Never.

Never have I heard a Presidential candidate have such respect for gay rights. Yes we can!

I agree

John Cole states:

And the best thing is what is to come- the train wreck that will be the GOP convention, and that can not be understated. It is going to be a disaster. The Democratic convention was forward looking, positive, hopeful, and constructive. For all the talks of disunity, this party is unified and ready for battle. Contrast that with what we can expect to see next week.

First, we know for a fact that the GOP, unlike the Democrats, will not be able to control themselves. They will launch attack after attack at Obama, and try to destroy him. It will fail, and they will get savaged in the media, who were all present at the DNC. The best thing about the babble all through the Democratic convention is that they will feel duty bound to do the same during the RNC, and they will be shocked and taken aback by the viciousness of the GOP. Bank on it. Either the gild will come off the McCain maverick/respectful lily, or we will have to realize that McCain wants to be President but can not even control his own convention. I will take either narrative for 1000, Alex.

I'm glad someone else agrees with me. All this hand wringing about the Democratic Convention will look absolutely silly when we see the shit show that is the Republican Party. Think they'll be loving on the Vice Presidential nominee? Think they'll have interesting speakers? Think they'll look like anything else but thugs? I don't.

Seriously

Ben Smith points out:

There was, Obama advisors point out, no low-key way to do the nomination -- you can't do it in a diner. And the Republican attacks don't depend on the reality. Still, as I wrote today, his advisors have long known, big speeches can cut both ways. That's why, at one point on the campaign, they were banished to the evenings, so that he would appear in the evening news in more intimate settings.

That's why you do it BIG and embrace it. It's going to be powerful, awesome political theater. I'm sure Sen. Obama is going to have lots of flags on the stage. Republicans are just haters.

Funniest video ever

Faux News attacks Denver protesters, protesters respond:

Something is in the water

This is the third heartwarming story about Sen. Obama that I have read today. It's about Seamus Ahern, the Marine Sen. Obama mentioned in his 2004 Keynote Address. It's so powerful.

Wow!

This picture of the Democratic National Convention podium looks AWESOME! I'm super excited now for it.

Democratic National Convention

As we approach the Convention, I think back to my time four years ago. I cared almost nothing about politics, and the thoughts I had post-Convention were:

1) Barack Obama is awesome
2) John Kerry is kind of creepy

Although I was solidly anti-Bush, I really didn't pay any attention. I often think back to that in order to give myself strength. There was a time when I didn't know any poll numbers, didn't know any gaffes, and had limited grasp of anyone's positions - that is where most Americans still are, so don't sweat the small stuff.

Most obvious article ever

From the Politico, an article entitled: "Obama likely to announce VP this week." Really?? Considering the Convention is next week when else would he announce it? Thankfully the article elaborates:

Barack Obama is expected to choose his running mate this week in a key decision about the direction and narrative of his bid for the White House.

A person familiar with the campaign's planning noted that Obama's schedule at the end of this week is open, but said the announcement could come "as late as the weekend."

That's right. If it doesn't come this week, then it's going to come.... this weekend.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez is full of it

This woman pisses me off:

Rep. Loretta Sanchez says she’s happy for the chance to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton at the Democratic National Convention—and she predicts that as many as half of the Democrats in the House could join her.

No, they won't. Hillary didn't even have that level of support to begin with, I don't know why she would have it now. Rep. Sanchez is the total idiot who refused to attend the Congressional Hispanic Caucus meeting with Sen. Obama and instead demanded that Sen. Obama come to her office and talk to her. She's full of herself and is a bitter deadender.

Sense from David Broder

There's a great article by David Broder in the WaPo about Sen. Obama's "well-oiled machine." Very worth reading, but this struck me:

I had just come from listening to George McGovern lament the lack of discipline that wrecked his 1972 nominating convention and, perhaps, his chance of challenging Richard Nixon. "My acceptance speech was the best speech I ever gave," he said, "and it went on at 3 a.m. Eastern time, so nobody saw it."

It is unlikely to happen to Obama. Now that he and Clinton have agreed -- sensibly -- on giving her the roll-call vote her ardent supporters demanded, no contentious issues of policy or procedure remain to be ironed out.

I am shocked by how many people have argued that Sen. Obama "caved into" Sen. Clinton's demands on the roll-call vote. She got almost as many votes as he did, and I'm not a Clinton supporter, but as I argued in the past, this was the only way to go.

Thank you Sen. Clinton

For engaging in character attacks when you knew you couldn't win. Thank you for enraging your supporters and making them think that John McCain had passed the "Commander-in-Chief threshold" and Sen. Obama hadn't.

From Slate:

When I ask what Obama would have to do to win her over, what she says first is that he'd have to adopt Hillary's health care plan. But by the end of the conversation, we get to the real bottom line, which is that she just doesn't like Obama, sees him as a total poser and nothing-burger who swooped in from nowhere and stole the thing, and all the health care reform in the world is not going to change that. At this point, she's thinking seriously about staying home on Election Day. She is not going to wake up the morning after Hillary's name is placed in nomination and have a whole new lease on Obama. And my guess is, Hillary knows that.

It's just a reminder of all we have to thank Sen. Clinton for when we are discussing the roll call vote.

More on the roll call vote

According to the NY Times, Sen. Clinton will use her superdelegate vote to vote for Sen. Obama. If I were him, I would return the favor. Nothing says unity like that.

Further prediction: I think this will be an incredibly well choreographed event and will end up being a saccharine sweet unity love fest.

Not worth the effort

If someone wants to spend $1,000 to see Sen. Obama accept the nomination, I think the Obama campaign should let them. Although, I understand that they want to control who gets in (security, security, security), I'm sure that the metal detectors will work perfectly.

Duh!

Of course Sen. Clinton's name is going to be placed in nomination. I could have told you this months ago. Marc Ambinder reports:

In negotiations this summer with Obama's campaign, Clinton's team did not ask for Clinton's name to be submitted.

But within the past week, Clinton advisers informed the Obama team that many of Clinton's staunchest supporters felt strongly that something had to be done, and that Clinton had concluded that, in part for the sake of unity, their wishes ought to be respected. They heard back immediately: the Obama campaign had always been open to having her name placed in nomination alongside his.

DUH! Seriously, I always knew that the deadenders were not truly representative of Sen. Clinton's feeling. I mean, she already lost, why do you want to take a vote that commemorates your lose? However, certain people are under the illusion that she can win, so they are forcing this. Whatever. I knew the Obama campaign would be okay with this. Why not? They get to win all over again.

Sen. Clinton has shown a lot more class in losing that I would have expected. Marc goes on:

Clinton aides also confirmed, and Obama aides did not dispute, that it was Clinton who informed the Obama campaign that she did not [want] to give the keynote address to the convention. It is not clear whether the Obama camp would have offered the honorific, but they did not, sources said, deliberately deny it to Clinton.

It's nice that she's getting this out there. Not that the deadenders will believe her.

Sen. Bob Casey

I'm happy to see that Sen. Casey will be speaking at the Democratic Convention. I'm less happy to see that the lie promulgated that his father wasn't allowed to speak in 1992 because the elder Robert Casey was "anti-abortion." No, Gov. Casey refused to endorse Bill Clinton.

MoDo too

It seems that today I agree with those who normally I can't even read. MoDo sums up my feelings about Hillary Clinton with this:

Obama also allowed Hillary supporters to insert an absurd statement into the platform suggesting that media sexism spurred her loss and that “demeaning portrayals of women ... dampen the dreams of our daughters.” This, even though postmortems, including the new raft of campaign memos leaked by Clintonistas to The Atlantic — another move that undercuts Obama — finger Hillary’s horrendous management skills.

Besides the crashing egos and screeching factions working at cross purposes, Joshua Green writes in the magazine, Hillary’s “hesitancy and habit of avoiding hard choices exacted a price that eventually sank her chances at the presidency.”

It would have been better to put this language in the platform: “A woman who wildly mismanages and bankrupts a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar campaign operation, and then blames sexism in society, will dampen the dreams of our daughters.”

Interesting

Steve at The Carpetbagger Report highlights the Democratic platform's "shift" in language describing its position on abortion:

But it’s not necessarily a policy change to argue that the party “strongly supports a woman’s decision to have a child by ensuring access to and availability of programs.” Wallis calls this a “shift”; I call this the same policy Dems have supported for years.

Some of this may be procedural in nature. Waldman noted, “Pro-life religious liberals were included in the process like they haven’t been before. They’re thrilled with their participation and feel that the platform moved in the right direction as a result.”

I’m glad they’re encouraged; it’s a sign of respect to have a seat at the table. But the platform itself, at least in this draft form, seems pretty similar, if not identical, to the party’s position on the issue for years.

It's interesting to compare this to my time at the UN, monitoring the status of various resolutions. Giving someone a real voice in creating the document is very important, which is why we saw so many of the LDCs and LLDCs gather together into groups to influence the final resolution.

Elizabeth Edwards

Elizabeth Edwards will be able to speak truth to power at the Democratic Convention about the need for Universal Health Care and John McCain won't be able to say squat against her. She not only has terminal cancer, but is the "cheated on" wife of a major adultery scandal.

So far between this and the Clinton delegate voting controversy, the Democratic Convention is turning into a major media Event. Just like the Obama team wants it. By contrast, the big "news" at the Republican National Convention revolves around Vice President Cheney. I like that comparison.

Sen. Obama can do what he wants

Seriously, I don't know what Michael Crowley at TNR is thinking saying:

More handwringing about Obama's optics: I see that tickets for his acceptance speech at Denver's Invesco Field stadium sold out instantly. In light of the apparent traction Republicans got with their 'Celebrity' meme you have to wonder if the Obama team is reconsidering the wisdom of this move. I would recommend any possible stagecraft to minimize the event's scale.

What traction? With political pundits? I don't see any polls that support this "traction" idea. Why minimize it? Why think small? When was the last time anyone generated this much excitement? The Republicans are just jealous, small, and petty. You are going to have 75,000 people excited about politics. It's not like Sen. Obama is going to get on the stage and sing "I Kissed A Girl" to them - no, he's going to have a serious discussion about the future of our country.

What will they do?

When Hillary Clinton is not nominated? I'm 100% sure there will be a floor vote. Hillary will lose. I suppose they will hope for a John McCain win, followed by Hillary 2012.... But, when Sen. Obama wins, what then?