6:55 PM, Tuesday: I can’t live blog because then I’d have to take Mark Warner and his keynote speech off mute, and that would be wrong. (Although he has very nice cheekbones and he got all of Virginia on broadband—at least I think that’s what he said when I took him off mute for a moment.)
But my brilliant former student Zach Sire is live blogging….and he’s much smarter and waa-a-ay more entertaining than those humorless Daily Kos people or this guy at the Guardian (or whomever).
You must go over and read his blog immediately! Immediately, I tell you!
OKAY, I’M LIVE BLOGGING A LITTLE…..
(Did Keith Olbermann just say something about going to the “post-rational-thinking” people before he cut to the pundit panel? He did. Very nice. It describes most of the chattering class.)
So, just out of curiosity, how in the world was Warner’s speech a keynote? Mark Warner gave a Mark Warner speech. Damn! I took it off mute again just along enough to hear him waxing eloquent about…..him. (‘But enough about me, let me tell you what I’ve done for my state…”) WTF???
On MSNBC they’re talking about how “wounded” Bill Clinton is and how Hillary has wanted to be president since she was in high school…. MSNBC has repeatedly cut back to a camera on Bill for a good five minutes now, I guess in order that we might examine his “wounded” self. I’m changing the channel.
7:26: CNN has Montana’s Governor Brian Schweitzer on. (MSNBC doesn’t care about Montana.) Schweitzer is doing a good Democratic growl with his delivery. He seems to have a much better grip on the fact that he is not the candidate….than, say, than Warner did.
7:28: I love Schweitzer….a good bolo tie and a good anti McCain speech using the oil and energy theme.
7:29: “We’re drilling the Bakken formation…. But we can’t drill our way to energy independence… Even if you drilled in all John McCain’s back yards, even the ones he doesn’t know he has….Wooohooo! “[yes, he said, wooo-hooo]”
7:31: I will bet you anything right here, right now, that McCain cannot tell you where the Bakken Formation is… Or what it is….
************************************************************************************************************
LATER INFORMATIONAL UPDATE: The Bakken formation is a massive shale rock formation (containing oil reserves) that stretches from northeast Montana well into North Dakota. The USGS’s conservative estimate for how much oil is recoverable in the Bakken is 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels—-larger than all other current USGS oil assessments of the lower 48 states and it is the largest “continuous” oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS.
It is okay if you don’t know this. It is NOT okay if John McCain doesn’t know this. (I only know because of my Montana connections.)
***********************************************************************************************************
7:34….He’s telling everyone to stand up. I’m SO glad they moved Schweitzer to prime time. Montana rocks!
7:35: Did he really say: “That’s it, baby,” ???? He did. “That’s it, baby! Let’s go win this election!”
Go Brian!
7:37: Okay, Hillary video… They’re doing a whole thing on her laugh….
You know, this is a lovely video…..but how many times in a convention does the runner up get a video intro as if she’s the candidate? Is it me, or is this a little….um….confusing?
7:42: Chelsea’s lovely.
7:43: HILLARY FASHION ALERT. Orange pantsuit. But sort of a peachy-orange. Great color for Hillary. Very unusual. Great with her complexion. Smart choice.
(DAMN….my site went down temporarily and I lost some of my nattering. Probably just as well.)
7:49: Still giving her stump speech…. Not sure that’s a bad idea. But it sends something of a double message.
7:51: “Sisterhood of the Travelling Pantsuits.” Good line.
7:54: “I ran for president to…” yadda, yadda, yadda. Hil. Honey. We’re veering into dangerous territory here.
7:55: For one second there she said “we.” And now she’s back to “I.”
7:57: Wait a minute. Now she’s going to Barack. All is forgiven, Hillary. (Or sort of forgiven.) Smart narrative train. “Are you in it for me, or are you in it for…” and she names the various righteous Dem causes. Very good. In other words, move out of narcissism, people.
8:00: Michelle has on a very pretty pale yellow dress. And she is not smiling ear to ear. At all.
8:03: The Harriett Tubman stuff is great.
8:05: Hmmm. If people watching this were playing a drinking game in which they took a drink every time Hillary used the word “Obama,” they would not even be slightly buzzed.
8:08: Okay the most important thing she did was that part of the speech where she questioned the motives of her supporters—or more specifically, she asked them to question their own motives. And she said what was at stake.
8:27: So……what’s Bill going to say tomorrow night?
McCain’s quickly released statement notes that Hillary “never said Barack Obama is ready to lead.”
Whatever.
NOTE: Here’s how Zach Sire wrapped up the speech:
She did quite well. Nothing too shocking or surprising and everyone is still, um, alive, so all in all I’d say it was a success. What more can she do? What more could she have said to convince the PUMAs and the Hillaloonies? Not much.
If, at this point, her supporters are stupid enough to vote McCain or not vote at all, we should just vote them off the Earth, the end. There’s no other way she could have possibly tried harder to convert them.
I’m still pretty sure that she’s pissed beyond belief and planning on running in 2012…but hey, she’s good at going through the motions without really showing her hand.
Well done, Hillz.
Oh, the humanity!
************************************************************************************
So, what did you think?
I’ll start watching the convention tomorrow, after Hillary’s done with her public catharsis. I don’t think I can stomach anymore of her public self pity. And her irritating supporters! Democrats who’d rather vote for a pro-life, monger like McCain, rather than Obama. Give me a break.
She was pretty good…did what she had to do. Had some great lines about the Twin Cities and No Way No How No McCain.
As I know you know…live blogging is hard! Thanks for the shout out. It’s like you’re running a marathon or something. You have to watch and type and, of course, simultaneously decide what’s worthy of actually writing about while it’s still going on…you have to keep up or then you’ve lost track of what people are saying. I’ll be doing it all week and next week for the RNC..it’s fun in a crazy way.
You just gotta love Schweitzer. He was a treat to watch. He done Montana proud.
As for Hillary, what Steve Benen said.
The expectations on her were huge. And, some were contradictory. The recap is all over the map as I travel the web looking at summaries. Some think she nailed it, others aren’t quite so complimentary. Truth is, like everything else in this campaign, Hillary’s speech was a Rorschach ink blot test. The recap tell me more about the person who viewed the speech, than it tells me about Hillary herself.
“8:27: So……what’s Bill going to say tomorrow night?”
I’ll tell you what Celeste – you take a shot every time he mentions the Clintons and I’ll take a shot every time he mentions Obama. And, we’ll see what happens.
Let’s see, let’s review that plan: I’ll be drunk and trying to blog and you’ll be stone sober (and laughing at me)! Good idea? Probably not so much. (Okay, well, for you maybe.)
I only read up until the point where you said “good idea.” So I guess were on!
Of course that should be “we’re” but I’m a product of LAUSD, so cut me some slack.
Hillary laid down a sacrifice bunt! However, Obama was still left on first base and lucky that he wasn’t caught in a rundown. In the bottom half of the inning, the McCain team went up two more over the Obama Mets, that had been previously leading by several games until faltering.
And while the Democratic convention rolls on, Alaska Republicans voted overwhelmingly for Sen Ted Stevens as their candidate in the upcoming Alaska elections even though Stevens is facing a Federal indictment for receiving kickbacks from wealthy supporters and Alaska business interests. Seems the Alaska Republicans plan to use the famous multi million dollar, Sen Stevens pork barrel “bridge to knowhere”.
Good comment Don Quixote. I heard on the street that the bridge might actually connect Siberia to Norte America when the ice caps melt. So maybe that dude Stevens aint got such a bad idea?
Hmmmm. It seems to me that I remember Tom Delay not running because he had been indicted by a second or third grand jury bullied by Democratic D.A. Ronnie Earle. So, was Delay ever convicted? No. I guess indictments only mean the same thing as convictions if the accused is a Republican.
Michelle Obama is currently addressing the reception of “Emily’s List” losers, spouting off the same old lies, such as women being paid less for the same work. She’s pulling out every tired cliche in the left-wing book. I’m not impressed.
R Sen Stevens better hurry up and beg Bush’s US AG Mukasey to cut him a break Woody, the sands are running out of the hourglass.
By the way the Bush hatchet man and general all around scumbag Tom DeLay is still under indictment and hopefully gets 5 to 10 for money laundering and other crimes and misdemeanors. Scumbag DeLay’s only hope is a technicality, that he accepted the kickbacks, back when he was Bush’ butt buddy, in a check form instead of cold cash, at present time the law would still consider this to be a crime but retroactively DeLay may skate on this technicality.
It won’t matter Bush will probably pardon this scum along with the resuscitated Kenneth “Kenny Baby” Lay of Enron fame.
So, was Delay ever convicted? No
His trial hasn’t started yet.
Thanks for the gritty commentary Don Quixote. When I read how you have the inside track on these crooks in suits I feel like I’m right there with you, hammering those scumbags and showing them what for.
Inspirational, intelligent, invoking, incredible comments by Don Quixote and Puppet. Can we nominate “them” for President and Vice-President, I’m sure all of America and the world would want them as U.S. president or even Master of the Universe for the gritty comments on this blog. Maybe Don Quixote should have his own blog for the world to read, we can only pray and hope for such a blessing to be bestowed on us all. My abuelita is also inspired !!!!!
Don Quixote, did you notice that anonymouse is the big znore haikula?
Just quit. Seriously. I don’t mean this in an angry or spiteful way. You don’t have any responsibility to fix the world–you’ve done more than enough already. Live your life, love your wife and kids and be happy.
Cro-Magnons suffer from sleep paralysis while “awake.” Being awake is just when our subconscious perceptions control us and then when we “dream” at night the truth is revealed via our cerebellum. Sitting in full-lotus during the day enables this Cro-Magnon sleep paralysis-walking to be reversed so that the cerebellum truth is immediately apparent and can be acted on right away.
Randy, you come up with such serious but pathetic responses.
Conspiracy charges against Delay were quickly tossed and the money laundering charges, still phony but open after three years, says something about fair and speedy trials for Republicans. Of course, dragged-out political harm was all that was needed–convictions are bonuses, even though not coming.
Ronnie Earle has been accurately described as a “renegade and partisan Democrat who has done some really rotten political prosecuting.”
Here’s more:
So, Randy, quit trying to “win” against me, because you can’t, and quit making such stupid responses.
Randy, you come up with such serious but pathetic responses.
Woody,
Nothing was factually wrong in what I said. You’re getting hysterical. I suggest that you splash some cold water on your face and take several deep breaths.
Something is factually wrong if it omits pertinent information with the intention to lead one to a misleading conclusion. Stick your head in a bucket of water and take several deep breaths.
Woody,
He has not gone to trial yet. That is a fact. You’re still hysterical.
Haikula went on vacation and said “Good bye” yesterday. She’s blogging on Mayor Sam and here today. The nutso anonymouse can’t help it.
Caught me!