Mark Warner’s speech didn’t live up to the 2004 keynote address. In fact, it was downright boring. Not only that but it spent too much time spinning things that are indefensible. I’ve picked some of the things from the transcript to illustrate Mr. Warner’s spin. Here’s the first example:

We need a President who understands the world today, the future we seek, and the change we need. We need Barack Obama as the next President of the United States.

When did Sen. Obama start understanding the world? If Sen. Obama has this great understanding of the world, why was he forced to abandon Kathleen Sebelius, who was his first choice, and pick Joe Biden? Here’s the answer from an Obama insider:

“We needed the foreign policy on the bottom of the ticket more than we want to admit,” says the insider.

That doesn’t sound like Sen. Obama understands the world.

I understand why Gov. Warner said this. He was tasked with talking up Sen. Obama. He did the best he could. Unfortunately, he bored people. He couldn’t even get his one attack on Sen. McCain right: (continue reading post »)

Gives a new meaning to political race.

AP reports: “A black delegate for Hillary Rodham Clinton says she was called an ‘Uncle Tom’ by Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, one of Barack Obama’s political mentors.” You don’t make this stuff up.

Chicago political consultant Delmarie Cobb says Jones made the remarks Saturday night while discussing her support for Clinton. She called the remark “fighting words” and unacceptable.

Can’t we just all get along?

For once, I think that pit bull extraordinaire James Carville gets it. The truth is that he might’ve swerved into the truth last night. Here’s what he said:

Carville also said the party needs to do a better job of communicating its message to the American people. “If this party has a message it’s done a hell of a job hiding it tonight, I promise you that,” he said.

Jim, the reason why Sen. Obama is sliding is because more people each day are figuring it out that he doesn’t have a message. It’s all about hope and change. That isn’t enough to win a presidential election with. Th’ Ragin’ Cajun let loose with this, too:

“The way they planned it tonight was supposed to be sort of the personal, Michelle Obama will talk about Barack Obama personally, Ted Kennedy was a very personal, emotional speech,” Carville said. “But I guarantee on the first night of the Republican Convention, you’re going to hear talk about Barack Obama, commander-in-chief, tax cuts, et cetera, et cetera.”

That’s pretty good analysis, actually. If there’s one thing that Republicans are good at, it’s that they’re masters of stagecraft and messaging. Democrats often bemoan the GOP’s simplistic message and ‘fake patriotism’. Democrats still haven’t figured out that that’s where most of America still is. Democrats still haven’t figured out that nuance and shades of gray aren’t for messaging.

Another difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans don’t have to tell people that they’re patriots, that they love their country. The actions of their leaders says it. Democrats have to because they’re frequently undercutting traditional American values.

It’s necessary for Democrats to say that they love America after Democrats vote to cut off funding for winning in Iraq. It’s part of their DNA: First undercut America’s war effort to appease the Appeasement Wing of the party, then tell the rest of the country that the Democrats love their country.

I predicted earlier that this wouldn’t be a great week for Democrats, that there’s too much discord amongst the delegates. This discord isn’t because they don’t believe the same things. It’s because they’re too into identity politics.

That’s why they don’t have a message.

Technorati Tags: Democrats, James Carville, Democratic Convention, Obama, Patriotism, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

Stories about the Democrats’ discord aren’t exactly scarce. Still, the one that stands out from all others is Gov. Ed Rendell’s criticizing MSNBC for being in the tank for Obama. Here’s how he unloaded:

“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 Rodham 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, who called their coverage “absolutely embarrassing.”

Ed Rendell is exactly right. MSNBC’s coverage of Sen. Obama wasn’t just biased. Their two most prominent hosts, Chrissie Matthews and Keith Olberman, were slobbering fools for Sen. Obama. (It should be pointed out that being the most prominent hosts on MSNBC means you attract as big an audience as Red Eye gets at 2:00 am CT on FNC.)

As difficult as it is for Obama to spin that story, here’s another story that must rankle Team Barry: (continue reading post »)

In a moment of candor, known in politics as a gaffe, an Obama staffer admitted that Sen. Biden wasn’t Sen. Obama’s first choice. I kinda suspected that but now it’s confirmed:

In selecting Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate, Sen. Barack Obama may have selected the safe pick, but according to several campaign insiders, Biden wasn’t necessarily his first or even his personal choice.

“He really wanted [Kansas Gov. Kathleen] Sebelius,” says one Obama insider with knowledge of the Democrat candidate’s vetting process. “And if our European tour had played better here at home, she might have been the pick.”

But, says the insider, the campaign’s internal polling indicated what the public polling indicated, that Obama failed in his European sojourn to build out his foreign policy credentials. “We needed the foreign policy on the bottom of the ticket more than we want to admit,” says the insider.

All the talk about how presidential Sen. Obama looked, during his speech in Berlin, his meeting with President Sarkozy and Prime Minister Brown, meant nothing to heartland voters. Sen. Obama’s lofty rhetoric was squishy more than meaty, more Euopean than substantive. When President Bush made his case for democracies, there was substance there, human rights principles that were inarguable. (continue reading post »)

The first thing I thought when I read this article was that Republicans couldn’t get this lucky. Having John Kerry, who served in Vietnam, Jimmy Carter and Algore each getting primetime speaking slots, combined with Bill and Hillary speaking, is fantastic for Republicans. We couldn’t have done better if Karl Rove were putting the roster of speakers together. Here’s what’s been announced:

The schedule so far includes dozens of speakers each of the first three nights, from Obama’s family to lawmakers past and present.

Thursday’s lineup is expected to be considerably pared down. So far the only speakers in addition to Obama are expected to be Gore and Gov. Bill Ritter.

Monday’s program will focus on telling Obama’s story. His half-sister will speak, along with his brother-in-law and several political allies from his hometown of Chicago, including Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

The primetime speaker will be Obama’s wife, Michelle.

Former President Carter also is scheduled to speak Monday night, as is Jerry Kellman, a mentor to Obama during his days as a community organizer in Chicago.

Tuesday’s headliner will be Sen. Hillary Clinton, with the keynote speech by former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney also will talk Tuesday, when the focus is on economic issues.

Opening night will talk about the corrupt political process in Chicago? Tuesday night will feature Hillary and Mark Warner, which is fine. Having John Sweeney speak, though, is just another reminder of the Democrats’ corruption machine-style politics. (continue reading post »)

This couragous woman has summed up my questions about Barak Obama:

“First of all, what country does Obama think he is running for president in? Why didn’t the media share the fact that immediately prior to the Obama arrival, they put on several free music concerts in order to get people to show up? Why go overseas and bash this country, apologize for this country? Why go work out at the Ritz instead of see wounded soldiers in a military hospital in Germany? Why cancel your visit and then blame it on the Pentagon when the fact of the matter is that the State Dept told Obama that he could visit but could not take cameras and the media for photo ops? Why go to Iraq and see that we are winning and the surge is working yet refuse to admit it to Catie Couric and say that even though we have succeeded, saving millions of lives both American, Allied, and Iraqi, that you would and do not support the surge? Why go on a fact finding trip and then after it all say that it didn’t change ANY of your views? Why, Obama, would you try to claim credit for Bush’s strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq? And why in the hell Obama would you be trapsing around the world pretending to be the president and insulting our military, giving the enemy credit for the success saying they “stood down”, and pandering to every group you see, when we, Americans, are suffering paying $4.00 + a gallon for gas?”

One woman who refuses to swallow a bad choice just to tow the party line. But disobedience will not be tolerated.

AP reports: “Wisconsin Democrats on Friday ousted a delegate to their national convention for saying she would vote for Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain in November.”

Embarrassed by a defection in their ranks, the Wisconsin Democratic Party’s administrative committee voted 23-0 to strip Debra Bartoshevich of her status as a delegate to the Denver convention next month.

Bartoshevich was elected by party activists as a pledged delegate for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton from the 1st Congressional District in southeastern Wisconsin. But after Clinton dropped out of the race, Bartoshevich told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel she would support McCain over Democratic Sen. Barack Obama.

Conform or be cast out. Diversity, but not of opinion.

Note the following exchange that occurred when ABC’s Terry Moran interviewed Sen. Obama :

Moran asked what Iraq would look like now if Obama’s policy of withdrawing in the face of the violence had been implemented.

“That is a hard thing to speculate,” Obama said, “The Sunnis might have made the same decisions at that time. The Shii’as might have made some similar decisions based on political calculation. There was ethnic cleansing in Baghdad that actually took the violence level down. And so, as I said before. Nobody has a crystal ball. If we did you just hire the guy with the crystal ball.”

I haven’t seen the original transcript, so this is coming via Jake Tapper of ABC blogs Political Punch.

Is the senator really going this far out of his way to avoid saying the surge was a success that he wants to credit ethnic cleansing for a 90% reduction in violence?

Cross posted at The Gentle Cricket

The LA Times has posted an article titled “A Short But Sweet Gathering”, referring to the Democrats’ National Convention. Here’s what Doyle McManus writes:

Barack Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee are toying with a convention scheduling change that has been broached before in theory but never seriously considered: cutting the party’s conclave in Denver short by one day to give Obama an extra day of post-nomination bounce in the crowded August calendar.

For the last several decades, when conventions became forums that merely rubber-stamp a presumptive nominee, they have traditionally run from Monday through Thursday. Increasingly, both parties have struggled to offer something of interest during the first couple of convention nights, and the television networks have responded by dramatically reducing live coverage. The only truly significant event has been the nominee’s acceptance speech, delivered during prime time on Thursday evening.

But Obama aides have floated the idea of ending the Denver convention on Wednesday, Aug. 27, instead of Thursday, Aug. 28. (continue reading post »)