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I’m not a supporter of Obama or McCain.  So I think I can offer a somewhat objective opinion of Obama’s speech.  Tonight’s speech confirmed my non-support of Obama.

Here’s what I saw – first, where’s the vision?  For someone who uses big platitudes of change and hope, I didn’t hear the vision of where America will be going.  I heard the typical State of the Union speech – a laundry list of programs that the government should do.  Actually, scratch that.  I heard what Obama will do.  He spoke in terms of “I will…”  If I heard correctly, he was going to create energy independence, fight global warming, provide health insurance for everyone, and on and on.  Unless he truly is the Messiah, no one man can do all of that alone.

Second – the speech was hypocritical.  Here’s a guy who talks about change and in the same speech does what so many other political speeches turn into – an attack on your opponent.  In this case, it appeared that he was running against John McCain sometimes and George Bush sometimes.  Bush isn’t on the ballot.

I heard Obama criticize McCain for not solving the problems of this country during his 25 years in DC, yet he picks Joe Biden as his VP, who has been in DC roughly 10 years longer than McCain.

Third, for someone who is characterized as a great orator, I was underwhelmed.  It sounded like a speech that could have been given by any other politician with a microphone at any other Democrat convention in recent memory.  I was not moved by his speech – I was bored by it.  His speech didn’t even upset me, I felt no emotion the entire time.

Lastly, I felt this was a huge lost opportunity.  Here was Obama’s opportunity to tell the American people his vision for the country.  When I compare this speech with great speeches of the past, Obama’s falls far short.  When I listen to recordings of FDR speak about freedom from fear, or JFK setting a national goal of having a man on the moon in a decade, or Reagan demanding the Soviets “tear down this wall,” or his description of America as a “shining city on a hill,” I heard a vision for America – a positive vision of where we were going and why.  I heard a vision which wasn’t about the President doing anything, but all Americans, together moving forward.  When I hear those speeches I am inspired because they bring out the best in all of us, unite us in a common vision and mission.  It’s what made those men great leaders.  It’s what Obama lacks.

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I’m testing my stomach in watching the Democrat convention this evening as I work away in my business. I just watched the “average joe” American speeches. Those are the average Americans that came up to the podium to tell their story. Every single one of them was a victim. One woman, who claimed to be a lifelong Republican who voted for Nixon, Reagan, Bush and Bush, said it best “Listen to what happened to me.”

How is opening celebrating your victimhood hopeful? How is being proud of your victimhood the politics of change?

Democrats have been the party of the victim for decades. Obama is a great culmination of this message. Listen to him when he talks this evening. He’ll talk about change and hope, as is his message. But who will be doing the change – you or the government? Who will be providing the hope – you or someone else? Who is going to improve the lives of Americans – each American or the government?

This is not the same message of a prior Democrat nominee for President – JFK though.  He once famously said “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

Being a victim means that you take no responsibilities and have no power. Being a victim means that things and circumstances happen to you. It’s rather depressing frankly. Bad things don’t happen to people because the universe decided to pick on someone. Bad things are only bad after the fact, when you have more information. Being a victim is a choice.

You can choose to be a victim, or you can choose to be a person who takes responsibility for your life. That may be difficult, it may mean you needs some help for some time, it may mean you experience pain. Ultimately though, taking responsibility means taking what comes your way and choosing if it’s what you will be satisfied with. If it’s not, then you choose to change it. That’s what change means to me. That’s what hope means to me.

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I read a couple of great articles.  One on the D’s big blunder and the other on the non-existent convention bounce.  Dick Morris wrote the first article and I think he’s right on target.  The Obama campaign, atleast during this convention is aiming it’s sites on the wrong guy – George Bush.  He’s not on the ballot, no matter how you try to twist it.  McCain is not the same as Bush – need proof of that?  That’s simple – it’s a big reason many Republicans don’t like McCain.  Morris has his own listing showing how McCain is not like Bush.

The issues on which McCain and Bush differ are legion:

• McCain fought for campaign finance reform — McCain-Feingold — that Bush fought and ultimately signed because he had no choice.

• McCain led the battle to restrict interrogation techniques of terror suspects and to ban torture.

• McCain went with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on a tough measure to curb climate change, something Bush denies is going on.

• McCain opposed the Bush tax cuts when they passed.

• McCain urged the Iraq surge, a posture Bush rejected for years before conceding its wisdom.

• McCain favors FDA regulation of tobacco and sponsored legislation to that effect, a position all but a handful of Republican Senators oppose.

• McCain’s energy bill, also with Lieberman, is a virtual blueprint for energy independence and development of alternate sources.

• After the Enron scandal, McCain introduced sweeping reforms in corporate governance and legislation to guarantee pensions and prohibit golden parachutes for executives. Bush opposed McCain’s changes and the watered-down Sarbanes-Oxley bill eventuated.

• McCain has been harshly critical of congressional overspending, particularly of budgetary earmarks, a position Bush only lately adopted (after the Democrats took over Congress).

I look at that list and it’s a great list of several of the reasons I don’t like McCain.

No wonder the Obama people are not expecting a bounce from the convention.  It’s not just because the R’s have their 4 day commercial, I mean convention, the week after the D’s.  It’s also because it’s becoming apparent that they are running against the wrong guy.

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Kathryn Jean Lopez:

There was a great shame here at the Pepsi Center on Tuesday night. Pennsylvania senator Robert P. Casey Jr. spoke to the Democratic Convention. His presence at the podium was acclaimed by all quarters as a clear sign that Democrats are an open tent, that the party is not closed to those who defend human life. Casey said: “Barack Obama and I have an honest disagreement on the issue of abortion. But the fact that I’m speaking here tonight is testament to Barack’s ability to show respect for the views of people who may disagree with him.”

That’s an easy call for Obama to make in the case of Casey, who provides no leadership on the abortion issue. Casey is so not the leader that his speech didn’t even dare to mention what is the point of disagreement between the Keystone State senator and the nominee of his party. The word “life” never crossed his lips.

Sen. Casey’s appearance was supposed to serve as a signal that in the party of Obama, pro-life Democrats are not prohibited from speaking to the national convention — as the Robert P. Casey Sr. was prohibited in 1992. But the junior Casey — who has a 65-percent approval rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America — is nothing like his father.

Read it all.

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Schadenfreude, they name is DNC2008.

This is the video I was talking about last night.

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Alex, I missed the interview with Anne Price-Mills, but the overwrought angst you describe comes as no surprise.  In fact I would have been surprised if it was absent.

I tried to watch the whole Hillary! speech but I grew intensely nauseous watching the tribute film with slides of Hillary! set to Tom Petty’s “American Girl”. 

Then she was all “party unity blah blah blah” and I turned it off.  I’m very disappointed.  I never thought she would toe the party line and simply go down without a fight. 

The best part of the whole thing was right after the film and right before she started speaking, the place went nuts.  The stadium was a sea of white Hillary! signs.  The camera cut first to Bubba:  teary-eyed, pursed lips and oh-so-proud of his little woman.  Better was when the camera cut to Michelle Obama who looked like she was ready to KILL Hillary.  Then once Hillary started with the hope-n-changiness, the camera cut to Michelle again and she was all pursed lips and nodding, like “That’s right, girlfriend.  You BETTER get on board!”

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I’m at an airport, and I only caught the last little bit of Hillary!’s speech on CNN… but gosh.

Did anyone see Anne Price-Mills, a delegate for Hillary interviewed on CNN?

Crying.

Despair.

Angst.

“that was a presidential speech, you know it, right there.”

Then she was getting a little angry.

When asked if she would vote for Hillary she said she was elected as a Hillary delegate, and that’s how she will vote.

… in the ballot box, she’s not sure.

Obama has two months to win her over.

She’s not going to vote McCain, but maybe Obama.

Unbelievable.

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Bill Clinton’s attempt to steal the title from Karl Rove:

Bill Clinton appeared to undermine Sen. Barack Obama again Tuesday. 

The former president, speaking in Denver, posed a hypothetical question in which he seemed to suggest that that the Democratic Party was making a mistake in choosing Obama as its presidential nominee.

He said: “Suppose for example you’re a voter. And you’ve got candidate X and candidate Y. Candidate X agrees with you on everything, but you don’t think that person can deliver on anything. Candidate Y disagrees with you on half the issues, but you believe that on the other half, the candidate will be able to deliver. For whom would you vote?”

Then, perhaps mindful of how his off-the-cuff remarks might be taken, Clinton added after a pause: “This has nothing to do with what’s going on now.”

Bill needs to work on his subtlety.  This comment is not quite magnificent bastard caliber. 

But getting there.  Definitely getting there.

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What happens when you have no real leadership?  Confusion:

Already defeated and now confused, delegates supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton pleaded Tuesday to know whether they’ll be allowed to cast roll call votes and demonstrate on the Democratic convention floor in her favor.

“Just tell me what you want me to do,” Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said, throwing up his hands and rolling his eyes in an Associated Press interview. Nutter, who had campaigned for Clinton during the Pennsylvania primary, later said he would support Obama in a roll call vote.

The confusion stems from a tentative deal between the Obama and Clinton camps that would allow some states to cast votes in a roll call before somebody — possibly Clinton herself — cuts short the tally and asks the convention to nominate Obama by unanimous consent. Clinton fueled confusion by refusing to publicly instruct her delegates how to vote, though she said she’ll back Obama when the time comes.

Clinton backers said that while the process is in one respect meaningless — Obama is assured of the nomination — the tense negotiations over convention stagecraft are an important signal of whether Obama respects them and their favored candidate.

Party leaders said they fear a nationally televised floor demonstration that would underscore party divisions.

“It seems to be a little more of a problem than I anticipated,” former Democratic Party chairman Don Fowler told the AP. “All you need is 200 people in that crowd to boo and stuff like that and it will be replayed 900 times. And that’s not what you want out of this.”

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Here is the speech that Bobby Casey is going to give in a few hours:

2008 Democratic National Convention: Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by Robert P. Casey Jr., US Senator, Pennsylvania

Bobby decided to just talk about economics. His speech is very vague, and the content ultimately boils down to “Bush bad Obama good”. According to Casey, the economy is bad, and it’s because Bush made it bad, but never fear – Obama’s going to make it good, somehow. I think he’s going to raise taxes on the rich. Yeah, that’ll definitely improve the economy.

Casey’s only remark about abortion:

Barack Obama and I have an honest disagreement on the issue of abortion. But the fact that I’m speaking here tonight is testament to Barack’s ability to show respect for the views of people who may disagree with him.

Actually, Bobby, it’s a testament to what a Democrat Party hack you are.

I do have to say, though, Bobby, smart move only making a very limited reference to abortion. You wouldn’t want the USCCB to come down on you just like they came down on Nancy Pelosi, in an unprecented rebuke of a phony Catholic politician abusing her faith for political gain.

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While the leftist lunatics are lauding the leader of the Obama Nation this week, let’s not forget what he said about middle-class, Central Pennsylvanians:

…when small-town Americans lose their jobs they become bitter and “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigration sentiment or anti-trade sentiment.”[1]

The original story is here.

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A guilty pleasure of mine is perusing trashy celebrity magazines whenever I get the chance.  I love “Fashion Police” and “Who wore it best?” but certainly the most vapid and guilt worthy feature is the one entitled “Stars:  They’re just like us!” wherein we are subjected to Matt Damon taking out the garbage, Jennifer Aniston spilling coffee on herself or Jake Gyllenhal buying groceries.

Tonight is what the media is dubbing, “Michelle Monday“:

Michelle Obama’s job will be to assure Americans that her family shares their values and concerns, political experts said Sunday.

The wife of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama will speak on the first night of the Democratic National Convention. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton takes the podium the second night.

“She (Obama) certainly needs to convey some of her husband’s themes – this is about change,” said Colorado State University political science professor Sandra Davis. “But she also needs to convey that she’s not an unreasonable, radical person – that she has a mainstream message that she and her husband would bring to the campaign.”

Perhaps I’m reading too much into this, but if the Dems have to devote an entire day of their national convention trying to convince the voting populace that the Obamas do indeed have American values, this run at the White House is in trouble.

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I’m thanking God that Zombie does not post in “Smell-O-Vision”.

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Zombie has the pictures.

They’re begging for the fire hose.

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Alex, you missed the most revealing part of the exchange:

Ladies and gentleman, the coverage of Barack Obama was embarrassing,” said Rendell, [at a forum on media coverage of the campaign] in the ballroom at Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel. “It was embarrassing.”

…

“MSNBC was the official network of the Obama campaign,” Rendell said, who called their coverage “absolutely embarrassing.”

Chris Matthews, Rendell said, “loses his impartiality when he talks about the Clintons.”

At that point, PBS’s Judy Woodruff, who was moderating the moderators event, said: “Why don’t we let Governor Rendell sit down.”

That was met with applause from the crowd of big-time media figures, which included Arianna Huffington, Gwen Ifill, Al Hunt, and Chuck Todd.

[emphasis mine] Read it here.

Wow! I mean…, like, WOW! It just doesn’t get any more blatant than that.

Just who in Hell do these people think they are? Well…, I guess that’s obvious.

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Opening up a bottle of whine in Denver.

“Ladies and gentleman, the coverage of Barack Obama was embarrassing,” said Rendell, in the ballroom at Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel. “It was embarrassing.”

Rendell, an ardent Hillary Clinton supporter during the primaries, now backs Obama in the general election. Brokaw and Rendell began debating campaign coverage, including the on-air comments by Lee Cowan, and when MSNBC came up, Rendell went after the cable network.

“MSNBC was the official network of the Obama campaign,” Rendell said.

You might remember that Governor Rendell was very fond of FoxNews, much to the consternation of the left. August 15th and April 1st.

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Christine Flowers looks at what Bob Casey speaking at the DNC Convention really means.

Pennsylvania’s nominally pro-life senator will be speaking at the Democratic convention four full election cycles after his actually pro-life father was denied a chance to address the delegates. (I say “nominally” because, according to Senate records, Junior has a 65 percent NARAL approval rating.)

You could look at the Dems’ move as an attempt to open up the tent to those potential Obama voters who may believe, like John McCain, that life begins at conception.

Or you could assume they’re still trying to deal with the fallout from humiliating our former governor, Bob Casey Jr.’s father, a man who epitomized the values of the party in every single way – except one.

Or you could argue that it’s the donkey – not the elephant – that has the long memory.

Or you could even say that the Democrats have actually moderated their “Hell, no, Roe won’t go!” stance in light of decades of advances in medical technology and techniques for treating the complications of pregnancy, and a rise in the number of young people who define themselves as “anti-abortion.”

You could do all of these things – and still be very, very wrong.

Philadelphia Daily News.

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