Here’s the C-SPAN archive of last night’s speeches for the morning crowd who might have missed some of last night’s festivities. I thought it showed a deep bench (Deval Patrick and Julián Castro both did a good job) and impressive message coordination. One of the most interesting aspects was that the speakers I saw weren’t afraid of saying Barack Obama’s name, and they also didn’t let their ambition get in the way of doing their convention job.
Of course, that’s how the Republican convention should have been, too, but clearly something is badly wrong with the Romney campaign. The Eastwood debacle is just the tip of the iceberg. Deval Patrick is every bit as interested in 2016 as Chris Christie, yet he was able to say Obama’s name long before two-thirds of his speech was over, and he didn’t take credit for everything that’s going well in his state. Listening to Patrick, you’d think Obama came to Massachusetts in person to help Patrick fix the mess that Mitt Romney left. The only reason Christie’s speech didn’t sound the same was that the Romney people didn’t review it, rip it up, and tell him to go back to work.
Castro had the tougher job of introducing himself while supporting Obama, and he did well, mentioning Obama’s name 17 times while telling the story of how his mother and grandmother raised him and his twin brother. And, of course, Michelle Obama gave a great speech. She was introduced by a mom who had 5 kids in the service, which brings up another point: like “Romney”, “war” is another word you didn’t hear much at the RNC, while Democrats aren’t afraid to talk about it. Here’s Patrick:
This is the president who brought Osama bin Laden to justice, who ended the war in Iraq and is ending the war in Afghanistan.
It’s much easier to have a party convention when you aren’t ashamed of your candidate or your party’s performance over the last few years, but even so, the Republican performance last week was a pale imitation of what we’ve seen so far in Charlotte.
jibeaux
And just to be catty and shallow, Michelle rocked the shit out of a Tracy Reese dress that cost $1500 less than Ann Romney’s.
Cassidy
Sweet. I’ll be checking the archive later. I really want to see the Patrick and Duckworth speeches, and Kal Penn, and Castro, and MIchelle…and fuck it, all of them.
Interesting tidbit, I joined the VFW a year ago just so my Mom could join under me. I’m patiently waiting for the renewal application so I can tell those fuckers that they’re a disgrace to every veteran in the country for supporting that teabagging coward over Duckworth. IAVA doesn’t do that shit (that I’m aware of).
cmorenc
Michelle has the news media in an orgasmic swoon over last night’s speech, this morning even more so than immediately afterward last night. Even David Gregory and Joe Scarborough! Even Wolf Blitzer and David Gergin! Unsurprising exception: Charles Krauthammer on Fox, which I did a brief drive-by to last night, who basically said it was a wonderful speech, wonderfully delivered…wrote a few great speeches myself in my time…but “I don’t buy a word of it.” As Gomer Pyle would say: “Surprise, surprise, surprise sergeant!”
Ash Can
It was pretty obvious to me that the speakers at the RNC had thrown in the towel on this election, and were all promoting themselves for the next one. And it makes sense, too. The more people know about Romney, the less they like him, so why draw attention to him? They weren’t there to hype their nominee but to provide cover for him.
Raven
Pale, I see what you did there!
jibeaux
Sheesh, a warmongerer like Krauthammer, you’d think he’d be pleased that one of two major party conventions managed to mention the wars and the troops, but there’s no pleasing some people.
WereBear
I do believe that man has earned the face he wears.
Bless his heart.
Kay
@Cassidy:
Castro is a natural. I find optimism really appealing, and other people will, too. He just exudes “happy”.
However. He may not be emotionally needy enough to be a politician :)
arguingwithsignposts
It seems that shitstain Eriksonoferiktoinfinityandbeyond has gotten in some hot water because he’s a major douchebag on the Twittermachine just like he is in real life.
Good.
Ash Can
@Cassidy: Unless I missed something and the VFW has endorsed Joe Walsh, the VFW’s snubbing of Duckworth in favor of some shmoe who was never even in the military pre-dates the teabaggers. The VFW endorsement of Peter Roskam, which of course exposed the national VFW leadership as nothing more than two-bit partisan hacks and gave the entire organization a black eye, happened in 2006
Cassidy
@Kay: I’m trying to remember if he was the Mayor back when I was stationed there. I know I could google it, but feeling lazy right now. I do remember the local scene to just be very pleasant and everyone was happy, except for the white people in the hill country who didn’t like Mexicans. I’ve always said the only problem with San Antonio is all the damn white people.
Suffern Ace
@arguingwithsignposts: My guess is that he was apologizing for using the word for lady parts, not the idea that whenever liberal women speak he must dismiss them for being too feminist.
Cassidy
@Ash Can: You’re probably right, but I never paid attention to the veterans orgs except for IAVA. I never joined and never intended on joining until my Mom asked me to. Now that I’m a member and they’re going to want money from me to renew my membership, I can send the envelope back with all the good insults that are within military culture. :D
gnomedad
@arguingwithsignposts:
Erik is a prick, and I don’t mean to offend in saying that.
Kay
@Cassidy:
I was worried about him. He’s so young and he’s a mayor. It’s hard to do a national speech. But he really just exudes joy, he was clearly enjoying himself, so apparently he wasn’t worried.
Snarki, child of Loki
The high point for me, so far?
Romney getting beaten up by a dead guy.
Cassidy
@arguingwithsignposts: Wasn’t intended to offend? God, I wish that once these fucking piles of shit cowards would own their words. At least be a man about. Fucking wuss.
mai naem
@jibeaux: You mean Tracy Reese, an American designer vs. Oscar de la Renta , a Dominican born designer?
Cassidy
@Kay: It’s San Antonio. It really is a happy place to live. When i was getting out, we strongly considered moving there as the SAPD heavily recruits veterans and SA was a wonderful place to live.
DavidNC
for purely chronological reasons, tampa can’t be a pale imitation of charlotte.
jibeaux
@mai naem: Yes. Not to mention a young, hip, designer vs. one who was a favorite of Nancy Reagan.
Raven
@Cassidy: For some reason I once joined the VFW and told them to jam it last year when they had a front pager in their magazine whining about the coverage of Woodstock in the MSM. Fucking douchebags.
quannlace
But, but…Romney spoke in front of a group of Vets two weeks ago, so it all evens out.
Kay
@Snarki, child of Loki:
I admit I loved that too. Come on, that’s a great idea. Ted Kennedy debating Mitt Romney. Romney had the same pleading “I am a victim, please love me” expression that he had in all the GOP debates in ’08.
That clip is devastating, BTW, regarding Romney and religious conservatives. I don’t know what they do with it, or which state they use it in, but they should use it.
malraux
For me, the big surprise was the amount of mentions that gay rights got mentioned. To the extent that I’ve watched the democratic conventions in the past, gay rights was always a lot more hushed.
cmorenc
@DavidNC:
Well, it’s retroactively a “pale imitation”. So there.
The Ancient Randonneur
Shrub had his Katrina, and now RobMe/Lyin’ 2012 had Isaac. Isaac may have thrown the GOP off stride, and that really does tell you a lot about a party that turns everything it touches, or has thrown its way, to sh*t. Imagine a President from a party that can’t handle a natural disaster running the country … um, yeah.
The Ancient Randonneur
@arguingwithsignposts: Wouldn’t surprise me if the perfunctory apology was induced by his desire to stay on the air at CNN. I would love to see Amanda Marcotte sitting across the table from that half-bright atavist.
rikyrah
Deval Patrick hit it out of the park.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@DavidNC: Timey Wimey, David. If Obama can cause the economy to crash and close a plant before he takes office, then he can have his convention performed after the imitation.
Grumpy Code Monkey
The one speech that hit a wrong note with me (can’t remember who delivered it) was the one about how the US and Obama lurve Israel, and how we will work to keep Israel a Jewish state (as an atheist and a citizen of a country whose Constitution explicitly bans a state religion, that really got my attention), how we will make sure Iran is totally isolated and punished for pursuing nuclear weapons development, blah blah blah fish latkes.
I mean, I’m all for helping Israel protect itself from real threats, but I’m also all for Israel to start treating the Palestinians like real human beings and generally be a good neighbor. At least some of the violence directed against Israel is due to their treatment of the Palestinians and their land grabs, and Israel has no one to blame but themselves for that.
And the section about Iran was…I don’t know, it just felt too much like a bogeyman du jour, like Saddam Hussein was in 2001. It was a little too ass-kicky rhetoric. I worry about sanctions further radicalizing the Iranian government and populace. I don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon (I don’t want anyone to have nuclear weapons), but at the same time I can understand why they want to pursue it, especially given our and Israel’s belligerence over the last decade or so.
I dunno. I just don’t like the idea of the US prostrating itself before Israel. There have to be better ways to win the Jewish vote.
Jamey
Wait till tonight, when we trot out Ed Asner, who will yell for 45 minutes at an empty throne that’s supposed to stand in for Rmoney!
Jamey
@The Ancient Randonneur: Actually, Amanda is the one leftblogger who could shit that bed. Better to make it someone who’s not cognating at a grade six/Mean girls level, like Lindsey Beyerstein, or one of a zillion other intelligent and thoughtful writers…
WaterGirl
@Grumpy Code Monkey: I may be wrong, because I was listening to Wexler and skimming on-line at the same time, but I thought I heard something about Israel and Palestine living side by side, as in two state solution. Israel can’t have liked that.
I was fine with that speech, but I do like that Israel wasn’t front and center. I wonder how much we’ll hear about Israel today and tomorrow.
WaterGirl
I thought it was perfect that Kal Penn took a little swipe at the empty chair thing at the RNC, but I really hope no one else brings it up. I thought it was great when the someone from the campaign came out and said there are a lot of Clint Eastwood fans in the whitehouse.
Let the republicans be embarrassed about the empty chair routine; I’m awfully glad to see our team take the high road on that.
But Kal Penn, he was definitely the one person who could do that without it backfiring.
Chris
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
Thing about Israel is, there’s only so much we can actually do for these guys.
It’s not a viable country on its own; it’s been kept on life support for its entire existence by a flood of Western money and weaponry (first French then American). It might have become viable if it had ever tried to deal with its neighbors in good faith, but we’ll never know because all they’ve done with their position of power is double down on the landgrabs, the wars, and all the rest of that shit. So what we’re left with basically IS another colonial enclave like the white minorities in Rhodesia or Algeria last century, which at this point will probably never be viable on its own.
What are we supposed to do, go on cleaning up their messes and paying for their bail for the rest of history? Even if we wanted to, there’s going to come a time when we won’t be able to anymore.
Catsy
@Jamey: Hilzoy.
I know, it’s a pipe dream because she’s retired from blogging and would probably never do TV, but Hilzoy would absolutely annihilate Erick Ericksdotter. With sweetness, light, and brutal logic.
NobodySpecial
Wanna semi-disagree with a point:
The reason Patrick is willing to reference Obama so often and so glowingly is that, despite everything, he’s still a popular President, and after 2015, he’ll be the popular lame-duck who will have to be followed by an ideological soul mate, assuming reasonable forward progress on the economy. Christie can’t reference Romney because Romney hasn’t done a damned thing since he was Governor. Patrick can and will stand on Obama’s shoulders because he has.
feebog
I had a meeting I promised to attend, missing Castro and MO. But I did See Tammy Duckworth, Kal Penn and Deval Patrick. I thought Tammy’s speech was somewhat disjointed. She delivered it well, but I just thought it was out of sync. She talked a little bit about her military service to start, and then returned to it at the end. All the elements were there, but not in the right order.
Kal Penn was funny and hip, and his message, directed to young people across the country was great.
Deval Patrick, IMHO, hit a grand slam. His delivery, his message, and his passion all came together for a hell of a speech. I told the Mrs. that we might well be looking at the next President, he was that good.
JustRuss
@malraux:
The US has reached the tipping point on gay rights. Young adults overwhelmingly aren’t worried about it, and the folks who don’t get it are dying off. When Obama finally came out in favor of gay marriage, I think he actually got an approval bump. It’s in the platform now because:
1. Democrats have long supported gay rights, if somewhat tepidly.
2. It won’t really hurt them, most of the haters are voting R anyway, and it shores up the base.
I’m not Obama’s biggest fan, but his timing on the gay marriage support was masterful, and he deserves a lot of credit as to why the platform has become more gay-friendly.
Jules
The military mom reminded me, once again, how Romney responded in 2008 to the question of why none of his adult sons were fighting in Iraq. His answer was that they were serving their country by working on his campaign.
Joel
To be fair, Christie recognizes that if Romney wins, he doesn’t get a shot in 2016. Deval Patrick has no such concerns. For what it’s worth, I don’t think he runs in 2016.
Joel
To be fair, Christie recognizes that if Romney wins, he doesn’t get a shot in 2016. Deval Patrick has no such concerns. For what it’s worth, I don’t think he runs in 2016.