Highlights of Hillary's speech and DNC open thread

I forgot to put up an open thread on the convention last night and only watched Hillary Clinton on the web much later. What an powerful and moving speech. I cried, and I wasn’t even one of her supporters during the primaries.

What was your favorite part? Todd Beeton thought the Harriet Tubman reference (“Keep going!”) was “the moment of the night.”

The sound bites grabbed by most media were “No way, no how, no McCain” and her opening line: “I’m here as a proud mother, a proud Democrat, a proud Senator from New York, a proud American and a proud supporter of Barack Obama.”

I thought she did a great job acknowledging her supporters and then asking those who were considering John McCain whether they were in it only for her or for the people she fought for.

Saying it made sense for McCain and George Bush to be together in the Twin Cities next week, because it’s hard to tell them apart these days, was also a classic line.

Talking Points Memo put her whole speech on YouTube.

Talking Points Memo also found this hilarious “bizarro world” video of Republican hack Bill Kristol saying it was a “shockingly minimal endorsement” of Obama.

This is an open thread for your thoughts on Hillary Clinton, Chet Culver, or anyone else who spoke at the convention yesterday.

UPDATE: Here’s an interesting piece by DemFromCT on how Democratic convention viewership is way up compared to 2004.

Also, Dansac tells you what you probably already know: the mainstream media coverage of this convention is horrible. Better to watch all the speeches on C-SPAN or online.

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desmoinesdem

  • It was amazing

    I thought the speech was astonishing. Even the CNN talking heads couldn’t say anything negative about it. In fact, they said that they have never heard such an enthusiastic, genuine endorsement from a former competitor.

    I still believe that she is an amazing leader. I believe that she has done more for women’s rights with this candidacy than anyone in my lifetime. I do not now and will not ever regret supporting her in the primary. However, now I am going to follow her lead and work as hard for Obama as I did for her.

    • Great speech

      I agree, she did as much as anyone could have expected from her after the brutal primary.  To me the best and most important part was the end where she made the point that if people cared about the issues she championed, they must vote for Obama.

      I also agree on the convention coverage.  I have not been glued to the TV, but it surely seems like the pundits are focusing on the internal D divisions and having all R hacks adding fuel to that fire nonstop.  It will be interesting to see if they do the same in St. Paul next week.  There is surely just as much, if not more, internal stuff and turmoil going on in the R party.

      • far more...

        You raise an interesting point.  While the press has been doing its best to drum up controversy between Senators Clinton and Obama, there is a real substantive meltdown happening on the Republican side.

        I strongly feel that the religious right and fiscal right can no longer get along well.  No one with any honest fiscal perspective can call the last 8 years a success, unless you held significant stock in Halliburton.  You could accurately call the last 8 years an old fashioned crusade, and I’m not convinced that the religious right doesn’t see things in that very context.  

        Frightening.

        I wonder why the press is so reluctant to pursue the real drama of the Republican party tearing itself apart.

         

  • What she said and how she said it.

    Senator Obama has my vote and my effort.  That was true before Senator Clinton’s speech.  But her delivery was perfect, her reasoning precise.  

    While my head knows it will vote Obama, my heart was reminded why Clinton was my first choice.  She was magnificent, leading even in defeat.  

    Did you see President Clinton watching her?  We were watching on C-SPAN so cut down on the yammer-head peanut gallery comments during her presentation, and they cut to the President several times.  I got choked up when I saw the tears in his eyes and saw him mouth “I love you” to her.

    Wow.

  • It was a truly remarkable speech

    This was the highlight I think:

    I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me? Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him? Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were you in it for that boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?

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