNC: President Obama

10:24 Michelle Obama introduces her husband.

10:25 Obama tells Michelle he loves her. He gives a shout out to his daughters and jokingly tells them that they have to go to school tomorrow.

10:26 Obama accepts the nomination. Not exactly a shock. The crowd starts chanting four more years.

10:27 Obama: "Hope in the face of difficulty."

10:28 Obama mentions the "political gridlock." Hopefully, Obama has realized the Republicans have no interest in compromise.

10:29: Energy of the speech is sinking slightly. Clinton are Biden raised the bar high.

10:31 Tampa is getting a lot of negative shout outs tonight because of the Republican National Convention.

10:32 Obama scores with a joke on Republicans repeating the same bad policies. 10:33 Obama: "We've been there. We've tried that. We ain't going backward. We're moving forward."

10:36 I heard background shouts of U.S.A. At the RNC delegates would shout U.S.A. when Codepink tries to protest a speech.

10:40 Obama is losing me with bragging about his teaching the test education reform.

10:43 The Republicans have no comeback for Osama bin Laden being dead and Team Obama is going to beat them with it.

10:45 Ding! Pander to Israeli hawks.

10:45 Obama is zinging Romney for his hysterical foreign policy blunders.

10:47 Obama is hitting his stride now.

10:49 Obama points out that Romney's deficit reduction plan based on more tax cuts and military spending makes no sense.

10:50 Obama vows not to turn Medicare into a voucher system. 10:51 Obama zings Romney on his comment on getting money for college by borrowing from your rich parents.

10:53 Obama mentions gays in his speech.

10:54 Obama: "We have responsibilities as well as rights."

10:56 Obama is putting it in second gear.

10:57 The line about standing up to lobbyists would be more convincing if Obama didn't take campaign money from Wall Street and drug companies.

Live Blogging the DNC: Charlie Crist

Crist says he didn't leave the Republican Party. The Republican Party left him. Crist says he can't support Romney and Ryan because they are beholden to billionaires and uncompromising bullies.

Crist didn't come out and officially declare himself a Democrat. Crist's DNC speech was short but will make people believe that he is positioning himself to run against Rick Scott.

Jeb Bush will probably not like Crist calling him a "friend."

Charlie Crist at the DNC

Gary Fineout tweets that Charlie Crist is getting the VIP treatment at the DNC.

US News and World Report says that Crist met privately with First Lady Michelle Obama today and she thanked him for endorsement.

Live Blogging the DNC: Bill Clinton

10:34 Bill Clinton is in the house. The crowd loves him.

10:35 Bill Clinton could fart and the crowd would go crazy.

10:36 I almost expect Bill Clinton to nominate himself. The crowd would cheer if he did.

10:37 Clinton gives Michelle Obama a nice shoutout.

Clinton gets in a funny line about how every politician wants you to believe they grewup in a log cabin they built himself.

10:40 Someone mentioned on Twitter that unlike George W. Bush, Clinton shows up as a rock star to the convention. Bush didn't even show up.

10:43 Clinton takes Republicans to task for putting partisanship over solving problems.

10:45 Clinton says we should give Obama a second term because he will keep working with Republicans. Someone should inform Obama that Mitch McConnell was elected to the Senate on a racist anti-school busing campaign.

10:49 Mitch McConnell's statement of making Obama a one-term president comes back to haunt him. 10:52: Clinton delivers Reagan's classic, "There they go again." Awesome.

10:55 Clinton is ad-lipping huge chunks of his speech.

10:58 Clinton brings up good points of auto parts dealers being saved by the trickle effect of the auto bailout.

11:00 Clinton: "Renewable energy has doubled."

11:01 Clinton talks about low interest student loans.

11:03 Clinton goes into health care. The energy dies down somewhat.

11:05 Clinton brings up the Republicans misleading attacks on Medicare. What Obama got rid of was the wasteful Medicare Advantage.

11:08 Clinton gets a standing ovation.

11:10 Bill Clinton is tearing Romney's Medicare and Medicaid cuts apart by humanizing the costs.

11:14 Clinton is tearing Romney and Ryan a new asshole.

Clinton: "Double down on trickle down."

11:21 Clinton rightfully calls Republicans out for their horrible voting restrictions.

11:23 It will be hard for Obama to top this speech.

Live Blogging the DNC: Deval Patrick

I wish politicians stop saying "the election of a lifetime."

9:47 Deval Patrick drops broadband access.

9:49 Patrick calls Republican economics "trickled down fantasies."

Core question: what does a party believe. Patrick gives a laundry list. Romney in his surrogates did not define what they want to do with governing powers.

Patrick is sounding progressive with talk about Democrats needing to grow "a backbone." Whether he means it is another question. It is qa good message.

Patrick is on the same juice Ted Strickland drank tonight. Patrick certainly sounds excited.

Democrats seems to talk more about Obama at their convention than Romney. Republicans talk more about Obama than Romney at their convention. It's like Romney is not in this election.

9:55 Jesse Jackson is in the house. Also an actor whose name escapes me at the moment. 9:56 Patrick has a dream.

Live Blogging the DNC: Kathleen Sebelius

9:11 Kathleen Sebelius has the misfortune of coming out after Ted Strickland's barn-burning speech.

9:12: I'm experiencing Ted Strickland withdrawal.

GOP consultant Rick Wilson asked on Twitter if Sebelius is flat. The answer is yes.

Live Blogging the DNC: Tammy Duckworth

I don't know much about Duckworth's policy positions. I do find her personal story amazing.

8:41 Biden looks like he is about to cry.

8:42 Duckworth mentioned Obama repealing DADT. There was a time Obama wouldn't go near DADT. 8:43: Duckworth starts to drone on after a while. She needs to work on delivering a stronger speech. Chants of USA start.

8:44 "Moving forward" is the theme for the convention. It reminds me of Clinton's "bridge to the 21 century."

Live Blogging the DNC: Choice

8:21 Short clip of President Obama saying that the war on choice long ago. Republicans are still fighting against choice. If Obama think Republicans will stop trying to restrict women's reproductive rights then he is mistaken.

A young woman comes on stage to speak for reproductive rights. It would have been awesome if the speaker was Sandra Fluke.

8:26 Nancy Keenan of NARAL onstage.

KEENAN: We believe rape is rape!

Sandra Fluke's name is mentioned by Keenan.

8:27 Keenan tells audience that women can't trust Mitt Romney. I'm curious about Romney's statement that abortion is the Supreme Court's domain. Is Romney saying that he would veto anti-abortion legislation that hits his desk? Romney is either screwing over his base or lying to women. That doesn't say much about his word.

Live Blogging the DNC: Robert Wexler

8:03 Rep. Robert Wexler makes the case that President Obama more likely to go to war with Iran than Mitt Romney. I think think America is yearning for another war in the Middle East.

8:05 Shorter Wexler: going to war for Israel makes Obama's dick hard. Mitt Romney is a pussy version of a hawk.

Side note: Wexler is a supporter of both Obama and former Gov. Charlie Crist.

Live Blogging the DNC: Ken Salazar

Interior Sec. Ken Salazar speaks Spanish at the DNC. Honored RNC guest Joe Arpaio tells anyone that will listen that President Obama is not an American citizen. Think about this when people say that there is no difference between the two political parties.

Live Blogging the DNC: Jimmy Carter

7:33 Jimmy Carter sounds a lot like Elmur Fudd.

7:34 Cater's speech was taped. The former president is not in Charlette.

Carter talks about Obama standing up to people with money. Is that why the Justice Department dropped charges against Goldman Sachs.

7:35 Shorter Carter: being president is tough. Obama's job is tough.

Quote of the Day

"We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage, whether you can put a little extra money away at the end of each month so you can someday watch your child receive her college diploma.We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was president... "

Barack Obama, accepting the Democratic nomination.

I wonder if Obama still measures progress by that same standard.

More On Obama's Speech

Creative Loafing's Alex Pickett pointed out that Obama exceeded the expectation of many. Including your's truly.

he covered everything he’s been hit on in the last several months and he surprised so many (including Hussey up there):

they said he wouldn’t attack McCain, he bodyslammed the mofo.

they said he can’t articulate his positions, he gave an intro to his positions. mofo.

they said he couldn’t beat his 2004 speech.
uh… yeah. presidential nominee.
mofo.

In InstaPundit world: Glenn Reynolds needs to posts that are critical of Obama's speech. Reynolds doesn't have any thoughts of his own. Which should surprise no one.

Live Blogging Barack Obama Acceptnce Speech

Watching the speech on C-SPAN. Obama hasn't hit the stage yet. The music is annoying me. Why don't political conventions plays Sonic Youth's Bad Moon Rising? Tell me that.

Dick Durbin is introducing Obama.

Creative Loafing has a comment tread going on about Obama's acceptance speech.

10:04: They are airing the feel good movie/informercial.

10:06: Michelle Obama: Who names their kid Barack Obama?

10:08: I understand that the informercial is to introduce Obama to the masses. It might have viewers flipping the channel.

10:13: Obama hits the stage.

10:14: I'm watching an acceptance speech by a black man, in the stadium the Denver Broncos play football. How fucking wild is that?

10:15: Obama accepts the nomination. Crowd goes wild.

10:16: Obama gives a shout out to Hillary. Obama needs her supporters.

10:21: Obama: Enough!

Amen.

10:22: Obama's "Eight is enough line" is fantastic.

10:24: Obama is attacking Phil Gramn's "whiners" comment. Obama is in attack mode. Surprising.

10:26: Obama: John McCain doesn't get it.

10:28: Obama hitting working class message.

10:35: Obama: Washington has been talking about oil dependance for 30 years and John McCain for 26 of them.

10:37: Obama is going through laundry list of priorities.

Wayne Garcia of Creative Loafing.

Barack is smoking hot tonight.

The crowd is eating it up. It's a Democratic audience, but the cheering will play well in the media.

10:42: Good! Obama attacks McCain on Iraq and his lack of commitmentment on Afghanistan.

Obama: John McCain said he would follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell, but he won't even follow him to his cave.

Game. Set. Match.

10:48: Obama's "Patriotism has no party" line is exactly what voters want to hear. It recalls Obama's red state/blue state 2004 keynote speech.

10:51: Obama accusing McCain of using scare tactics and tying it on McCain not having fresh ideas.

Obama: This election is about you.

10:55: Say hello to your next president. McCain can't top this.

I don't know how this will play in the media. By all appearances, Obama nailed it. He addressed the McCain attacks and stayed on his message of hope. That is a difficult feat to perform. Obama has the skills to pull it off.

I see people in the audience crying tears of joy. Wow.

The Obama and Biden families are on stage together.

Fireworks are being set off. I can see why they wanted the speech outdoors.

John Kerry's Convention Speech

John Kerry gave the speech of his life last night. If you haven't seen it, you should watch it. Word is Kerry wrote the speech. A rarity these days in politics.

Live Blogging Joe Biden Speech

10:27 Biden's son is introducing him.

It's Beau Biden.

10:30: Here comes Joe. To bad music. The song is Pink Houses. Good thing they didn't pick Hurts So Good.

10:33: Joe throws props to the Clintons.

10:34: Delaware is in the house.

10:34: Biden accepts the nomination. Boy, I didn't see that coming.

1035: Biden jokes that the Vice-President will not answer the phone at 3:00 AM.

Biden: Giving up is unforgivable.

10:37: Mama Biden sent Joe to keep getting his ass kicked as a kid.

10:38 Biden is delivering a working class message. Obama needs to appeal to these voters.

10:39 Intentionally confusing Bush with McCain. Audience eats it up.

10:40 Biden: McCain doesn't seem to get it.

10:41 Biden ties Obama into working class message. Biden talks about being raised by a single mother and his work in Chicago.

10:43: Biden: We have the power to change it.

10:45: Biden: That's not change - that's more the same.

10:47: Obama can create 5 million new jobs?

10:48: Yes! Equal pay for women!

10:50: Biden correctly calls Bush's foreign policy a failure.

10:51: On Afghanistan: Obama right and McCain wrong.

Biden is attacking McCain's judgement. Democrats need to hammer this message.

10:53: Biden is a hell of a lot better than Edwards and Lieberman were at the convention. That isn't saying much. That said, Biden nailed it.

10:56: Obama is in the house.

10:57: Obama thinks the convention is going well. That's debatable.

11:00: Here comes the photo op.

The End of Hillary Mania

Hillary Clinton releases her delegates. Her Barack Obama endorsement, to her delegates, is less than inspiring.

"I have spoken to many of you and you have questions about what to do. You want to vote according to what is in your heart. I am not going to tell you what to do. You have come from different places and made a long journey.

"I cast my vote for Senator Obama this morning."

Andrew Sullivan says Hillary "did the minimum." That isn't enough. Ezra Klein laid out the case for what is wrong with the convention.

Say what you will about the 2004 Convention, it had a theme. Conversely, the first night of the 2008 Democratic Convention had Michelle Obama bring the warm and fuzzies, Ted Kennedy calling forth tears and hankies, and Jim Leach speaking quietly and pedantically without any serious promotion from the Obama campaign. The second night of the 2004 Convention saw Barack Obama tearing apart the arena. In 2008, we had Mark Warner with a well-crafted speech that fell flat because it was an attack structure that refused to name the politician it was attacking. You had Hillary Cinton giving a powerful address, but it was an address that was broadly aimed at problems in the Democratic Party, not the problems with the Republican Party.

Barack Obama has an allergic reaction to negative campaigning. That is the worst thing to do against a McCain campaign run by Karl Rove accolades. The Democratic National Convention was a chance for Obama to come out with a bounce. Now the Obama campaign will play defense from attacks from the Republican National Convention. Obama learned nothing from the Clinton impeachment and Swift Boat attacks. David Kurtz explains that the Obama change campaign is resistant to change.

But I think its ambivalence about doing so is less a result of the Democrats' historical tendency to fritter away opportunities because of fear and trepidation, and more because the Obama campaign spent tens of millions over a year and a half to build Obama's sterling reputation and they are afraid of breaking it. It's different from what hobbled Dukakis and Kerry, but the outcome could be the same.

Lofty rhetoric and feel good messages don't win elections. Especially, when one's opponent is beating him to death with a sledgehammer.

All Delegates to Be Seated

Barack Obama will seat all the Florida and Michigan delegates.

"The delegates and alternates who gather on Monday, August 25 will reflect the talent, energy and rich diversity of our Democratic Party. The delegates will come from all 56 states and territories. As these delegates go about the important business of the Convention, I believe Party unity calls for the delegates from Florida and Michigan to be able to participate fully alongside the delegates from the other states and territories. Accordingly, I ask that the Credentials Committee, when it meets on August 24 to approve the delegates for the National Convention, pass a resolution that would entitle each delegate from Florida and Michigan to cast a full vote.''

Florida Democratic Party Karen Thurman sent out this press release.

Today is a proud day for all of us who fought so hard to ensure Floridians votes are fully counted.

Just minutes ago, Sen. Barack Obama sent a letter to the DNC credentials committee urging them to restore the full vote of the Michigan and Florida Delegations, proving his commitment to uniting the party and ending the uncertainty surrounding the process.

With Florida's economy in recession for the first time in 16 years, our state leading the nation in job loss, and we are number two in foreclosures, Floridians in every corner of our state are excited to elect Barack Obama and other Democrats this fall to bring change to Washington and Florida. The people of Florida know Barack Obama and other Democrats will rebuild our economy, create good jobs, and lower gas prices and homeowners insurance rates.

I want to thank Barack Obama, the Florida Congressional Delegation, the Democrats in our Legislature, and voters across Florida for fighting to have our votes count. This is a proud day for all of us.

All is well in the universe. Until Florida pols figure out another way to fuck up a presidential election.

Hillary Supporters Fight On

Georgetown University law professor Heidi Li Feldman and blogger Marc Rubin are attempting to challenge the Barack Obama nomination on the floor of the Democratic National convention. Rubin recently wrote a post wondering if Obama actually is the nominee. Neither Feldman or Rubin have the support of Clinton.

Hillary will not challenge Obama the way Ted Kennedy did to Jimmy Carter at the 1980 convention. Furthermore, the party establishment turned on Carter. Obama is too popular for delegates to revolt on. Hillary will wait in the wings and run again.

This is a nice way of saying that Feldman and Rubin don't have a chance in hell of placing Hillary's name in nomination.

Florida Democrats to Select Delegates

Florida Democrats will be holding caucuses March 1 to choose delegates for the Democratic National Convention. Howard Dean and the Democratic National Committee have offered no indication that Florida delegates will be alowed.

The Clinton people think the March 1 caucases is the greatest idea since the invention of the wheel. The Obama campaign think the caucases are the second coming of New Coke.