Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

When I was faster i was always behind.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

He really is that stupid.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Shut up, hissy kitty!

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

T R E 4 5 O N

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

You cannot shame the shameless.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Not all heroes wear capes.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: We Approve *All* These Messages!

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: We Approve *All* These Messages!

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Report from the Chicago Sun-Times:

It took awhile to get there, and it looks like it required skipping an appearance by James Taylor, but President Joe Biden finally got to the United Center stage on what was supposed to be his night at the Democratic National Convention.

It was nearly 10:30 p.m. by the time he was introduced to the crowd by his daughter Ashley. He gave her a long, long hug, then dabbed at his eyes, and slowly faced the crowd…

Harris joined him on stage after his speech — her second appearance after she surprised delegates with an early appearance with a video introduction featuring “Freedom” by Beyoncé.

Harris, who was not on the list of featured speakers, offered a few brief remarks, and thanked Biden for his “remarkable leadership” and exhorted the delegates to continue the fight.

Hillary Clinton gave a rousing speech of her own, touching repeatedly on the theme of the glass ceiling she says Harris’ election would break. Clinton, former Secretary of State and wife of former President Bill Clinton, won the popular vote in the 2016 election against Donald Trump, but lost the electoral vote.

Before Harris went on stage, delegates paid tribute to Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Chicago civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate.

Democrats also brought out Illinois Rep. Lauren Underwood, a registered nurse, to slam what she called Trump’s failed response to COVID as president…

Earlier, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson welcomed delegates “to the greatest city in world” in his brief remarks to the Democratic National Convention on Monday. Johnson praised Harris as “someone with the toughness to stand up for us.”

About an hour before things got underway in the United Center, dozens of people breached a security perimeter near the United Center around 5 p.m., prompting a tense standoff with police. But the situation was quickly resolved with only four arrests.


H/t Raven:

Reader Interactions

129Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    One last time for the morning crew. Biden’s speeches, and AOC’s and Crockett’s, will be repeated in the media and social media, but do yourself a favor and watch Hillary’s. It was one of her best.

  2. 2.

    Tony Jay

    While the corporate media are alternating between slavering all over their dress shoes at the thought of a non-existent riot and sulking over Biden’s refusal to play confused invalid, the Democratic Party are just getting on with the job of looking like the future and driving the cum-cup cultists insane with weirdness.

    Love to see it.

  4. 4.

    Fair Economist

    It was a great night. I don’t recall any other convention nights where I enjoyed every speech.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    @Ken:

    My favorite part of Biden’s speech:  “My precioussss. It is my preciousss. Hello, my preciousss. Bless us and splash us. Food for my preciousss”.

     

    @rikyrah:

    Good morning.

  10. 10.

    PST

    Greetings from Chicago, about a mile from the United Center. I was on the phone with my consuegra yesterday afternoon when suddenly a couple of dozen police cars with lights on but no sirens pulled up in front of the building in two lines filling the street for the whole block. Police officers four to a car got out and started checking their equipment. It was very weird (word of the month), but the cops were relaxed and chatty, not in riot gear or anything, and people and dogs kept walking up and down the street. Cars left gradually and after a while the whole assembly was gone. I still can’t figure it out, but all continues to be calm in the vicinity of the DNC. My best guess is that my street and a couple nearby are full of restaurants, and the police were deployed to make sure there was no trouble as Democratic VIPs got their suppers.

  11. 11.

    mali muso

    That new ad got me all up in my feelings.  Did not get to watch the speechifying live last night but I’m going back to catch up on all the hits.  So proud to be a Democrat!!

  12. 12.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Cole said something back in 2016 that we’re seeing play out at the DNC in a good way:

    https://www.balloon-juice.com/2016/12/08/fuck-you-and-your-democrats-have-to-end-identity-politics-to-win-bullshit/#comments

    And last night simply highlighted the stark contrast between us and them.  They want a return to the Gilded Age (I’m a believer we’re in the midst of the Second Gilded Age) where:

    -There are no worker rights.

    -No environmental protection.

    -Easy and free corporate access to public lands.

    -An unregulated and rapacious financial sector.

    -Racial segregation and oppression

    -Restrictive immigration laws

    All topped off by a perverse form of Calvanist “Christianity” and Social Darwinism where, if you’re an economic failure and poor, “Good Doesn’t Love You.”

  13. 13.

    Scout211

    Oh wow, that new “Freedom” campaign ad posted by KamalaHQ above is, wow, just wow.  Inspiring, beautiful, energizing, emotional . . . wow.

  14. 14.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Awww, poor widdle Tech Bru wierdo Peter Thiel has sadz

    Thiel appeared on a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience and told the comic-turned-podcaster that he had recently moved from San Francisco to LA, and was also considering leaving California or the country altogether.

    When Rogan asked Thiel where he might move, the billionaire said it was “tough” to find alternatives because while the US had a “lot of problems” in his estimates, other parts of the world were doing “much worse.”

    Considering your solution to California’s problems is to split the state into seven smaller states and start and instant water crises, may I suggest Russia?

  16. 16.

    rikyrah

    So phucking racist 😡 🤬

     

    Matthew Sheffield (@mattsheffield) posted at 11:09 PM on Mon, Aug 19, 2024:

    Fox News censored every single Black speaker at the Democratic National Convention tonight except for Kamala Harris’s brief welcome speech.

     

    What a disgusting display of racism!

     

    Fox censored:

     

    -Karen Bass

    -Laphonza Butler

    -James Clyburn

    -Jasmine Crockett

    -Raphael Warnock

    (https://x.com/mattsheffield/status/1825746963796549644?t=rI-oyFw_nLYHV91IyPIKpA&s=03)

  17. 17.

    Another Scott

    I watched on YouTube on kamalaharris.com’s channel.  (I have an account, so I don’t see any ads.)

    Lots of great speeches last night.

    Warnock was fabulous.

    Hillary was great.

    The videos were well done.

    The 4 year old Kamala protected me story was great.

    The abortion stories were heart wrenching and infuriating.

    Biden’s speech was one for the ages.

    Folks, all of us carry a special obligation. Independents, Republicans, Democrats. We saved democracy in 2020, and now we must save it again in 2024. The vote that each of us cast this year will determine whether democracy and freedom will prevail. It’s that simple. It’s that serious. And the power is literally in your hands. History’s in your hands. Not hyperbole. It’s in your hands. America’s future’s in your hands.

    Let me close with this: Nowhere else in the world could a kid with a stutter and modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, grow up to sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. That’s because America is and always has been a nation of possibilities. Possibilities. We must never lose that. Never.

    Kamala and Tim understand that this nation must continue to be a place of possibilities. Not just for the few of us, but for all of us. Join me in promising your whole heart to this effort. And where my heart will be, I promise I’ll be the best volunteer Harris and Walz’s camp have ever seen.

    Each of us has a part in the American story. For me and my family, there’s a song that means a lot to us, that captures the best of who we are as a nation. The song is called American Anthem. There’s one verse that stands out—and I can’t sing worth a damn so I’m not gonna try, I’ll just quote it—“The work and prayers of centuries have brought us to this day. What shall our legacy be? What will our children say? Let me know in my heart when my days are through. America, America, I gave my best to you.”

    I’m not an outwardly sentimental person, but I had to fight back a few tears at that part.

    Thank you Joe.

    Looking forward to the rest of the convention.

    Let’s win this thing, for Joe, for Kamala and Tim, and for America.

    Forward!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  23. 23.

    K-Mo

    I got up this morning and watched Biden’s she’ speech on YouTube.

    Wow.  He nailed it.  Quintessential Joe.  He stumbled over his words a few times but so what.  Actually it just added to the effect.  The guy is 100% true blue committed to America, and just a genuinely great guy.  It’s such a jarring contrast to That F Guy.

    I’m no pollster but that speech will absolutely pull in swing voters, if they watch it.

  24. 24.

    Tony Jay

    @Ken:

        As the music swelled and the applause drowned out the announcer’s spiel, many Democrats must have feared that the sight of a shrunken Joe Biden shuffling slowly onto a too big stage, eyes rheumy and guarded, possibly having to be guided to the podium by a red-faced intern wearing a too-large HARRIS badge, then bracing himself unsteadily on trembling arms, staring silently into the crowd of faces he might once have recognised, and rasping into the microphone “You should all be ashamed of yourselves!” would have thrown quite the wet blanket over the day’s upbeat energy.

    In the end Biden did none of that, but the lingering suspicion that he could, or should, is the original sin that could yet sink the Harris/Walz campaign if it were somehow to gain traction in the nation’s newsrooms, and only underlines the mistake this inexperienced Democratic ticket might be making by hiding from the challenge of independent scrutiny.

    That kind of thing. Probably. It’s what they are.

  25. 25.

    Soprano2

    @rikyrah: I’m with the people who are surprised they didn’t try to make it look like there were only black people there. That’s what their viewers would expect.

  27. 27.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I happened to see a clip on Sec Pete’s Twitter feed about a Mississippi River Port being repaired using money from  the infrastructure act. Ended up he’s got a bunch of similar clips on his Twitter feed – bridges in Wisconsin, Lake Tahoe, PA, Connecticut,  pedestrian crossing in LA making it safer for elementary school kids, marine terminal in Maine,fire suppression stuff in Alaska, stuff in Pago Pago, railway stuff in NC, public transport improvements in WA, highway in Wyoming, electric chargers in AZ. There’s so much impact. I think the Dems should repackage these clips into a 60 sec ad. Maybe even do it using the Johnny Cash song ‘I’ve Been Everywhere’ !

  28. 28.

    Starfish

    @Ken: Biden quoted the song “Just Once” at the end. I did not know this song, but my husband said, “I did my best, but I guess my best wasn’t good enough” from the song.

    He was very much out there giving a great speech while his feelings are still hurt about the candidacy. I am not sure how he is doing this, but politicians are made of different stuff.

  34. 34.

    Tony Jay

    @Baud:

      … we sent our best reporters out to this local Cybertruck dealership to ask its patrons if Biden would have seemed more Presidential if he’d said what we’re all thinking.

    The following report contains strobing imagery and language some viewers may find refreshingly salty. 

  36. 36.

    Geminid

    I’m glad Rep. Lauren Underwood got some speaking time last night. Another talented member of the House Class of 2018.

  39. 39.

    jowriter

    I am not sure I know how to do this, but here is American Anthem, the song that President Biden referenced in his concluding words last evening.  Written by Gene Scheer and sung by Norah Jones, and I am crying again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc1tuPllezI   What a beautiful, wonderful man.  We truly do not deserve him.

  40. 40.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Honus: I remember Hillary being pretty great in her 2016 speech too.  I’ve never understood the conventional wisdom (even on the Left) that Hillary doesn’t give great speeches.  Just because she doesn’t do the Southern, Black Church oratory style ala MLK, Obama and Bill, she still knows how to deliver a hell of a rousing speech, in her own way.  I actually liked hers even better than Biden’s (still gotta watch the others today- looking forward to Crockett, Warnock and AOC).

  46. 46.

    Booger

    @sab: Can you imagine how much better the world would be, how many more innocent people would still be alive, if we lived through Gore 1/Gore2/Obama1/Obama2/Clinton1 et cetera instead of the dystopian Scaliascape we experienced?

  47. 47.

    Another Scott

    @UncleEbeneezer: +1

    It’s so easy to sit back and let the conventional wisdom (from those who like to trash efforts at progress) wash over us.  It takes a little bit of work to spend the time and listen and think about what are leaders are saying and doing.

    She is a very talented, engaging speaker.

    Hillary was a transformative person in US politics.  An amazing talent.  Like many great leaders, she wasn’t able to get to the final goal she was striving for.  But she pushed the country forward in consequential ways.

    Yes, she gave a great speech last night, and she’s given many great speeches in the past.  As have many of the folks on our team.  We’re lucky to have them all.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  49. 49.

    Scout211

    I didn’t see all of the speeches last night but I caught most of them.  AOC really impressed me with her speech and delivery.

  50. 50.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    One last time for the morning crew. Biden’s speeches, and AOC’s and Crockett’s, will be repeated in the media and social media, but do yourself a favor and watch Hillary’s. It was one of her best. 

    Or find them on YouTube from trusted sources to avoid any pundit crap. :)

  52. 52.

    hueyplong

    Funny how much more impressive the roster of speakers is when your star politicians aren’t all internet trolls, which is the sole requirement and, even more, the sole desired characteristic (other than professional toadyism) for advancement in the GOP.

  53. 53.

    narya

    Wow. Hard to pick a favorite from that lineup–there were so, so many incredible moments! I am not usually a convention-watcher, but I kept being drawn into it. Harris & Walz, Crockett, Warnock, Hillary!!, AOC (I LOVE her line about working for a living), the folks talking about reproductive justice and the horrors that the TIFG Court have imposed on us, and, of course, Joe. I loved how Hillary called out Shirley Chisholm as well as Geraldine Ferraro; she is so fking smart, and she was ON FIRE last night.

  54. 54.

    narya

    @UncleEbeneezer: I’ve never understood the conventional wisdom (even on the Left) that Hillary doesn’t give great speeches.

    Honestly, I think a lot of it is sexism. We were (are) still getting used to women speaking with power and authority; she’s done so much to help the electorate make progress on that.

  55. 55.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Booger: I find thinking about that physically painful. So much needless destruction and suffering, so many wasted years on the road to nowhere.

  57. 57.

    Belafon

    @Starfish: “Damn it. You complained about being thirsty so much that I found you water and it’s going to cost me making it to the promised land.”

  58. 58.

    Frankensteinbeck

    I’m sure Biden is angry, but he’s a fucking adult.  He can experience more than one emotion at a time.  He can honestly love Harris, support her, and not blame her for the situation he’s in while being pissed at some other people or feeling poorly treated in general.  He can take an unfair loss and focus on what he cares about more, his country.  He can feel joy at what is happening while not being happy with what happened.

    He is an adult, and he is a great man.  I’m sure he has a ‘fuck you’ list, but it’s probably small and he won’t obsess about it like Orange Turd.

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    (I’m a believer we’re in the midst of the Second Gilded Age)

    Oof.  We have problems with all of that, and the last four decades saw a lot of damage, but I’ll be honest – the Gilded Age was much, much, MUCH worse.  Republicans only want to send children back into factories to get their arms torn off.

    @rikyrah:

    Fox News censored every single Black speaker at the Democratic National Convention tonight except for Kamala Harris’s brief welcome speech.

    True and disgusting, but someone commented (wisely, I think) that they shot themselves in the foot here.  If they really wanted to energize Republican voters they’d have only shown black speakers.

  64. 64.

    Hoodie

    @Baud: The lineup of Dem pols seems deeper than any previous time I can remember. Walz came out of nowhere, but he’s a great communicator. Watched the MSNBC interview with Shapiro last night, he’s very sharp and polished, as was Whitmer.  The next gen pols like AOC are also very promising. Christ, Ashley Biden was amazing.  What a contrast to the collection of circus freaks in the GOP, but I guess that contrast fuels the resentment that drives GOP politics these days.

  68. 68.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Booger: Are you saying Al Gore wouldn’t have ignored the warnings about bin Laden?

    (Sorry.  Sarcasm or blinding rage are the only two ways I can respond to the truth you wrote.)

  70. 70.

    CaseyL

    @Hoodie: ​

    There isn’t a single positive or uplifting aspect to the GOP. Not that there ever was, but even more so since the USSR collapsed and the GOP didn’t need to fake caring about “freedom” anymore.

    The GOP has been entirely rebuilt in Trump’s image, all about grievance, malice, and cruelty. Hard to attract the best and brightest if that’s all you’re peddling. The kind of people it does attract are the type normal people cross the street to avoid.

  73. 73.

    Belafon

    According to two diaries at Daily Kos, Fox blocked all of the black speakers except when Harris came out, and the NBC, CBS, and PBS talked over the abortion stories.

  74. 74.

    rodwell

    All the speeches were excellent and on point, which is to unite the party.  The next three days will be used to reach out beyond the base. Joe speech was great.  Stating the still present threat of TFCG and highlighting his accomplishments, which are significant.  A complete endorsement of Harris/Walz.  The speech showed his decency, which is why you got to love the man.

  77. 77.

    Tony Jay

    @Ken:

    Well, both are half-formed and no use for any of their intended purposes…

    @danielx:

    “We need to go to Ohio… or maybe Iowa? Ohiowa? Is that a place? Are they authentic earthsalters there? Murray? Murray! Ohiowa?”

    “Not a place.”

    “Good to know. You. Pack a bag. You’re going to diner-country.”

    “But, Sir… there are diners here.”

    “Not those diners. Those diners. Heartland diners. All beef and blocked toilets. You’re going there. We don’t need what we already know, son. We need hardheaded, hardscrabble wisdom from America’s Americans.”

    “…. the short order cook over at Denehey’s is from Oklahoma.”

    “He hardscrabble?”

    “Served half of a six year sentence for reckless battery and resisting arrest.”

    “Heartland! 500 words, no filler. And I’ll have a pastrami mustard on rye. No gerkins.”

    “Journalism.”

    “You said it, Murray. Pulse of the country.”

  84. 84.

    Jeffro

    We are traveling out west this week (so both busy and off of our usual schedule) but I am looking forward to watching all of these great speeches and those yet to come during this coming weekend.

    I’ve never been so proud to be a Democrat – a member of a party with great principles, member of a party that kept them, too. ETA: and member of a party with a deep, DEEP bench!

    Let’s go win this thing!!

  85. 85.

    schrodingers_cat

    Trump’s base isn’t the white working class male. It is the oligarchy and their most effective tool, the pliant media. Both bat for white supremacy, patriarchy and plutocracy. WWC  who vote R are just the willing tools of the plutocracy.

  86. 86.

    Steve Holmes

    From what I’ve read Democrats made a critical error in letting the all network coverage run over, resulting in 3 1/2 hours of coverage of Democrat joy instead of the tight 90 minutes that the NY Times would have preferred.

  88. 88.

    Hungry Joe

    POSTCARD UPDATE — SERIES 2

    Postcards for Jon Tester:

    Yesterday — 3

    Running total — 50 … and done! Now awaiting 200 more Postcards to Swing States, due any day now.

  89. 89.

    Booger

    @Baud: True that, but the underlying motivation was the presence of U.S. forces in the Saudi Arabia, IIRC. Gore was opposed to that, also IIRC, and maybe some positive motion towards eliminating that presence in support of a corrupt and repressive regime could have bent the arc of history away from slaughter.

    But who knows…I just would have preferred Gore 1 & 2…

  93. 93.

    EarthWindFire

    @schrodingers_cat: AOC has been playing well with others for a while IMO and I say that as someone who’s had doubts about her. She’s transitioned from rabble rouser to leader, and had started doing so long before the 2024 primaries.

    @Booger: Wow, I just got depressed thinking of what might have been.

  95. 95.

    Suzanne

    @Mai Naem mobile: OMG AGREE. If I have one criticism of the infrastructure bill, it’s that all this great work is being done because of it and no one knows about it! For example, my neighborhood got all the lead pipes replaced. Streets dug up for months. The individual line going from the main in the street to my house was even done at no cost to me! And yet….. not one flyer, not a single sign, nothing in the local rag that I could find about how this work was being done. I went out specifically to talk to the superintendent, and I asked if all the work was funded by the infrastructure bill, and he said, “I think so”.

    Come on, man! We need a little swagger swagger boom boom.

  96. 96.

    Shalimar

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Funny that Thiel opposes pretty much everything that is good for other humans but he has chosen to live in the 2 most liberal cities in California because that is where all the people who pretend to like him live.

  97. 97.

    BlueGuitarist

    @BR:

    Just like Nixon sabotaging the 1968 Vietnam peace talks
    And Reagan 1980 deal with Iran
    Republicans prioritizing partisan power
    Hurt everyone else and
    “Cover up the truth with lies…
    (Dylan, Idiot Wind)

    (reprising a couple of previous comments)

  98. 98.

    Suzanne

    @Shalimar: It’s because everyone likes liberal cities even if they don’t like liberals.

    I mean, Peter Thiel is welcome to go move to Tontitown, Arkansas. I wonder why he isn’t.

  100. 100.

    BlueGuitarist

    @Hungry Joe:
    Awesome. (I think that every time I see you post)

    Loved last night’s speeches!
    Hope over the next 3 nights to hear
    “up & down the ballot” a lot

    Hold the Senate, flip the House,
    Win lots of key state legislative seats

    Love all y’all

  101. 101.

    tam1MI

    @Baud: Also too, we learned that the Walzs’ are criers. They both seemed to tear up a lot.

    Them and me. I was full on weeping at the end of Joe Biden’s speech.

  102. 102.

    bluefoot

    @schrodingers_cat: Through the first couple of years of TCFG’s time in office, a friend of mine would send me occasional texts or emails “news from the alternate timeline,” taking current events as if Hillary were president.  It got too depressing to think about what might have been.  She would have been an amazing president.

  104. 104.

    Quinerly

    @Baud:

    I bawled like a baby when I read her lips last night and saw it in real time. Just watched your clip. Started crying all over again. I am running on about 3 hrs of sleep.

  105. 105.

    zhena gogolia

    @EarthWindFire: I got to tell Al Gore, “I wish you’d been president.” He said, “So do I.” I’m sure he gets that constantly. I knew it was a cliche but I had to say it to him.

  107. 107.

    Quinerly

    @Belafon:

    MSNBC showed all of the abortion stories.

    Honestly, for content and delivery, probably most impt segment of the entire night. Should be replayed over and over.

  109. 109.

    catclub

    @BR: Judy Woodruff on PBS DNC commentary says Trump is actively working Netanyahu against Blinken’s efforts

     

    Really? I am amazed. I would expect weasel words.

  110. 110.

    catclub

    @Ksmiami: Many billionaires are the most whiny and unpatriotic and unappreciative people in America.

     

    The _real_ rootless cosmopolitans.

  111. 111.

    Soprano2

    @Quinerly: CNN, for all the criticism they get, was surprisingly good. They showed everything with only two small interruptions. I had to switch from PBS because they were all talking heads. You’ll be shocked, I’m sure, to find that David Brooks thinks all the “weird” stuff is unseemly. He said Democrats should talk about the “issues”. To me it’s definitely an “issue” that these people are fucking weird! It needed to be called out! I mean they’re carrying around pee sample containers with Vance’s face on them! I wonder how normies see that?

  114. 114.

    Citizen Alan

    @schrodingers_cat: The DSA is and has always been a stalking horse used by russiansl and american oligarchs to undermine the democratic party. It has no other purpose or function. It is completely unsurprising that it would turn against AOC once she revealed herself as a competent and loyal member of the democratic party, instead of someone whose only job was to throw pipe bombs and undermine our consensus.

  116. 116.

    Citizen Alan

    @Booger: Hell, absent 9/11, I think gore would have come back and won in 2004.  In which case, at a minimum, he would have nominated the replacement to Willian Renquist as Chief justice and tipped the balance of the court from conservative to liberal. Even if that hag sandra day o’connor had decided to stay on rather than be replaced by Democrat.

  117. 117.

    BarcaChicago

    I was thrilled to be able to go to the convention (Chicago gal here) albeit way up high in the Least Important People section :-) It was super packed and hard to find a seat when I got there at about 7:30pm. Huge blocks-long line outside to pass through security/credentialing. Very mild protest presence. Needless to say, tremendous energy and I would say the most powerful speech of the night for me was Hillary Clinton. Big response from everyone and clearly a lot of people really mourn 2016 and are thrilled about 2024. Lots of love for Joe, and Jill. I’m going to the rally in Milwaukee today – very excited! And if I get really lucky, maybe I can be there for Kamala’s accepting the nomination.

  122. 122.

    Geminid

    @Citizen Alan:  DSA membership grew fairly quickly after 2016 but stalled out a couple years ago. I think it was at 55,000 before and had grown to almost 100,000. Now the party is shedding members, and the DSA International Committee’s policies on Ukraine and on Israeli/Palestinian issues are two of several reasons.

    There is a commenter here who attended the DSA’s Bienniel Convention last year as a delegate. He has since given up on the party and left it.

  124. 124.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Suzanne: Well, billionaires do.

    There are a lot of rural and exurban Americans who absolutely believe the picture of cities as terrifying death zones. But that’s not really an issue if you’re extremely rich.

  126. 126.

    BarcaChicago

    @Baud: THIS. I was at the convention (way up high with the regular folk) and hers was the most powerful speech of the night. Moving. Inspiring. It got the biggest response, and well-deserved.

  127. 127.

    Citizen Alan

    @Baud: Yes, and Clinton/Gore was laser-focused on him. One of Chimpy’s first acts was to basically shut down the counter-terrorism offices in the White House to redirect the money elsewhere. IIRC, to efforts to combat prostitution in New Orleans or something like that.

    No way President Al Gore responds to “Bin Laden Determined to Strike In America” with “Okay, you’ve covered your ass. Now watch this drive!”

  129. 129.

    H-Bob

    Has anyone used Mayor Pete’s line about “4 years ago, Americans couldn’t buy toilet paper”!

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