DNC Convention Day 1 - Convention Speeches, Including Michelle Obama and Possibly Ted Kennedy

Joining in progress, because I had stuff to do.  All times are central time…

5:45 CT: It’s apparently Hispanic Caucus Hour, as Joe Baca and Grace Napolitano just spoke, and now Silvestre Reyes, Chair of the Intelligence Committee and Representative from El Paso is speaking now. Nothing terribly interesting, and the speech styles are stunningly pedestrian, even for this hour of the day.

5:48: It is the Hispanic Caucus Speaking! Lou Dobbs is trying to contact the INS as we speak. The Representative from the South Bronx says it’s the poorest district in the country. Not if you count the salaries of the Yankees!

5:51: Nancy Pelosi apparently takes fashion advice from Lebron James.

5:52: Nancy Keenan from NARAL says the pro-choice is the way to go. Her outfit is more of a failed abortion: Just a lot of red with a head sticking out. Seriously, though, it’s stunning how opaque McCain has managed to be regarding abortion. That’s going to explode at some point.

5:57: Amanda Kubik and others from North Dakota come out to YELL ABOUT THE YOUTH VOTE. And jsut to ensure they are taken seriously, she deliberately slips into a Fargo accent. And that’s it. This is like rapid fire silliness.

5:58: Obama’s political godfather Emil Jones Jr. comes out to speak. Mentions Obama working on high school dropout rates with him on the South Side of Chicago. Talks about meeting Obama again in the state legislature, and giving him ethics reform through the legislature, and how difficult it was, apparently because all politicians are greedy. Jones mentions a lot of other things Obama did in the state legislature. It’s stunning to realize that without Jones, Obama would not be in the Senate, much less running for President.

6:02: NEA President Reg Weaver. The speech seems more about redefining the NEA as pro-Obama than endorsing Obama himself.

6:06: Some DNC video talking about fear being a failed strategy, including Michelle Obama. I can only think about Batman Begins.

6:07: There’s some new age orchestra playing a cross between Kenny G and porn music. And there’s an Iraqi-American for Obama. Seriously, is the Democratic coalition that broad where the music has to be this nondescript? This is like stuff that was rejected as NPR break music for being too bland.

6:12: Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan talks about working with Obama on women’s issues in the Illinois State Senate, where they sat next to each other. Awww.

6:15: Dan Hynes jokes about losing to Obama in the Senate Primary. He takes credit for being the first person to call on Obama to run for President. Ummm, OK.

6:17: The Illinois State Treasurer talks about Obama being his basketball buddy. It’s Illinois hour at the DNC, apparently.

6:20: Illinois 20 minutes, apparently. Randi Wingarten, President of the AFT comes out to talk about education, including America being the “incubator of innovation.” Is education currently the equivalent of a premature baby? Her speech uses ridiculous hyperbole to make the point that public schools are important.

6:25: Sen. Amy Klobuchar! She calls the Bush leadership “subprime leadership.” Interesting turn on the phrase. She talks about Obama organizing an ethics reform plan while she was driving on the way to Washington. I’m not sure about dinging the Cheney Energy Bill when Obama voted for it, though.

6:29: A cover of Sly and Family Stone’s Dance to the Music makes my ears bleed. This is like a song Richard Simmons thought was not good enough to be in one of his videos.

6:31: The dais literally becomes covered with stars as they segue to highlights from Obama’s 2004 keynote at the DNC.

6:32: John Legend. Catch you on the flip side.

6:48: More music. Nancy Pelosi speaks at the top of the hour

6:55: Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown is moderating a townhall on the economy with Ned Helms, Lisa Olivares, Dr. Laura Tyson (economic advisor to Obama), Jon Schnur. The panel seems a bit rushed. They start criticizing McCain for not taking economic issues/problems seriously enough. Again, I can’t help but wonder if the 25 minutes of crummy music that took place before this rushed panel don’t belie or undermine the messsage that they are trying to send.

7:04: Brown really seems a bit wired. His tone is eerily similar to that Billy Mays guy who is always hocking products like portable light switches and magic cleaners on TV infomercials. Matt Yglesias: “Sherrod Brown giving us a taste of what it would have been like if Jerry Springer had run for Senate.”

7:05: I’d like a symposium on the hair of Democratic Senators. Between Biden, Sherrod Brown, Obama, Clinton and a couple more, you could easily fill up a day’s worth of discussion. Brown is one unkempt beard away from being given a free haircut with other homeless people in Denver.

7:10: Pelosi introduction video.

7:11: Nancy Pelosi! First up: a salute to the Clinton campaign. Cheers for which she promptly cuts off. And she repeatedly pounds the gavel as if just to show that she can. The only other person to pound the gavel this excitedly was Obama’s kid earlier today. Pelosi goes on to talk about what the Congress did, as if the approval rating was not in the gutter. She says McCain has the experience of being wrong. Pelosi ends up doing a slow motion reenactment of Gore’s up/down speech from 1992. She talks about being the first Italian-American speaker, seguing into it by ordering a hit on a heckler. Or actually by telling about how a five year old thought seeing Obama was a dream. It didn’t make sense in context, either. Wraps up by making a general plea for Obama/Biden.

7:25: Video about a first time delegate from Colorado, some old guy.

7:26: A Katrina survivor talks about evacuating with a few clothes and a hula hoop. A hula hoop? Ummm, what the hell? She talks about a 2X4 that Obama autographed giving her hope. What, is Obama a saint now with relics? Will locks of his hair be preserved?

7:29: Katrina video. It was bad. Apparently, it’s more important at the moment to show Katrina videos than to do anything about Fay, or even reference it in any way. It’s actually the Jimmy Carter video on Habitat for Humanity. OK, that’s a good cause, partisanship aside. This is about the only area of Carter’s public life in the psat 30 years that isn’t completely embarrassing to Democrats.

7:33: And Carter comes out with his wife, looking pretty frail. He doesn’t even speak.

7:35: Video on Obama’s law school experience, as a student and speaking.

7:36: Obama’s half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng is next. She talks a lot about growing up, and their mother. Barack took hher to street gairs and musicals when they were growing up. The scary thing is that she’s a better orator than most others who have spoken, at least in style. She talks about fulfilling the dreams of mothers and making the country strong.

7:42: Jesse Jackson Jr. is next. Starts out by referencing MLK and Johnson submitting the civil rights bill. His cadence is exactly the same as his father’s, just a little less pronounced. He talks about how people underestimated Obama’s run for Senate; if you analogized that to 2008, he would be saying that the Clinton supporter drastically underestimated him. Jackson talks about Obama campaigning across the state of Illinois, making ti sound a bit more diverse demographically than it really is. Echoes Obama’s 04 speech in that all of America is one, not divided. Says Obama will heal the wounds of the last eight years. Gets a rise out of the crowd. “Freedom has never rung from a higher mountaintop than it does today.”

7:50: Music interlude: Lenny Kravitz’ “Are you gonna go my way?” which was - honest to god - released in 1993. They have music literally from before the Republicans took control and then lost control of Congress. Seriously. You’d think they could come up with something newer than 15 years old.

7:54: Joe Biden in the house.

7:58: James Brown’s “Gonna Have a Funky Good Time” is next. Joe Biden lookslike he’s having the time of his life with Howard Dean.

8:00: The band is up against the giant screen, and lit to come across as if they are the equivalent of Mystery Science Theater. Or perhaps they want to invoke The Shadow. Who knows what bad melodies lie at the heart of democrats? The DNC house band knows!

8:02: Joe Biden completely freaks out his Secret Service protection. Biden was at the edge of one of the platforms and leaned down over the railing completely with both arms to give someone down below a great big bear hug, freaking the agent out and wondering how to grab him from behind without creating a scene or an instant McCain ad.

8:03: Homes for Our Troops video. Apparently, the democrats plan to solve all problems by building homes for everyone. That’s one way to get around the mortgage problem.

8:06: Mike and Cheryl Fisher from Indiana are speaking. Let’s find out who they are together. They met Barack Obama personally and he listened to their concerns. He’s a machinist for Amtrak. He compliments the Obamas on being regular people like them. He takes a shot at the McCain gas tax proposal, while conveniently omitting that Hillary Clinton made the exact same proposal. He wraps up quickly. I’ll save him from any further wrath since he kept it short and clearly was an amateur who was nervous.

8:09: SEIU Chicago President is next. More talk about what Obama did in Chicago. They’re really hammering that home, which is important because no one that needs to hear it is listening. Segues into an attack on McCain’s economic policies, where he abrubtly ends.

8:12: John Kerry and Teresa are on the floor. In his head, he’s here to be re-nominated.

8:15: Caroline Kennedy! We’re in the big time now. She says she is hear to pay tribute to both Obama and Ted Kennedy. She says that Obama inspires her the way her father inspired people, and that “Uncle Teddy” has been inspired too. She references Teddy’s “dream will never die” speech. Goes over a long list of his legislative accomplishments. He’s really going to go down as a important of a Senator as the likes of Webster or Calhoun. Maria Shriver is shown in the crowd. Caroline introduces the tribute video to Teddy, showing him sailing and emphasizing his connection to the sea. It’s a little condescending for John Kerry to talk about Kennedy with lines like “he likes the outside” though. That quickly segues into discussing his brothers, and a moral obligation to health care. Seriously, though, there’s a bunch of touching stories regarding Kennedy. including one where an inner-city girl read with him when she was young and eventually went to college and graduated. It’s humorous how Patrick Kennedy is portrayed in this video, just as a punchline.

8:29: And here he is! Massive applause, as you would expect. Maria Shriver is in tears. He says that nothing would keep him away tonight. He pledges to be there in January when Obama is sworn in. Wow. Teddy chant breaks out.  He gets so into the speech that you can see how much trouble he is having just to get through it. Most people - and I mean this - would give far less into a speech when in a condition like his. I didn’t expect a 5 minute speech; we’re over 6 minutes now and he’s still going. Kennedy wraps up with what will probably be a classic sequel: “the hope rises anew, and the dream lives on.” He’s not at his A game, but Teddy’s B game is way, way more powerful than a lot of other’s best. For someone who was iffy onspeaking, that was just a gutsy, gutsy performance, regardless of politics.

8:40: No one can follow that, so we’re in a music break.

8:43: If you want an alternative liveblog, checkout fivethirtyeight.com.

8:44: Video retrospective on Obama’s campaign for Senate, and getting the ethics bill passed. Claire McCaskill is in it.

8:45: True story from MSNBC: David Gregory wants to ask Teresa Heinz-Kerry a question, who is not mic’d and cannot hear him. So, naturally, he gets really close to her face and yells his question. She doesn’t take kindly to that. Way to go grab that MTP gig by the horns, Davey boy.

8:46: Who can follow Ted Kennedy? If you said Chicago City Clerk and former Illinois State Senator Miguel Del Valle, give yourself a high five. He laments having to follow Kennedy. He talks about knowing Obama since 1992. Somewhere, Bill Clinton is not listening to the 1992 election being analogized to now. He talks about what Obama did to help immigrants.

8:52: Candi Schmeider is out next, and says it is unlikely that she would be there. I still don’t know who she is. She says she works part time from home. She’s reading off the teleprompter way too fast for me to follow and write. She compliments his political book as being nonpolitical. Ahh, she became a precinct captain in Iowa for Obama. Now it makes sense. She says Obama inspired her to finish her degree and go into public service. She needs to slow down a bit on the speeches to do that. Otherwise, well done for a non-politico.

8:55: Jerry Kellman, who hired Obama to be a community activist in 1985, speaks. He talks about what Obama did on the streets. This is powerful biographical stuff that Obama should highlight; but in the shadow of Kennedy, it’s unlikely that it’ll get noticed at all. Everyone is still catching their breath. Also, Kellman is a very droll public speaker.

9:00: Sen. Tom Harkin from Iowa, who starts out giving a speech in sign language. Umm, OK. That quickly ends. Harkin is here to introduce former GOP Rep. Jim Leach. He gives a little bio on Leach, highlighting his bipartisanship.

9:03: Jim Leach talks about the need for a new ethic in Washington. This is very low-key, nothing like Zell Miller four years ago. Leach is very academic, highliting four major debates in American history. Leach highlights people like Vandenburg and Moynihan, and a number of presidents who took actions. Leach criticizes the GOP for gravitating to regulating values, undermining treaties, and having no fiscal discipline. This is terrifyingly bad. Someone is ripping the GOP in front of a room of hardcore Democrats and still can’t get a single applause line? Yeesh. No wonder the GOP is yawming over this speech. YAWN.

9:13: I hope Bill Clinton isn’t nearby. because Claire McCaskill’s kids are there to introduce her. (McCaskill in the past regarding Bill: I think he’s been a great leader but I don’t want my daughter near him.) Her son starts with their great-great grandmother. (Seriously.) The two girls just stand there and smile. That’ll get the Hillary people back on their side!

9:15: McCaskill takes the stage, and talks up Missouri. She quickly talks about how Obama’s story is America’s story. She also crticizes the Bush record on tax breaks for the rich. She highlights Obama’s support for equal pay for women, tax breaks for the middle class, and health care. The sell to women on the issues favors Obama. That’s his one big advantage going forward. She tells a story about her 80 year old mother G-chatting that no one over 30 will understand. Nate Silver: “And … it’s probably good that Claire McCaskill was not the VP nominee.”

9:23: Video introduction of Michelle narrated by her mother. The same general story I’ve heard a bunch of times covering the campaign, but it’s done pretty well.

9:29: Yes the video went six minutes. Craig Robinson, Michelle’s older brother and head basketball coach at Oregon State, is her to introduce her. Michelle has apparently memorized every single episode of the Brady Bunch. I’d have a witty remark, but I’ve never seen it. So, yeah. He mentions that Michelle wanted to dedicate her life in part to those who got picked on at school That must have looked better on paper. Robinson gives a basketball scouting report on Obama that’s a little too cute for me. Still, decent speech in whole.

9:35: Michelle takes the stage; I have one question: will NRO’s servers crash? You can see she’s a bit overwhelmed. She thanks her brother and mother for being there. She talks about her daughters being important, and her father dealing with MS. Compares her family to Barack’s, and talks about their family values. She’s avoiding the worst of the trite solipsisms or horribly abstract to the point of meaninglessness that she’s slid into in the past, but at the same time is nondescript. She talks about two anniversaries this week: women earning the right to vote and MLK’s dream speech. She talks about different types of families who work hard for something better; Obama has to define what that something better is, but this is a good start. She signals out Hillary Clinton for “18 million cracks in the glass ceiling” and Joe Biden for what he’s done. Nice shout out to HRC; very classy and in the right context. Says these various types of hope “is why [she] loves this country.” Talks about what she’s done in leaving her job at her law firm. (She’s doing well now, but that’s a fair point to raise.) She says Barack is running to end the war in Iraq responsibly, getting better health care, and providing better education. Matt Yglesias: “Why is Michelle Obama so much better at public speaking than all these professional politicians?” Angelo thinks it’s Barack coaching her a bunch, and I’d have to agree. She tears up a bit when she talks about her daughter being born. She ties themes from earlier in the speech - building the world as it should be, her father, and her daughters, into her final invocation asking for people to vote for him. Very good speech. Great execution, moderate level of difficulty.

9:55: Barack pops up on a little screen, live from KC. Their daughters repeatedly interrupt to say hello to him. It’s actually pretty funny. Few thngs are better than little kids around politics. I have no idea why. The bookending of the little girls when Carolin e Kennedy spoke earlier is interesting too.

That’s it for the DNC. We’ll be back soon to liveblog McCain on Leno. And all day tomorrow too.