Posted 23:00 by Grote 0 comments

Democratic Convention Day 1

So I'm going to blog three out of the four days (I have plans Tuesday) of the Deomcratic Convention. I'll suffer through the mind-numbing political speeches. Hopefully they'll say something, anything besides "John Kerry is not George W. Bush." Right, and I'm the Pope. Oh well, let's buckle down. I'll flip channels through out the night and try to keep you posted on what's going on. There aren't going to be a lot of links, because I'll be doing this on the fly.

8:00 P.M. CNN As they pan the crowd, I wish I could screen-cap some of the crowd shots. We're talking an Unintentional Comedy Factor(UCF for future references this week) of 8 or higher. Bebe Wyman is singing the National Anthem but I have this urge to sing "O Holy Night" because that's the harmony the piano/jazz quartet seems to be playing behind him.

Al Gore is first to speak tonight, and awaaaaay we go:

8:10 Four 2000 election jokes. Recounting Sheep, lying awake at night, winning the popular vote.

8:12 Wow. Bitter much? Making sure, the Supreme Court doesn't pick the next President, etc.

8:15 Good move, asking the third party supporters to throw their support the democrats, and then asking whether or not we need a new president to regain our allies. This is something I thought that Bush made a mistake on, burning his bridges and claiming we don't need our allies.

8:17 There's a guy wearing a Kerry-Edwards button, but due to the lighting, it looks like Kerry-Lincoln. UCF=7

8:20 Gore calls Edwards middle class. I wouldn't call a ambulance chaser/tort lawyer middle class, exactly.

8:22 Tipper runs up and gives Al a kiss when he finishes his speech. Everyone altogether now:awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

8:25 As they show different shots of the crowd, we see Janet Reno standing next to a man in a Hawaiian shirt UCF=8

8:28 CNN goes to commercial so we go to MSNBC. They're doing "post-speech" anaylsis. Topics include, Florida, not covering his home state, and his depression in early 2001.

8:30 MSNBC goes to regualr programing. Well if you count "Countdown" as regular. Just kidding Keith!

8:32 PBS, talking to a 20-something Miami-Dade county delegate. Asked said candidate if the delegation was pro-Kerry or anti-Bush. Answer? "Both." See, this is why I haven't decided yet. I don't like Bush, I don't like his type of Neo-conservatism, but Kerry hasn't said a Gorrammed thing that convinces me to vote for him.

8:36 Gah! The female democratic senator, looks like Dr. Kane. Help me. That and there is a senator standing behind the speaker waving to random people. The speaker is shouting at the crowd, giving her speech, like they stole cookies. There are a few prettier, and I'm assuming more melodic voiced senators in the democratic party yes? Couldn't they have picked one of them?

8:38 PBS is talking about the lack of overt Bush Bashing. Eh? Gore's 2000 election jokes, the esteemed senator's not going to war on paper thin evidence comment. If you say so.

8:44 Nader and O'Reilly are having a shouting match on FOX news. Moving on.

8:46 I wonder, do the political parties have an exhibitor halls like they do at Origins? Have a booth from each of the 50 states. Ohio gives away buckeyes (chocolate covered peanut butter balls), Florida gives out orange slices. If they don't do this, I think they should. Think about the advertising for tourism for each state. Someone needs to hire me to run these things.

8:51More crowd shots on CNN. I wonder, if the GOP's convention is going to have such a diverse crowd. I've seen Muslim women (or women with shaws(sp?) on their head), hawaiians, african-americans, whites, asians.

8:56 MSNBC has been stealing my thoughts. I've said for about a month now, Bush takes a big step forward if he admits that he has made mistakes, and will do a better job in his second term. Maybe he's waiting for the convention or maybe even October.

9:00 MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Matthew Perry were separated at birth, I'm sure of it.

9:03 PBS. Former President, Jimmy Carter. I don't want to say he's mumbling but I have to concetrate to understand him. This is the first time I've heard him give a speech. *shrug*

9:06 Just sayin, but Carter, is talking about president's with military experience and whatnot, going as far as to say "Kerry showed up when he was called to serve." How quickly they forget. Just sayin.

9:08 He does bring up a good point. The isolationist policies (however unintentional) of the current administration is keeping us from flourishing as a country. He goes on to say that we wasted a lot of the goodwill of the world towards the US between 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq.

9:15 As he wraps up, he doesn't dispair, no matter how much he dislikes the last few months, he trusts in the american people. Again, despite your political leanings, no president we elect (unless one tries to stay in power) will ever lead the country down the road into fiery destruction. We'll wound ourselves, yes, and we have. But, we will never destroy ourselves. The Civil War almost did that and we came back, and we'll come back from nearly anything.

9:19 CNN. Larry King is interviewing the daughters of John Kerry. They seem smarter than the Bush girls (of course considering, dear ol' dad...), but not as pretty. But I'm not saying they aren't attractive either. I wonder if ol' Larry is considering another divorce. ;)

9:24 Fox. Cavuto(sp?) are arguing about Iraq. Cavuto points out the Kerry hasn't said he's going to stabilize Iraq but has said nothing about bringing troops home. Well, of course not. No matter who we elect we're not going to be out of Iraq for at least five years, but we need to stabilize the election.

9:27 Coming up on Fox, Jerry Springer and Ann Coulter. Wow. I better secure the UCF meter. Hopefully, I'll flip back to catch a bit of it.

9:30 I need to either a) get a laptop. (Corporate sponsorship? Dell?) or b) change my setup. I have to twist to type and watch tv, since my computer and my tv are facing each other.

9:33 Jerry Springer is an Ohio Delegate? Alright then. Springer says (without Gay Jewish Black dudes) that the Dems need to sell their case and not insurance to the American people. Heh. Good line. He opines that this might be 1980 in reverse. He is also thinking about a run for Governor. God help the state of Ohio.

9:38 Well close the books. If you had 9:38 or *under* 9:39 in the pool. You win. I opened my first beer. It's even a better bet that as the week goes on the beer opening will get more frequent and sooner.

9:40 MSNBC. Fmr. Mayor Willie Brown believes that John Kerry needs to go to the Dem. base. No. You've got 40% who will vote for Kerry, 40% will vote for bus. You need to grab the 20% in the middle, like myself.

9:44 PBS. They're having a discussion with Democratic representatives that are for the Iraq war. Huh. I didn't know they still exist.

9:48 Fox. Ann Coulter. Wow, she scares me. She is spouting off about the liberal media, muffling the conservatives. Apparently USA Today hired her and then fired her the next day when she said some unkind things about democrats. Yikes. About Carters remarks about how "we won the cold war." Her comment was "What's this 'we' plaeface." Yikes. Now I know how moderate democrats feel when Barbara Streisand spouts off. I want to hide under my bed until she goes away. In fact I'm changing the channel.

9:55 Woah we got a spike on the UCF. Flipped to Headline News. They were talking about a "Hip-Hop Summit". It was to get late teens and early twenty-somethings to register to vote. But I couldn't help but to imagine a USSR-US-esque summit, limmiting shootouts, and a drug sharing plan. UCF=9

9:59 Fox. Another spike. Someone talking about Kerry's current location and an arm shoots from stage left in front of the reporter and covers his face and he pushes the arm away without missing a beat. Too bad for our, mystery man that it was a white sign so you couldn't read anything with the bright lights. Moron. UCF=7

10:03 CNN. Glenn Close gives a speech about 9/11. One of the relatives of the victims from Flight 11 (first plane) gives a speech. Its a very touching speech. It may be from watching to must West Wing, and I'm not taking anything away from this woman, but, I have a feeling that the speech was professionaly written. I wouldn't be surprised if it was. If you've read any of this blog, especially tonight, I have a meager command of the language. If you're going to put anyone on national tv, you want them to sound at the very least a smidge intellegent. I'm sure she had a hand in it but I'm sure a "Sam Seaborn" gave her a hand.

10:11 Violin Solo of America the Beautiful, very well done. Although something made it seem sureal with lighters held aloft by delagates. No I'm not making that up. UCF=9 I should laugh during a moving moment but it was just too funny to see lighters held high. I'm sorry, I'm going to hell, but at least it'll be first class.

10:21 CNN. That's depressing. Jeff Greenfield, senior political anylist for CNN said that John Kerry's bar is low. "Not getting Americans to fall in love with John Kerry but to fall in like with him." *Sigh*

10:24 Hillary walks to the stage while the band plays New York State of Mind. She says she's practically speechless. We should be so lucky.

10:28 While she's speaking and getting scattered applause during her speech a random camera shot gives us delagates, not applauding during a round of applause. Interesting. I wonder why. (Seriously, I don't know, I mean this is a democratic party love fest.)

10:36 Bill Clinton comes on stage. CNN commentator makes a good point. "This is why they put him on Monday." He's the biggest star in the Democratic party. If he could run for a third term he'd win and win big. You don't need him stealing the spotlight. After the convention, if he wants to help, he should disappear.

10:43 Making broad generalizations, Clinton says that "Republicans act unilaterally and co-operate only when they have to." That's usually false. I'm sure a lot of Republicans, would speak out against him but they need the support of the party to win elections. It's a nifty Catch-22.

10:47 I don't always agree with his politics but I have to say, I wish I had just half of Clinton's speech making ability. His ability to energize people is downright amazing.

10:54 Clinton gives props to Kerry for going to Vietnam, while Bush, Cheney and himself skipped out. Got to give the guy credit for throwing himself under the bus, figuratively speaking. On the other hand, he never has to run for anything again so he can have all the scandals he wants and not worry about it.

11:00 As Clinton, wraps up, so must I. And that's the way it is, July 26, 2004. (Ok I'm not Walter. Please don't sue me Mr. Cronkite).