BHO's skilled and moving speech for Hillary Clinton

By Jack Brummet, National Affairs Desk

I thought BHO's speech was an amazing, funny, and warm takedown. No President has really done this in modern times...the last time a president was on stage with a hoped for successor was generations ago. And The President got down. I felt like he was operating at the level he was in this 2008 campaign photo.

We need him to be on the campaign early and often.

And don't forget Smilin' Joe's speech. I'm sorry we couldn't have fit him in as POTUS.He has a heart of gold and is a gifted politician and operator.

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Bill: President Clinton's barnburner speech for BHO

Mona Goldwater, Democratic Party Editor
illustration by Jack Brummet

One of my political heroes, and a master retail politician, Bill Clinton, gains even more stature after his masterpiece speech on Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention.  He becomes an even greater man, in the aftermath of his impassioned speech, and I don't mean that facetiously.  The Man on Horseback that so many of us love--warts and all--gives maybe the speech of his life, systematically demolishing *every* single GOP/Tea-Party charge against BHO with facts, figures, and love. For 48 minutes. And he got into some fairly wonky and granular details on some of the issues--he never explained what the doughnut hole was, although he referenced it several times. I'm guessing that maybe ten percent of the viewers would understand the reference. But this is nitpicking. This is the best speech by an Ex-Pres at a convention ever.

And he did all this for a guy he doesn't particularly like. I bow down to Bill tonight for setting it all aside and stepping up, not for the Democrats, not for the Bill Clinton legacy, but for the--I know it sounds corny--99%., and for our party.

Wednesday night, POTUS 42 took apart the lies, and the insinuations the GOP/Tea Party promulgates. With facts. He handed BHO a road map to victory; a blueprint to saving The White House.

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If Only. . .No. 3: President Mario Cuomo

By Jack Brummet
Democratic Affairs Editor

As Number 2 in our series "If only. . .",  we want to present former New York Governor Mario Cuomo.  He was a master speaker, but he was bright (150 watts), with a heart of shimmering gold.  I used to listen to him on his radio show in NYC (what we'd now call a side-project) and got a pretty good measure of the man over many hours listening to him at night.  I voted for him for Mayor in the fall of 1977, a few months after I moved to NYC. 

Why did he decline to run for President, even when it seemed likely he could at the least capture the Democratic nomination?  We'll never really know; but we probably know,  or we can guess:

• The best guys never run for President.  For all the reasons you've heard before.  Don't get me wrong--there have been plenty of ringers. . .good-hearted, decent, and very bright men (men, so far).  

• The timing is never right. This is a perennial problem in Presidential politics--when do you make the contest? There are scores of factors (all of which, in reality, boil down to $$$) and infinite variations exponentiated with chicanery, skullduggery, treacherous to inept boardroom and office politics, and when and to whom various levels of payoffs, grease, compromise, blackmail, and even physical and psychological harm should be applied).

• Skeletons rattling in the closet? Those skeletons were often alluded to, but none ever materialized.  If you ran for Mayor and Governor in New York, the rattling bones would have been shaken from the closet.  I never believed in those skeletons.

• He didn't want to know if he would win or not. He wanted to keep that aura, which would  be sullied by jumping in to The Snake Pit.  For me  at least, this was one of the great political heartbreakers of all time.  OK, not RFK heartbreaking, but a little sad.  You don't throw yourself off a cliff over a woulda-shoulda-coulda. . .but still, I often think about Mario and wonder "what if..."

Check out text of Mario Cuomo's 1984 keynote address, here if you need convincing.  It is one of the greatest speeches of our time.

Other ATIT articles on Governor Cuomo:

The Man Who Should Have Been King
Mario Cuomo Nominates Bill Clinton at the convention
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Democratic carbon offsets stiff at the box office

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

The Aspen Canary Initiative to sell carbon offset credits to Democratic National Convention can only be described as pathetically moribund and doomed from the start. The program, set up by the Dem's Host Committee raised a total of $18.34 worth of Canary Tags, offsetting .9 tons of carbon emissions, or, approximately, not enough to offset a fraction of one state's airfare to the convention let alone thousands of delegates and guests.

The offsets were aimed at DNC-goers other than the official delegates, who had a separate carbon offset program through Vermont-based Native Energy. That program, set up in January through the Democratic National Convention Committee, was utilized by 65 percent of the DNC’s 4,440 delegates, and may have actually made a difference.
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Barack's dispatch on "The Speech" by Michelle Obama & the speech video

Barack sent an email to the faithful, or at least those of us who have signed up, about his wife's excellent speech last night. Interestingly, my wife Keelin thought Michelle's speech paled in comparison to Senator Clinton's the next night (I am just about to watch it, in case you thought this was some sort of Frenchified Real Time Blogging®). I'm not so sure...although Hillary is fully capable of hitting it out of the park for Obama. I think she probably will. Whatever you think of Hillary and The Clintons in general, I think you know in your heart of hearts she will come out slugging and she will come out hard-core and absolutely for Barack Obama. Let's face it...there are very few core values Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama do not share. Tonight's the night for her to convince that curmudgeonly, recalcitrant, and intractable 30% of her supporters that can't get behind nominee Obama that they would not only be betraying Clinton herself, but the Democratic Party, and everything they fought for as Obama supports as well. Hold tight; let's see.

Obama's email:

Jack -

I am so lucky to be married to the woman who delivered that speech last night.

Michelle was electrifying, inspiring, and absolutely magnificent. I get a lot of credit for the speech I gave at the 2004 convention -- but I think she may have me beat.

You have to see it to believe it.

And make sure to forward this email to your friends and family -- they'll want to see it too.

You really don't want to miss this.

And I'm not just saying that because she's my wife -- I truly believe it was the best speech of the campaign so far.

Barack

Here is the video of the speech, in case you missed it:


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I didn't want to talk about politics today - But Michelle Obama's speech changed that

I was thinking about folklore, aliens, or posting some poetry today. Instead, I wrote down all the childhood rhymes I could remember...and it turned out to be about 15 or so! It felt pretty good ignoring politics. I was feeling sluggish about politics in general, even though I've been a convention junkie since 1968. And then I listened to, and watched, Michelle Obama's speech tonight. Content: 100%; Tone: 100%; Inspiration: 100%. Was her speech the pivot of the entire Obama campaign? I don't know, but it felt like it was. And I wonder how he tops this magnificent oratory. Whoever wrote this speech, Barack, it's probably time to give them a serious bump. I came into this as a Michelle Obama doubter. I've watched her and read about her. Tonight she absolutely and forever convinced me she is the real deal.
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The long-awaited VP text message from Senator Obama

They didn't quite keep the the news of Obama's VP selection bottled up until the very end. The story had to spread beyond the tight inner cir4cle of the campaign, and by late Friday night, the story was being confirmed by various parties and news sources. Therefore, we got the text message at 1:56 AM...

From: Barack Obama [mailto:info@barackobama.com]
Sent: Sat 8/23/2008 1:56 AM
To: Jack Brummet
Subject: The Next Vice President

jack --

I have some important news that I want to make official.

I've chosen Joe Biden to be my running mate.

Joe and I will appear for the first time as running mates this afternoon in Springfield, Illinois -- the same place this campaign began more than 19 months ago.

I'm excited about hitting the campaign trail with Joe, but the two of us can't do this alone. We need your help to keep building this movement for change.

Please let Joe know that you're glad he's part of our team. Share your personal welcome note and we'll make sure he gets it:

http://my.barackobama.com/welcomejoe

Thanks for your support,

Barack

P.S. -- Make sure to turn on your TV at 2:00 p.m. Central Time to join us or watch online at http://www.BarackObama.com.

Paid for by Obama for America
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It's Joe! Obama picks Biden for VP slot as John McCain runs marbles through his hands like Captain Queeg

As All This Is That revealed early this week, in an article by our National Affairs Editor Pablo Fanque, Barack Obama has selected his fellow senator, Smilin' Joe Biden as his running mate.

The Associated Press broke the story Friday evening. The selection of Biden will be public unveiled tomorrow morning as Biden joins Obama at a rally in Illinois. Those of us who signed up with the Obama campaign will receive a text message announcing his choice early tomorrow morning. [ed's note: we received the text message from the Obama campaign this morning at 1:56 AM Pacific Time...just after the story was being confirmed by MSNBC and other news services. ]

All This Is That was right. Hats off to Pablo Fanque for his always excellent reporting!

The Associated Press story that ran Friday night said:

"Barack Obama selected Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware late Friday night to be his vice presidential running mate, according to a Democratic official, balancing his ticket with an older congressional veteran well-versed in foreign policy and defense issues."
"Biden, 65, has twice sought the White House, and is a Catholic with blue-collar roots, a generally liberal voting record and a reputation as a long-winded orator."

"Across more than 30 years in the Senate, he has served at various times not only as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee but also as head of the Judiciary Committee, with its jurisdiction over anti-crime legislation, Supreme Court nominees and Constitutional issues. "

"In selecting Biden, Obama passed over several other potential running mates, none more prominent than former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, his tenacious rival in dozens of primaries and caucuses. "

"The official who spoke did so on condition of anonymity, preferring not to pre-empt a text-message announcement the Obama campaign promised for Saturday morning. "
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Ralph "Dingbat" Nader says Obama will pick Hillary as his running mate

By Pablo Fanque,
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

Ralph "Dingbat" Nader called Politico.com today to tell them he didn't think Barack Obama would select Senators Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, or Virginia Governor Tim Kaine as his running mate. The political mastermind--who these days is perhaps best known as the spoiler in the 2000 election who allowed George Bush to become President--offered his bizarre theory that Hillary Clinton has the VP slot in the bag.

"I don’t think he’s that dumb,” said Nader, commenting on public "short list" of Obama’s choices.

"The smart pick, " Nader said, "is Hillary Rodham Clinton."

Nader phoned Politico Tuesday afternoon to prediction a surprise choice of Clinton is what Obama has had in mind all along. But what about their apparent distrust and distaste for each other after the bruising primary battled? “He just has to swallow hard and do what JFK did” when he chose rival LBJ as his running mate in 1960.

The liberal "activist" and maverick (renegade, rogue?) presidential candidate has spoken. Was my article about Joe Biden yesterday wrong? No way. . .and if you believe anything that comes out of his piehole, well then friendo, I have some land in Florida I'd like to sell you.
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