Democratic Convention

The talk on Morning Joe is about what a great speech John Kerry delivered last night, in which I must agree. It was one of the best speeches of the convention and one he should have done four years ago. The problem is that none of the networks covered this great speech.

So who is the Morning Joe crew blaming for that?

They are blaming the DNC. They are saying how the DNC should have forced the cameras to carry that speech. Well they did on CSPAN! But since when are the news makers supposed to force the media to carry the news? The media dropped the ball by not carrying this speech, but they come from the George W. Bush school of accountability and end up blaming everyone else for their failings.

Oh and if Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan watched the network that employs them, they would have noticed the cameras were on. MSNBC showed about 30 seconds of the speech while it was going on, but were to interested in hearing their own voices.

First up we have the awesome speech delivered by Bill Clinton:

After that, John Kerry gave a more powerful speech than he did during his entire campaign in 2004. If he would have been like this in 2004, then we would be heading into his second term.

And the headliner of the night - Joe Biden. Biden is so good at giving speeches from the heart. Some people say he isn't the greatest speech writer, but they all agree on his passion. That passion was shown last night in full force.

Damn Clinton knocked it out of the park. In no uncertain terms he gave a big "fuck you" to the wingnuts and pundits. When the YouTube is up, I will post it.

The roll call vote just took place. A motion by New York, as read by Hillary Clinton, carried to suspend the rules and nominate Obama as our candidate for President of the United States. The motion carried.

On Morning Joe, Mike Barnicle asked Tom Daschle why the convention has been all about the Clintons:

No Mike - the convention has NOT been about the Clinton. If the media would actually cover the convention they would realize it's about the Democrats and about how wrong John McCain is for this nation.

So what has been about the Clintons? The media. While this big, vibrant convention has been going on right behind them, they have been infatuated with the Clintons yet again. The media doesn't report the news, they invent it, and that has never been as obvious as this week.

Craig Crawford is one of the pundits trying to keep the Obama - Clinton feud going:

Stunning. Hillary Rodham Clinton's convention speech on Tuesday was so NOT what Barack Obama needed.

Sure, Clinton said Obama's name several times. But this was an obligatory, boiler-plate endorsement that was devoid of a single personal reference to indicate whether she had ever even met the presumed Democratic nominee.

That sure wasn't the speech me or many others saw. As matter of fact that seems like the speech only the so called pundits saw. Was there two Hillary speeches going on last night?

Now let's look at how much Craig is nit-picking in this speech. This little gem is just mind numbing:

Consider how Clinton referred to John McCain as her "friend" (before slamming the expected GOP nominee on policy matters). You got the impression from this speech that, on a personal level, she likes McCain better than Obama.

OMG Hillary said McCain was her friend! That traitor!

If you didn't know Craig Crawford you would swear this is the first time he has even seen a politician speak. Biden referred to McCain as his friend during his speech Saturday. Obama even refers to McCain as his friend, as McCain refers to any of these people as his friend. Are politicians supposed to go out there and say "I absolutely hate that guy"?

But then it gets even better. Let's look at the statement that the McCain campaign released last night following Hillary's speech:

"Sen. Clinton ran her presidential campaign making clear that Barack Obama is not prepared to lead as commander in chief. Nowhere tonight did she alter that assessment. Nowhere tonight did she say that Barack Obama is ready to lead,"

And what did Crawford say today?

And there was nothing in this speech to clean up Clinton's earlier dismissal of Obama's readiness to be commander in chief while praising McCain's preparedness - a moment that the Republicans are now replaying in a television advertisement.

Hey Craig - you forgot to include the disclosure at the end. You know, the one that says "I'm John McCain and I approve this message".

And has he totally been asleep the last 48 hours since Hillary said "I'm Hillary Clinton and I do not approve this message" - a shot fired back at John McCain trying to use Hillary's words?

It's obvious Crawford wants to see a renewed war between Clinton and Obama. Sorry Craig - you won't get it. Instead you are going to loose what little respect you have with a lot of people, and that seems obvious by the comments posted on your article.

First off here is the video of Brian Schweitzer's vibrant speech last night. He really delivered and got the crowd going.

And here we have Hillary delivering one of the best speeches ever. Of course is you listen to the pundits today, they don't think she did enough. They are working so hard to keep an Obama-Clinton feud going and it's another example of them trying to throw an election. Remember - it was the media who gave us George Bush.

Hillary just said that in her speech and in the background you could hear all the pundits scream as their dream of drama in the party was crushed.

And as Bob points out, Schweitzer gave one hell of a speech and totally eviscerated John McCain. Of course the pundits try to say the Democrats aren't going after McCain. I guess they are all at some other convention, because the one CSPAN is airing has shown a bunch of Democrats totally blast McCain.

UPDATE:

Schweitzer shot this little zinger out tonight:

Even leaders in the oil industry know that Senator McCain has it wrong. We simply can't drill our way to energy independence, even if you drilled in all of John McCain's backyards, including the ones he can't even remember.

What a great line. You can read his whole speech here and as soon as I can find video, I will post it.

A long term Republican endorses Barack Obama, makes a speech at the DNC convention last night and the media turns a deaf ear. Amazing isn't it? That's exactly what happened when Jim Leach gave a very good speech explaining why he is endorsing Obama and why his party has gone astray. Here is the video:

When Leach started speaking last night, MSNBC went to it. Then they quickly went away and just said "oh that's former Representative Jim Leach". I wonder if they will do the same for former Democrat Joe Lieberman?

Steve Bennen has a great post on this latest example of the "liberal media" in action that deserves a read.

The stupidity surrounding the traditional media is mind numbing. They are expecting the first night of the convention to have all the excitement of some death cage match. Case in point - David Gergen:

The Democrats should be enormously grateful to Michelle Obama: after a very slow start to the convention, punctuated by a moving tribute to Teddy Kennedy and his own rousing speech, the first evening was in danger of becoming an entirely lost opportunity. But Michelle rescued it.

She was extraordinary, talking in ways that were both conversational — always welcome in people's living room — but also inspiring. She spoke in ways that reached out to people of all backgrounds. Democrats should be both proud and grateful.

It's a political convention, not some big spectator sport. Is this the first convention any of these "pundits" have been at? I mean come on, I thought Gergen had been around the block.

The biggest let down of the night is that the egotistical news personalities can't let the people at the podium talk. They are to self indulgent with their on camera time to take a break. Instead they plague our televisions with their constant commentary and jabbering. Hey media - NEWS FLASH! We are all adults and can comprehend what the speakers are saying. We don't need your twisted Cliff Notes to make sense of it.

Also it is only the fist night. During a concert, does a band open with their biggest hit? No - it's saved for last, or even an encore. We have three more nights and I guarantee it will get better.

But back to Gergen's statement; Kennedy and Michelle were the big "savers" of the night. There was other party business that was taken care of earlier. The big speakers were Kennedy, Michelle and Pelosi. So we hit 66% - that sounds pretty damn good to me.

MSNBC is streaming it live and I have embedded it right here:

I was just watching Hardball and saw tweety going back and forth with some Hilary supporter. Why did he even give them the time? These people are not supporting Hillary, they are ignoring her requests. They have on objective - to create turmoil this week.

So next week, when the Ron Paul people are out, will they get the same attention? I wouldn't hold my breath.