@Randem

Nobody really won, in my opinion. While Obama is clearly the more intelligent of the two, McCain came off looking far more level-headed than I expected him to. Of course McCain couldn’t help himself from lying, insulting, and talking over top of Obama, who remained the gentleman.

What stood out to me most, though, was that McCain never once acknowledged Obama’s presence. In spite of standing a few mere feet apart for 90+ minutes, John McCain never once went so far as to even look at Obama. And apparently I’m not the only one who noticed it, since Chris Matthews just spent the last hour talking about exactly that.

So what’s the deal? As I see it, either he can’t lie about someone while looking them in the face… or else he’s just such a racist that he refuses to acknowledge that he’s being beaten in the polls by a black man. Personally, I think it’s both.

Either way, though… John McCain is an asshole.

Just in case you have been living under a rock for the past 24 hours, the quick summary is that Barack Obama called John McCain yesterday morning to suggest the two campaigns make a joint, non-partisan message about the importance of the economic troubles our country is facing. McCain called back yesterday afternoon and said sure I’ll do it, and then immediately snubbed Obama and went on a wild ride canceling his campaign-related appearances and even suggesting that the debate be postponed, so that he could ride into the Senate on his trusty steed and save the day on the economic bailout.

Of course the entire world sees through it. Nobody believes McCain’s presence is needed — in fact, given the number of times he’s admitted to knowing nothing about the economy, I’m sure we’d have been better off with him absent. The real reason for his attempt to suspend the campaign is because his poll numbers took a big dump after the debacle that was his campaign for the past week. He’s grandstanding. And we all know this, too. Nobody’s falling for it.

But here’s the interesting thing: all the pundits, all the political bloggers, all the talking heads… everyone is talking about McCain’s decision to call off his campaign. Everyone is talking about his hot head, his shoot-from-the-hip style, his grandstanding. They’re talking about how he made this big move to steal Obama’s momentum…

Why hasn’t anyone pointed out the genius of this move by Obama? They totally set McCain up and he took the bait. How to you beat a dirty, Karl Rove-style campaign? You know they’re going to be backstabbing, lying, dirty animals, so you set them up with an opportunity to do that in a way that can’t hurt you.

For eight years, the entire political process has been ruled by this Rove-style of dirty tricks, and we’ve all feared that it would stay that way. But just like defenses learned to stop the West Coast Offense, there are some smart Democrats who have figured out how to beat the neocon machine. Let’s give him his credit. Barack is not the victim of another dirty trick here, he’s the cool poker player who just set up his opponent.

People like to talk about McCain the Maverick, but this all brings to mind what a real Maverick is. I’m talking about the old tv series with James Garner. Maverick wasn’t some hot-head, who put on a big show for people, he was a steady, poised thinker, who usually tricked the other guy into losing his cool. Barack is the real Maverick.

My photo shoot last night caused me to miss the entire broadcast of the DNC wrap-up. But when I checked Google Reader afterwards and saw the buzz, I decided to watch the replay on C-SPAN and see what everyone s talking about.

And so it was that I was up until 2:00am watching a rerun of a political broadcast on C-SPAN. (Is there any single sentence that could make me sound like more of a nerd?) But it certainly was worth it.

Barack Obama is a demi-god. There can be no other explanation. The man is incredible. And what better place to give that speech than in a sporting arena in front of 80,000 people, because he certainly hit the ball out of the park.

When he described all the ills of the past eight years and then looked dead into the camera and shouted “Enough!”, I got chills. Finally, someone wants to fix our broken country. (And finally someone is willing to scold the men who are ruining it!)

He pulled no punches, yet made no insults. He attacked like a prizefighter, but never hit below the belt. And he finally gave me the one thing I’ve always felt was missing — substance.

My biggest complaint about Obama was that I never felt like I knew what he stood for, but last night he laid out a very clear, very firm position on every single issue that is important to Americans. And I agreed with him on every last detail of it.

It was a beautiful thing. I can’t help but be excited about the next 70 days, and then the next 4-8 years for our country. Now, where do I get one of those Obama t-shirts?

It seems the Democratic Party has woken up, and they’re pissed.

Always a heroic (and tragically under-heard) voice, Dennis Kucinich ripped into the current administration with his “Wake up, America” speech.

A guy I’ve secretly been a big fan of — Mark Warner — made a challenging speech about what this country could be, and should be doing.

And Hillary really knocked one out of the park. “No way, no how, no McCain.” I’ve never been very fond of her, but I found myself quite inspired by her speech. (And from what I could see, her husband looked mighty proud of his wife.) I kinda liked her orange suit, too. ;-)

I think this finally puts to bed all the talk about the Democrats being too soft, and afraid to attack, because they did exactly that tonight. Far better than the boredom of yesterday.

I turned on the DNC last night while I was painting. After the first night, I came away with a number of impressions on the Democratic party and on their candidate.

Nancy Pelosi

First, I have a hard time viewing Pelosi’s big speech as anything more than a token gesture toward the first ever woman Speaker of the House. She is far from what I’d call a team player, and at this point I feel she’s more of a pawn to the lobbyists and someone who might be more comfortable playing for the red team. Her speech was boring, robotic, and insincere, and that took the all the wind out of the few good things she said.

Jesse Jackson Jr.
While not as bad as Pelosi, I didn’t find myself inspired by Jackson either. If Pelosi was a token to the women, Jackson was a token to the black voters — he was a convenient tie to MLK, and to Chicago. He spoke a little more passionately (only a little), but I think he might actually mean what he says. Still, he lacked the charisma to get people excited. Look, I understand that you’re all reading from a TelePrompTer, but if you’d bothered to look over the speech one time back at the hotel, you might have had a better idea of how to deliver it.

Ted Kennedy
If charisma was lacking for most of the speakers last night, it was made up in spades by the appearance of Ted Kennedy, battling with a terminal and incurable cancer. I listened to most of the night’s events from the next room while painting the walls, but Kennedy’s passion brought out to the front of the tv to pay my full attention. When he’s gone, he’s going to leave a gaping hole in the Democratic party, with some big shoes to fill.

Michelle Obama
If nothing else, it was worth watching the DNC last night just for the chance to learn about Michelle Obama. Even as much as I pay attention to politics — particularly during election season — I have to humbly admit that I knew very little about this woman. After last night, however, I really like her a lot.

I could tell from her speech that Michelle Obama is a truly impassioned woman. In spite of getting fouled up by the TelePrompTer once or twice, I got the impression that she not only read the speech beforehand, but believed in it and practiced it. She spoke with emotion, and the words she said were truly inspiring.

I was moved. As I listened to Mrs. Obama speak, I imagined a country full of patriotism and pride, a brilliant future within my reach. I imagined that this must have been what it was like half a century ago when John Kennedy ran. If “Hope” was the message, she delivered it loud and clear.

The South Side

At no point in the evening can I remember hearing a generic reference to Chicago. Every reference was made to “The South Side of Chicago.” Now perhaps I’m a bit biased, having grown up just a few blocks outside of the south side, but I think this was a really well-used distinction.

The south side is steeped in history, tradition, and reputation. Unlike the forest of skyscrapers and suits that fill the loop, the south side is, and always has been, an underprivileged blue-collar area. It’s a place where nobody is special, not even a hotshot lawyer with a degree from Harvard. On the south side, you can’t insulate yourself from everyone else and be a pretentious snob. Even from inside of a four-million dollar home in Hyde Park, you can still hear the car alarms and the gunshots at night, and you still see the homeless people and the drug dealers around you. Every day.

The Hope I See
The prospect of Barack Obama as president is an exciting one. And it’s important to note that it is exciting regardless of policies, regardless of position, regardless of “the issues.” Barack, and his family, represent real people. If he is elected, he will pave the way for all of us to dream big.

We grow up being told we can be anything we want to be, even President, if we set our minds to it. But as we grow up, we learn what a lie that is, as we watch rich sons of rich fathers exercise their entitlement. We watch the children of wealthy, influential parents fulfill their destiny to keep each other rich at the expense of everyone else.

But Barack Obama is a real person. The son of a single parent? That describes most of the people I grew up with, but it doesn’t describe sons of Presidents or sons of Admirals. A home in Hyde Park is worlds away from an enormous ranch in Crawford, Texas. A guy with a net worth of a few hundred thousand is a stark difference from an oil baron who owns his own baseball team.

Moreover, Barack is young and hip. His wife is young and hip. They’re charismatic, attractive, and exciting. They speak to where this country is and where it can go, rather than the legacy of Presidents we’ve had who just want to keep it the way it is.

I guess what I’m saying is that I’m really excited about this candidate, and about what he could mean for our country.

Hillary Clinton may have won three of the big states last Tuesday, but it’s not states that count, it’s delgates. She continues to lag in delegates, and now it’s mathematically impossible for her to win the nomination by the agreed rules. Nevertheless she continues to keep the drama rolling.

So now we have Clinton and Obama clawing and scratching at each other while McCain sits pat. McCain now has the luxury of proactively winning more support while the Democratic contenders do all his dirty work for him. For the Democratic Party, this is a horrible strategic mistake.

This draws a nice parallel to another of history’s big rivalries: that between the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers. Let me elaborate…

Just like two parties, both the Packers and the Bears are hoping to find the new leader. On one side you have the Packers who, like the Republicans, have picked out the person who they want to be the leader, and have begun to prepare him for the task. On the other hand you have the Bears who, like the Democrats, can’t commit to a leader, and the candidates for the role have to fight each other to win it.

The Packers will go into training camp committed to one guy — Aaron Rogers — and no matter what else has to be worked out for the team, the quarterback will spend his time preparing to lead his team and win games. Meanwhile, the Bears will spend the majority of their off-season distracted by multiple quarterbacks competing; whoever wins out will be underprepared, and he will be second-guessed all season.

So what’s my point? If the Democrats or the Bears want to have a chance of winning, they need to make a commitment to one person, stop the in-fighting, and start preparing to win because their opponents — the Republicans and the Packers — are already formulating their strategies to win.

In the wake of the GOP’s violent overthrow, Donald Rummsfeld has submitted his resignation and President W has accepted it. I guess they knew the first order of business for a new Dem-powered Congress would be to get rid of Rummy.

Chalk up another victory for the good guys. Freedom is on the march here in the good ol’ US of A.

America has spoken! Say goodbye to the Repulican era. The Democratic Party swept the mid-term elections, taking the majority of House seats and Governorships, and while the Senate results are not final yet in two states, Dems are sitting on leads in both of the races in question, leaving them poised for a majority in the Senate too.

It’s about time.

Many of us saw the corruption early on and wanted to see a change, but we watched as 2002 and 2004 only served to solidify the Republican Party in their comfy seats. But as good as the GOP machine was, it just wasn’t good enough to cover up the endless string of scandals those Republicans loved to get themselves into.

The tide has turned. Bush, already a lame duck, is now looking at an impotent end to his ride in the White House.

Particularly encouraging was seeing Ohio clean house, getting rid of Mike DeWine and Ken Blackwell — two of the major players in the 2004 election scandal. Pennsylvania also said goodbye to Rick Santorum, and Rhode Island gave Lincoln Chafee the boot.

So now that the Dems have the power, it’s time to see them do something with it. So many of them have campaigned on nothing more than the “at least I’m not a Republican” platform. It’s time to see what they stand for. Granted, it can’t be as bad as what they defeated, but if it’s not good, they’ll just lose all the power they gained when the next election rolls around.

Time to step up, Dems!

The Rude Pundit has the best strategy I’ve seen for Democratic leadership: kill ‘em with questions.

Dadahead at The Liberal Avenger thinks reframing is the answer

As John Edwards continues to try to save face, all he is doing is sticking his foot deeper into his mouth. That would be fine, if it was only he who suffered for it, but that’s not the case.

John Edwards’s fragmenting talk and press-release style of disagreement with Howard Dean will continue to scare off potential newcomers to the Democratic party. Sure, Joe Biden is in on it too, but Edwards wants to be president - nobody cares about Biden. While Edwards is busy trying to make the registered Democrats vote for him, Dean is out there busting his balls trying to get registered Republicans to vote Democrat… and succeeding.

As Andrew Sullivan runs his yap in favor of Hillary Clinton, he should really be paying more attention to Howard Dean. Dean is single-handedly rebuilding an entire political party from the ground up. He’s energizing the base, he’s finding new supporters, he’s bringing in record amounts of money, and he’s doing it all without selling his soul to corporate powers.