The Democratic National Convention

The Democratic National Convention begins tonight and I thought it would be nice to have a thread in which to discuss thoughts about it and the coverage, speakers and the general hoopla.

The Main Speakers:

According to the schedule, Monday night's headline speaker will be Michelle Obama. She will speak sometime between 7-9 PM Colorado time. I'm excited and eager to hear her speak. I have a great deal of admiration for her.

Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton will be at the mike. I am also curious to hear her speech. It will be interesting to see whether she puts her full energy behind Obama or if a feeling of resentment will be detectable. I would also like to hear Kathleen Sebelius on this evening. She was one person I thought Obama might pick for VP.

Wednesday evening, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton will both speak. Even more than Hillary, I think it's important that the "Old Man" gets behind Obama and shows his genuine support and confidence in Obama's ability to hold the office with competence.

And of course, Thursday night is when they move to INVESCO Field where Barack Obama will accept the Democratic nomination and, no doubt, deliver another outstanding and moving speech. It's going to be tough to beat his convention speech of 2004, but I'm sure it will be good.

Other featured speakers and performances are listed on the schedule page linked above.

The Venue:

The Pepsi Center in Denver Colorado is ready for quite a show.

This site has a poster of INVESCO Field, where Obama will accept the nomination, that can be enlarged for an idea of the magnitude and spectacle of this place and this event. There will be a Skycam to capture Obama's acceptance speech at the event, which sold out its 75,000 seats within 24 hours of going on sale. The celebrity of this event goes without saying.

I am curious if others are as excited about the conventions as I am this year. I have the feeling that this election is one of the more important ones in the past 20-30 years, but it could just be my own perception. I look forward to reading your thoughts on this event over the next few days.

[edit on 25-8-2008 by Benevolent Heretic]

Well, since no one has yet responded, I guess I will.

I was surprised that I actually found Nancy Pelosi somewhat palatable tonight. I really don't like her and I was expecting to be a little put off by her speech, but I was pleasantly surprised. I missed Ted Kennedy's appearance, but will see it on YouTube, I'm sure.

Michelle Obama was fantastic, as I suspected she would be. It was nice to see her mother and hear Michelle relate to other families in the country. I think she did a very good job in making Obama's family seem "real" and relate-able. She also showed her softer side and spoke of her passions.

Very interesting night.

I didn't catch all of it, but i did catch Sen. Kennedy, and Michelle Obama. Both were very moving speeches.

Sen. Kennedy backed Barack full force, and it seemed as though he hadn't even missed a beat. He spoke very firmly and charismatic.

Michelle Obama's speech tugged at the heart-strings of women everywhere while telling her story of growing up. Michelle's speech ended with a surprise appearance from Barack who was in Kansas City, and eventually the mic was passed to the Obama children.

The night was a win for Barack, and I can't really see anything negative coming out of tonights portion of the DNC. But you never really know with those sneaky McCain ads popping up all the time

Benevolent Heretic,

I watched the convention and there was a great line up and some great video shorts. I think that some of us didn't respond right away because we were following the events. One observation though, the Cable media seemed to focus on an issue of division and I am not quite convinced that it was a real issue. I will watch the convention on C-span from this point forward as all the networks let me down tonight whether they favored my views or not.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


I watched Michelle Obama's speech. A lot of negative press is around her, and I think she delivered a heart felt speech that defined her roots as a daughter of a working class man. I don't think the people who hate her will change their minds, but I think many who don't know anything about her would be touched by it.
Teddy Kennedy gave a great speech. I don't agree with some of his positions, but I know he deeply cares about people. He didn't look like he had any cancer, but since my father passed away from cancer, I know looks can be deceiving.
I flipped around when the other speeches were on as it was Monday and just a warm up day.
Tonight, Hillary will speak and we'll see how she embraces Sen. Obama. I think this will be her shining moment. It is interesting how all the pundants are using poll numbers and other bits to build up a "tension" between the two candidates. I guess they need something to happen, or they don't get paid.

As Clinton prepares to give her speech tonight, I was wondering...

What is Clinton's Role in Getting her Supporters to Vote for Obama?

We all know Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were fierce competitors during the primaries, but now that Obama is ready to accept the nomination, it's clear that he won and it's just as clear (to me) that Hillary has graciously conceded and on we go to the General Election.

However, there is some small portion of Hillary supporters who are determined not to vote for Obama for various reasons. They may stay home, they may write-in Clinton's name or they may vote for McCain or someone else entirely.

It seems to me that the vast majority of people who supported Clinton will transfer their vote to Obama, but there is that group that (for lack of a better phrase) needs to be convinced to cast their vote for Obama.

I have been thinking that Hillary's speech at the convention tonight will be VITAL in convincing her supporters to vote for Obama. I have been thinking that she should beg, borrow and steal (figuratively) to convince them that he is what this country needs. In essence, I have seen it as her responsibility to "transfer" her supporters to Obama.

I heard an interesting comment on CSPAN this morning that really woke me up and forced a realization. A woman, a delegate, in fact, was being interviewed and she said she was going to cast her vote for Hillary. When asked what Hillary could say tonight that would make her vote for Obama, she answered, "It's not Hillary's job to convince me to vote for Obama. It's Obama's job to convince me to vote for him. Hillary has nothing to do with it." (paraphrased)

And I found myself immediate understanding and agreeing with her. All this time, I've been thinking that Hillary holds the power to "give" her supporters over to Obama and I now realize that HE is responsible for "winning" their votes. It's very important that he lets that specific group know that he NEEDS their votes.

I just thought it was an interesting realization.

So, what are your thoughts on Hillary's role tonight as she gives this all-important speech?

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


At the same time, many of the ones who are upset won't even listen to Sen. Obama. There is a same percentage who state they will not vote for McCain, so this argument actually wipes the other guy out. If the women who voted for Hillary were her true supporters, they would vote for Sen. Obama. Hillary is way more liberal than Sen. Obama.
I think Ralph Nader and Bob Barr will benefit from the ones who are upset at who won or didn't win. We still have to see who McCain picks as VP. If it is Sen. Lieberman or Mayor Giuliani, we may see Bob Barr benefiting big time. Ralph Nader is up to 4% in polls because of the mess in the primaries.

I agree, kid. Many people are, for lack of a better term, envious or jealous that Obama took the prize (they feel) away from Hillary. They see him as the bad guy who burned Hillary. In my opinion, they're obviously not thinking clearly about what is at stake, what's important.

I thought Hillary did a fantastic job on her speech last night. Several points she made that I thought were important:

1. Were you just in this campaign just for me (Hillary)? Or were you in it for the people in this country who need the help that Barack Obama can give them?

2. Think about AFTER the election... The future of our children hangs in the balance. It's easy to get caught up in resentment when your team doesn't win, but there's a bigger picture to think about.

3. She was funny! "Sister of the traveling pantsuits" and George Bush and John McCain in the Twin Cities is appropriate, because who can tell them apart? LOL

I thought she was fantastic! Some may argue that she should have stumped more for Obama, but I don't think that was her purpose last night and she may have come across as disingenuous. I think she needed to show HER support and then let the people decide. If she had begged her supporters to vote for him or said how much of a "great leader" he would be, it would have had the impression of stuffing him down their throats and maybe even a little bit hypocritical, considering what she said about him in the primaries. And Obama detractors would have jumped all over that.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


Hillary did deliver an awesome speech. I also liked the Governor of Montana. He has a folksy down to Earth demeanor and delivered some good jabs at the Republicans.
I don't like the news networks coverage as they only pick out a couple of speeches. There were many that were much better than Gov. Warner of Virginia's, but they did not even mention them. C-Span is the way to watch the convention.
I am looking forward to Bill Clinton's speech at 9pm ET/5 pm PT and of course Joe Biden's speech at 11pm ET and 8pm PT.
The Daily Show and Colbert Report are excellent follow ups at night.

Hillary just released her delegates 15 minutes before the vote.

I'm glad she did. There's really no need for her to see how many votes she would get. And this will show that "party unity" thing.

Edit later:

Well, that was exciting! During the Role Call, Hillary came out and moved to do a Nomination of Acclimation and it was accepted by the crowd, so Obama is the official Nominee of the Democratic Party.

[edit on 27-8-2008 by Benevolent Heretic]

I was a little bit concerned about what Bill Clinton might say in his speech tonight, but he completely blew me away! He hit it out of the park! He did exactly what he needed to do and I was totally impressed.

What surprised me even more was that I LOVED Kerry's speech! I almost left the room to do something else while he spoke because I have never been able to stand to listen to him! But today, he really held my interest and said all the right things. Very impressive!

I'm surprised that more people aren't commenting on the convention.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


I liked both Bill Clinton and Joe Biden's speeches. They both had to do what they had to do.
I also think no matter what they say in their speeches, they will be criticized for going to far or not going far enough. Tonight it the big night with Sen. Obama's acceptance speech. Are the pundits setting the bar too high? We'll see.
Tomorrow, Sen. McClain will pick his running mate, giving him the prime time spot (without the Olympics in the way this weekend). Interesting to see how well he uses the time.

Although I won't be voting for Obama, I'll definitely be watching his speech tonight. It may not be too informative, but it certainly will be entertaining.

Biden was great. I heard it was a little strange for him, being the new guy on the block and having new speech writers working on the speech with him, but I thought he was fantastic. I LOVE him. Always have. He's an honest and honorable man.

Looking forward to tonight's highlights, starting at 5 PM local time.

Bill Richardson (my governor)
will.i.am
Sheryl Crow
Stevie Wonder
Al Gore
Michael McDonald (singing America the Beautiful, I think)
Susan Eisenhower (lifetime Republican and Obama supporter)

Obama at 8 PM.

An exciting evening, for sure!

I'll be interested to see how Obama's speech tonight is received. The expectations are so high he won't have much if any stumble room... this speech is going to be scrutinized to death, and anything he messes up will be magnified.

I've been watching the convention closely and so have not been on ATS until today. Although I'm pretty much of a "yellow dog" Democrat this is the first election in awhile in which my first choice candidate has been chosen and I'm very excited.

I thought Gov. Warner's speech was just so-so, but most of the speakers lived up to my expectations or exceeded them. Michelle Obama found just the right tone and Hillary Clinton "rocked the house" as someone said last night.

IMO the disaffection of former Hillary supporters has been much exaggerated by the media. The commentators have to say something during all those gaps between speeches and something controversial always grabs some attention. I have been working for the Democratic party in my county and many of my co-workers are former Hillary supporters. They, like I, found the choice between Clinton and Obama very difficult as both were exceptionally strong candidates, so switching allegiances has been easy for them.

There is just too much difference between McCain and Obama for anyone who really supports the Democratic platform to possibly vote Republican. Maybe there are a few former Hillary supporters who are normally Republican but who were voting for her because she was a woman or because they saw her as more centrist than Obama, but I think those are very few.

Wow... I have no words, really. Obama's speech was absolutely incredible. I know who I'm voting for.