So how are people feeling now? There was a lot of doom and gloom after the first two nights, but I think things are going well.
I know a bunch of you hate it when they keep calling McCain their friend, but I am completely cool with them saying “John McCain is my friend” while positioning themselves to stick the shiv in. Rather than the obligatory Sun Tzu quote, how about Dogs, folks:
You gotta be crazy, you gotta have a real need
You gotta sleep on your toes, and when you’re on the street
You gotta be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed
And then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight
You gotta strike when the moment is right without thinking.
And after a while, you can work on points for style
Like the club tie, and the firm handshake
A certain look in the eye, and an easy smile
You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to
So that when they turn their backs on you
You’ll get the chance to put the knife in.
I think things are going well. And Tammy Duckworth just flat out rocks.
Radon Chong
…of course the better the convention goes, the better it is for John McCain.
Ninerdave
All the speeches killed tonite.
Where the fuck was THAT John Kerry in 2004? Damn!
Karmakin
I just saw that McCain commercial targeting Clinton supporters.
Holy crap is that commercial scummy. I think I’m really embarrassed for anybody that sways.
Actually, that McCain is resorting to such silliness probably shows how bad their internals look for them.
Max Power
It rocked tonight. Biden was great.
…and all PUMAs are stooges planted by the McCain/Rove campaign. Just sayin’.
Cassidy
Made me proud to be a Democrat, tonight.
Jake
I didn’t see it, but apparently David Brooks said something to the effect that after tonight, McCain has to pick Lieberman as his VP to show that he’s not Bush.
I think he’s off his fucking rocker, but the sentiment would seem to be a win for us.
Bey
When I was in junior high school, the next town over still had a Sundowner sign at the city limits.
And tonight we nominated an African-American who will win the presidency.
I’m in tears here.
DonkeyKong
No, McCains gotta go full POW Jacket and pick the North Vietnamese Guard that scratched the cross in the dirt.
The Other Steve
I didn’t watch a bit of it.
Instead we got the movie Namesake from netflix a few days ago and decided it was time to watch it. Great movie, btw.
Ninerdave
Yeah but it does play into the media’s naritive, and I believe the general public’s notion of McCain as the Maverick. It would however piss off his base. The calculus would be how many could he pick up from the center with Joe vs. how many of his base would sit out.
Warren Terra
If I may be permitted to approximate what I am given to understand is the vernacular of today’s youth, John Kerry totally pwned John McCain tonight.
And while it started pretty weakly, as it went on Biden’s speech became strong and effective and, as I hoped it might be, the last and best part was aimed straight at McSame.
HumboldtBlue
No shit.
Biden hit it for me. If we can get 69 more days of that, Cindy McCain will hate Democrats for the rest of her life.
And as a son, a former catlick, and a direct descendent of Irish immigrants, I cried when Biden spoke to his Mom.
Bostondreams
What a good night.
Jake
It’s also somewhat painfully obvious, FWIW, on nights like these that Obama’s the coolest pol we’ve seen in years.
I’m just surprised he didn’t enter the convention center with his Ray Bans on.
Rudi
As I commented at another blog, the Religious Right has just hijacked McCain and the GOP. They want to ban ALL funding of any stem cell research.
From Andrewe Sullivan: Bible thumps GOP
From NRO: Bible thumps GOP again
KRK
I LOVE to see Republicans waste their money. After tonight, I don’t think they’re going to get much bang for those bucks.
Mainieac
Evidently Karl Rove tried to get Lieberman to tell McCain he didn’t want to be considered. And Rove’s pushing Romney.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12922.html
BTW, who thinks Romney helps McCain in any way on economic issues? This guy has no idea about regular people. And he’s changed positions on so many things that the right doesn’t trust him (nor do the evangelicals because of their own religious bigotry).
4jkb4ia
I agree. This is the first night I have listened to three hours of the convention, and it was one impressive speech after another.
Because John is a good and tolerant person, TOAST! Yes, sports fans, we can say that Barack Obama will give his acceptance speech on the date of the last Red Sox game in Yankee Stadium Yashan ever.
Jake
Where did you see it? As an actual ad or on one of the talking heads programs?
Some of the stuff I read today indicated that McCain hasn’t actually been running too many of these ads, just distributing them to their friends in the media for free goddamn air time. Not such bad news, as it suggests they can’t afford to run them nationally.
MMM
this should be the intro for tomorrow night, Steve Earle’s “The Revolution Starts Now”
Kevin
My biggest hope this fall, after Obama winning in November, is for both of those teams to miss the playoffs.
rob!
if there’s one VP pick that might be more disastrous for McCain than Romney, its Lieberman. A pro-choice, non-Jesus worshipping Republican, one weak heartbeat away from being President??
Republican PUMAs will pop up like weeds.
PLEASE DO IT, MCCAIN!
Btw, I heard you were a POW. Is this true?
Just Some Fuckhead
It’s just totally unnecessary. If it’s meaningless, then we need to stop being disingenuous. If it has meaning then we need to stop offering comfort to John McCain, at least in the meantime. We can start suckling on his McMavericky juiciness again come November 5th.
bud
Awesome speeches by all. One thing I had hoped to hear is a contrast between Obama’s cool-as-a-cucumber temperament to McCain’s hot-tempered-god-help-us-if-he-has-his-finger-on-“the-button”.
I hope to hear more of that in the weeks to come.
Just Some Fuckhead
Well, as John’s best friend Pat Buchanan just said, you’ll hear rougher attacks on John McCain from Rush Limbaugh than these Democrats. John McCain is our friend, dammit. Doesn’t matter he chanted “bomb bomb Iran” and giggled when things were very tense with Iran, doesn’t matter he made an insulting joke about Chelsea Clinton’s looks, doesn’t matter he voted to impeach Bill Clinton. Goddammit, we luvs us some John McCain.
gbear
Steve Earle and Tom Morello are playing across the river from the republican convention on the day that Bush and Cheney speak. Their stage is pointed directly at the Xcel so anyone outside should be able to hear them loud and clear. I bet they turn it up to 11.
Von Cracker
Like the guitar solo in that song, Biden rocked!
Dreggas
It helps that roger waters endorsed Obama at the Coachella Music Festival.
gbear
gawd, Lieberman, Schwarzenegger and Laura Bush are on the Monday schedule too. It will be amazing if the Xcel doesn’t just sink into the earth from all that concentrated evil in the place that day.
Louise
I’m with you Bey. Even though I knew the story, Beau Biden put me away. And, like everyone else, I wondered where the hell that Kerry was four years ago. Loved seeing Obama join Biden, even though it was hardly a surprise.
Oh, and tomorrow’s far right wingnut insanity moment? When Barack came out and gave Jill Biden a greeting kiss, in all the hubbub, it ended up on her lips. I predict still photographs and an uproar among the mouth breathers.
Conservatively Liberal
Each night of the convention has been better than the prior night (except the first ;) ), and today was no exception. The ‘red meat’ is a bit sparse, so I hope the hell that they unload tomorrow night. With Gore as the key speaker, that ought to be good start.
Still, I am happy with the convention so far even though it has not focused on McCain and the right. In one respect, I am wondering if the left is being restrained because they know that the right will go overboard when their convention comes up. The old ‘give them enough rope…’. Still, the Democratic convention has projected a positive image and that is something that can be used to dull the fangs of the MSM.
Kerry should have spoken like that four years ago, he laid it down good. Biden was Biden, and he did well too but I think his strength is in interviews where he delivers decimating sound bites on subjects. Bill kicked ass, and I have to say that just like Hillary, Bill clearly stood for Obama.
Obama showing up at the last was pretty cool, and his hat tip to Bill was classy too. All in all, I think the convention has been very good. Not bloody, but still good. ;)
gopher2b
No, he has to nominate Kerry. But I don’t think he will accept.
It must be nice to run a campaign with these kind of facts.
Mike D.
Yeah, tonight it’s official: Teh Bitterz radiate cold shafts of broken glass. Ha ha, charades they are. Also, they’re nearly a laugh, but they’re really a cry.
Which reminds me: when it’s all said and done and the votes are fairly counted, Hillary still needs to be sealed into a photon torpedo casing and shot into deep space, and Harry and Nancy need to be undermined until they’re at the bottom of a deep hole wondering where the horizon and the sky went.
Also, as a sign of good faith, we should allow a few dozen senior officials with dual Chinese-American citizenship into the Department of Defense and the Office of Hiding Under the Bed. Salt-and-pepper beards and wire-rimmed glasses are so five minutes ago, you know? I, for one, welcome our new cadmium-vaporizing overlords.
Somebody in a suit and tie screws up and embarrasses the country while making foreigners sick or dead, let alone American citizens, you snatch them off the street and shoot them at the edge of a mass grave, then bill the family for the bullet. That’s free-market reform I can believe in.
rob!
The Dems don’t need to keep selling how bad Bush and McCain are–the country knows. They just aren’t sure this black dude is up to the task.
The convention’s #1 goal is to make the case for Obama, not slam McCain. And its not like they didn’t get their licks in–Biden, HRC, Schweitzer, and Kerry all took their shots.
If Obama makes the sale, he wins big.
The Republican convention will be full of ugliness and hate, it’ll make a Nuremberg Rally look like a Wiggles concert.
They will be their own best advertisement for the other side, because as we’ve seen with McCain’s campaign, the Republicans have no sense of pacing–it will be all full-out from the first moment to the last. Heck, by the end of Monday night, they’ll probably be accusing Obama DIRECTLY for 9/11.
Andrew
What in the fuck is Mike D going on about? Go back to Paul’s Boutique until you sober up, dude.
gopher2b
I saw that too. They both missed badly and it almost ended up being opened mouth because I think one of them tried to talk. I was all like “Sweet Jesus, here we go” up in here.
cmorenc
Tammy Duckworth would have been great
BUT
the bloviating pundits on CNN once AGAIN decided it was more important to show us them giving their opinions of stuff than to show Tammy’s speech.
To compound the shallow buffoonery, shortly after Bill Clinton’s speech the seated bloviators (Wolf, King, et al) got distracted for several minutes focusing on the BREAKING RUMOR that John McCain had settled on a VP running mate, which the close-mouthed campaign had not revealed yet, and wouldn’t until Thrusday night late or Friday morning, but CNN was working hard as they could to pry a scoop for us on that information. To emphasize the point of having their ear to the political ground John King showed us that he had not one but TWO Blackberries ready to receive anything breaking!
Geez, all the GOP has to do to distract these guys is: LOOKIT THAT SHINY OBJECT OVER THERE (no, not here in the convention hall, but THERE, WHAT SOME GOP TALKING POINT OR LEAK SOME GOP TOOL OR SHILL IS PUTTING ON THE TABLE.
Chris O.
Kerry kicked ass. Period. Biden was pretty great too.
Original Lee
I overheard a couple of PUMAs discussing Hillary’s speech. They felt it came off as insincere. Then they switched to discussing McCain’s VP pick. They want Kay Bailey Hutchinson but don’t think she’ll want the job.
‘Scuse me while I clean up from having my jaw hit the floor a couple of times.
KRK
Commenters at Wonkette continue to bring the funny and stay focused on essentials:
Max Power
All PUMAs are stooges planted by the McCain/Rove campaign. Just sayin’, again.
KRK
The organization I work for is in downtown Saint Paul, though I telecommute. At a staff meeting this morning we were discussing the likelihood of a vortex of damnation hovering over the city while Cheney is in town. We concluded that the odds were high.
Conservatively Liberal
I decided to drop in to read the insanity at Hillaryis44 and something just came to mind in reading the vile shit that passes for conversation there. One theme that I have heard over and over is how the ‘O-bots’ are so rude and arrogant. But when you listen to what they consider is so rude and arrogant, it is actually nothing more than other people expressing their opinion. Just like the complainer is doing!
But something else just came to mind in addition to that thought. I think race is the big issue here, and many of the dead-enders are coming across as racists in their opposition to Obama. What if the reason these asshats are offended by his supporters is that they associate the supporters with Obama and they are pissed because it is as if they are being talked down to by big bad black Obama himself. Why how dare he!
People say shit all of the time in the world of politics, but I have never heard a narrative like this before where people are upset with the candidate because of his supporters. The complaints are about common, open conversations among strangers yet they are taking this personally, as if it were Obama who was saying whatever it was that is pissing them off. This is especially strange since the supporters they are complaining about are mostly online. To me it is coming across as nothing more than simple transference. They are shifting their racism onto the backs of Obama’s supporters, thus hiding the true reason for their dislike of Obama and giving them yet another phony reason not to like him.
Strange, but that is my take on it. I think they are racists looking for a scapegoat for their ills.
Conservatively Liberal
Oh I just have to post these quotes from Hillaryis44.
The death of PUMA?
When I read this, my first thought was How novel, the ratfuckers are going to use these disgruntled Democrats to take down whoever supported Obama. Getting these dead-enders to work against local candidates would be viewed by the right as a huge plus for this fall. Push the Democrats to attack themselves and the right stands to gain from it, and with the bitter few leading the way for them it is all the better for the news.
But wait, then this pops up from a regular there:
Norma Desmond Says:
August 27th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Lil Ole Grape
I no longer want to be ANYWHERE associated with the PUMA PAC leadership….
they haev only harmed Senator Clinton here in Denver IMHO
Conservatively Liberal
Post above misfired, or I did! Here is what I was saying:
Oh I just have to post these quotes from Hillaryis44.
The death of PUMA?
When I read this, my first thought was How novel, the ratfuckers are going to use these disgruntled Democrats to take down whoever supported Obama. Getting these dead-enders to work against local candidates would be viewed by the right as a huge plus for this fall. Push the Democrats to attack themselves and the right stands to gain from it, and with the bitter few leading the way for them it is all the better for the news.
But wait, then this pops up from a regular there:
Ok. Then this:
And:
But before Norma can respond:
What does Norma have to say?
Of course, the PUMA defenders came in, but Norma responded:
Wow, just wow. PUMAs acting just like wacked out Republicans? Whocoodanode?! ;)
And one last shot if inanity from Hillaryis44:
They are grasping at air now. Or is that gasping for air?
Robert Johnston
They’ve already gotten their money’s worth and then some. What story was the insipid and trite media covering the past three days: the convention or ginned up PUMA related madness about party disunity?
Although, for the first time the media’s corrupt idiocy worked in the Democrats favor as Warner’s truly awful keynote got almost no press attention because it wasn’t relevant to any established narratives.
Ninerdave
CL The Authoritarians explains much.
Mike D.
1) I’ll take Google Instant Expert for $400, Alex: The album cover of Pink Floyd’s _Animals_ featured a giant inflatable animal above a factory building. What kind of — psych! How many smokestacks are on the building in the back — psych! No, but seriously, which animals used martial arts to overthrow their oppressors? We call that a “reference”. Similarly, Pumpkin McPantsuit makes nice in front of an audience, PUMAs continue to kick their feet and wail, insert appropriate song lyrics. From _Animals_. A Pink Floyd album. Is this on?
2) Why not set the wayback machine to several months ago and relive the joy of Her Rightful Coronation joining forces with McCain against Obama, among other things. Assuming you’re a hard-working white person, of course. Otherwise you probably weren’t paying attention. Now she’s supposed to be kicked upstairs into the Supremes, or made Junior Senator Czar or some shit because she came back down to Earth and acted like a politician for 72 hours on TV? Is that how it works? Of course it is. Secretary of State Lieberman: you heard it here first.
3) Do I really have to explain the dual-citizenship, conflict-of-interest, policy-behind-closed-doors, nobody wins but the USA loses on the global stage thing? I don’t, really, do I? Okay. So then there’s the Theater of the Absurd trick of elevating China — instead! — to the position of Bestest Friend Forever Not Counting Britain Because They’re a Pity Fuck, because China actually has us by the financial nuts. Ask the next 14-year-old you meet if you’re still confused; the indoctrination I got growing up is totally lacking in Generation KThxBye.
Conservatively Liberal
Hold it! A Canadian web site? What the hell do they know about…
Nah, just kidding! ;) I read the intro and bookmarked the place to read in my spare time. Thanks for the link, it looks like some interesting material!
More stupidity from Hillaryis44, and this is from one of the biggest regular ratfuckers there explaining away Bill Clinton’s speech praising Obama:
These asshats would try to convince each other that a turd is a gold brick if they thought it would fit their narrative. Others there are angry at Bill for what he said, so the Big Dawg must have hit a nerve.
Good!
Delia
Okay, I found a new one. Someone at one of the other PUMA sites went and founded a new one. She calls it COUGARs for Clinton. I think it’s a ratfucking site. But there’s some really precious logic here. It could almost be the basis for a comedy skit.
I’d say this was almost satirical, but I detect no irony level in this person’s other comments. She has simply lost her mind.
Conservatively Liberal
I would say that looks like it is the case, which means that it is a Republican ratfuck operation. The ratfuckers have a patent on their brand of insanity.
They should have added:
4. With all of the men overseas at war, we women would have not only the jobs but the country to ourselves. We could rebuild and reshape it while the men are gone and when they return they would have no choice but to accept it.
zuzu's petals
Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere, but it is priceless:
Fox vs. MSNBC: Michelle’s Speech
OriGuy
Let’s just hope none of the PUMA females breed with this guy. I’m not sure the species could survive the result.
Brachiator
Actually, it’s WABAC Machine. The pun is on the allusion to early computers such as UNIVAC and a riff on using a time machine to go “way back” in time. Just sayin’
Yeah, kinda, because the damage to the party would be incalculable had either Bill or Hillary continued to be coy with respect to Obama. Now, Fox News and the rest of the GOP smear machine will have to say, “ignore what you saw with your own eyes” in order to keep their crap going.
And although Hillary is thought by some to be the smartest, bestest woman ever, it would be hard to sell her as a justice of the Supreme Court given the inconvenient fact that she failed the D.C. Bar exam.
Not really. During the 1970s, pundits were whining that the Saudis would buy America with all their petro dollars and make us their slaves. They even made a movie about this paranoid fever dream, 1981’s Rollover, starring Jane Fonda.
In the real world, the only thing that happened was the the Saudis, and later the Japanese, got suckered into making bad real estate investments in the U.S,
Relax, enjoy the afterglow from the convention and tingle with anticipation as John McCain tries to steal the Democrats thunder by using Morse Code to announce his VP choice.
Rome Again
Great song! ;)
Thanks, I liked this.
Pink Floyd really does have some great political lyrics.
Rome Again
I have never seen anything as vile as the noise that comes from PUMA’s corner, and they feel slighted at the smallest of things. They are nothing more than self-victimized crybabies.
Rome Again
Every time I hear “Dogs of War” from A Momentary Lapse of Reason, I think of Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and George W. Bush.
Mike D.
All that time Mr. Peabody was falsely taking credit for someone else’s notional time machine, hiding his dastardly deed behind a seriously obscure pun. How could I have been such a fool? I’ll never trust a talking cartoon animal again.
And according to the gummint’s theory of the case, all but one of the hijackers were from… Yemen? Oman? I forget. And the one-eyed cleric on dialysis wanted us to withdraw from… EuroDisneyLand? And when the US grew wobbly about the Occupation, Darth Cheney was summoned with a snap of the fingers and read the riot act by a member of the royal family of… Peru?
I think we definitely sidestepped a land mine when we spent a generation expanding away from sanely-planned city centers on a fluffy cloud of cheap petrol thanks to our tight friendship with Portugal.
Yes, _Rollover_ was a disaster movie. So was _The China Syndrome_. Does that mean that Dimona didn’t go critical? Because if so, Chelyabinsk probably never happened either. The Tatars will be happy to know about that.
Xenos
Mike D:
According to local internet tradition, you need to notate the number of drinks, bonghits, and other mind-altering substances that apply to your mental state when you post.
In your case, the appropriate designation would be —
Mike D. -18 Lithium Carbonate
Conservatively Liberal
Mmmm, Lithium. Helps you grind your teeth and feel good too!
rreay
Nothing important to add, I just want to quote Yes Prime Minister: “To stab someone in the back you must first get behind them.”
[Hmm, which formatting button means underline? Let’s try this one]
OriGuy
Don’t do that, you’ll break WordPress!
mrmobi
Last night was the first night I watched it on CSPAN. Much, much better. I understand that on one of the cable channels, Kerry was pre-empted by some “breaking news.” Was that really Kerry? It was very good.
The Big Dog did just great. I completely love him again. He has always been a great speaker.
I know I’m not supposed to, but I love Biden. I just can’t help myself, he reminds me of my dad. I have to say his speech could have been better, but the attack stuff against McCain was good. He needs to do that non-stop for the next three months.
This convention has progressed nicely, getting a spectacular kick-off from Michele, who is, IMHO, a much better speaker than her husband. Watching on CSPAN gave me a much better feel for what the event is actually like, and it looked marvelously well-organized to me.
Next week, we’re going to hear every smear, lie, half-truth and a bunch of completely made up shit regurgitated by the McCain campaign and its’ surrogates. Bad news is, a large number of Americans are morons, and some of it will stick.
Good news is, the Obama ground game is, I think, very good when the chips are down.
I listened to the roll-call vote yesterday on XM-POTUS and got completely choked-up hearing the delegates, led by Hillary Clinton, nominate a black man by acclamation. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a hero of mine, and the speech Obama gives tonight being on the anniversary of the “I have a deam” speech is a powerful symbol that real progress has been made.
I’m very proud of my country today, and, dare I say it, hopeful?
LiberalTarian
The GOP must’ve heard Water’s Amused to Death and made it their creed … What God wants God gets [God help us all].
But, really, you want to describe McCain’s game plan, listen “The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range.”
No, can’t listen to Animals or Amused to Death and be happy these days. It’s like the GOP internalized all the worst aspects of every Orwell novel ever written.
Rome Again
mrmobi, it’s okay. I’m a native Delawarean (haven’t lived there in years) who had Joe Biden as my senator since I was 10 years old. I wrote to Biden once and told him how proud I was of him, and then had to retract that statement later after the bankruptcy bill. I grew up knowing full well that Delaware was the corporate and banking capital of the country, but also understood from a very young age that Biden was an advocate for the little guy, and that is what won me over.
When I found out he was the favorite to win the VP, I was NOT happy, but after seeing him and watching him speak, my faith is once again restored and I now love him again too.
If I can do it, certainly you can. ;)