Democratic Diva

The closing night was amazing.  Just to check my perspective, I asked Attorney General (and Superdelegate) Terry Goddard how this convention stacked up against the many others (he’s not even sure of the number) he’s attended. He said it was the best.

84000 people packed the Mile High Stadium by the time Obama took the stage for that incredible speech.   He made the case for himself and destroyed McCain’s case against him.  The musical performances and stagecraft were perfectly executed. What I was paying keen attention to was the reaction of the crowd in the stands. Most delegates are political activists who are accustomed to long speeches and convention protocol, but many of the people in the crowd are probably not. And, when it seemed that the stands weren’t filling up commensurate with the demand for tickets, I was worried. A friend of ours who’d flown out just for the Invesco event texted Mark to report that people were waiting in line for hours and were getting irritated. Most likely a bottleneck at security. But the stadium filled to the rafters and the crowd looked to be enthusiatically receptive to the platform of the Democratic party, applauding wildly for things like closing Gitmo. Considering at least half of the people there were locals that’s encouraging.

Bouyed by the last night of my first Convention, I got back to the room and logged on to find that Obama had hit a home run on steroids. The reviews had him being eloquent, strong, and specific. Pat Buchanan of all people said it was one of the best speeches he’d heard. William Kristol (!) agreed.

But this morning the MSM can’t shut up about McSevenhouses picking Harriet Miers Sarah Palin for VP. Andrea Mitchell just remarked that while millions of people watched Obama’s speech last night the Republicans have stepped all over it and taken over the news cycle. She says ‘they’ are very good at this sort of thing. Andrea, ‘they’ can’t do anything without ‘you’ (the MSM). Since 2000, you and your counterparts have aided and abetted Karl Rove every step of the way and you’re still doing it now. The current narrative is that Harriet Miers Sarah Palin did so much better than you’d expect the former mayor of a town of 8000 people and the first term Governor of a state with a population a little over a third the size of Phoenix. Way to manage those expectations. The glimmer of good news for us Democrats is that you’ll have to be forgetting that whole ‘experience’ meme you’ve been pounding for months.

Because we all know there’s a real good chance that Harriet Miers Sarah Palin will have to step in to be Commander in Chief, and maybe fairly soon after the election. It would be nice if the MSM would think carefully about this person who might very well be looking into Vladimir Putin’s eyes and do some due diligence on vetting her. “I’m just another hockey mom from Alaska!” might not quite cut it. But hey, what’s the importance of national security when you’ve got a horse race to keep up? Oh no, keep talking about how ‘charming’ she is and how much you think she’ll appeal to soccer moms and disgruntled Hillary supporters because she’s a woman and a mom.

This pick is vintage McCain and women should be insulted by it, regardless of party affiliation. With choices like Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Condi Rice, and even seasoned executives like Carly Fiorina (I know, blecch) at his disposal, he chooses…what? A hotter, and younger, beauty queen. Blueintheface from Daily Kos nailed it:

Like the pretty brunette at the craps table that McCain once asked to stay by his side and be his good luck charm, Sarah Palin is being asked to blow on his dice as he gambles for the White House.

John McCain is betting that adding Miss Wasilla 1984 to his ticket will be his meal ticket to the Oval Office. And 30 years after dumping his first wife to marry a beauty queen with money, John McCain knows something about meal tickets.

Blueintheface also points out that Palin will essentially abandon her infant with Down’s Syndrome while touting her “family values” credentials to the conservative base. About that baby, a lot is being made of Palin’s decision to carry the child to term even after learning of his condition. I respect her choice to do that but not her intention to impose the same decision on millions of women who do not have a fraction of her resources. And if she does want the government to compel women to continue problematic pregnancies that result in seriously disabled children, it would be nice if she’d explain how she expects their parents to provide for those children’s (often incredibly costly) health care under McCain’s (non) plan.

I also noticed that they had the “Country First” banners at the VP announcement. Either they didn’t get the memo that Obama put the smackdown on them last night for suggesting he didn’t put America first or there wasn’t time for a reprint.

“Yours is anal, I guess,” said Donna Gratehouse, an Arizonan…

Don’t worry, it’s safe for work.

Good night at the Convench. The coolest part was the roll call. Hillary was a class act. Bill Clinton was surprisingly brief (but unsurprisingly eloquent) and John Kerry said everything he should have said back in 2004. Joe Biden is a mensch with a beautiful family. From his 91 year old mom to his kids to his cute moppet grandkids. He also explained, flawlessly, how you can respect John McCain’s life history but not his current judgment to lead.

So I’m anticipating the ways in which the GOP will attempt to turn Biden into Mephistopheles. TPM caught the Colorado GOP Chair tipping the Republicans’ hand about how their basic plan is to mislead voters. First of all, let’s just get it out of the way that the Colorado GOP Chair’s name is Dick Wadhams.

Dick Wadhams.

I’m pretty sure the “ham” in his surname is silent. And I bet he gets some interesting Google Alerts.

Dick told the Denver Post that the Republicans are running a Ministry of Truth.

Anyone who is familiar with the concept of a “Ministry of Truth” should be aware of what George Orwell meant when he wrote of it in 1984. Either Wadhams is an illiterate dumbass who inadvertently passed along what he heard Karl Rove saying in the planning sessions, or he isn’t, thereby signalling his approval of using lies and propaganda to dupe the voting public. Both scenarios are equally plausible and equally scary.

Nightline featured George Stephanopoulos unveiling his “Heartstrings Report Card”, which rates the pols at the Convention on how well they played on the emotions of the audience. Biden got an “A” for his presentation. Oh, and Obama got an “A” in George’s “Body Language Report Card” for his demeanor during his surprise visit at the end of the night. (eyeroll) I sincerely hope that y’all are watching the coverage on PBS or C-SPAN.

Hillary made it clear that she’s for Barack and brought the house down with a scathing condemnation of John McCain and a powerful statement of party unity.   I can say without equivocation that I am a Hillary Clinton fan today.

And it was a pretty productive day for your Diva too.   I wore my Free Cindy McCain t-shirt to the convention center and got a great response from people.   Three of my fellow female delegates donned the shirts as well and we were quite a hit as we walked around, with many people stopping to take photos of us.   There were numerous inquiries about the shirt so I’ll be launching a shop on the FreeCindyMcCain.com website posthaste to peddle them.  We made a point of getting the Obama family and Joe Biden to look at our shirts (they were in the box above our nosebleed seats).  They were appreciative.  One of Michelle’s relatives wanted a shirt but Secret Service wouldn’t let us pass one over the railing to her. 

Anyway, back to Hillary’s speech.  As a person who was in the convention center experiencing her excellent oratory and persuasion, in the presence of thousands of her former supporters, I had the silly idea that a bunch of Democratic activists were sharing a kumbaya moment where the losing candidate in a grueling primary told everyone they should support the winning one.   Au contraire, the MSM will have none of that.   Unbeknownst to me, until a Hillary delegate on the bus back to the hotel informed me, the press people are hovering over the Clinton supporters like vultures, pestering them about the level of their support for the nominee.   She claimed she and her counterparts couldn’t go five feet without a reporter enquiring if they really support Obama.   Gotta keep that divisive narrative going, dontcha, media hacks?   Sickening.

Even more sickening was the “analysis” of Andrea Mitchell, Chuck Todd, and David Gregory as they sat in the convention center after the closing gavel.   They kibbutzed about Hillary’s feelings and her supporters’ emotions.  What the hell? Gore Vidal famously observed that most of what passes for political commentary these days is really just theater criticism.   That’s still very much the case but what is happening now with this ginned up garbage over the supposed masses of disenchanted delicate flower female Hillary supporters is orders-of-magnitude more absurd, not to mention disgustingly sexist and offensive.  I can’t think of any category of person more useless than a pundit at this point, so they can sure as hell lay off their 2 dollar psychoanalyses, and gaslighting, of the female electorate.

It’s well known by now that the future First Lady blew the roof off the joint tonight with her speech.   I’m watching the MSNBC recap where the pundits can’t even hide their awe of the awesomenitude that is Michelle Obama.   I’m trying to imagine a scenario where Cindy McCain even approaches Michelle’s eloquence and passion.  It’s not coming to me.  I predict Cindy’s gonna go full on flag-draper, with numerous mentions of her son in Iraq and how her husband was…wait for it…a POW. 

Obviously, I know what my tens of fans are waiting for in my dispatches, and I will not disappoint.   What famous people did I see today?   Okay, let’s start with the panel discussion I attended:  It was moderated by Arianna Huffington.  The other participants were Jonathan Alter, Chris Cilizza, uber-blogger Digby (if you don’t know who she is do yourself a favor and Google her), and some guy named Greg whose last name I can’t recall but is a prominent writer.   It was called “Bloggers vs. the Mainstream Media”.   Good stuff.  Hopefully it will be streaming online somewhere soon and I’ll post it. 

The panel ended at 12:30 and since it was so close to the Pepsi center, I decided to head over there.   After I got through the security checkpoint the first famous person I saw was Al Franken.  Well, let me back up for a sec.  Prior to entering the checkpoint I stopped to make a phone call and for a quick smoke.  A man and a woman walked by me and I realized the man was Joe Scarborough. 

I find it necessary to unburden myself at this point and make a shameful confession.  I sorta think Joe is hot.  I feel emboldened to do this because, as I’ve gotten more habituated to the progressive community over the years, I understand this sort of thing is not uncommon.  I know more than one liberal dude who has confided to me that he has a secret thing for Ann Coulter or Michelle Malkin.    Stephanie Miller admits to having an attraction to Sean Hannity.  So it’s okay.  Maybe it’s not socially acceptable to lust after them publicly, as with Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow, but can’t we admit that some of the conservative pundits are quite comely and sometimes make us feel all tingly even though we know it’s wrong?

So I’m watching Scarborough walk by (he is quite handsome in person - tall and well built), and of course my head pivoted to watch him, you know, going away.    Joe’s got some “junk in the trunk”.   I mean that in a good way.   That’s all I’m saying, ladies. 

The local highlight of the evening was delegate Ruben Gallego proposing to fellow delegate Kate Widland.  I guess they set it up so some of the delegates in the stands held up signs popping the question.  Kate tearfully accepted and all us Arizonians were gooey about it, as were several reporters standing by to snap photos. 

Speaking of reporters, I got interviewed three times today.  One of them was a thorough grilling by an Englishman who writes for The Economist.   20 solid minutes of me trying to sound reasonably intelligent as I attempted to explicate the complex racial issues in America, and what an Obama presidency would portend.   

Other famous people I saw included Ted Koppel, Judy Woodruff, Al Sharpton, Gayle King (Oprah’s friend) and the entire cast of the Daily Show (minus John Stewart and Samantha Bee). 

That’s all for now.  Catch y’all later. 

Donna 

Edit to add:  I also walked by Tucker Carlson in the concourse.   He’s another jerkwad conservative pundit whom I kinda sorta crush on.    He has a really dreamy tan. 

Donna’s quite the popular diva around here. She was on NPR last week, and today she was on 12 News. Go Donna!

Others making the news are Dana and the diva of them all, Emerge Arizona (most recently in Gloria Feldt’s article in Elle magazine).

Dana and Katie have branched off to their own delegate blogs, which you can view here:

• Katie’s Convention News
• Dana’s blog

If I’ve left anyone out, let me know! Those of us not at the convention are hanging on your every word.

In honor of a post I did a few weeks ago:  http://www.democraticdiva.com/2008/08/08/free-cindy-mccain/

Mark and I have created a website around the concept.  Obviously, we feel that Cindy McCain is a woman who is trapped in a bad marriage with an awful man.   We want to help her understand that she has other options.  We want to help the women of America understand that John McCain is a horrific choice for President when it comes to issues that affect them. 

So here it is:  http://freecindymccain.com/

I have a few minutes before we head upstairs for the Arizona-Washington-Oregon delegation reception.   It’s a tradition for these 3 states to hang out at the DNC together so I’m looking forward to meeting some peeps from the Great Northwest.

The big event tonight was a celebration to recognize various Katrina relief organizations.   There was Cajun food and music, and plenty of free alcohol.   Randy Newman took the stage to perform a few numbers and Howard Dean gave a speech recounting the abysmal response to the disaster by Dubya. 

The most irritating aspect of the evening were the anti-abortion protesters outside of the Convention Center.   At each entrance were pairs of men with banners emblazoned with the grisly photo of either a very late term abortion or a stillbirth.  They had bullhorns and were screaming about how “a vote for Obama is a vote for the murder of children!!” 

Did I mention they were all men?  I actually walked up to one and asked where the women were.  He responded, “they’ll be along later.”   Sure.  Like those guys are really going to unshackle the female chattel from the kitchen sink long enough to join them in a public protest.   Assuming they were clever enough to trap any women.  Kinda doubtful considering one of them had this to say about legalized abortion:  “I’m sure one of those millions of abortions could have been my best friend!  But I’ll never know!”   Or, grisly-dead-infant-sign-holding-up-guy, maybe you could get yourself some deodorant and a personality and befriend some of the billions of people currently on the earth.  Just a thought. 

A reading highlight for y’all is in today’s Denver Post.   Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against The Machine wrote an oped denouncing the Bush admin for using their music to torture people.