DNC Day 2: Speech Report (Hillary, Schweitzer, Warner)

While my personal experiences in Denver are fun to write about, I would be amiss not detail the meat of the convention, the political speeches. The modern day verison of political conventions are very scripted events. There are few surprises, if any at all. Being shut out the first night of the convention, night two was my personal debut in the Pepsi Center. The speakers for Tuesday included Senator Hillary Clinton, keynote speaker The Honorable Mark Warner, and a whole host of governors, senators, and politicos. For a political junkie like myself, who watches MSNBC like most guys watch ESPN, this was heaven. For the purposes of this blog, I am just going to cover the highlights.

I did not make it in to the arena until around 6:00 that evening. While outside, I was able to hear a lot of the women speakers who were being pumped over a P.A. The following female Democrats all spoke for a few minutes, Senator Barbara Mikulski, Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Mary Landrieu, Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln, Senator Debbie Stabenow, Senator Maria Cantwell, Senator Claire McCaskill, and Senator Amy Klobuchar.


There were three significant speeches for the second night. The first being Virginia Governor Mark Warner, who is holding a steady lead in his bid for a Virginia Senate seat. If he wins we will have both seats from the Commonwalth of Virginia, with Senator Webb and soon to be Senator Warner. Warner was the keynote speaker, which is a big spot for the Democrats. In 2004 the keynote was none other than a junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. In 2000 a young centrist Senator from Indiana, Evan Bayh was the keynote. Many have predicted that Warner will be the next "big thing' to come out of the democratic party.

Virginia Governor Mark Warner's highly anticipated speech fell flat on many levels. His message was OK, but at the time it seemed to be more concerned with making sure he gets elected Senator of Virginia than it did in electing Barack Obama to the presidency. His delivery was just flat, which put a damper on his message. He attempted to make a post-partisan plea for support when he declared that this election was not about liberal vs. conservative, or left vs. right, but rather the past vs. the future, whatever that means. He spent way too much energy detailing his accomplishments as governor of Virginia. All that said, I certainly hope he wins his Senate race, but I do not look for him to be on the national stage in four or eight years.

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer did not disappoint. His speech may have been the best of the week outside of Senator Obama's. Schweitzer, with his folksy demeanor, is a natural speaker. He combined wit, humor, and stage presence in a way that would make savvy veterans of the national political stage jealous. Schweitzer, much like his state's Senator John Tester, is cut from a rugged frontier cloth. For his speech in the Pepsi Center he adorned a bolo tie, the old western special. Schweitzer bounced around the podium while making his points, in a very comfortable fashion. He definitely stole the show from the keynote Mark Warner.

Schweitzer's speech was direct and on target. Unlike Warner's, I did not have to fish for the central theme. he came to lay out in clear detail why Barack Obama is the only choice for November. He focused the majority of his speaking time on our failed energy policy. here is an example of the hard hitting Brian Schweitzer,

"Even leaders in the oil industry know that Senator McCain has it
wrong. We can't simply drill our way to energy independence, even if you drilled in all of John McCain's backyards, including the one's he can't even remember.

That single-answer proposition is a dry well, and here is why.
America consumes 25 percent of the world's oil, but has less than 3 percent of the world's reserves. You don't need a $2 calculator to figure that one out. There just isn't enough oil in America, on land or offshore, to meet America's full energy needs."

Schweitzer then goes ahead to detail out some of the Obama plan to energy independence, like investing $150 billion over the next ten years in clean renewable energy technology. Schweitzer was the big hit of the night, that is until the speech everyone was nervously awaiting was ready to go.

Hillary Rodham Clinton took the stage after a brief highlight video of her career. The white Hillary signs were quickly passed out all around the floor. The big tall blue Unity signs also made their way around the floor. By the time she took the stage the crowd was ready to go. Personally I was concerned by the media hype of a divided party. Let me tell you, that was a lie. I never once saw any discord between Hillary supporters and the rest of the convention. The media has hyped this rift up to the point where people believe it. Folks it is not there, period.

Hillary gave the perfect speech. During the primary, she became a much better campaigner and public speaker as the calender turned to March and April. Her newly found speaking talents were on display at the Pepsi Center. At times the crowd was so raucous, that her voice was barely audible. She effectively made the case that if you voted for her in the primary, you damn well better vote for Obama in the general or your an idiot.

I haven't spent the past 35 years in the trenches advocating for children, campaigning for universal health care, helping parents balance work and family, and fighting for women's rights at home and around the world ... to see another Republican in the White House squander the promise of our country and hopes of our people.

No way. No how. No McCain.

Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our President.

She repeated that last line over and over throughout the night. When she was done, the Pepsi center was in a state of euphoria. I walked out of the Pepsi Center with a big ole smile, knowing that the Big Dog was speaking tomorrow night, and he was not going to get outshone by his wife.