Reuters:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s big speech on Thursday night will be delivered from an elaborate columned stage resembling a miniature Greek temple.

Michael Goldfarb:

At the appointed hour on the fourth day of the Democratic National Convention, the faithful will gather at the knee of the One to hear him accept the nomination. And that will be the moment that our children and their children will remember as the moment the seas began to fall, and the planet began to heal itself.

Let it be written, let it be done.

How many Obama delegates are feeling a bit of buyers remorse right about now?

With that, I give you the most famous such moment at a modern political convention:

8:16 pm:  Man, Steny Hoyer is a lousy speaker.

8:19 pm: Is he still speaking?  If this is the best they have to trash Republicans, then this isn’t going to be a very effective convention.  Too many buzzwords, too much focus-grouped crap.  Not much meat.

8:22 pm: A “rank and file” SEIU member is speaking now.  Is it just me, or have we seen quite a bit of union officials and figures on stage in the last two days.

8:24 pm: Quite a bit of this “I came from a working class background” stuff.  I wonder if there was a conscious decision to insert this into everyone’s speeches following the McCain seven houses blip.

8:28 pm: Janet Napolitano is going through a list of all the failed presidential candidates from  Arizona.  Way to be a cheerleader for your state Governor.

8:43 pm: Ugh. Chuck Schumer just said that “the Reagan mantra, that you don’t need government help, that you can make it on your own, just doesn’t work anymore.” Puke.

8:51 pm: Jim Whitaker, who is apparently the Republican Mayor of Fairbanks, Alaska, is speaking. He is apparently the highest ranking Republican incumbent office holder that the Obama campaign could find to endorse him. Thats some serious bipartisan appeal Barack. Especially compared to John McCain, who has the Democrats vice presidential nominee from eight years ago speaking for him in less than a week.

8:57 pm: I’m starting to get sick watching this. The overall message of tonight is that you cannot make it on your own in America. You need unions, you need government, you need the Democratic party to help you. And if you believe you can, then you’re probably rich and need to be paying higher taxes.

9:22 pm: Watching PBS, the conversation just revolved around how Kathleen Sebelius, who just spoke. It was stated that she was the first Democratic Governor of Kansas in a while, and the only one to be elected in the last fifty years. That is simply not the case. Since 1957, there have been five Democrats and five Republicans as Governor of Kansas.

9:24 pm: Bob Casey Jr. speaking now. Its supposed to be some kind of message that this is a different party then the one that prevented his father from speaking in 1992. If you expect to see him talk about his pro-life views though, don’t hold your breath.

9:27 pm: I guess I was wrong. “Barack and I have an honest disagreement on the issue of abortion.” That was it. You just saw it folks, the closest we’re going to get to a pro-life perspective tonight.

9:44 pm: Mark Warner just said that McCain was “stuck in the past.” Just come out and say that he’s old. Really. You’re not fooling anyone.

9:45 pm: Warner is talking about his background in the cell phone industry. Which government program started his company, made him rich? I forget.

10:33 pm: Warner’s speech was at least less socialist then the others. Deval Patrick was pretty good, he’s an eloquent speaker, perhaps a future presidential candidate in his own right. Brian Schweitzer is speaking now. He’s going through the McCain = Bush mantra. Four more years… they keep saying that. He really fired up the crowd. Everything thus far though has been overshadowed by the coming Hillary Speech…

10:38 pm: Watching the pre-speech Hillary video, there is no doubt in my mind that this is the beginning of Hillary 2012. Whatever she says tonight, the truth is she wants Obama to lose so she can come back and win in four years.

10:43 pm: This is Reagan circa 1976 for Hillary. She knows it. This is her night. And right now it feels like its her convention, not Obama’s. I wonder how many people in that hall tonight believe their party is nominating the wrong man.

10:45 pm: Did anyone else catch the change in her tone when she said that she is a supporter of Obama. Her lines supporting him seem phoned in, not from the heart. Which is of course the truth.

10:51 pm: You know, I would never have thought I would say this. But I like Hillary Clinton. Sure, she’s wrong on the issues. But as a politician, you have to admire her.

10:56 pm: This speech is about her, and about the Democratic party. Not about Obama. She’s only mentioned him a few times, and its seemed forced. This is not a lukewarm endorsement, but it could have been far stronger.

10:59 pm: Starts to talk about Obama … and then heads right back to her husband. Am I the only one who notices the change in her tone in the speech when she talks about Barack.

11:01 pm: “John McCain has served our country with honor and courage”

11:02 pm: Hillary sounds like she’s speaking from the heart a lot more attacking McCain then she does endorsing Obama.

11:05 pm: This is one of the best political speeches I’ve ever seen. “We’re Americans, we’re not big on quitting”

11:07 pm: Well, its over. If she was the nominee, this election would be over right now as well.

11:11 pm: Bill Kristol just said it quite well on Fox. She essentially said that she will support Obama because he is the nominee of the Democratic party, and not a whit more. She didn’t say a word about him being a good president, or a strong president, or anything really other than a Democratic president.

11:17 pm: Kathryn Lopez makes an interesting point:

Is it wrong of me to think Hillary sounds convincing about unity?

That said, she loves her country. And that voice breaking is real.

I think its probably fair to say that whatever the Clintons’ faults, they don’t subscribe to the post-American globalist leftism that Obama and many modern progressives do.

If killing Michelle Malkin sounds a tad extreme to you then we are probably on the same page when it comes to each others’ interpretation of the social contract that binds our nation together. We can agree then that theft, rape, looting and murder are not legitimate tools of political dialogue in a civilized society. This may sound facetious to some but take a good hard look at the rest of the world and you will see that many hundreds of millions of people live under the yoke such barbarism.

Our Constitutional Republic, in which educated, politically active citizens are expected to elect the best leaders after a vigorous and open debate, only works if everyone involved actually believes in the system and the underlying social contract that extends back far longer than 1776. Is it even possible to have a well intentioned debate with the left when such behavior demonstrates they have nothing in common with those of us who oppose them?

No, Michelle Malkin wasn’t killed and it is unlikely she would have even been harmed but the idea that extreme political violence can’t happen in this country in 2008 is a fiction born out of a hazy understanding of human history. Notice how brazen these people are out of power, imagine if they only had to answer to other leftists.

Via Instapundit

And its impressive.  Among the highlights: Tom Coburn, Fred Thompson, Mike Pence, Richard Burr, and John Ensign.

I know there are some McCain detractors around here, but that’s a lot more movement conservatives then Bush let anywhere near the podium four years ago. Still no Jeff Flake though

Writing at NRO, John Derbyshire or Derb as he goes by has nicely encapsulated my feeling regarding this upcoming election.

Both parties’ choices of nominee are appalling to me. I contemplate the next four years with dread.

I don’t want either of these men in charge of the federal government, neither the crazy old fool nor the simpering sophomore. I don’t want either the moralistic imperialism of John McCain or the welfare-state-to-the world sentimentalism of Barack Obama. I don’t want my country represented by either a Compassionate Crusader or by Oprah Winfrey in drag. (Possibly in person, too, if the rumors we’re hearing about Obama’s plans for Ms. Winfrey are true.)

While I have a great many further ideas on this delightful treat the GOP, and by extension the Republican primary voters, have given us one thought keeps me up at night: if the GOP represents the sensible, conservative, prudent members of our society and they subsequently elect a great fool like John McCain to be their champion what does that say about this nation’s temperament and judgment overall?

I’ll give Derb the last words.

What a disaster! What on earth has happened to us? Nothing yet as bad as what will surely happen if either of these two gibbering numbskulls gets his hands on the levers of supreme executive power.

Preface: Yes I know I haven’t blogged in a very, very, very long time. Sorry. Here are some thoughts. Click to continue »

He’s a White Sox fan:

“You go to Wrigley Field, you have a beer, beautiful people up there,” Obama said, according to transcripts released by ESPN. “People aren’t watching the game. It’s not serious. White Sox, that’s baseball.”

H/T Andy Roth.

TJ Brown:

Fitzgerald would be just a final piece of gamesmanship. Picture a relatively young former Senator who got fed up with the Illinois machine and tried to fight it going on the ticket opposite of his successor, a guy who rose to prominence with the backing of Emil Jones, Richard M. Daley, and a guy who scratched some backs in return.