Wednesday afternoon

OK, these are Wednesday’s notes. I’m hoping to get to two major speeches this afternoon, Sen. Edwards’ and Gov. Granholm’s. I expect Gov. Granholm’s speech will get short shrift, but I think it’s the best political speech I’ve heard so far. Anyway, on to the bullet points... I know that these aren’t the most entertaining to read, but as long as I’ve written them up, have fun with them.

• 4:15 Diane Wilkerson (my old State Senator). Feh. A decent speech, if a trifle dull.
• 4:20 Sen. Maria Cantwell (WA) Energy issues. Perfectly good speech. Not much to it. Gets some applause on the Grandma Millie line.
• 4:24 Rep. Tom Allen (ME) health insurance. A bit robotic. Speaking about the voices of Maine. “John Kerry hears your voices.”
• 4:28 Steve Westly (State Controller, CA) EBay � “That’s the kind of jobs we need” interrobang time
• 4:31 fife and drum. Two songs? Who the hell is the music director around here?
• 4:35 Rep. Caroline McCarthy (NY). Oh, lordy, it’s the Long Island Railroad Massacre widow. I mean, yes, I agree with her, but ... that’s so 1996. I see, the Republicans are letting her assault-weapons ban die. She speaks so simply, it’s effective in a na�ve way. I see how she won election.
• 4:39 Joseph Hoeffel (Sen. Candidate PA) Go Joe! Go Joe! Good lines—he’s talking about how he grew up with “Republican Values”: Pay your bills on time, stay out of debt, don’t go looking for trouble. His parents change their registration when in their eighties. Now he’s talking about ‘The fierce urgency of now.’ I don’t get it, but it sounds nice. He’s likeable, I’ll say that. I sure hope he wins; that’ll be a nice pick-up.
• 4:44 Rep. Chaka Fattah (Phila.) quoting RFK. Steal from the best. Talking about children and education. “The election of JK and JE is inextricably intertwined with a future in which each child and every child will have an opportunity to learn.” He’s an effective speaker; I like him a lot. Can he have a higher future? Whip? Secty of Ed? “It’s not just the next election, it’s the next generation.”
• 4:49 Sen. Frank Lautenberg (NJ) Israel. He’s visited Israel eighty times? He sounds bizarrely defensive saying “John Kerry is a great friend of Israel.” Who thinks he isn’t? How about an honest broker? “He agrees that the fence is a legitimate response...” Somehow, I don’t think the audience is as excited about this as he expected. And, of course, I can’t stand him.
• 4:53 Rep. Donna Christian-Christiansen(Virgin Islands) “Is this a Big Tent party or what?” Hell, yeah.
• 4:57 Rep. Ike Skelton (MO) military families. Distracted but he made it easy to be distracted.
• 5:00 Rep. Charles Rangel (NY) He’s a hero of mine, and dammit he looks good! Is he getting younger? “We cannot look for the patriots of 1775; we are the patriots of the next revolution...” He’s not a particularly eloquent man; what I like about him is he’s blunt and he’s right. “We should let the country know that we’re mad as hell!”
• 5:07 Sen. Charles Schumer (NY) talking about Moynihan. John Kerry will keep us safe. Like the glasses. Safety, Security and Strength. I wonder why he’s not on prime-time?
• 5:13 Rep. Ed Pastor (AZ) He’s got such a nice upper-class Latino accent. I don’t know if it’s a good idea to introduce yourself and immediately say “my community is ready for new leadership.”
• 5:17 Sen. Patrick Leahy (VT) I missed his Cheney joke. “A wiser, a more effective war on terrorism” Long arms, long gestures. To a man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. John Kerry will use every tool in America’s toolbox.
• 5:22 Amy Klobachar (Hennepin County Attorney MN) Lake Wobegone joke. Oh, dear. A prosecutor. Every arrest, every conviction is a failure. A failure for the individual, a failure for the family, a failure for the community. Barbara Jordan quote.
• 5:26 Raul Yzaguirre (La Raza) Talking about Hispanic issues, of course. “Promises can be broken in Spanish as well as in English.”
• 5:30 John Glenn They’re playing ‘Fly me to the Moon’ interrobang. I want the name of the music director. I want his freakin’ head. Anyway. According to John Glenn, it’s all about education and research. I agree with him, of course, but he’s not going to persuade anybody who doesn’t. And he over-uses the phrase ‘my good friend’. Both JK and Neil Armstrong are his good friends. I wonder who his bad ones are.
• 5:35 RFK, Jr. He’s all nonpartisan and all. Right. Five years ago, if you asked environmental activists what the greatest threat to the environment was, you would get lots of different answers. Now, one: GWB. The metaphor of Our Only President and his cronies treating the world like a business in liquidation, turning assets into cash as quickly as possible. Go, you! Good writer, terrible speaker.
• 5:42 Jim Hahn, Mayor of LA Unless it’s Grey Davis. I can’t tell. He’s that boring. Did the Kennedy comparison, which I think is a no-no.
• 5:45 Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (TX). Starting out in Spanish, for more than one sentence! Hmmmm, “make America strong again” is the wrong formulation. Stronger is good. Don’t say that America isn’t strong. How hard is this, boys?
• 5:48 Tom Reilly, MA Attorney He looks old, suddenly. He missed his time, I’m afraid. He’ll never be Senator or Governor now.
• 5:52 Angelo Kyle, President of the National Association of Counties, County Commissioner of Lake County, IL A strong and powerful speaker.
• 5:55 Michael Flaherty, Boston City Council Southie bastid. Joking, joking. I like him, and his buddies Jimmy, Pat, Tommy Fitz, Sully, Mickey Fitz, Sully, Jimmy Fitz, Sully, Sully, Jacky Fitz, and Sully. I like ’em all. Bastids.
• 5:59 David Paterson (State Senator NY). Led on. Looks like he’s blind. Yep, he’s blind. Strange how the words ‘seeing’ and ‘vision’ just jump the hell out at you under the circumstances. Also, I’ll cut the man slack on not using gestures, that’s hard to learn. Hey, chanting! I love chanting! I’ve been waiting for the chanting.
• I missed Cheryl Jacques? Dang! I adore Cheryl Jacques! She was almost my US Rep. Well, by ‘almost’ I mean she had no chance, but I liked her.
• 6:08 music video about, um, I think it’s Bruce Springsteen. Mostly about firefighting, I guess. Oh, it’s a firefighters union video endorsement video.
• 6:10 Harold Schaitberger, (President of International Association of Firefighters) A wonderful stereotypical union boss. Bull-necked, with a gorgeous suit that looks like crap.
• [dinner break for YHB]
• The Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr.—sadly, not a great speech. I’ll want to look at the transcript; it seemed like a badly written speech expertly delivered. The central metaphor, of the darkness, and the light in the morning, seemed never to get off the ground, and the indignation over the details was heartfelt but not inspiring or new.
• Mayor Martin O’Malley (Baltimore) quite good. Not eloquent, particularly, but simple and persuasive. “We cannot properly fund homeland security on local property taxes and fire hall bingos.” Actually a scary speech, since he was detailing our vulnerability to terrorist attack. I don’t actually think that John Kerry would be able to do much about that. It would be an improvement, but there are essential vulnerabilities inherent in a free society. What’s going on, is he quoting? “To govern is to choose.”
• Veronica Garcia (Secretary of Ed., NM) [I have no notes for this. Did I miss it?]
• Rep. Greg Meeks (NY) Quite good, though I was distracted. Much better than his brief appearance on Monday
• Musical interlude: Coming to America, a James Brown imitation. Wonder what Al Sharpton thinks. Who is the musical director?
• Senator Harry Reid (NV), looking very uncomfortable after the funk. Talking about nuclear waste, among other things.
• Rep. Dennis Kucinich (OH) “We are one for Kerry”. He’s kicking ass, and he’s getting no help. Wow! He’s turning the audience! He’s got them. He’s doing it on pure balls! Wow, that’s worth watching.
• DK’s Walkoff song was Power to the People. I’m going to plotz

Then there were a bunch of people I missed, and Al Sharpton, who deserves his own entry but won’t get it from me, and (Ret.) General Shalikashvili with a fascinating and hawkish speech, and so on. I’m getting punchy; how long has this been going on? And I can’t imagine how I’ll make it through the next one. I’ll probably skip the afternoon stuff and just watch the big speeches. Anyway, one more big day for my boys in Boston.

                           ,
-Vardibidian.