Yesterday's widely-shared anxiety about the Democratic convention speakers going soft on McCain -- compared to the Republicans who will "strip the bark off" Obama as they did John Kerry at their 2004 convention -- seems to have lifted this morning, especially after John Kerry's and Joe Biden's speeches.

But the strategy against McCain, let's be clear, is still limited, nuanced -- and will one day seem either brilliant or stupid. Where the Republicans went directly at Kerry's character, and will do the same with Obama, the Democrats have decided to accept McCain's character as a given -- "served this country honorably." Even Kerry, whose speech was the toughest and most specific critique of McCain, drew the line between "Senator McCain" -- still an honorable man -- and "candidate McCain."

Now, I can make a strong case that there's nothing honorable about John McCain, without challenging his military service or POW experience or getting into his personal life. I can make the case that he's opportunistic, corrupt, no kind of reformer, etc.

Plainly, the Democratic Party and the Obama campaign have made the judgment, probably well-informed by polling, that McCain's wholly undeserved reputation for integrity, independence and personal decency is so firmly established that it's not worth the effort and money to dismantle it.

That requires a very nuanced message, separating "Senator McCain" from the conservative Republican agenda that as candidate he has no choice but to accept as its candidate. If it works, it's briliant because it is the strategy that Greg Anrig has been urging for months: a full and unhesitating critique of conservatism as an ideology that has now been put to the test and failed absolutely. President Clinton's speech last night came straight from the Anrig playbook:

He still embraces the extreme philosophy which has defined his party for more than 25 years, a philosophy we never had a real chance to see in action until 2001, when the Republicans finally gained control of both the White House and Congress. Then we saw what would happen to America if the policies they had talked about for decades were implemented.

But people still do vote on the basis of personal character, and that's not an unreasonable choice -- after all, we elect a president to deal with the problems and crises we don't know about as well as the ones we do. Letting the Republicans go after Obama in all the ways we know they will, while leaving McCain's persona unchallenged is a huge risk. It calls on voters to make a fairly nuanced distinction between the candidate and the agenda.

But there's another lesson in George W. Bush's 2004 victory over Kerry by demolishing Kerry's personal reputation: It left Kerry's agenda untouched. As Bush discovered from the day after his 2005 inauguration, he had no mandate for conservative policies such as Social Security privatization because he had not run on them.

But if it succeeds, it will have the effect of giving the next president exactly what George W. Bush didn't have: A mandate. The voters will have rejected not just McCain, but the entire economic and foreign policy agenda of conservatism. And that's as important as winning the election, perhaps more important. (If McCain picks Mitt Romney, who is basically an automaton with the Republican platform loaded into him in Cobol, the campaign-against-conservatism will be even more likely to be effective.)

Seeing Harry Shearer around the convention is a reminder of the important insight that "there's a thin line between brilliant and stupid." Here's hoping the Democrats are on the right side of that line.

-- Mark Schmitt.

Wow, Obama started with some good shots at McCain but he's now transitioning into a full-blown critique of conservatism as an ideology (full transcript here):

"John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.

Now, I don’t believe that Senator McCain doesn’t care what’s going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn’t know.

In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is – you’re on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps – even if you don’t have boots. You’re on your own."

--Sam Boyd

Barack Obama has taken the stage. I worried that it would be divisive for Hillary and Bill not to be here tonight -- and they certainly aren't, as Obama just hailed Clinton, but no shot of her face was shown on the jumbo screens. Yet somehow, it feels appropriate, and much less distracting. The past three days at the Pepsi Center felt a lot like the Clinton Show. Tonight it's Obama Time, in Obama's space.

--Dana Goldstein

I've been thinking all day about the Republican effort to make Obama cripple himself by avoiding what he does best -- give a fantastic speech linking seemingly discrete elements of the American experience -- by linking his talent to "celebrity" the way someone might suggest Duke Ellington simply had rhythm.

But John McCain can't do what he does. Bill Clinton can't even do what he does. So he should do it well. Because whether the barrier is ideology, class, or simply racism, excellence and eloquence will be a better case for the Obama candidacy than an trembling poll-tested fear could ever be.

--A. Serwer

It is the populist hour, at long last, at the Democratic convention. Indiana factory worker Barney Smith, whose job was shipped abroad, just told delegates we need "a president who will put Barney Smith ahead of Smith Barney." (The Obama staffer who thought of that one gets a high-five.) The real people who just testified to the convention were, with one exception, white working class (the other was a Latina). No yuppies, no professionals, no African Americans. The campaign surely has a clear idea of their target audience. Of course, the only network that covered these folks was C-SPAN.

--Harold Meyerson

How long do you think they had to search to find a guy named Barney Smith who could say we need to "put Barney Smith ahead of Smith Barney." And the crowd loves it -- they're chanting "Barney! Barney!"

The whole series speeches by ordinary folks from swing states about why they like Obama is pretty great -- almost every one is incredibly charming. "I'm Pam ... and wait 'till you hear what happened to me!"

--Sam Boyd

A Detroit unionist just addressed the convention, assuring listeners that Obama will back fair, not free, trade. He's a Teamster -- an interesting choice. The Teamsters, I suppose, are the union that can best convey toughness and grit to the white workers whose votes Obama is seeking. That view of the Teamsters is a stereotype, of course -- but the Obama campaign is in no position to shun stereotypes.

--Harold Meyerson

"When we talked about an open convention this is what Democrats meant." -- A nice way to push back against the idea that the fact that a bunch of people want to see Obama talk suggests he's somehow suspect. Other than that it's a largely unremarkable introduction for a series of speeches by people hurt by Bush's economic policies. But I do like the "love ya!" at the end.

--Sam Boyd

So it has fallen to Susan Eisenhower, of all people, to contrast McCain's choleric and Obama's contemplative temperaments. "Impulsive action has replaced measured and thoughtful response," she lamented. And Obama, she continued, has the temperament to run the country. Never before have the Democrats invoked Ike's slowness to respond as a positive attribute, and in truth, sometimes it was indeed good (his refusal to send troops to Vietnam after the French were driven out) and sometimes not so good (his refusal to publicly condemn Joe McCarthy and to send troops to Little Rock, though, of course, he eventually did). But if Obama can don the mantle of Ike -- and remember, Obama has particular trouble with older voters -- he'll do well.

--Harold Meyerson

Gore speech did a nice job of making the case that Obama's experience is actually just what is needed in the country right now. It's a rare example in this campaign of a Democrat trying to turn a weakness into a strength -- mostly the speeches have, like they did in 2004, focused on Obama's strengths and McCain's weaknesses.

--Sam Boyd

"The carbon-based interests, oil and coal, have a 50-year lease on the Republican Party -- and they're drilling it for everything it's worth."

"Some of the best marketers have the worst products, and this is certainly true of today's Republican Party."

You know, Al Gore is the first major speaker this week to say very, very clearly that McCain will "end a woman's right to choose" by packing the Supreme Court with anti-Roe judges.

--Dana Goldstein

Bill Richardson has just dissed free trade, said it's time to put American workers first, and to support the right of unions to organize. The reality of the American economy has finally broken through to Democratic elites. Not a moment too soon.

Richardson, in fact, is giving a plus-perfect convention speech - cataloging every horror of the Bush years past and the McCain years to come, should he win.

--Harold Meyerson

Is apparently folk-rock, funk, and songs Mark Schmitt danced to at his high school prom.

The sun has finally receded from beating down directly on my back, so I'm beginning to enjoy this. Sheryl Crow is currently performing. I wonder if the fact that she's a Democrat and Lance Armstrong is a Republican was a factor in their break-up. Deep thoughts.

--Dana Goldstein

Dana and Ezra on the Invesco Field security line.

Volunteers phone bank for Obama inside the stadium -- asking folks to tune into his speech tonight.

--Dana Goldstein

The Southern Poverty Law Center has picked up my friend Matt Kennard's Columbia J-School graduate thesis, an investigative report on racist extremists infiltrating the Armed Forces and the absence of any real effort to prevent them from joining. Two years ago, members of Congress urged former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to do more to prevent such people from gaining access to military training, but according to the SPLC, neither he nor replacement Robert Gates has given much attention to the matter. Kennard notes that extremist groups have been taking advantage of relaxed recruiting standards to gain the kind of training they believe they need to bring about a "race war".

The National Socialist Movement (NSM) is explicitly interested in using the military to gain training. “We do encourage them to sign up for the military,” says Lt. Charles Wilson, spokesman for the NSM. “We can use the training to secure the resistance to our government.”

Lt. Wilson says the party has 190 members currently serving in the military. “Every one of them takes a pact of secrecy,” he says. “Our military doesn’t agree with our political beliefs, they are not supposed to be in the military, but they’re there, in ever greater numbers.”

The frightening thing is that it isn't being an extremist that disqualifies one from serving in the military, but rather "public display[s] of allegiance" that are barred, such as tattoos. And extremists should be excluded, not out of political correctness, but because they have in the past used military training to devastating effect. As David Holthouse of the SPLC points out, years ago Alabama Republican Senator Richard Shelby noted in an open letter to Rumsfeld that “[w]e witnessed with Timothy McVeigh that today’s racist extremist may become tomorrow’s domestic terrorist.”

--A. Serwer

McCain adviser John Goodman argues that America has already achieved universal health care:

Mr. Goodman, who helped craft Sen. John McCain's health care policy, said anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort. (Hospital emergency rooms by law cannot turn away a patient in need of immediate care.)

As Steve Benen points out, this means that people are actually treated at the taxpayers' expense (high expense, I might add). And McCain's "Emergency Room Healthcare Plan" doesn't actually work for people who have serious long-term ailments like cancer or HIV. If you show up bleeding from a gunshot wound, they'll treat you -- but they're not going to give you chemotherapy or put you on expensive anti-retroviral drugs. In any case, what McCain's "universal health-care plan" as described by Goodman amounts to is:

[T]he most inefficient system of socialized medicine ever devised.

As well as far more expensive to the taxpayer than Obama's plan would be. But that's OK, because Goodman has another innovative solution:

"The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American -- even illegal aliens -- as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.

"So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."

--A. Serwer

So John McCain's ad tonight is ... going to congratulate Senator Obama. Classy, I suppose, but what's the goal? (After all of the chicanery of the last few months, I don't take anything for granted from this crew.)

Is his campaign trying to blunt any criticism that Obama will bring to bear on him tonight? Is his campaign worried that the constant negativity of his campaign is hurting him among, well, any non-conservative base voters he hoped to steal from Obama? Or, as one Democratic operative who doesn't work for Obama just suggested to me, Steve Schmidt is just trying to screw with everybody's heads.

One other possibility: The McCain campaign feels like it's done the job of driving up Obama's negatives over the summer, and now thinks it's time to pivot back to portraying the candidate as a positive maverick in time for fall. But that requires a pick like Lieberman that will hurt him with conservatives, and the spring may have proved that McCain can't out maverick (really, out reform) Obama.

--Tim Fernholz

Obama is said to be in a rhetorical pickle. If he talks a language of hope and inspiration, it’s too general and ethereal. On the other hand, if he gets too specific, he sounds like a policy wonk. And if he goes for McCain’s throat, he risks being portrayed as too angry.

To this observer, these formulations, repeated over and over by the usual talking heads, are so much baloney. At various times and in various speeches, Obama has come out with superb rhetorical flights that demonstrate his understanding of the situation of America’s stressed working families, and he has done well at connecting their plight to the Bush administration’s disastrous policies. He just hasn’t done it quite consistently enough. But after the last three nights he must be feeling pretty pumped.

He needs to do just a bit more of what Joe Biden did last night -- speaking personally of what American families worry about around kitchen tables -- and a little more of what John Kerry did, shaming the McCain campaign and contrasting John McCain the senator with John McCain the candidate, the latter being hopelessly out of touch with what working Americans face.

MORE...

Matt Yglesias breaks down how John Kerry threw down last night:

Six years ago, I helped put together the 30th anniversary issue of the student alt-weekly paper I edited, which gave me the opportunity to familiarize myself with our archives. It was a bit startling to see that the coverage of John Kerry's ultimately failed 1972 campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives already depicted Kerry's ultimate goal as the White House.

Kerry's loss in 1972 slowed his political ascent. He went to law school, passed the bar in 1976, and went to work as a prosecutor. In 1982 he became lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. In 1985 he entered the U.S. Senate. By the time he re-emerged on the national stage, in other words, his name had already been bandied about as a potential president for over a decade. In 2004, 32 years after that initial defeat, Kerry ended up both closer and farther than ever, as George W. Bush narrowly secured re-election. Not only did Kerry lose, but he did so in a particularly dispiriting manner, running amid a controversial and failing war without anything resembling a clear message on it. To some extent, he was merely the victim of circumstances, but it was infuriating for liberals to spend months backing a candidate who would neither denounce the decision to begin the war nor call for its end, all in the name of the higher cause of beating Bush, only to see Bush win anyway.

Subscribe to our RSS feed to receive our articles as soon as they’re published.

—The Editors

On the convention floor, I climbed into the D.C. box to catch up with at-large D.C. Councilman Kwame Brown. (By the way, none of the folks in the photo above are Brown; they are activists here to remind delegates that the District remains disenfranchised.) We spoke about voting rights and urban issues, and why Brown is so excited about Joe Biden.

How do you feel about D.C. voting rights not appearing in the Democratic platform this year? The issue did appear in the 2004 platform.

I’m just disappointed that in D.C., we don’t have our voting rights yet. I’m disappointed that so many Democratic senators did not show up for that vote [on D.C. voting rights last September]. They should be voting in favor of something that their kids have and that they have.

The point is that in the U.S. House and Senate, we do not have a vote. We do not have a vote on key issues. And we have a larger population than some states that are here right now. They have a vote and we don’t. Other people judge whether we send our kids to war, and we don’t.

As a councilperson from D.C. what are the urban issues that you feel should be addressed more often by the Democratic Party?

We've been talking a lot about urban issues at this convention. Health care is an urban issue. Education, economic development, and job training. Vocational education and trade. Those are the things that allow people to pick themselves up by their bootstraps and participate in society. We need to keep jobs within the United States.

I also just think that domestic violence goes unheard sometimes. If you go to urban areas, domestic violence is high on the list. A huge percentage of 911 calls are domestic-violence related. Joe Biden is very encouraging. He’s done so much for the country on this issue. It’s very exciting.

--Dana Goldstein

Previous Party People Q&As:
Tom Sheridan, Lobbyist for liberal non-profits
Janet Napolitano, Governor of Arizona
Bob Shrum, Speech Writer and Consultant
John King, CNN analyst
Bob Springmeyer, candidate for governor of Utah
Bracken Hendricks, clean-energy evangelist
Karen Brown and Bonnie Tierney, Clinton and McCain supporters.
Don Beyer, former Democratic VA gubernatorial candidate
Chris Redfern, Ohio Democratic Party Chair
David Cicilline, Mayor of Providence
Nancy Ruth White, Clinton Delegate
Nancy Keenan, President of NARAL

Karl Rove on the possibility of Tropical Storm Gustav becoming a hurricane and making landfall during the Republican National Convention:

“The Republicans can’t seem to get a break when it comes to August and when it comes to the weather,” said Rove, a FOX News analyst. “I know this is being thought a lot about in Washington and at the White House and discussed and I suspect they will monitor it carefully and figure out what to do."

Has the man become a parody of himself, or what? But don't worry -- President Bush might perform the selfless act of skipping the convention so he can do a heckuva job in the storm zone instead.

--Sarah Posner

Regarding my optimism, there’s this: Gallup’s latest poll has Obama up seven six points. Keep in mind that these polls were taken before Bill Clinton, John Kerry, and Joe Biden spoke yesterday. But also remember we have no idea how soft this bounce is, and how the Republican convention or McCain’s VP pick tomorrow will affect it. Nonetheless, it’s an unambiguously positive sign for the Democrats.

—Tim Fernholz

Which potential GOP VP would be a good counter to Biden? Politico has an interesting article assessing each of McCain's vice presidential prospects. The article recognizes the strengths and weaknesses (mainly weaknesses) of Mitt Romney ( too rich -- together Romney and McCain are worth $35 million), Joe Lieberman (too Democratic and he's worked closely with Biden on labor issues and abortion rights), and Tom Ridge (an advocate of abortion rights, and he's got some questionable lobbyist ties). That leaves Tim Pawlenty, who Politico portrays as a walking talking-point -- incapable of doing anything but spouting Bush Administration rhetoric. When you compare that to the others Pawlenty sounds like the best choice.

But he's still a weak candidate -- he's young and inexperienced compared to Biden which undermines the experience contrast Republicans are trying to draw between Obama and McCain. It would seem a little hypocritical to make the opposite argument for the vice president. And in a vice presidential debate Pawlenty -- known to be even more inelegant than Biden when it comes to speaking -- would get ripped to shreds. Remember Biden's best moment running for the nomination was when he picked at Giuliani's argument that he's qualified to be president because of his performance on 9/11. Expect the same types of attacks of unpreparedness from Biden if Pawlenty is McCain's pick.

Pawlenty isn't always good with the words either. On a radioshow he said in reference to his wife "She loves football, she'll go to hockey games and, I jokingly say: Now, if I could only get her to have sex with me." That's not the typical tone of a vice presidential candidate. Further moments like those could make even Biden look on-message and sensible. I get the feeling that it'll probably be Pawlenty just because he doesn't have as many downsides as the rest but he's still a candidate lacking far too much.

--Daniel Strauss

There have been conflicting reports about whether John McCain has decided on the running mate he's slated to announce tomorrow, but there seems to be agreement that Mitt Romney and Joe Lieberman -- both of whom would be gifts to the Democrats -- are reportedly still in the running.

The Council for National Policy, the secretive brain trust of the conservative movement, is meeting today in Minneapolis in advance of the Republican National Convention, and the mood there will surely reflect the sentiments of the base about who McCain might choose.

Anyone can see Romney would be a disaster for McCain for so many reasons -- the religious right dislikes him, in spite of a small coterie of evangelical loyalists, and he's richer than McCain. Romney would deflate growing, post-Saddleback enthusiasm for McCain among the religious right, but Lieberman, pro-choice and not even a Republican, would cause a revolt. His sole tie to the religious right is the one figure McCain has tried so hard to run from, John Hagee. Talk about the apocalypse! McCain might be tight with Lieberman but he'd get grief from all directions for picking him.

Minnesota's governor, Tim Pawlenty, an evangelical and son of a truck driver with little name recognition, is reportedly still in the mix. We'll see if any news leaks out over the course of the day, but I wouldn't rule out a surprise pick no one's thinking of. Rich Lowry suggests Mike Huckabee would be just the ticket.

--Sarah Posner

In today's Wall Street Journal piece about the Democrats and abortion, "Tiptoeing to the Right on Abortion", Jim Wallis claims such a rightward shift is required for Democrats to win the election, asking: "Can the Democrats count votes?"

Yes they can. The sidebar graphic to the story shows that 54 percent of the American public believes abortion should be legal. That's 54 percent of the public that agrees with Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and the Democratic Party platform, and 54 percent of the public that is opposed to the Republican platform and the stated policies and record of John McCain.

You want to reduce the number of abortions through comprehensive sex education and effective and affordable birth control? You want to support women and their families through progressive economic policy? Great. Enjoy being a member of the Democratic Party -- it's been standing for these values all along.

--Sarah Posner

Ezra Klein explains the plainspoken genius of Joe Biden's speech:

Joseph Biden's speech last night accepting the Democratic nomination for the vice presidency was not a great speech. The rhetoric did not take wing and soar, the assembled delegates did not leave the arena slack-jawed and astonished. It was a workmanlike address, a blunt object delivered, at times, with great force. In many ways, it was the opposite of Barack Obama's best speeches. This may be exactly what the Obama campaign needs.

And Harold Meyerson reports on how a fractured labor movement is coming together and dedicating all its resources to electing Barack Obama:

And when the rally ended and the cheering stopped, delegates from four AFL-CIO unions – the Steelworkers, the Communications Workers (CWA), the Auto Workers (UAW) and the far smaller International Federation of Professional and Technical Employees (the IFPTE, which represents, among others, aeronautical engineers at aerospace companies) – gathered for their own reception in a nearby hotel. Over the past few months, the four unions have quietly formed a political-action sub-group, which they call the Alliance, to wage their own political campaign this fall, which they are funding by withholding their payments into the AFL-CIO's political program. This week in Denver, they have been caucusing daily.

Subscribe to our RSS feed to receive our articles as soon as they’re published.

—The Editors

Contra Ezra, I think that if McCain chooses Joe Lieberman as his running mate it would be a disaster. McCain's entire strategy in the last few months, the strategy that has succeeded in moving the polls for him, has been predicated on attacking Obama's character and gathering in supporters on the right.

Why would he try and reclaim his maverick image, which wasn't getting him anywhere? Especially if Lieberman would undermine his standing with the conservative base -- Karl Rove knows whats up. A more prosaic reason, however, is that Lieberman actually hurts McCain's polling numbers in Florida, where he was expected to provide a boost among the state's substantial Jewish population.

--Tim Fernholz

Apropos John Kerry's magnificent speech last night (also see this great article on Kerry by Jason Zengerle), there is a real difference between candidate McCain and the McCain of the past, and nothing emphasizes it more than this interview with Time magazine:

There's a theme that recurs in your books and your speeches, both about putting country first but also about honor. I wonder if you could define honor for us? Read it in my books.

I've read your books. No, I'm not going to define it.

But honor in politics? I defined it in five books. Read my books.

[Your] campaign today is more disciplined, more traditional, more aggressive. From your point of view, why the change?
I will do as much as we possibly can do to provide as much access to the press as possible.

But beyond the press, sir, just in terms of ...
I think we're running a fine campaign, and this is where we are.

Do you miss the old way of doing it?
I don't know what you're talking about.

Really? Come on, Senator.
I'll provide as much access as possible ...

In 2000, after the primaries, you went back to South Carolina to talk about what you felt was a mistake you had made on the Confederate flag. Is there anything so far about this campaign that you wish you could take back or you might revisit when it's over?
[Does not answer.]

Do I know you? [Says with a laugh.]
[Long pause.] I'm very happy with the way our campaign has been conducted, and I am very pleased and humbled to have the nomination of the Republican Party.

You do acknowledge there was a change in the campaign, in the way you had run the campaign?
[Shakes his head.]

You don't acknowledge that? O.K., when your aides came to you and you decided, having been attacked by Barack Obama, to run some of those ads, was there a debate?
The campaign responded as planned.

It's sad, really. At one point John McCain was his own man. And now's he just another politician, a puppet of the kill-or-be-killed political operatives he has hired to win this race for him, reduced to shaking his head silently at questions he once would have had the nerve to answer forthrightly.

--Tim Fernholz

Despite the best efforts of the morons of mainstream media to depict this week’s Democratic convention as a house divided, I have never attended a Democratic convention -- and this is my ninth -- that is more united. The Clintons have clambered aboard the Obama Express, and Bill’s speech last night reminded me again why I concluded while I was covering him in 1991 that he was the most gifted politician I’d ever seen and likely would ever see. Indeed, his speech, with its depiction of Americans failing to reap the rewards of their work, returned me to the populist themes he sounded in his ’92 campaign. Joe Biden, though his lack of familiarity with teleprompters threw off his cadence and led him to mangle a couple of sentences, continued Clinton’s theme with his quiet depiction of American families struggling with the nation’s and their own economic decline.

Indeed, not only are the intraparty battles between hawks and doves a thing of the past, but the party has even reached a state of provisional unity on economic policy. Alternative energy and green jobs are policies that unite labor, environmentalists, and national-security types, and there is growing recognition in the party’s various wings that Obamanomics is centered on a very serious jobs program for a nation that badly needs one.

This provisional unity was on almost stunning display in the skybox from which I watched last night’s proceedings. The box belonged to a major Democratic donor who is also a longtime critic of free trade and who is close to industrial unions. Leaders of the Steelworkers union watched the convention from the box. So did Jason Furman, Obama’s economic-policy director, whose work on Robert Rubin’s Hamilton Project made him a target of much mistrust from economic progressives -- among them, Bob Kuttner and me. Last night, though, as Bill Clinton and Joe Biden spoke up for jobs and progressive taxation and union rights, Obamanomics (and, for that matter, Clintonomics) never looked better or more progressive.

Intraparty divisions? Phooey – at least for now.

--Harold Meyerson

The best convention coverage here at the Prospect and elsewhere:

• No, really. The Democrats just nominated a black man to be President of the United States. Like many others, I can't help but be proud.
• According to Dana Goldstein, Josh Marshall, and Ezra Klein, John Kerry was on fire last night. More to come, I'm sure. The nets apparently didn't carry it, because we really needed to hear more "pundits" talking.
• Spackerman live-blogged Biden last night. Ezra also has some thoughts.
• Is Karl Rove trying to prevent the plaid hiked-up golf pants ticket from being a reality?
• Mark Schmitt says the Democrats have a unity of purpose he's never seen before.
• Bubba was in rare form. Even Andrew Sullivan agrees.
• AT&T and the Blue Dog Democrats prevented Glenn Greenwald, Amy Goodman, and Jane Hamsher from entering a party the company was throwing for those Democrats that protected it from prosecution after it broke the law on behalf of the Bush administration.
  
• The continuing hostility toward Lilly Ledbetter is not helping the whole "Come to Hillary" feminist moment in the conservative ranks seem very sincere. Not that it was very convincing before.
• Cheryl Contee appreciated Hillary's speech on Tuesday.
• Someone should tell Tom Brokaw that John McCain, Former POWtm can handle a little criticism. I'd suggest Brokaw quit the news business and just join the McCain campaign, but there's a line.
• Republicans angry about Obama's decorative choices for his speech tonight weren't outraged when George W. Bush held imperial court back in 2004.

--A. Serwer

A few weeks ago, Stuart Shepard of Focus on The Family urged members of that organization to pray for rain during Barack Obama's acceptance speech tomorrow night.

"I'm talking 'umbrella-ain't-going-to-help-you rain," the former pastor and television meteorologist said. He explained on the video: "I'm still pro-life, and I'm still in favor of marriage as being between one man and one woman. And I would like the next president who will select justices for the next Supreme Court to agree."

Based on weather predictions, it seems like G-d had better things to do.

[T]omorrow's weather forecast for Denver calls for a high of 82 degrees, with nary a cloud in the sky.

By Focus on The Family's standards, is that considered an endorsement?

---A. Serwer

It's easy to forget, amid the frustration with his weak-kneed 2004 campaign, that John Kerry is actually a very talented politician. He is offering up exactly what this convention has been missing. Strong linkages between McCain and Bush. Humor. And a great refrain that has become a call and response with the audience. "Who can we trust to keep America safe? Barack Obama!"

Kerry continued, "How pathetic to suggest that those who question a failed policy doubt America itself? How desperate to tell the son of a single mother who chose community service over money and privilege that he doesn't put America first?"

Now a tribute to Obama's (very white!) World War II vet uncle, who liberated a concentration camp and is here at the Pepsi Center tonight.

It's easy to see why so many Democrats believed Kerry's life story as a Vietnam vet who came home to protest the war would be a winner. A shame that it wasn't.

--Dana Goldstein

The Marine wife who just spoke about veterans' issues had about 10 times Bayh's energy.

--Dana Goldstein

One of the reasons it was so frustrating to hear the Clinton campaign use the "inexperienced" line against Barack Obama so often during the primaries was because of how similar the line was, truly, to attacks against Bill Clinton when he ran for president in 1992. Well, tonight, President Clinton finally undid some of that damage done and, proudly, likened Obama to himself. "He has the intelligence and curiosity every successful president needs," Bill said early in the speech. And then, later: "Together, we prevailed in a campaign in which the Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be commander-in-chief. Sound familiar? It didn't work in 1992, because we were on the right side of history. And it won't work in 2008, because Barack Obama is on the right side of history."

--Dana Goldstein

Bill Clinton:

I learned in my eight years as president and in the work I’ve done since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job."

I forgot how well this guy gives a speech.

--A. Serwer