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General Commentary - Raise your hand if you’re tired of hearing John McCain mention how many years he spent in a Vietnamese prison. Not only is it a point that bars retort, but it’s also impertinent to nearly any discussion. When will someone point out that, first of all, he volunteered to accept that risk as a professional soldier and, secondly, that he wouldn’t have been captured if he’d successfully completed his mission. I’m not saying “Bad things happen to you because you’re a dumbass” (thank you, Red Forman) is an appropriate response, but it’s a perspective that deserves exploring. Also, let’s not forget his implication in the Keating 5, the fact that he ditched his first wife for a booze heiress as soon as he got states-side, or this little joke he told in 1998: “Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno.”

Marketing Joe Biden as a “Son of Scranton” isn’t a bad idea, but I wonder what the good people of Delaware will think about that, in the event that the Obama/Biden ticket doesn’t achieve its electoral goal.

I keep seeing Luke Russert, brow furrowed, delivering coverage of the “youth issues.” Yes, his late father was likely one of the most notable political personalities in American broadcasting history, but the younger Russert is basically just another nondescript, privileged white man. To this point, his primary exposure has been filling in, as “intern emeritus,” for Stat Boy, during Tony Reali’s honeymoon.

Jimmy Carter - As an old man from the deep South, and as a statesman, Jimmy Carter has a unique perspective on the “momentous” event of Barack Obama’s status as the first African-American candidate for president nominated by a major party. When he’s not president, everyone love Jimmy Carter. At the same time, I think everyone under, say, 35 has heard more than enough about the marvelous things the candidacy of an ethnic minority tells us about American society. Get over it. Much like a female president (Am I the only one who gets a little bothered by the implication of the “18 million cracks in the glass ceiling” line? It’s a good line, and I’d have a hard time abandoning it, were it mine, but the implication that HRC lost because she’s a woman is fundamentally incorrect.), an ethnic minority president is inevitable and remarkable only inasmuch as it is unworthy of note. In the words of Stephen Colbert: “I don’t see race; I only see Americans.”

Bill Clinton - In the pre-game, they’re saying that Bill Clinton wrote his own speech, and it’s likely to run well over the ten minutes it’s been allotted. The former note is a bit surprising; the latter is not. Slick Willy may strike me as a glorified used car salesman, but you can’t argue with his charisma. Seeing the wall of hollaring from the crowd as Clinton takes the podium, it suddenly seems like very reasonable for Barack to accept the nomination in a larger venue. It would be difficult to beat this reception, yet beat it, he must. (Sound a bit like porn Yoda, don’t I?) Humor - I knew it existed somewhere! Talking about Barack: way to be on message! Slurping Joe Biden puts a little gravy on those grits. Around 9:16pm Eastern time, Bill Clinton made unclear use of a pronoun; thus far, that is my only complaint. The guy knows how to work an applause line, both good and bad. Hold on…that “Yes we can” chant just came out of nowhere. They’ve got to be using the giant LCD backdrop off-camera as an “applause” light. I don’t know whether to feel manipulated or appreciate the forethought.

Interim - Chuck Todd, a man much more reliable than his two first names might suggest, seems to believe the Republicans will say that Obama is attempting to appropriate Joe Biden’s experience. Isn’t that exactly what Dubya did with Darth Cheney? Now he’s saying that Kay Bailey Huchison is reported to be on McCain’s short list for VP candidates. Regular readers know that she is far from one of my favorite Senators.

John Kerry - Generally, John Kerry is about as motivational as a bowl of oatmeal, but he’s doing a rousing job of thrashing John McCain. His verbal framing of “Senator McCain v. Candidate McCain” is an effective and accurate rhetorical device.

Interim - I really should be fast-forwarding, but I’m still trying to decide whether or not to start DVRing (”verbing words is cool” - Calvin) Rachel Maddow’s show once the convention is over. She certainly gets props for this observation: “George Bush’s approval ratings are so low they’re approaching Cheney’s - and that’s bad.” Besides, my affinity for Kieth Olbermann (and Chris Matthews, at times) must have been apparent from my Day 1 post. In fact, an underlying dynamic in this coverage is the question of who will take over Meet the Press, which will remain hosted by Tom Brokaw only until election day. Many thought Chris Matthews as en route to becoming heir apparent before Tim Russert’s untimely demise, but Mr. Matthews is prone to catch hoof in mouth disease. Imagine if Olbermann ran that show: “…and, when we come back, our round table guests will be James Carville, Mary Matalin, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Kenny Mayne.”

Mike Murphy is kind of a douche, but he’s a Republican operative with little to lose: that’s why he’s here. Adressing the crowd behind him, trying to shout him down, Murphy says “You guys are so in the tank; we ought to be filming this in a submarine.” Absolutely true; absolutely hilarious. The open hostility between Chris Matthews - and the MSNBC crew, in general - and MIke Murphy draws this channels journalistic objectivity into question. Check out Slate V for a side-by-side comparison of MSNBC’s and Fox News’ coverage of Michelle Obama’s speech.

Says Pat Buchanan: “Has anyone heard the word ‘Guantanamo’?” If you want to distill a talking point to its key words, ask a Republican. I’m not kidding. Excepting Web 2.0 technologies, the Republicans are much more organized. Hell, Mussolini made the trains run on time.

Joe Biden - I’m not usually a big fan of the video tribute, but the genre’s been used to good effect in this convention, especially because the producers have found ways to work Barack Obama into each and every one of them. Beau Biden’s introduction is tremendous. It’s got both narrative and humor. I’m curious whether he repeated a few words (”…he says, he says, he says…”) after mentioning his father’s childhood stutter as a joke or as a byproduct of moving between teleprompters. Either way, it makes me laugh - much like the way the word “lisp” has an “s.”

One of Joe Biden’s strengths is his earnestness, but I get the feeling he’s a bit overwhelmed by sentiment at the top of this speech. That’s not good, when he’s already got the daunting task of following both President Clinton and this son’s strong introduction. Who are the young women in the box with Jill Biden? I’m just asking. Man, the Democrats are really working the “family” angle. We saw the Obama family, the Clinton family, and now we get a run-through of everyone sharing chromosomes with Joe Biden. It’s a pretty good speech. He introduced himself, did his booster work for Barack, and made some credible criticisms of John McCain that integrated a handy phrase for the crowd to chant. Whoa; perhaps I spoke too soon. All of these particular foreign policy points seem a bit tangential, no matter how frothy they make Scranton’s own Joe Biden. “Frothy” is really the best word. I’d work it into an alliteration, were “fervant” and “fervor” not redundant.

Barack Obama - Barack’s appearance in the aftermath of Joe Biden’s acceptance speech is like a trailer for his speech tonight, and it’s astoundingly low-key. The way he clicks off the names of the previous prime time speakers as applause lines makes me half expect a line like “Big ups to my peeps from the big C; I’m out” followed by a mic drop and march off stage.

Aftermath - With Matthews and Olbermann giving voice-over to the scene on stage with Obama and the manifold progeny of Biden, one wonders whether Matthews’ speech is broken because he’s at a loss or because he’s a bit choked up. I really can’t fault him, either way. Olbermann gets in a plug for Football Night in America; good for him. Talking about Cheney, Matthews says something like “‘I don’t have enough evidence to start this war; get some’ - I bet that’s a call that’s been made to the CIA,” and Tuesday night, while discussing how people get motivated to vote against things, he said something to the effect of “What gets people up in the morning on election day? It’s because somebody’s got right you think you should have, or because somebody’s getting tax money you earned, or because there’s a clown ruling your country,” to which Olbermann responded by visibly taking notes on his clipboard, muttering “clown ruling your country - I can use that.” Perhaps I was mistaken (quite mistaken) in assuming MSNBC would make overtures to maintain the patina of journalistic objectivity.