Credit: Reuters photo
Practicing for his big speech
12 Generals and Admirals Endorse Kerry
• Lieutenant General Edward D. Baca (United States Army, Retired)
• Lieutenant General Daniel W. Christman (United States Army, Retired)
• General Wesley K. Clark (United States Army, Retired)
• Admiral William J. Crowe (United States Navy, Retired)
• Vice Admiral Lee F. Gunn (United States Navy, Retired)
• General Joseph Hoar (United States Marine Corps, Retired)
• Lieutenant General Claudia J. Kennedy (United States Army, Retired)
• Lieutenant General Donald Kerrick (United States Army, Retired)
• General Merrill "Tony" A. McPeak (United States Air Force, Retired)
• Admiral Stansfield Turner (United States Navy, Retired)
• General Johnnie E. Wilson (United States Army, Retired)
THE SPEECHES
MARTIN O'MALLEY TEXT.....VIDEO
"My friends, for this generation of Americans
to have a rendezvous with destiny, we must choose.
We must choose to build a stronger America.
We must choose to defend the brave and generous America that our parents and our grandparents were courageous to choose for us.
America the beautiful, whose alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears;
oh, my friends, to govern is to choose.
And at this hour, the man and the mission have met.
The mission is America's security.
The man is here.
And the choice is ours."
AL SHARPTON- TEXT...VIDEO
"Mr. President, we love America, not because all of us have seen the beauty all the time. But we believed if we kept on working, if we kept on marching, if we kept on voting, if we kept on believing, we would make America beautiful for everybody.."
DENNIS KUCINICH- TEXT...VIDEO
We have found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
I was mayor of Cleveland and I could tell you
that I've seen weapons of mass destruction in our cities.
Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction.
Joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction,
homelessness, a weapon of mass destruction...
... racism, a weapon of mass destruction,
fear, a weapon of mass destruction.
We must disarm these weapons.
Senator PATRICK LEAHY- TEXT...VIDEO
"I'm Patrick Leahy and I'm from Vermont. I want to offer a friendly word of advice. If the Vice President is watching this speech on TV, he might want to change channels."
Retired General JOHN SHALIKASHVILI, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff "OLD SOLDIER/NEW DEMOCRAT"- TEXT
"I know about the horror of war and thus join with others like John Kerry in believing that we must go to war only when all other efforts to resolve the threat to us have been exhausted. And only then, when going to war becomes absolutely necessary, then to go with full resolve and to use force decisively. But we should never go to war without a comprehensive plan for how to secure the peace once military victory has been won."
BOB GRAHAM- TEXT
JOHN EDWARDS-TEXT...VIDEO
Google: Convention
St Petersburg Times: SSH! DNC tells Bob Graham his speech is too Bush-bashing, tells Bob to tone down the obvious.
Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley took the stage tonight. Mayor O'Malley addressed the burden of homeland security on U.S. cities.
He says his message hasn't changed much in the last few years because the Bush Administration has made so very little progress. Seen by many as having star-potential in the Democratic party, his national profile was raised during this afternoon's speech. READ IT HERE.....SEE IT HERE
Guardian: The Convention in Quotes
Amy Sullivan on Barack Obama: "..maybe that's a little premature, but standing there listening to the roar of the crowd (only Clinton has received a louder ovation at this convention) after Obama brought down the house with his keynote address, with "Obama" signs blanketing the hall, I said to myself, "You're looking at our first black president."
Matt Stoller/BOP: The most impressive part of the speech was when Obama ripped into the red and blue state myth..
Michael Kinsley: "..Although Democrats sincerely believe that election was stolen from them, they have been cowed by the successful Republican campaign to make any reference to 2000 seem like bad form....the party that gets the most votes is not "out of the mainstream," whether getting the most votes is enough to win the election or not."
"Recently the Vice President used a really bad word. If I used that word, I would be put in a time out. I think he should be put in a time out."
--12-year-old Ilana Wexler of Oakland, CA, founder of Kids for Kerry
Google: Convention bloggers
Arianna Huffington: Blogger Heaven
That's why I am such a big fan of Internet-based reporters and bloggers. When these folks decide that something matters, they chomp down hard and refuse to let go. They're the true pit bulls of reporting. The only way to get them off a story is to cut off their heads (and even then you need to pry their jaws open).
And because of the nature of Internet journalism, they will often start with a small story, or a piece of one -- a contradictory quote, an unearthed document, a detail that doesn't add up -- that the big outlets would deem too minor. But it's only minor until, well, it's not. Big media can't see the forest for the trees -- until it's assembled for them by the bloggers. That's why the blogosphere has become the most vital and important news source in our country.."
NPR: Bloggers Offer Intimate View of Convention
Wired News: Stars of Convention: Bloggers
Don't miss BBWW's convention diary from "Faithful Correspondent/an Ohio delegate".
Alex Massie/Scotsman: Online pioneers bring convention coverage new audience
"..bloggers proudly like to argue that they are modern-day pamphleteers. The publishing medium may have changed, but the principle has not. Harking back to the 18th and 19th centuries, bloggers maintain that they are merely extra voices in an increasingly crowded media universe but that, since they write as individuals rather than for corporations they can express themselves with a freedom denied to many journalists.."
At ABC, Mark Halperin reports: Steven Spielberg was an adviser on John Kerry's convention biographical video that will be shown Thursday night. Spielberg made recommendations to James Moll, who produced the film. Spielberg, who had been contemplating producing the biopic himself, screened a rough cut recently and offered up his ideas.
Dean-Dems for Kerry: Boston street-kudos are still going to Howard Dean. These Kerry-supporters are unashamed to tell you they are Dean-democrats.
Tom Tomorrow: Saw Josh Marshall yesterday, crouched down behind Al Franken, listening in as Franken and Sean Hannity went at it. After the interview, Hannity said to Janeane Garofolo, with mock outrage, "You called me a creep?"
"You are a creep," she replied. Hannity continued to smile broadly, as if he just couldn't believe these crazy liberals.
Thanks to The Angry Liberal, I connected with Josh Marshall's writing about a question he decided to ask filmmaker Michael Moore as he quickly passed him at the Fleet Center in Boston. Josh's impromptu question, in a nutshell, was to ask Mr. Moore what he made of the obvious and deliberate absence of Bush-attacks during the convention. Mr. Moore's said he liked the convention and when it came to the DNC's choice to tone themselves down on attacking Bush: "You don't even have to say it. Everyone knows how bad it is." (Thanks to Moore and blogdom, everyone does know how bad it is.) Regardless of current polls, I think this goes along with the belief that the election is Kerry's to lose. I think bloggers are owed a tremendous debt by the DNC for keeping it real out here exposing "the emporer whose clothes (and brains) aren't there".
On Monday, I'd written the following: "..Why wouldn't the Democratic party press for primetime coverage by the major networks on Tuesday night? I would think, other than Kerry and Edwards' speeches, the speeches by these two men, Dean and Reagan, would be of great interest to many Americans. Certainly more so than "According to Jim" or "Big Brother Five"....right??" At Liberal Oasis, Bill Scher has asked the same basic question: Obama or Big Brother 5? What's wrong with this picture? See Liberal Oasis for some other really good at-the-convention coverage, including an interview with Representative Jan Schakowsy of Illinois.
TNR: Unite and Conquer-
"They need a divided America,but we don't."
-Bill Clinton, from Monday night's Convention speech
To hear Bush tell it in 2000, the country had been divided into conservative and liberal camps by a philandering, pandering president--and the borderline ran between those who were happy living in immoral times and those who wanted to move on. Obama and other Democratic speakers this week have taken a different approach. According to their rhetoric, the country is, in reality, united; it only seems divided because pundits and Republicans make it that way.
THE COMPETITION: As I mentioned on July 26th, the Republicans are in Boston to counter any of the the Democrats' anti-Bush rhetoric to date. They plan to unveil an 11-minute video today that captures Kerry's changing positions on Iraq since 2001.
MP3 of "If I Was President" by Wyclef Jean . the song you heard at the Democratic Convention today, can be heard here.
Lyrics:
If I was president,
I'd get elected on Friday, assasinated on Saturday,
and buried on Sunday.
If I was president...
If I was president
An old man told me, instead of spending billions on the war,
we can use some of that money, in the ghetto.
I know some so poor, they use the spring as the shower,
when screaming "fight the power".
That's when the vulture devoured
If I was president,
I'd get elected on Friday, assasinated on Saturday,
and buried on Sunday.
If I was president...
If I was president...
But the radio won't play this.
They call this rebel music.
How can you refuse it, children of moses?
If I was president,
I'd get elected on Friday, assasinated on Saturday,
and buried on Sunday.
If I was president...
If i was president
Tell the children the truth, the truth.
Christopher Columbus didn't discover America.
Tell them the truth.
The truth
YEAH! Tell them about Marcus Garvey.
The truth YEAH! The truth.
Tell them about Martin Luther King.
Tell them the truth.
The Truth.
Tell them about JFK
If I was President
If I was president,
I'd get elected on Friday, assasinated on Saturday,
and buried on Sunday.
If I was president...
(more to come)
TODAY'S SPEAKERS:
*This Washington Post site will take you to text and videos of previous speeches.
Wednesday, July 28
A Stronger More Secure America
Steve Brozak, Ret. Lt. Col., USMC, Candidate for U.S. Representative from New Jersey
Elijah Cummings, U.S. Representative from Maryland
Cate Edwards, Daughter of John Edwards
Elizabeth Edwards, Wife of John Edwards
John Edwards, Democratic Vice-Presidential Nominee
Bob Graham, U.S. Senator from Florida, 2004 Presidential Candidate
Jennifer Granholm, Governor of Michigan
Dennis Kucinich, U.S. Representative from Ohio, 2004 Presidential Candidate
Greg Meeks, U.S. Representative from New York
Martin O'Malley, Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland
Harry Reid, U.S. Senator from Nevada
Ed Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania
Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico
Al Sharpton, 2004 Presidential Candidate