Mark A. Kilmer (the weblog)

The Democratic National Convention gets to breathe its last.

On NBC’s Meet the Press, host Tim Russert will talk to Senators Zell Miller (D-Georgia) and Joe Biden (D-Delaware). This show could be worth watching just to hear Miller speak of his take on the convention.

On FOX News Sunday gets John Edwards and John Kerry. Now, MTP has a much larger audience, but FOX probably has a more Republican audience. It appears Edwards and Kerry want to sell themselves to disgruntled Republicans. But those are not the ones who would choose FOX over NBC.

For good measure, they’re throwing in Newton Gingrich and Bush/Cheney strategist Matthew Dowd. “Fair and balanced.”

On CBS’s Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer talks to… Edwards and Kerry.

On ABC’s This Week, host George Stephanopoulos talks to Kerry. (Does Edwards have a way-early bedtime?) Then Matalin and Brazile will argue for a while.

On CNN’s Late Edition, host Wolfgang Blitzer talks to… Kerry and Edwards. Then Senate Major Whip Mitch McConnell and “that old Senator,” Bob Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia. And Howard Dean, Al Sharpton, and RNC Chairamn Marc Racicot.

I’ll watch them, review and analyze them, and send it out as Sunday’s Rightsided Newsletter. I’m in my sixth year with that, and you can subscribe for free by visiting the web site at http://rightsided.tripod.com/, or by sending a blank e-mail to rsn-subscribe [AT] topica.com.

There’s a tropical depression off the coast of Florida which could strengthen to have winds of 39 mph or higher and be named Tropical Storm Alex.

In a related story actress/filmmaker Alex Kerry recently told actor Ben Affleck that her dress at Cannes was a conservative one which could “not withstand the impact of 3,500 flashbulbs.”

“Because of the dark world of the Internet, I’m told there are now entire Web pages dedicated to my breasts,” the 30-year-old actress and filmmaker is quoted as saying. “You gotta love the Internet.”

Hypothetically asked why she did not wear a bra under her dress, Ms. Kerry hypothetically replied: “My step mom could buy you, sucker!”

The Europeans have spoken, and the next President of the United States is: John F. Kerry. No surprise there, but the New York Times makes some dangerous assumptions in their little story. They take a few commentators in several Europeans papers and declare what “[t]he belief across Europe seemed to be.”

The stories author is Richard Bernstein, and his assumption is probably a safe one, though not universal.

According to a French historian, Europeans loved Kerry’s Thursday speech because it “put the blame where many Europeans see the blame, at the door of the Bush administration.” The blame for what, who knows?

This same French historian, one Justin Vaïsse, added that though Europe appreciated the Bush-bashing, they saw few indications in Kerry’s speech that he would be much different from the President:

Noting the line in Mr. Kerry’s speech about not needing a green light from abroad before taking actions to defend its interests, Mr. Vaïsse said: “In France, they don’t have overblown expectations. Kerry would be like the second Clinton administration, not as arrogant and unilateral as Bush, but it would be no multilateral paradise either.”

So, while allowing the French historian Vaisse to speak for all of Europe, Bernstein neglected to mention that M. Vaisse is a fellow at the liberal Brookings Institution.

But if you want to know what European commentators are saying, the Bernstein piece is a good place to begin.

For instance, he shines some light which proves the lie in a part of the main basis Kerry gives for electing him President:

There is an element of wishful thinking in the European view of Mr. Kerry, a commentator on Polish radio, Zbigniew Lewicki, said Friday. “The Democratic candidate spoke about his willingness to convince the European Union leaders to share the burden of war with Americans,” Mr. Lewicki said. “It’s an illusion. If the European leaders prefer Kerry as president, it’s not because he wants to throw a part of the war costs on their shoulders.”

So I’m not certain which Europeans Brownstein is averring would prefer a Kerry presidency. The people have not been polled. He cites, as I’ve said, a few commentators. Of the European leaders, besides Jacques Chirac, we know only what Kerry himself told us several months back that they’ve told him. (Don’t forget that gaffe.)

Congress cannot review them until a year into the President’s second term, those 20 individuals the President appointed to fill various vacancies in various federal agencies, boards, departments, and commissions.

Named are people to fill open spots at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Department of Commerce, the Internal Revenue Service Oversight Board, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the Amtrak reform board, the National Institute for Literacy Advisory Board, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, the United States Sentencing Commission, the Department of Energy, the United States Agency for International Development in the bureau for Asia and the Near East, the advisory board of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corp, the Inter-American Foundation. He also appointed ambassadors to the Bahamas, Estonia, and Qatar.

I thought about lobbying for the job in the Bahamas last winter, but I did not think I would be taken seriously.

Didn’t Al Gore “reinvent government” during Bill Clinton’s tenure and eliminate some of the above listed entities? Evidently not. (Of what use was he?)

Seriously, I’ve Googled several of the above, and I cannot see their functions contained anywhere but in the funky emanations of the obscure penumbra of our Constitution. Meaning, it’s not there.

I’d like to vote for a President who would eliminate most of them, starting with H.U.D.

With Nader, it’s for points from NEWSWEEK, according to a “web exclusive”. In the latest survey, Kerry leads Bush for 7, while three week ago, the lead was three. That’s with Nader in the race; otherwise, Kerry’s up by 8.

NEWSWEEK explains the size Kerry bounce by specifying the split polling, with Kerry leading by 2 points before the speech and 10 points afterwards.

And voters are becoming more likely to predict a Kerry victory in November: Forty-four percent say Kerry will win vs. 43 percent who predict Bush.

Look, NEWSWEEK seems to think that this is important.

To me, I wanted to see if my thinking held up and the bounce was negligible. According to this poll, it was slightly larger than negligible. It’s also not a true post-convention poll, and the three week swing is what we’ve been seeing all year.

I expect to see a slight Bush month-before-convention bounce. The campaign seems to be underway, with the Republican convention being a campaign event.

According to a story in the Los Angeles Times, a survey of undecided registered voter had determined that this group was swayed by the “forceful tone” of JF Kerry’s nomination acceptance speech, but they were “were still wary of his reputation for hedging his bets [flip-flopping].”

Of those survey’s sample, the paper says the group “spans the American mainland from rural central Florida to a small Pacific coast town in Washington state.”

All eight of them.

But of the eight, a retiree was swayed by JF’s speech. Kerry gets the vote of Annie Hurdle of Greensboro:

“He usually sounds kind of boring. But he was pronouncing those words so good, I have to go with him now all the way.”

We have to select the man who is going to lead our country through probably the most complex threat in our nation’s history, and she’s going to vote for someone who fails to understand what the threat is because of his pronunciation skills?

This is frightening.

—–

I know few details now, and I’ll repeat none, but word is that something will happen beginning in mid-August [correction] which could seriously damage Kerry’s campaign. It has something to do with that large segment of Kerry’s “band of brothers” which do not want him to be president. For what it is worth, one source told me that Kerry may consider pulling his name from consideration.

For what that’s worth.

If you plan to vote in November, read this New York Post column by Amir Taheri: [LINK]

“…you will agree that this is the coolest action figure since G.I. Joe. Each hard plastic Jesus Action Figure stands 5 inches tall with poseable arms to reach toward the heavens and wheels in his base for smooth gliding action. Comes in a illustrated clamshell package with biblical quotes on the back.”

Thanks, Mel.

[link]

Tech columnist Larry Magid has written quasi-review of the bloggers at the Democratic National Convention for CBSNews.com. He covers the expected self-referential “I’m a blogger!” stuff, the utility and speed of the medium, and says he doesn’t know if they made a difference.

One line struck me:

“[I]t was refreshing to hear voices that we might not otherwise have heard. While not as polished or balanced as the pros, the bloggers did offer some interesting alternative perspectives.

That’s why I began reading blogs about three years ago. It’s why I so dig new blogs.

In a piece on today’s Opinion Journal, outgoing Senator Zell Miller (D-Georgia) tells us why he did not attend last weeks DNC in Beantown, where the drunk partisans in funny hats were told: “Hope is on the way!”

No longer the party of hope, today’s Democratic Party has become Mr. Kerry’s many mansions of cynicism and skepticism. As our economy continues to get better and businesses add jobs, Mr. Kerry’s going around America trying to convince people that the roof is about to cave in. He talks about “the misery index” and the Depression. What does he know about either?

[ . . . ]
still believe in hope and opportunity and, when it comes right down to it, Mr. Bush is the man who represents hope and opportunity. Hope for a safer world. And opportunity for Americans to work hard, keep more of the money they earn, and send their kids to good schools. All the speeches we heard this week weren’t able to hide the truth of what today’s Democratic Party has become: an enclave of elites paying lip service to middle-class values. Americans looking for a president who understands their struggles and their dreams should tune in next month, when we celebrate the leadership of George W. Bush.

It’s a worthwhile read, in which he argues that the Democratic Party has changed from what it was when he began his political career. I guess one either changes with the party or gets out. And it’s important here to note that the Jimmy Carter we heard speaking last Monday sounded little like the one America elected in 1976. (Yes, he was much less disagreeable back then.)

Carter seems to have sold his soul for a moment’s celebrity. Miller has kept his soul and found his new moment the honest way.

In order to continue participating that allows federal employees to donate to it through payroll deduction, the A.C.L.U. has voluntarily agreed not to hire anyone on a federal watch list of terrorists. In April, the A.C.L.U. filed suit against the federal government to block the “no fly” lists of suspected terrorists who cannot get on airplanes.

“We oppose ‘no fly’ lists,” said Michael Meyers, a member of the group’s executive committee. “Now we have a ‘no hire’ list that we’ve signed onto. We’re in the midst of an organizational cultural crisis of enormous size.”

This should not be a problem for an organization which seeks to selectively protect only those rights it deems worthy of protection. It need only opt out of protesting the no-fly list as it has elected not to defend Second Amendment gun rights and First Amendment religious rights.

I’ve put the new column by Dustin Hawkins, Clearing up the Confusion, the Confusion… the Confusion, live on the RSN web site.

“According to the Kedwards campaign there should be only one America — but 5 tax plans.”

Read the column HERE.

Good morning

President Bush this morning in Missouri told the audience that JF Kerry “has had thousands of votes [in his 19-year Senate career], but very few signature achievements.” Kerry, though, would have none of it:

Kerry fired back at Bush’s criticism, dismissing it with a laugh as “the response to a positive campaign.” He said he was behind “a long list” of legislation during his 19-year Senate career, including funding for more community police, improvements to health care and support for fisheries

That was not the President’s point. Plenty of Senators have worked on health care, police, and, of course, fisheries, but are these Kerry’s “signature achievements,” ones with which he is easily identified? Has he been the fisheries Senator?

Nope. Kerry has nothing.

But he dug his hole a little deeper:

“They don’t have a record to run on, so all they can do is attack,” Kerry said.

No track record? Tax cuts, the international war on terror, free trade with Australia, al Qaeda sliced and diced and on the run, the capitulation of Libya’s Muammar Qadhafi, the strongest relationship with Britain since World War II, and the liberation of Iraq. He’s got something going on, and it is that with which he speech dealt. The dismissal of Kerry was a few lines.

Michael Moore’s rock is being kicked over. First Chris Hitchins dressed him down, then the 9-11 Commission blew his Saudi-Airplane theory away, then he freaked out at CNN American Morning host Bill Hemmer, then he skipped the showing of his film in Crawford, Texas with no explanation.

Now a paper in central Illinois, the Bloomington Pantagraph, has demanded an apology from Moore for using a Photoshopped front page in his film.

A scene early in the movie shows newspaper headlines related to the legally contested presidential election of 2000. It includes a shot of The Pantagraph’s front page with the prominent headline: “Latest Florida recount shows Gore won election.”

But the Pantagraph says that headline was never on the front page. It only appeared — in much smaller type — above a letter to the editor.

One would think, when making a documentary he had hoped to be of major import, he wouldn’t be so sloppy.

And while we’re speaking of Michael Moore and fraud, we may soon be speaking of Michael Moore and election fraud. The filmmaker has promised a Florida audience that he will have cameras in Florida this November to “guarantee to every Floridian that their vote will be counted this year.” We’re not sure what role his cameras will play enforcing election law, or even in making sure everyone fills out their ballots properly.

And in the United States, our votes our secret. We do not allow millionaire film producers to document our votes or to interfere with the conduct of the election.

He is not stable, and I am serious about that.

In his speech last night, JF Kerry ticked off the oil-rich Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The candidate’s offensive remarks?

“I want an America that relies on its own ingenuity and innovation, not the Saudi royal family.”

Kerry knew that would upset the Saudis, as it has upset them in the past, but he opted to throw diplomacy to the wind.

“Saudi bashing is not an energy policy,'’ an official with the Saudi Embassy in Washington said.

The embassy is not going to demand a formal apology, the official said, because Kerry is aware of how the Saudi royal family feels about such undiplomatic remarks.

Someone has to say something sometime to the Saudis, but not for cheap political points and most definitely note from a man who claims to the capable of earning the respect of the world. The Saudis do not forget such remarks.

The Kansas City Star (subscription) has run a story about the Missouri Democratic Party being so fractured by a primary battle between incumbent Governor Bob Holden and Democrat state Auditor Claire McCaskill that it might “hurt the party’s ability to muster the political resources to help [JF] Kerry win the state.”

The primary is next Tuesday, and, win or lose, both candidates have agreed to attend a “unity breakfast” in St. Louis the next day. The next day, Edwards and Kerry will be in town for what Senator Jean Carnahan says will be a “great love fest.”

Missouri has 11 electoral votes.

NRO contributing editor Michael Novak has written a gem on what will happen in November and how the losers will react.

Just like Thomas Paine was certain that his God would not allow George III to win, Novak does not believe “the Creator who gave us liberty will ignore President Bush’s willingness to sacrifice his own presidency for the liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq.”

According to revised GDP data released Friday by the Commerce Department, there wasn’t one:

In the revised data, there aren’t two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth in 2001. Two negative quarters of growth is one rule of thumb on what makes a recession.

If you go this route, President Bush neither inherited a recession nor caused one.

What we had, according to David Littmann, chief economist at Comerica Bank in Detroit, was “a no-growth situation… [without] the full hallmarks of a traditional recession.” {See story from the French wire, AFP.}

We would have had a recession but for what President Bush calls “some well-timed tax cuts.”

The Democrats’ issues are disappearing.

This is from a childish source, Dissident Voices: “[A]n internet newsletter dedicated to challenging the distortions and lies of the corporate press and the privileged classes it serves.” In fact, it’s from juvenile column worthy only of a footnote to an afterthought but for two points:

The experienced senator [JF Kerry] asserted, “I will be a commander in chief who will never mislead us into war.” In other words the self-admitted misled now wants to lead.

If Kerry were misled, then so was the President. If the President misled, then so did Kerry.

The other:

At the Democratic Convention Kerry declared, “I defended this country as a young man and I will defend it as president.” Yet his testimony at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 22 April 1971 belies fighting in defense during the Vietnam War. Kerry then stated, “We found that not only was it a civil war, an effort by a people who had for years been seeking their liberation from any colonial influence whatsoever, but also we found that the Vietnamese whom we had enthusiastically molded after our own image were hard put to take up the fight against the threat we were supposedly saving them from.” Transparent from this statement is that the Vietnamese were no threat and hence the US was not in Vietnam defending the homeland.

I’ll extend that. Kerry said in 1971 that he was not defending the United States or its interests in Vietnam.

Here’s JF Kerry from last night, speaking of his Band of Brothers: “We fought for this nation because we loved it and we came back with the deep belief that every day is extra.” That’s not what he said in 1971, when he was on and on about wiring genitals and whatnot.

Last night, Kerry claimed: “I defended this country as a young man and I will defend it as President.” In 1971, he said he was pretending to protect the Vietnamese from a “threat” they welcomed.

It’s great that he is now talking of his Vietnam experience in realistic terms, not in those selected by those on the rabid left. Including himself. But at the same time, he continues to assert that he was right to protest the war, claiming that he was objective to the way it was conducted and not to the war itself. Read his comments, and he was objecting to the war in Vietnam. He said we had no business attempting to stop the spread of Soviet communism because the Vietnamese wanted Soviet communism.

I think JFK was right to start the war, and I think he did so for the right reasons. It was a noble war fought by noble men, and the JF Kerry on the gunboat was one of them. He got his early transfer back to the States, and he began protesting the war as an ignoble one fought by mosters.

Now he asserts that he sees the experience as noble, yet he feels that he was right to call it ignoble. Last night, I wrote: “There is a contradiction to this campaign.” The contradiction is JF Kerry himself.

On personal matters of grave important, he has misleading the misled — and thanking them for their support.

“We are turning the corner, and we’re not turning back.”

In Springfield, Missouri Friday, President Bush told the crowd that the “heart and soul of America” was there. One wonders if, as JF Kerry asserted a few weeks back, Whoopi, Mellancamp, and the boyz spoke for them at the star-studded Kerry-Edwards rally of recent memory.

I’ll see your optimism and double it. If politics were a poker game, that is the President’s wager in reaction of Kerry’s self-described “optimistic” tones of Thursday.

He spoke of his tax cuts as driving the recovery, and most economists agree and even Dem politicians agree. The President tells us that he was told: “I think we might see a boom bigger than the ’90s.” That’s optimism, but please no bubble.

He stressed that the world changed on September 11, 2001. And “since that day, we’ve changed the world.” We didn’t hear Kerry mention this, the new governments in Afghanistan and Iraq, the new attitude from Libya, and that “the Saudi government is [today] taking the fight to al Qaeda.”

“We are turning the corner, and we’re not turning back.”

He painted a fairly complete picture of Saddam Hussein with descriptions of the man’s behavior. He said that the September 11 Commission report discussed the government’s “failure of imagination.” His Administration looked at the evidence of Iraq’s capabilities and realized that “we must not fail to imagine” what Saddam might do.

Results matter, he said. “When it comes to” a lot of things, he said, “results matter. … And when it comes to choosing a president, results matter.”

His opponent, he said, has had “no signature legislation” and “no significant record.”

Kerry is nothing.

This should be effective with all but the ABB crowd. He’s bursting with optimism over genuine results, not telling us that “hope is on the way,” that we have nothing for which to hope until a new regime is in place in January.

After a week of watching the Democrats do the best they could, the President has shown that, in the parlance, it’s no thaang.

Caveat: It can be argued that it’s not fair to measure the President’s speech against Kerry’s, as the networks didn’t force the President to talk over the applause and finish up. Or can it? Really.

To many of us, JF Kerry showed last night that he does not have what it takes to displace President Bush. Erick Erickson (Confessions of a Political Junkie), however, throws us a word of caution:

have to say that I think the Dems could pull it off in November. I hope they don’t, but it is possible. With all the money they are pouring into 527 organizations, union supporter, and rage, they could all be motivated to go vote in mass.

Couple that with the Administration’s often frustrating inability to promote itself and correct the other side, he says, and this election could swing the wrong way.

This cautionary caveat should be well taken.

“The Republicans can now spend a month attacking Kerry. They should show him to be who he is.”

Good morning!

Have been sat through a night’s worth of propaganda, numbed by alcohol, the crowd was ready to burst into tears of joy when they saw their nominee hug his swift boat band as he walked across the stage.

“I’m John Kerry, and I’m… reporting for duty!”

That’s similar to what Wes Clark told him when he endorsed, but he evidently liked that line.

“I was born in the West Wing.” We’d heard that one from Colorado last week.

As a child, he rode his bicycle into Communist East Berlin.

“… and that starts by telling the truth to the American people.” I wish they’d leave that nice Bill Clinton alone.

“I will be a commander in chief who will never mislead us into war.”

He took shots at Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft.

And he’s harping on diminishing wages, and that could work to their advantage if repeated loudly and often enough.

He accepts the nomination. If he cared a white for his party, he’d have refused and begged John Edwards to accept, but he’s proud that John will be his running mate. “This son of a millworker is ready to lead.”

He loves his wife. He loves his children.

His “band of brothers, led by… Max Cleland.”

He’s listing and thanking his primary opponents. Thanking them for “teaching” and “testing” him. But they did not test him, or he wouldn’t be there; their primary season was truncated, and he strolled to the nomination untested.

“There are those who criticize me for seeing complexities…”

He’s attacking the President on Iraq with Howard Dean-like half truths. Blind misconstructions. He’s ignored or misunderstood the meaning from the words. He’s not a complex man; in fact, he’s a very simple-minded guy.

He knows what we have to do in Iraq. “We need a President who has the credibility to bring our allies to our side…”

He wants to hit the terrorists before they hit us. Pre-emption!

You know, it was cute to hear the drunken Democrats chanting “U.S.A…. U.S.A…. U.S.A…. U.S.A….” on cue. That was a Dukakis-in-the-tank moment. And all of Kerry’s me too-isms about flags and patriotism.

It’s way to early to judge public perception of this, or what they’ve heard of this, but I don’t see anything which the Bush campaign will have to refute directly. The attacks were merely scurrilous and unfounded snipes. It might be best for the Bush campaign to push this convention to the side and say on message. Kerry’s not a winner.

The Vietnam vets onstage and the Cleland intro were powerful stuff, and Kerry should have followed it with a serious and powerful speech. Everything was a cliché designed to attract the attracted. I don’t know that he could be a decent commander in chief. Saying you have a plan will make only the hopeless feel better, and Kerry had just gone through a litany of fluff claiming to be an optimist.

There is a contradiction to this campaign: he wants to be president for a reason, and he wants to be president for no reason. If he were able to eliminate this incongruity, I think he would have. He couldn’t.

He has three months to do it, and since he is accepting federal campaign funds, he’ll be trying on our nickel.

I found myself doing something which was at once both trying and sickening. It finally got to me when an actress of whom I had never heard, Alfre Woodard, began introducing people in the hall, etc.

First, she cut to a kindergarten teacher flanked by a group of non-descript people. She read whatever she spoke, and I could swear she sounded like an average 7th grader.

Next, a group of people of men with weathered faces appeared on stage. A woman, older but not looking ready to be retired, spoke for them. Enthusiastically, but from a script. “I’m from Kentucky! I am a farmer! I am voting for John Kerry! He will fight to keep our family farms in business! He understands!” How do you know this, ma’am? Because he says he does. President Bush owns and runs a ranch. He’s not a multi-billionaire from Boston, Brussels, Paris, and Bonn. Someone understands the problems you face, ma’am. It’s not Kerry.

Then they cut to a camera from one of the many locations around the country at which they have gatherings. It got to me. It struck me. This is madness.

I’m not going to tune in to a late night “program” trying to sell be a gallon of Miracle cleaner that gets substances out of all and sundry, and I get a free pair of nylons if I order now. I’m not going to watch Kerry’s infomercial, either.

The convention itself, this one, seems to be primarily for the believers, for converting the ABB crowd into Kerry supporters. It will probably work on most of the delegates for a while after leaving the event. That much non-stop energy and enthusiasm transports a psyche into another realm of existence, so to speak.

But when they arrive home, when the noise subsides, some of it will wear off. More if Kerry says or does something foolish in the coming months.

I’ll tune in for JF, but I’ve had enough of this nonsense for one week. It takes a toll on ones own psyche, firing off reactions to speeches in rapid succession, and I really don’t know if these things are read by anyone anyway.

I’ll post next after I’ve watched enough of Kerry to know what’s going on. He’s going to sell his energy policy and talk about how he’s ready to lead the country. He cannot make a good case for a change, though, without stacking the canards thick.

Madness, I tell you! (I feel better now.)

It’s Clinton’s foreign policy lady, Madeline Albright. Her first vote was “to put a courageous Senator from Massachusetts in the White House.” She’s going to repeat that this year.

She says Kerry is going to lead not only like Clinton and JFK, “but also America’s greatest generation: Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower.”

Madeline, Ike was a Republican.

“Our adversaries have nothing to offer but hatred, destruction, and death.” I hope she’s talking about the terrorists. (One would never know after listening to Teddy Kennedy, Sharpton, and Dean.)

She accused the President of “tweak[ing] intelligence to justify war.”

“Under his leadership, we will persist until we prevail.”

Kerry believes that America must explain our actions to other nations and try to get them to agree, but he “will do whatever it takes to defend America whether others approve or not.” (This is not what he has said and demonstrated.)

Now she’s talking about Nazi storm troopers in her native Czechoslovakia. (Not in a MoveOn.org/George Soros manner, thankfully.) She’s saying that she loves our country… and that’s why she’s supporting Kerry.

She sounds not at all like her appearances on the Sunday shows. Has Shrum castrated these people for “Kerry’s night”?

It’s Nancy Pelosi.

She is talking up Kerry and saying that “our work will not be complete unless we elect a Democratic Congress.”

You know, the Kerry people — who say they wanted a non-bashing convention — must have thrown her speech in the bin and written a new one. The woman is calm, measured, stayed and… yes, somewhat pedantic.

She’s calmly explaining things. They might not be so — by a long shot — but her tone is scary. This is not the Nancy Pelosi we know.

“Health care is not a privilege. Health care is a right.” Derived from what?

Said calmly: “Democrats have it right.”

Stop it, Nance, you’re giving me the creeps.

“Democrats in the House are more united than any time in the last forty years.”

She’s excited about the Dem pickups in SD and Kentucky, and last week in NC.

“Democrats are leasing the way into turning Red States into Blue.” Hmmm.

This is curious. She’s delivering the speech to the crowd of drunken partisans with funny hats littering the convention floor, but she’s not trying to fire them up or rally them. Is this the start of a new Nancy Pelosi, or is this a one-off after a Bob Shrum-induced temporary lobotomy?

I’m speechless.

It’s Joltin’ Joe Lieberman.

He thanks them for the first Jewish nomination for Veep. Forever grateful to Al Gore…

Barack Obama “proved that the dream is still alive in the Democratic Party.”

“Campaigns are about the future, not the past…”

“They’re not only going to win the popular vote, as Al Gore and I did, they’re actually going to take office and move forward.”

He called terrorists as great a threat as the Nazis and the Soviet Communists, the latter of whom some liberals liked a half a century ago.

He reminded us that the Department of Homeland security was his idea.

Kerry and Edwards, he said, are “positive, constructive, [and] affirmative.”

He predicts that Kerry and Edwards will pick up the votes of millions of Americans “who wish to cast a vote not of protest, but of promise.” He sees a groundswell of non-ABB support for this ticket.

Bill Clinton’s resolve to strengthen our alliances everywhere in this world? President Bush is negotiated and concluding more free trade agreements than did Clinton.

“Let us go forward from this convention…”

“Hope is on the way.”

At least he didn’t really insult the Administration. Nice guy, that Joe.

The crowd applauds politely.

General Wesley Clark. This should be bizarre.

He says we’re at war.

“Give ‘em a round of applause!” (Our military.) “I want all of America to see our party and how we respect the men and women who serve.”

The Democratic Party is being reinvented tonight.

Now he’s doing a moment of silence for the fallen.

Now he’s talking about war’s and his involvement in the various aspects thereof.

“And this soldier has news for all of you. Any political party that tells you that they have a monopoly in the defense of our nation is perpetrating a fraud on the American people.” (Paraphrase.)

He’s talking about the flag, now…

“This flag is ours. And nobody, nobody will take it away from us!” (They can burn it, though, right?)

“Enough is enough!”

He’s not convincing.

“John Kerry has heard the thump of enemy mortars…”

Navy, prosecutor, Senator. Also protester and Dukakis’ lieutenant. (He also started an ice cream store. And he served in Vietnam.)

He’s going to lead us into “beating swords into plowshares.” Kerry’s the Messiah!

“He will join the pantheon of great wartime Democrats.” Wilson, Roosevelt, JFK (Missile Crisis), and Clinton (Yugoslavia). With the Clinton line, it’s obvious that he’s speaking to the drunk partisans with funny hats on the convention floor only.

“America… hear this soldier…!”

And the crowd roars… to an extent.

And Richardson called it to order at 7:47p Beantown time. And he’s listing the towns and States with live links. This requires: “YAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!”

Here’s Joe Biden.

“My name is Joe Biden, and I’m a Democrat.”

“The struggle with radical fundamentalism.” He wants to unite the world against terrorism.

The French ran a headline: “We are all Americans now.” Imagine how FDR or JFK were President then and “had seized that moment.”

He wanted Bush to call for a program of national service and a national energy policy that would eliminate the need to be friendly with the Middle East.

The “opportunity squandered,” Joe, was not an opportunity. It was a momentary reaction to tremendous tragedy. Once the shock wears off, things drift back to where they were. That is what has happened.

“We are responsible for the aftermath [of the war] virtually alone.”

“Because the intelligence was hyped to justify the war…” That’s an accusation, refuted by both a Senate Intelligence Committee report and the 9-11 Commission report.

He’s doing the old story about Charles DeGaulle trusting Jack Kennedy that the missiles were in Cuba just because he was the President of the United States. That was a different world, Joe. Then, the civilized world could trust either the United States or the Soviet Union. That was DeGaulle’s choice. Get it?

“It’s only leadership if someone follows, and no one is following.” It’s Statesmanship to do what is right regardless.

“Kerry will not hesitate to unleash the power of the military against anyone who does us harm, and without asking for anyone’s permission.”

“When John Kennedy is… when John Kerry is President…”

Kerry will keep preemption as an option, Joe says, but will also develop a strategy of prevention.

“John Kerry, as a student of history…”

He’s quoting the Bible, sort of. “Just as Joshuas trumpet brought down the walls of Jericho… so will [global terrorism] fall to America’s swift sword.” The walls of Jericho fell because of God. With Kerry, God does not enter into it.

Ah, the Dem convention. Here goes mercifully the last night.

John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO said that “John Kerry is a leader. He knows what true courage and patriotism mean. Because he showed it to us most in Vietnam.”

This is before 8p, so it’s pre-Prime. I’ll never forgive them for dumping Dennis to this spot yesterday.

“John Kerry and John Edwards are our very best.” Most delegates disagree.

Bland guy.

And they’re playing that Sister Sledge song again.

This message arrived this afternoon to one of my Inboxes:

Dear Friend,

If you’ve already given to support John Kerry, make this the moment to match your earlier support. And if you’ve been waiting for the right moment to act, please realize that this is it.

The Bush-Cheney campaign has five weeks to raise more money. We have just a few hours left. We’ve already out raised George Bush four months in a row — give us the big finish we need to show the media and the Bush campaign that we have the strength to beat Bush’s August advantage.

Sincerely,

Mary Beth Cahill
Campaign Manager

It is straightforward enough. She considers me to be her friend, and she wants me to max out my credit card. They’re conning the working class into taking on heavy debt.

Granted, this is the newest way to raise funds — it is, after all, the Internet age — but it is what Kerry’s team is doing.

He learned it from Howard Dean. Judging from some of the notes on Blog for America back in February and March, some of the Deaniacs are still paying their creditors.

Pakistani authorities have arrested Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a senior al Qaeda terrorist who has been indicted in connection with the embassy bombings (Kenya, Tanzania) of 1998. Pakistani Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat told the AP that he has given Pak “very valuable” information. Hayyat said he expected Ghailani to be turned over to the United States authorities once the Pakistani investigations have been completed.

This indicates that the war on terror is continuing apace successfully with no distractions. This further indicates that the United States is a global leader and is not hated by the known world. That much has been obvious, but this counters the pabulum coming out of Beantown.

This does not mean that JF Kerry might have to revise parts of tonight’s speech. Everything in it is still true in the universe he’s invented for himself and his voters.

I’ve put the latest column from Jan Ireland, Lies Cloud Kerry Candidacy, live on the Rightsided Newsletter web site. The Democrats have fictionalized “Bush Lies”… and the cloud swirls.

Read the column HERE.

Reuters chatted with some British political analysts who told them that a Kerry victory in November would leave Prime Minister Tony Blair feeling all by his lonesome in the world.

Britain’s Labour [sic] Party his naturally allied with the Democrats in the U.S., but in this case, Blair would be the only one of the “major” war allies, according to Reuters, who would not have been booted by voters. (Spain’s erstwhile Prime Minister José Maria Aznar has already been given the boot by voters.)

There are a few chinks in this analysis. First of all, JF Kerry would remain Blair’s ally in Iraqi reconstruction and security, for now. Secondly, life at home is far from perfect for both France’s Jacques Chirac and Germany’s Gerhard Schroeder. Chirac’s UMP Party took a bath in June’s regional elections, and Schroeder’s LDP Party’s popularity rating has fallen to 23-percent.

One need only feel alone when there are popular kids in your neighborhood.

According to this bit on FOXNews.com, some delegates to the convention are pondering who will be in JF Kerry’s cabinet: Bill Richardson at State, Max Cleland at Defense, Bob Menendez at Education or H.U.D.

How’re these: