11:08 the contrast betwen the extremely stirring rhetoric and the big idea of all of us together and the sketchiness and modesty of any actual policies is just built to disappoint people, you know? if that was obvious the first time round, it is almost painful now. bit i'll tell you this, he is just so so much better a politician than romney; seems liable to win.
make no mistake. america faces a choice. which america will we live in? who are we reallly deep inside? and then here's how that cashes out: here's the same tax adjustments we've been advocating for four years.
11:04 nothing wrong with that; it had a good crescendo. i'd say it almost caught fire a few times, but not quite. he should have maybe structured the whole thing around the concept of citizenship; he seemed to focus the argument on that bit.
10:57 you did that: again a version of that perot move; a little humility is well.
10:55 he's giving today's statist argument: we have to pull together! it's all of us! but then, what should we do with the fact that it rests on coercion?
10:50 has he done much on foreclosures?
10:49 when he talks about romney cutting the taxes of the rich, is he talking about not permitting the bush cuts to lapse?
10:48 has obama put forward a detailed plan for tax reform?
10:47 yeah rolling over romney right now on military and international. he can kill on that.
10:43 boilerplate so far. but his voice is rising in epiphanic ecstasy.
10:38 the united states of how? the united states of what? the united states of who, who?
10:35 he's not in his loose black-guy campaign mode, at least not yet. that's when he rocks.
10:32 o's like gary johnson are all he way live.
10:30 all i want is to play by the rules. that's the bargain!!!
10:25 our guy has aged remarkably. only dude who's had a harder four years than me.
10:22 this video is bloated, interminable, and redundant with everything else. simplify.
10:17 obama must owe some sort of debt to durbin. put up a young gun in that position. john boehner killed barack's mom. orioles hitting mad home runs.
10:03 joe biden has no idea what could be meant by 'culture of dependency.'
9:50 honestly, he's kind of bombing. but that will be ok from obama's point of view. 'the finest warriors in the history of the world!' then just continue: 'better, better than the roman centurions! the golden horde! edo-era samurai! better than the wehrmacht, mel gibson in braveheart, crazy horse! they'd have kicked che's ass! fuck the fucking knights of the fucking round table! anyone who denies that or qualifies it in any way, i'll slap em silly i tell you!'
9:46 folks, my dad respected barack obama...would have respected barack obama if he'd been around. that's perfect biden: with all the courage and passion of a noble soul, he make shit up right there and then! it's like listening to ornette coleman, but without the art. omelette coleman.
9:40 a job is about respect. it's about dignity. ok then what are food stamps about? like i say, the right isn't the only side which deploys the stigma.
9:32 uh-oh the rattletrap is in the house. the flibbertigibbet. julia louis-dreyfus was priceless as biden.
9:30 you could do worse than the straight jackie wilson your love (keeps lifting me).
9:27 actually, being introduced by your own tribute video as the music swells etc is quite a bit like dying by auto-erotic asphyxiation.
9:26 they certainly decided to go all in on the political use of bin laden. well hard to begrudge them that, actually.
9:24 joe biden's mom taught him that no one is better than he is. she was wrong about that. this video hs the goofiest narrator ever.
9:23 what i love most about america is the convenience stores.
9:13 i revile success. and i definitely don't think succesful people should turn around and help others. that will just drag you down.
9:09 i don't think the republicans really tried on international stuff, with the exception of condi. mitt really has no credibility. even santorum wold have had a better case. like i say, obama is fortunate in his opponent. the militarism of this convention is remarkable, but that started with kerry.
8:53 but obama should relentlessly emphasize foreign affairs and security, in the key kerry is hitting here. it is remarkable that the democrats have neutralized the republican advantage on this. too bad kerry couldn't even make himself oppose iraq in 2004.
8:45 at least they spray-tanned john kerry. he was looking horror-film dire.
8:35 funny how putting the turncoat onstage has become a ritual; crist in this case. artur davis last week.
8:30 cnn has actually been touting this schweitzer dude for president one day. i do not think so. such a rugged frontiersman or else a borscht-belt comic.
8:22 obviously the actresses and stuff are possessed on the stage. i'm not sure this is the best approach in your attempt to reach the undecided voter etc. eva longoria started with nothing. so did adam jones.
8:18 grantholm is driving them to utter madness with her wild, smurf-like gesticulations. it's like a blood orgy of unanimous destruction!
8:09 americans, or at any rate american politicians, appear to know exactly one narrative: the american dream. work hard and make a better future for your kids. ok but it begins to seem insincere in version xxx. maybe we have more than one story if we really dig? if not we best get a writer on it.
7:48 really? scarlett johansson? damn, girl. don't swim into bill's ambit. try to steer away from kennedys, edwardses, etc.
7:36 orioles 4, yankess yet to bat.
6:52 like each individual american, america itself grows from the middle out.
5:27 now they're going to pretend to believe in god and stuff.
5:04 james taylor is ok, but he's not like that former lead singer of night ranger who tore the republicans to shreds. the whole convention should be sheer hardcore: all killing joke all the time. actually, james taylor is not ok.
4:35 the middle class is so mediocre. maybe we can repatriate them to their homeland, middle earth, so we don't have to resort to ethnic cleansing. no, really. ever see death of a salesman? the middle class doesn't have the guts to be extremely rich or extremely poor, and the extremely rich and the extremely poor should unite against them. screw them with their little nuclear families. they live like leeches or vampires on the ingenuity of the rich and labor of the poor. i cast sheer ordure upon them and all their ilk. i revile and abominate the middle class. i annihilate them in my imagination retroactively so they never existed at all.
4:24 one unbelievable mis-step by the obama admin was giving far too optimitstic a set of initial predictions of where the economy would go, what the effect of the stimulus package would be, etc. he ought at least to acknowledge that, work it into the 'we found a disaster' narrative.
4:15 i think people, in particular many of obama's former enthusiasts, now underestimate him. maybe it's because i am myself a prof, but i actually do think he has a common touch on a good day. clinton is a true master, but obama is an extraordinary politician. people have oscillated way too much: too over-the-top enraptured; too disillusioned. i predict he'll show y'all again tonight. right i'll be blogging along this evenin.
