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.

DNC Day 2 Report: Inside the Convention! (edited)

After my bad experience on the first day of the convention, I was hoping to make day 2 a different story. I was not disappointed. Freshly charged from a full night's rest, I made the bus early in the morning and found my way downtown by 10:00. I then caught the 16th Street Mall Line, a free bus ride that runs up and down the 12 block area of downtown. The bus took me to within a couple of blocks of the building where I could pick up my credentials for the convention.

On the 16th Street Mall Line I met a fellow blogger also on his way to pick up his credentials. Jay was from Montana and was mostly concerned with the renewable energy issue. Jay and I made our way to the hotel where we could pick up our credentials. With a big, plastic covered credential hanging around my neck, the bad memories of yesterday became a distant memory. Spirits lifted, I made my way to the Big Tent to see what my blogger contingent had to offer.

My legs were already reminding me of how much walking I had done the last 36 hours. The backpack easily weighed in at 15 to 20 pounds, and was rapidly expanding with each pamphlet, brochure, business card, and button I acquired. Jay and I opted for the Mall Line to ride all the way to the bottom of downtown where the Big Tent was located. I approached the Big Tent and found the front table where I received another credential that would allow me access to the Big Tent for the week. My track record of losing things weighed heavily on my mind while I secured the credential alongside the other one around my neck.

The Big Tent was as advertised, a big tent filled with bloggers like myself all scrambling around, jockeying for position at the tables lined up wall to wall that allowed you to sit down and work, all the while drawing precious power to recharge your laptop. Big screens adorned each wall that ran footage from the panel and discussion rooms next door or the convention itself if it was on. In one corner was an interview area, complete with professional lighting and microphones. Big names came in to the tent nearly on the hour to be interviewed for a few minutes and shake hands with the blogger masses.

I navigated the crowd inside the tent and plopped down at the end of a table where a seat was available. No sooner than I pulled out my laptop and fired it up, I was approached by a Japanese gentlemen hoisting a microphone. He asked if he could interview me for Japanese MSNBC. Nerves took over and I quickly started excusing myself, explaining that I had just got there, and that surely he might want a blogger from somewhere other than Mississippi for his interview. When he heard Mississippi, his eyes lit up, and I realized it was time to step out of character and give the interview. Once he started, I settled down. He asked all kinds of questions about not only blogging, the Big Tent, and Mississippi.

After the interview another gentlemen approached me from the crowd. He was a representative of Oxfam America and was looking for bloggers who might be interested in the Katrina Round Table Discussion. Once he heard I was from Mississippi he insisted that I attend. I had time enough to eat and meet a few folks before I had to be at the Denver Public Library at 1:00, which was located all the way at the other end of the Mall Line. I left the tent around noon and decided to enjoy the walk, all 15 blocks of it.

When I arrived at the Library, it was 1:05. I was late, sweaty, and out of breath. I have already posted on my experience at the Katrina Round Table, so I am going to skip that for this post's purpose. Once the discussion was over, I decided not to stick around for the meet and greet, which hindsight says was a mistake. I never made it to my next event, a BBQ with Howard Dean. My time would have been better spent following up on some questions raised by the Katrina Panel.

For some reason I could not locate the Howard Dean BBQ. I decided to give up and head back to the Big Tent to get ready for my first night at the convention. Once back at the Tent, I plugged in and finished blasting out my Day 1 report that I posted a week ago. I asked around to see when was the best time to head over to the Pepsi Center. Receiving a different answer nearly every time I asked, I decided to head on over around 5:00.

It was about a half mile hike from the Big Tent to the Pepsi Center. To get inside I had to stand in a long line for about a half hour. In line I stood next to two Swedes who were there to represent their political parties at the convention. According to them, Sweden had four major political parties, and the parties are not near as organized as here in the U.S. All of their parties are socially liberal. They were laughing that in the United States we argue over gay rights and abortion like they are major issues. They could not believe that we did not have health care available to all. I was embarrassed to explain that we had our share of knuckle-heads, and that the same folks who opposed the abortion and gay rights because of their "faith" were the same ones who opposed health care for all. Now they were really confused.

To get inside, we had to pass through security, which was being run by the TSA. Just like the airport, we had to empty our pockets into trays, and put our bags in the trays. After being examined for metals, we were finally cleared to gather our belongings and head inside. Inside the Pepsi center was a zoo. Everyone had a different colored credential representing either press, delegations, special guests etc.. No one could give you a straight answer where you could go with your credential. One of the ushers was sure he knew where I belonged and ushered me into the press section of the Pepsi Arena.

I am pretty sure the section he placed me in was for the old school press. I sat next to the Seattle Times and St. Petersburg Times. Once they figured out I was a blogger they did not have much to say to me. Some of these guys feel threatened by bloggers as impeding on their turf, and for free at that. After getting comfortable, I whipped out my laptop and set up for the evening. I am going to cover the speeches in separate posts. Tonight was Hillary, Warner, and Schweitzer among others.

After Hillary Clinton wrapped up her speech, the benediction was read, and we headed back to the Big Tent for the night. Halfway back, I decided to skip the tent and found a cozy little BBQ joint with cold beverages instead. I tanked up on BBQ and talked to the locals for about an hour before I had to hustle back to the Bus stop. The last bus to my hotel left downtown at 11:25, so I had to make sure I was there by then at the latest. or else face a $50 cab fare to the hotel. Thankfully I never missed the bus.

Back at the hotel, I stopped by the hotel bar for one drink, and mainly to meet the other bloggers who were parked there. We were not hard to identify with our credentials hanging around our necks like they were gold medals from Beijing. I met the team from FireDogLake, one of the biggest and best progressive blogs on the web. We enjoyed a spirited conversation on the election and finished off our drinks before deciding to retire for the evening. One thing is for sure, I evened the score with Denver and the DNC on Tuesday. My mind was still racing from the information overload I had experienced, but my body was so tired. I called it a night

Miss. Supreme Court = Potential Voting Rights Act Violators

I am not including any photos in this post since I apparently don't know how to do that anymore. Sorry for the technical difficulties before, hopefully I can fix those.

Moving on, The Clarion Ledger reported on the Mississippi Supreme Court rules change controversy the JFP mentioned last week. As was mentioned, the Supreme Court has been meeting in secret to change the law on how the Chief Justice & presiding justices are chosen on the court.

A member of the Judiciary A Committee in the House, Rep. Bryant Clark, weighed in:

State Rep. Bryant Clark, D-Lexington, a member of the House Judiciary A Committee, disagreed, saying the law goes back more than 75 years and has been
upheld by a federal court.

"Illegally repealing this law by judicial order would dilute voters' control of the process and may violate the Voting Rights Act," he said. "It certainly shows a willingness by the majority of this court to declare itself above the law."

Violating the Voting Rights Act is not a place our state needs to be... again...

I am back from Denver

I have been without access to the Internet for a few days. After the convention I took a trip into the mountains for a little rest and relaxation.

I have a lot of posts to come in the next week about the convention. Right now I have to catch up at work, so it will be this evening before I get started.

While Denver was the experience of a lifetime, I must say I am glad to be back home.

McCain Aide Stumped On Palin's National Security Experience

Gustav turns into political stunt

Thankfully, Gustav has turned out to not be another Katrina for the Mississippi Coast. Our thoughts are most definitely with the folks in Louisiana who took the direct hit. The last I heard is that some levees were breaking in parishes outside of New Orleans, but the president of the parish was cut off by Wolf Blitzer because First Lady Laura Bush was beginning her speech at the RNC convention. 

I digress...

However successful Mississippi may have been in it's coordination of the evacuation, and hopefully, rebuilding, our Governor still managed to turn it in to a political stunt. 

From the Clarion-Ledger:

McCain's campaign said the senator, wife Cindy and Palin visited out of concern for the region devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita three years ago.

Gov. Haley Barbour invited McCain and Palin to Mississippi to see the planning efforts as the storm spirals toward the coast of central Louisiana. Barbour assured the GOP candidates that the state has done extensive planning, such as initiating contraflow on two interstates Sunday and opening dozens of shelters statewide.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who does not plan to travel to the Gulf Coast before the storm hits, said he respects McCain's decision to travel to Mississippi but worries about the resources that are expended, such as the use of Secret Service agents and local police officers and firefighters.

"The thing that I always am concerned about in the middle of the storm is whether we are drawing resources away from folks on the ground," Obama said Sunday in a statement. "We are going to try to stay clear of the area until things have settled down, and then we will probably try to figure out how we can be as helpful as possible."

Though commentators have said McCain was very critical of the Bush administration's handling of Katrina, I'm not sure how him coming down here yesterday helped anyone. 

Labor Day

From MissLaura at DailyKos. Worth repeating here...