No particular issue for debate here, but the Democratic Convention is going on this week, a lot of Dopers pro- and anti-Dem will be watching it, and we can have lots of fun discussing it.
My first observation: For reasons I cannot fathom, the DNC leadership has decided there will be no “Bush-bashing” in the convention speeches, and speakers seem, so far, to be sticking to that rule – but there is a lot of oblique Bush-bashing going on. Talk about things that need to be done that (by implication) the Bush Admin has not been doing. There is a lot of general talk of “they.” But nobody ever says the B-word out loud. It seems to be working.
Carter was mumbling a bit–does he have false teeth? I think he also showed the best and worst of himself: invoking such lofty principles and then, on PBS, complaining how “we” walked away from the road map for the Middle East–uh, yep, we’re reponsible for how everyone else behaves.
The 9/11 remembrance was a bit odd, but how the hell would you handle that, after all. Good speech by the bereaved Sri Lankan-American Muslim mother.
Great speech by Hillary. Bill’s on right now and is speaking pretty fast for him. Heh, he hasn’t said the B-word either, but right now he’s talking about the tax cuts and how he’s benefitted from them with his new income. OK, lots of oblique Bush-bashing going on. It’s always THEY, not HE, which frankly is more acccurate anyway.
He (Clinton that is) has also started at 10:36; I would not like to be the local network guy who now has to reshuffle the late-night schedule. The burning question, of course, is what will THE DAILY SHOW do? They’re up there and getting ready to go but what if Bill is still flapping his yap?
Good speech so far. No news being made as such, but nice to hear a confident speaker.
Jimmy Carter sure mentioned it; I don’t think he said Bush, but we all knew what he meant.
I was happy to see Howard Dean, he got off a good line when Sean Hannity said he was there on the floor and had a question; Howard said “They let YOU on the floor Sean?”
I enjoyed the preacher and also the female from Wisconsin, who did come across a bit cloying but her content was good.
Clinton is speaking now.
All I’ve caught is Clinton’s speech, on public radio. Not all of it, but goodly chunks, as I was driving to and from the barn for a late-night haying of my horse.
I thought it was darned effective. It may not come across as well in print, but hearing him work that crowd was a treat.
It’s always a pleasure to see Jimmy Carter. I thought his speech elocution is going downhill a bit, but he did a journeyman job. His references to Bush were oblique enough as to not be offensive. His great line was that we need a leader that does not mislead.
Bill did a great job. You can see why he was on Monday, you certainly wouldn’t want to have him lead into Kerry. Clinton is still a great speaker and a tremendous asset. If Kerry is as smart as I think, he won’t let Clinton’s talents go to waste in the campaign.
Dammit, THE DAILY SHOW is a rerun! After all last week being reruns! I don’t care how many Emmys you’re up for this time, you’re a fake news organization, get your act together!
:mad:
I did enjoy Clinton’s speech. If Kerry doesn’t end his with “Send Me!!” he’s an idiot. And that line about strength and brains going together was good too.
We are responsible for “our” own leadership on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If there has been any leadership out of the present White House on that matter, I have seen damned little of it.
Say what you want about Bill Clinton, but that rogering, philandering, slick son of a bitch still has it. In terms of rhetoric, that was one hell of a speech (even thought PBS lost its signal for the next to last two or three minutes). Damn, he is good. And he looks good.
Poor old Jimmy Carter (is he 80 years old?) did not look comfortable on the stand but he did very well, citing chapter and verse, in the interview afterwards.
It seem to me that the “strong and smart” theme is something we will see again before Thursday is over.
President Clinton’s speech was very compelling. The line about strength and wisdom not being contradictory qualities was very good. The litany of democratic successes compared with our present state was also very effective. It had me wondering what the Republicans will have to fill up the time during their convention. Their campaign message so far has been overwhelmingly negative, and overwhelmingly personal in attacking Kerry. I have the image of them having a giant Kerry poster behind their speakers with a big mustache painted on it.
So far, an excellent beginning to a very moving and energizing convention.
I like the positive message theme. It goes well with Kerry’s campaign up to this point; I still haven’t seen a flat out negative TV ad run by John Kerry. People are mad enough about Bush that the DNC doesn’t have to turn into a week of Bush bashing, just stay with the goal of “introducing” Kerry to voters.
I’ve heard people say how a Democrat wouldn’t be able to win running on a platform of “I’m not Bush.” So Kerry isn’t going to do that. I hope he takes this opportunity to get his policies and the truth out there.
How is stating that we are not following through on the Israeli-Palastinian affair isn’t saying that we are responsible for anyone’s behavior? It’s just saying that we are responsible for not keepint up the effort. And if you look at GW’s history in business and Afghanistan and the war on terror that is to be expected. Big hopes, lousy execution.
It makes a lot of sense to me. I personally find the anti-Kerry ads by Bush’s team to be not only mind-numbingly boring, but they leave me with more of an unfavorable opinion of Bush than of Kerry. I expect a lot of swing voters feel the same way, and those are the one who count.
Two different strategies (by the Pubs and the Dems), and I suspect Kerry’s will be the better one if he can stick to it. He might have learned something from Edwards during the primaries.
The crowd is committed, enthusiastic, and united. Gore speech was as direct and on point. Jimmy offered the depth of his ancient of days wisdom, and the edged bit of drollery elder statesmen are permitted. Hillary was warm and personable, intelligently humorous without being silly. And the Big Dog was his crowd squeezing self, if he could run again, it would be like stealing candy from a heavily sedated baby. All in all, the convention reflects the groundswell arising in America to crush the Forces of Darkness and send them scurrying for shelter, as the people speak as in one voice! “Send Kerry!”
I could give Clinton a big a hug for bringing up the AWB. Nothing will get the pro-gun crowd riled up like ol’ Scratch himself waxing philisophical about the AWB keeping ‘deadly assult rifles out of the hands of terrorists’. The sight of the Dems clapping during that bit is wonderful; Rove himself couldn’t have staged it better.
The interview with John was one of the funniest I’ve ever witnessed - that guy is naturally funny.
Carter made some of the more brutal points against Bush of the evening, in a very smart way - he seemed the least “filtered” of the bunch. Gore made some good jokes on his own behalf, and sounded like a man who has learned from his mistakes. Hillary worked the crowd pretty well, but of course everyone was overshadowed by Bill. He schooled them all in the art of live speech.
It was fun to surf between CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC, PBS and CSPAN and see how it was handled by all. CSPAN is the only way to see the whole thing, CNN had some good and some stupid stuff on, and Fox had a moment right after Bill’s speech when the shell-shocked reporters on the floor could find nothing bad to say about the man - MAGIC! Of course they fixed that after the commercial break…
There was a moment on CNN during the Bill speech when the crowd was going nuts over something he said, and the cameras briefly fell on Michael Moore sitting next to the Carters, with his chin in hand and a very concerned look on his face (same with Jimmy at the moment) glaring at the stage. Earlier I had heard an interview in AirAmerica Radio (streaming online) with Moore and Jesse Jackson, so I knew he was there, but I wonder - did the Carters invite him?
In any case, a strong start for the Democratic convention IMHO. Tough act to follow…
Didn’t see it myself (all I got was a snip of Gore’s speech on the radio), but I found it ironically amusing that ultra-patriotic Fox News actually had folks talking during the national anthem.
