I was amazed...everyone was over 50. And they were so passionate I couldn't believe it. Obama is splendid tonight.

I was brave today. Put out two signs in a redder-than-red neighborhood. And had wonderful reactions.

Be strong. Go to COSTCO and get new shoes. And start working tomorrow. Because all the big money is agains tus.

Michaela

Looks like Obama's read some blogs. "It's time for them to own their failure."

Blogging While Brown Convention Atlanta, GA July 25-27, 2008

What an impressive sight! A large stadium full for Obama. His speech was on the money. If they continue the campaign in the mode of his speech, even this old cynic has some hope. Besides being an historic night, tonight was a great night for Obama, the Democrats and the country.
I'm glad I was able to see it.

Let's win in November, because we must.

Obama laid out specifics and made the case for who he was and why he should be President.

And God help me when I say I believe what he had to say.

More at Zandar vs. The Stupid.

Next to his speech on race, this is the best I've seen Obama.  

shock An actual populist message from the Democratic Nominee!  Actually talking about the failures of the "Free Market".

And owning that old bastard and his lies - "McCain says he'll follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell, but he won't even follow him to the cave where he lives."

If this speech is setting the tone and direction for the rest of the campaign, then the future looks a little brighter.

Tell people something they know already and they will thank you for it. Tell them something new and they will hate you for it.

David Sirota just highlighted a few key populist points:

We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job - an economy that honors the dignity of work...

Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it...

It's a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road...

I will make certain those companies stop discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most...

Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses....

"If you look for the social economic motive, you will not have to wait for history to tell you what was propaganda and what was truth." - George Seldes

Ok, I'm going to say something really uncharacteristic for me.   Obama's speech made me remember why I like America and why I have stayed here.  I had his vision of America before Reagan ripped it out of my hands.

It was an excellent speech.  I'm still cynical enough to know that much of it was words, but they were words that spoke to me.

There's a sense that people in America aren't getting the truth. - George W. Bush (Gee, ya think?)

It was certainly one of the most well crafted and well delivered speeches I have heard in my lifetime.  I did not have the same visceral reaction, though, that I did to his keynote address in 2004.  That one was, to me personally, so unexpected that I could only react with amazement and wonder at what I was hearing at that time.  I had never before heard a Democrat articulate so clearly and so personally all of the reasons why I was, and would always be, a Democrat.  It was one of the most inspirational moments that I can ever remember.  Since then, of course, Obama speeches are expected to be exceptional.  But nothing will match what I felt listening to him in 2004.  It just brought me to tears.  The feelings were so strong and so overwhelming.  He really appealed to my hopes and dreams that night for what our country could be. Well, there were no tears tonight.  But a hell of a lot of pride and admiration for what transpired in Denver.  Just a great, great night!

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity"

With this tone he can win.  Logically, most of the aims he set forth can only be accomplished and sustained if campaign finance is reformed.  Perhaps he actually means to make that part of "fixing what is wrong with Washington" and "bringing change to Washington."  If so, he could be a great president.  

Given the givens, this is not something you would campaign on, or even mention until you and everyone you are running with has all the money they need for this campaign.  If Obama can raise enough money via smaller, direct contributions to replace a significant portion of the contributions to senators and congressmen who support reform, that could make it possible.

I favor very generous federal support for all candidates to federal elections from primaries through to the general election.  It would be the best money ever spent by the taxpayers.  Letting the self interested wealthy finance campaigns is the worst bargan we have ever made as a people.  Small wonder that we keep getting screwed.  As a people we have ducked our responsibility and, in effect, turned our politicians into pimps for the wealthy, with ourselves as the prostitutes they turn out for their clients.  Small wonder so little changes.

CAMPAIGN REFORM IS THE KEY TO ANY MEANINGFUL REFORM!

If sanity be culturally normative, then by the norms of this culture I claim insanity.

Holy shit!

Pat Buchanan praises Obama's speech.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity"

this is one hell of a well produced video.

I can't believe that Obama was introduced with a Coldplay song. As a recent New Yorker review noted, "Coldplay apparently relieves what Travelodge called the 'pressures of modern living'." The key here is that it relieves the pressures -- it doesn't fix the problems that produce the pressures.

This is not a good portent.

"Israel is a good friend of Israel." -- Barack Obama. Is that a Freudian slip indicating that Obama suspects that Israel is not a good friend of the US?

I got home just in time to catch the opening video. So I didn't make the party. But it's just as well, as I'm alternatively cheering and tearing up here at home. One of my best friends just lost his fourth family member to cancer from smoking (my friend never smoked). So Obama's talking about his mother's cancer is really hitting me hard right now.

"If you look for the social economic motive, you will not have to wait for history to tell you what was propaganda and what was truth." - George Seldes

I'm loving how the podium looks like an old red barn.

Blogging While Brown Convention Atlanta, GA July 25-27, 2008

Love how everyone (except Joe Biden) is wearing some shade of purple.

The streamers? Bad idea. Looks like shit on TV.

Blogging While Brown Convention Atlanta, GA July 25-27, 2008

OK whoever's idea it was to play that country song at the end needs to be fired.

"We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further." - Richard Dawkins

Obama is incredible. He was inoculating himself against all the Repug attacks, with the I understand cynicism line. We have a 90% chance he is a populist and we will get true change. Government for the people!

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; now we know that it is bad economics;" - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Masterful speech and delivery.  Ted Sorensen would be proud.

Ha, I love Keith's comments.  And Tweety agrees.

Fear will keep the local systems in line. -Grand Moff Tarkin -SLB-

I liked most of it. I'm hoping the tone will continue until the election.

He's truly a masterful writer and speaker. And I caught the two steals from "The American President" before any commentator mentioned it. I watch that every few months, and have for years. I LOVE that Obama took a few queues from Sorkin there! Truly, I was cheering out loud. It was so fantastic. AND - look at the professionals he has on his team, whom he has surrounded himself with. His campaign has not made one major misstep at any point, and the convention was just perfect.

"If you look for the social economic motive, you will not have to wait for history to tell you what was propaganda and what was truth." - George Seldes

And props to Keith for going after the Associated Press!!!!

"If you look for the social economic motive, you will not have to wait for history to tell you what was propaganda and what was truth." - George Seldes

Knowing that time fades the power of emotional moments, I still have to say that this strikes me as among the very top rank of political speeches in my lifetime. Win or lose, this time we will not have to mourn for what might have, should have been said. This time, we will not imagine how it could have been better. I almost feel sorry for the GOP.

Bush is "the first President to admit to an impeachable offense." --Former Nixon counsel John Dean

Helluva speech.  Best speech I've ever seen him give.

And fuck the AP.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to you country.