By GottaLaff
They haven't chosen that Very Special Place yet, but the Democratic convention will be held during the week of September 3, 2012, per the DNC.
Democrats “will re-nominate President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, and re-affirm our party’s values of equality, inclusion, diversity, and respect.”
R-E-S-P-E-C-T, that's what Prez O means to me. Everyone...!
The Republican National Convention will be held the week of August 27.
Just because I find it interesting.
- Cisco — $1.7 million
- Laborers' International Union — $1.6 million
- Lincy Foundation — $1.5 million (the foundation is owned by the largest private shareholder in Ford)
- Service Employees International Union — $1.35 million
- National Education Association — $1.2 million
Amazing. It's going to be a spectacular turnout.
Nielsen reviews viewership data from the national political conventions and draws several interesting conclusions:
- Nearly two thirds of all U.S. households (64.5% or 73.2 million homes) tuned into at least one of the 2008 political conventions. This is about 120.1 million people. Viewership levels for the two conventions were essentially tied, with about half of all households watching each one.
- 15.0% of all households tuned to just the RNC, and 15.7% tuned to just the DNC. Another 33.9% of all households tuned to both conventions.
- Homes that watched both conventions were more likely to be headed by someone 65 years or older. They also completed the most formal education: nearly one-third (32.3%) graduated from college. Those watching only one convention were fairly comparable on both education and HOH age, within a point or two.
- Homes that only tuned to the RNC were more likely to have higher incomes ($100K+), to have a larger household size (4+), to be white, to own a DVR, and to have a head of household with higher education (4+ yrs college) and aged 35-54.
- Homes that only tuned in to the DNC were more likely to have a lower income (<20k),>
By GottaLaff
On September 2 and September 3, MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News each dedicated more on-air time -- significantly more in most cases -- to official Republican convention programming during the most-watched portions of their coverage than each channel dedicated to official convention programming during the same times on comparable nights of the Democratic National Convention.
By GottaLaff
But according to a senior official involved in organizing the Democratic convention, the McCain camp is simply lying about the flags.
"All of the flags at Invesco were picked up and put in bags and into storage, along with the unused flags and campaign signs. The flags were going to be donated, and the signs were going to be sent out to be used elsewhere," the official said, speaking anonymously since he was not authorized to talk to the press.
So I guess that makes the Republican liars gullible and stupid, huh?
Fox News' Carl Cameron and Bonney Kapp reported that they had "been told" that "a vendor at Invesco Field found the flags, which were going to be thrown out, and turned them over to the McCain campaign."
The Democratic convention official says that's not true.
"It's pretty reprehensible on their part," he said. "Someone made an assumption, took the flags, and essentially lied about what was going to happen to them. I mean, c'mon, we were never ever going to throw out flags."
I forgot despicable. Gullible, stupid, despicable liars.
Emails to three McCain spokespersons inquiring where the flags were found and how the McCain campaign obtained them were not returned.
Why would they be? Then they might have to actually admit they were gullible, stupid, despicable liars.
UPDATE: DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney issues a statement: "American flags were proudly waved by the 75,000 people who joined Barack Obama at the Democratic Convention. John McCain should applaud that, but instead his supporters wrongfully took leftover bundles of our flags from the stadium to play a cheap political stunt calling into question our patriotism. On the same day he agrees to join Barack Obama at Ground Zero on September 11, John McCain attacks the patriotism of Obama supporters who so proudly waved the American flag at our historic event in Denver just days ago."
UPDATE II: Another statement from the Democratic National Convention Committee: "Stories circulating about flags at the Democratic National Convention are false. We distributed more than 125,000 American made flags at the Convention - the flags removed from Invesco field were intended for other events and taken without permission. It's disappointing that someone would take American flags without authorization and then falsely describe how they were being used. We have the utmost respect for the American flag, and it's sad to see them being used for a cheap political stunt."
Several four-letter words are coming to mind. Please feel free to guess what they are in Comments.
Fascinating. Click on the image to make it bigger. Via NYT.
By GottaLaff
...then please read Frank Rich:
STOP the presses! This election isn’t about the Clintons after all. It isn’t about the Acropolis columns erected at Invesco Field. It isn’t about who is Paris Hilton and who is Hanoi Hilton. (Though it may yet be about who is Sarah Palin.) After a weeklong orgy of inane manufactured melodrama labeled “convention coverage” on television, Barack Obama descended in classic deus ex machina fashion — yes, that’s Greek too — to set the record straight. America is in too much trouble, he said, to indulge in “a big election about small things.” [...]Thank you.On TV, each of these hot-air balloons was inflated nonstop right up to the moment they were punctured by reality, at which point the assembled bloviators once more expressed shock, shock at the unexpected denouement. They hadn’t been so surprised since they discovered that Obama was not too black to get white votes, not too white to win black votes, and not too inexperienced to thwart the inevitable triumph of the incomparably well-organized and well-financed Clinton machine.
Meanwhile, the candidate known as “No Drama Obama” because of his personal cool was stealthily hatching a drama of his own. As the various commentators pronounced the convention flat last week — too few McCain attacks on opening night, too “minimalist” a Hillary endorsement on Tuesday, and so forth — Obama held his cards to his chest backstage and built slowly, step by step, to his Thursday night climax. The dramatic arc was as meticulously calibrated as every Obama political strategy.[...]
As Obama said, this is a big election. We will only begin to confront the magnitude of our choice when and if we stop being distracted by small, let alone utterly fictitious, things.
Hot damn.
NEW YORK (AP) — Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention was seen by more than 38 million people.
Nielsen Media Research said more people watched Obama speak than watched the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, the final "American Idol" or the Academy Awards this year. Obama talked before a live audience of 80,000 people in Denver.
His TV audience nearly doubled the amount of people who watched John Kerry accept the Democratic nomination to run against President Bush four years ago. Kerry's speech was seen by just over 20 million people.
Obama's audience might be higher, since Nielsen didn't have an estimate for how many people watched Obama on PBS or C-SPAN Thursday night.
Ha. They really, really have to earn their money here. Via Newshounds.
BFCE. A thing of beauty.
Greenberg Quinlan Rosner conducted a focus group in the swing state of Nevada with undecided voters or weak supporters of either candidate who watched Sen. Barack Obama's speech last night.
Key findings:
After viewing the speech, more than 1-in-4 of these swing voters moved from undecided to supporting Barack Obama or from supporting John McCain to undecided.
Obama achieved gains on every personal attribute tested in this exercise, with the most dramatic movement coming on some of the most important measures in our polling - 'on your side,' 'has what it takes to be President,' and 'will keep America strong.'
In a head-to-head match-up with John McCain on which candidate would better handle a series of issues, Obama again gained ground on every measure, with the most significant movement coming on 'national security,' 'strengthening America's relationships with other countries,' and 'sharing my values.'
Didn't watch eh John? Must have been on opposite "Matlock".
"Tonight, Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meager record of Barack Obama. When the temple comes down, the fireworks end, and the words are over, the facts remain: Senator Obama still has no record of bipartisanship, still opposes offshore drilling, still voted to raise taxes on those making just $42,000 per year, and still voted against funds for American troops in harm's way. The fact remains: Barack Obama is still not ready to be president."
While I dig around all the "OMG, best speech EVER" articles in my RSS, tell me what you think of it. Me? I was elated and on the floor at the same time. BFCE.
By GottaLaff
Keith: Tough, crisp speech, cut the crap moment, not the stuff of fiction, the real thing. I'd love to find something to criticize here...anything?
ChrisMatthews: No. I think what he said was about us, and that's why we care about what he said. You take your opponent's best shot, and you throw it back at him. "Whiners... ownership society...celebrity."
As I said in the last post, IN YOUR FACE.
Keith: He took the last 8 years and shouted to America, "Enough!" It was all the specifics that were asked of him.
Chris: He talked about McCain's TEMPERAMENT.
Keith: Do you have the judgment, do you have the temperament... that is taking that message back. That's saying, "ole" and pulling back the red cape.
Chris: He took the litany of the entire RNC point by point and threw it back in their face. This was a strong statement of what McCain has to defeat in November. This will be fought at the highest level of combat. We'll see the best of political skill.
David Gregory: The Dems got what they wanted, the motivation. This is a changed election. He issued a blueprint to run on: You don't like where you are, I'm about the future, he's about the past.
Andrea Mitchell: He went after McCain's perceived strength. This was the red meat this crowd's been wanting. They were waiting to see if this man is a fighter. ... I don't know how it looked on the screen, but here... It seemed very very personal here on the floor.
By GottaLaff
I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington.Now I know why I've changed my vote to McCain. He's such a great guy!
But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you.
HERE COMES THE INTRO TO OBAMA. DICK DURBIN, THEN THE VIDEO, THEN OUR NEXT PRESIDENT.McCain Not Planning to Leak VP Name
CNN reports that Sen. John McCain will not leak the name of his running mate because "tonight is Barack Obama's night."
Great video! The visuals tell the story, so we can SEE his life, not just hear about it.The Gallup Daily Tracking Poll is basically crack for polling junkies and Obama campaign manager David Plouffe calls it "the worst thing that's happened in journalism in 10 years" but for what it's worth it's fun to play around with. You can extract the daily samples using a spreadsheet if you initialize it with an assumption about two days' polling. Choosing the nice stable August 20-21 period for initializing, you get the following for each day's individual (un-averaged) polling:
August 20: O 45 M 43
August 21: O 45 M 44
August 22: O 45 M 45
August 23: O 45 M 46
August 24: O 45 M 44
August 25: O 42 M 48
August 26: O 48 M 40 (post-Michelle)
August 27: O 54 M 38 (post-Hillary)If today's sample reverts to Tuesday's 8-point margin, that will put Obama up by double digits in the 3-day tracking poll. We'll see where things land after the GOP convention, but we're certainly seeing a nice poll bounce so far.
By GottaLaff
UPDATE:
BIDEN JUST MADE AN ENTRANCE.
Tom Brokaw just used the word "presumptuous" to describe the Sky Cams taking aerial shots of the stadium. Chuck Todd is defending it, saying it's state of the art and all the networks are using it.
Keith is challenging him that an overhead shot is indicative of "imperiousness".
Chuck is saying it plays into what the Republicans are trying to do.., since they can't attack the substance, they'll attack the setting. Because Obama CAN fill the stadium and McCain can't fill a 10,000-seater.
Tom says, the Republicans will see it as an opportunity.
Keith: We're touching on something subliminal in culture... it looks like a blimp shot at a football game that makes the speakers look smaller, not bigger, than life.
Chuck: You hit the nail on the head; we haven't seen it used in politics. It's a big moment for Obama, and he was smart to raise expectations. He needed to attract a new audience, and not just have a speech that was "more good oratory" in a closed room. A smart gamble, but still a gamble.
Tom: Maybe he'll have such a profound and good speech that it won't matter.
Chuck: Sometimes a speech is just a speech.
JOE BIDEN: We're here for the cops and the firefighters... the soldiers... the mothers and fathers... struggling... for our children and grandchildren... for the next president Barack Obama. ... When we're in the White House, Barack and I will make sure they are always heard.
Keith is reading excerpts from Obama's speech... it is powerful. Re: The tone of the speech: "It is taking command."
Chris: "I am commander in chief. This is what change will look like." This is what the people asked for, and he's doing it.
FULL TEXT OF OBAMA'S SPEECH, AS PREPARED. Pat Buchanan says it's too long. But that it looks good, and that he can "hold 'em". And he's impressed with it.
By GottaLaff
Al Gore:
We MUST seize this opportunity to elect Barack Obama.
Take it from me, if it ended differently, we wouldn't be in a war in Iraq, we would have found Bin Laden... protecting rights... [HE'S STARTING OUT HOT].. solving the climate crisis...
McCain, a man who has earned our respect on many levels, is endorsing the Bush policies. Those policies all over again? I believe in recycling, but that's ridiculous.
What a great speech Joe Biden gave last night.
Barack Obama is telling us exactly what he will do... [lists them]... So why is this election so close? I know something about close elections... It's close because the forces of the status quo are afraid of the change Obama represents.
He's listing the changes that must be made: oil dependence, national security dangers because of global warming. A planetary emergency... In spite of McCain's past open-mindedness on this, he's now allowed his party to browbeat him into... drilling... etc.
Edison thought the sun was a good source of power, he says. We have everything we need to use the sun, the wind, etc... except a president in the White House who inspires us to believe "yes we can".
Oil and coal have a 50 year lease on the Republican party. Some of the best marketers have the worst products, true of the Republican party... So what can we do?
We can carry Obama's message of hope and change to every family... be there for him. [Links McCain up to Bush/Cheney again, great]
Talking about the youth vote and their contribution to Obama's causes, which include the Constitution.
Shake off complacency to the present dangers.... recognize the need for change.
Lincoln only had one term in Congress... He was known as a clear thinker with a passion for justice. Obama's experience perfectly matches a period of transition. Brings up war again.. leadership experience to inspire hope... his experience has given him genuine respect for different views.
His experience has taught him that inconvenient truths must be acknowledged if we are to have wise governing.
Strength of personal character... and Michelle's... grounded in the strength of the American community.
Heart and soul... moral authority... transcend our limitations to redeem the promise of human freedom.
Proverb: When you pray move your feet. Take the message to every part of our land.
Listing lots of reasons for change (war in Iraq, etc... Supreme Court justices... etc.)
Vote for Barack Obama!
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