Thursday Afternoon

OK, Here’s the last day’s notes. Not much here. I watched quite a bit of it, but I wound up not making many notes, or even thinking much about it. Anway, here we go.

• The Honorable Jack Ford—Mayor of Toledo, Ohio
  Saw a bit of it, seemed a bit plodding
• The Honorable Corrine Brown—U.S. House of Representatives, Florida
  I’m glad they give a little light on her stuff getting stricken from the Congressional Record. I don’t actually know what she said, but I’m agin striking things from the record, you know?
• The Honorable Fernando Ferrer—Former Bronx Borough President, New York
  I should write about the first-line-in-Spanish business; I find it odd. I know that there are lots of Spanish-speaking voters (Telemundo has a booth there), but the lack of any other languages makes the Spanish seem a particularly conspicuous form of pandering. Don’t they have anyone who can say ‘It’s great to see so many Democrats’ in Portuguese or Korean?
• The Honorable Jean Carnahan—Former United States Senator, Missouri
  I’m a little cross with her anyway, but she really isn’t much of a speaker, is she? On the other hand, all of today’s not-ready-for-prime-time speakers seem to be better than yesterday’s, who were better than Monday’s. It’s as if someone planned it.
• The Honorable C. Virginia Fields—Manhattan Borough President, New York
  “I am a mom”
• The Honorable Bill Pascrell, Jr.—U.S. House of Representatives, New Jersey
  Acting tough. Yet another reference to our decorated combat veteran. Yes, we’ve got that.
• The Honorable Jim Davis—U.S. House of Representatives, Florida
  “I’m hungry for a president who ...” um. ew. The days when the word of the President was gold. OK, is he talking about the cherry tree?
• The Honorable Steve Israel—U.S. House of Representatives, New York
  I do like the carping on the military families point. I find it hard to believe that Our Only President hasn’t seen fit to throw some money at that particular constituency.
• The Honorable Stephen Lynch—U.S. House of Representatives, Massachusetts
  My old US Rep. Another Southie boy. Ah, well.
• The Honorable Jack Reed—United States Senate, Rhode Island
  Enh.
• “America’s Party”
  This is the winner of that contest I talked about earlier. It got no response at all. It looked worse in the middle of a slick convention than in a slew of bad amateur ads.
• The Honorable John Lewis—U.S. House of Representatives, Georgia
  “Dimmed the lights of the city on the hill.” Excellent. “At home and abroad we are a divided nation.” On the other hand, it’s a bit of a stretch to say we need John Kerry to “build a beloved community.” Of course, it’s a circle; without a beloved community to choose its leader, how could we ever expect a leader who is capable of building it?
• Anna Burger,—Secretary-Treasurer,—SEIU and Teri Murphy,—registered nurse and member,—SEIU Local 199, Dubuque, Iowa
  I wish I felt better in my mind about the SEIU. I do like their style, in a lot of ways, but I also feel that the leadership is likely to insulate themselves from the actual concerns of the locals as they build a national political machine.
• The Honorable Byron Dorgan—United States Senate, North Dakota
  Tough topic, depopulation of our rural areas. He was dull with it, but what do you expect?
• Richard Trumka—Secretary-Treasurer, AFL-CIO
  “suicidal trade policy” hee hee
• The Honorable Carl Levin—United States Senate, Michigan
  Boy, I like him. Of course, he reminds me of my father, and there’s something to that.
• The Honorable Thomas V. Mike Miller, Jr.—President, Maryland State Senate
  Was he a no-show? Or did I blink and miss him?
• The Honorable Ellen Tauscher—U.S. House of Representatives, California
  Hm. I always wonder about these reps from bases, or rather from districts dominated by bases. Do they actually understand about the inefficiency of implementing demand-side economics through the military? Or are they buying into their own district’s needs, at the expense (perhaps) of the US?
• The Honorable Barbara Boxer—United States Senate, California
  Most important election why? Because of John Kerry. Yeah, right.
• [missed a bunch of stuff]
• The Honorable Michael Michaud—U.S. House of Representatives, Maine
  He seemed OK. I had thought this was going to be all-out Iraq day, but instead I’m getting a lot of stuff about jobs and health care. I’m happy about it, I’m just saying.
• The Honorable Mark Udall—U.S. House of Representatives, Colorado
  Oh, he looks like a Udall. It’s too much for me. I’m all misty. If I can’t get Mo in the cabinet, maybe Mark will stand in.
• The Honorable Barney Frank—U.S. House of Representatives, Massachusetts
  “I’m gonna come clean. You hear them talk about the gay agenda ... We do have an agenda. Here it is.” (the rest is a paraphrase) We believe people ought to be hired for a job and judged solely by how well they do the work. We believe that a 15-year-old ought to be able to go to high school without getting beaten up. I admit it. That’s not all.
• missed more stuff
• John Sweeney—President, AFL-CIO
• I think this is where we came back in. Did I call somebody earlier a stereotypical union boss? This guy is even more so
• The Honorable Joseph Biden—United States Senate, Delaware
  A very good speech. A very persuasive, complex analysis. Excellent. Love the DeGaulle story.
• General Wesley Clark (Ret.)
  War. War (hoo-ah!) I’ve been there. ... This is our flag. This is. Right there (um, or over there. Or over there? It was here a minute ago). “Hear this soldier. Choose a leader.” Or perhaps “Here this soldier.” Where this soldier? There this soldier. Under the flag. Oh, I’m punchy. Time to go away, before Holy Joe makes me ill.
• The Honorable Joseph Lieberman—United States Senate, Connecticut
  Is he done? Oh, good.
• The Honorable Nancy Pelosi—U.S. House of Representatives, California—House Democratic Leader
  I’m always surprised when Nancy Pelosi gives a good speech, or even a moderately good speech. I don’t know why. She’s another of my old Reps, by the way; I know that’s three. Four. Um, Lynch, Capuano, and Pelosi. Oh, and Dianne Wilkerson, my old State Senator. Not bad. My current Rep, I’m afraid, is a Republican. Perhaps she’ll show up next month.
• Performance by Willie Nelson
  Um. Yes. The music director? His name? His address?
• The Honorable Madeleine Albright—Former Secretary of State
  Again with the JFK references? I wish somebody had told them to lay off. They’re beating it to death. And, of course, outside that room and that town, the memory of JFK isn’t so sacred.
• "Mosaic of Americans"—Alfre Woodward—Actress
  This actually was quite moving. I know I’m a political nerd, but I like having a big tent party, and I like having a party that knows that we need to be a big tent, not just because we need the votes, but because it’s a big country. We want farmers and teamsters and preachers and nurses and teachers and everybody in the party, because we need to know what universe they all perceive, so we know what universe we want to create and how to create it. We’re living in a big tent; we’d better have everybody’s help governing it.
• Performance by Carole King
  Oh, that music director is in for such a wedgie.
• Andre Heinz
  Hey, he’s cute. Or is it the dramatic lighting? Or just the low resolution?
• Vanessa Kerry & Alexandra Kerry
  Um, the Police? I don’t want to obsess but these music choices are for crap. OK, the Kerry girls are cute and doing the cute-but-not-jailbait-daughter-of-the-candidate shtick we know so well by now. And Amy Carter’s got a kid. Y’know? Still and all, it’s nice, now and then, to be reminded that the human being, John Kerry, at some point in his life said ‘I don’t want to be a banker, I want to go into public service.’
• John Kerry Biographical Film
  Yep, he is a human being. He had a life. Wake me when a human starts talking.
• John Kerry's Vietnam Swiftboat Crewmates—Jim Rassmann of Florence, Oregon will speak—The Reverend David Alston, Columbia, South Carolina—Skip Barker, Selma, Alabama—Steve Hatch, Niagra Falls, New York—Jim McDevitt, Wrenthem, Massachusetts—Mike Medeiros, San Leandros, California—Pat Runyon, Eaton, Ohio—Wade Sanders, San Diego, California—Del Sandusky, Dunedin, Florida—Fred Short, North Little Rock, Arkansas—Gene Thorson, Ames, Iowa—Jim Wasser, St. Anne, Illinois—Drew Whitlow, Huntsville, Arkansas—Bill Zaladonis, Sanford, Florida
  You know, the military is a big tent, too.
• The Honorable Max Cleland—Former United States Senator, Georgia
  The thing I like about this speech is that, by making the point that John Kerry was an inspiration for Max Cleland before they ever met, and in many ways changed Max Cleland’s life, he underscored that the rest of us schmucks as well can relate to John Kerry if we are willing to pay attention.

That’s about it. Oh, then the nominee spoke. I’ll get to that someday.

                           ,
-Vardibidian.