Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Democratic National Convention Day Two: Are We Drunk Yet?

Wheeee! What a night! We're starting to get into the really good stuff now. And what's even better is that the CNN coverage came at us with a lot less suck than last night. In fact, they tempered down on the eye roll-worthy analysis enough that I stayed with The Best Political Team on Television (TBPTOT) most of the night. Oh sure, we had some of our requisite "moments in annoying punditry," but you can't really fault them for that; it's all they know. Poor things. Anyway, on with the random, amusing, and totally awesome convention noteables (in bullet form, as always)!:
    • Donna Brazile thinks primary campaigns and Las Vegas are totally the same. "What happens in the primary, stays in the primary." Is this why she has so many boos?
    • Nastiest metaphor award goes to John King: "peel the skin off the other candidate." Uh, ew. At least he didn't say "take the wood to McCain," because, no. Just no.
    • TBPTOT needs to step it up because I think Roland Martin wins snazziest dressed pundit two nights in a row.
    • From Kathleen Sebelius: "John McCain's version: There's no place like home...or a home...or a home...or a home...or a home..." Ha! (h/t to Daily Kos because I totally missed this one.)
    • From Bob Casey: "John McCain calls himself a maverick, but he votes with George Bush more than 90% of the time...that's not a maverick, that's a sidekick." Zing!
    • From Mark Warner: "In four months, we'll have an administration that actually believes in science." Science! Woo hoo!
    • From Brian Schweitzer on the futility of offshore drilling: "If you drill in all of John McCain's backyards, even the ones he doesn't know he has...that proposition is a dry well." Oh, snap!
    • Even the pundits had some quotable smackdowns. Paul Begala with a head fake on Clinton campaign strategist Mark Penn: "She would not be where she is tonight if not for Mark Penn, . . . she'd be the nominee." Booyah!
    • Hillary Clinton shouts out to her, "sisterhood of the traveling pants suits." Bwah!
    • From Hillary Clinton again: "It makes a lot of sense that next week John McCain and George Bush will be together in the Twin Cities, because these days they're awfully hard to tell apart." I'm running out of comments. Have I used "booyah" yet? Yes, I think I have. Yowza!
    • Why does it look like Bill Clinton's speech-watching face is probably the same as his stoned-face?
    • I have yet to witness my aforementioned request of drunk pundits (though apparently Denver's high altitude gives my dream a little more potential), but dancing pundits? Almost as good. Go Roland, it's your birthday. We gon' party like it's your birthday. We gon' sip Bacardi like it's your birthday. Eh, you know the rest.
    • Hey, Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann haters! This is your lucky week. Because they damn might kill each other by the end of it. Seriously.
    • Someone tell me why, WHY must people stand behind TBPTOT and act retarded?
I thought the speeches tonight were really good. Bob Casey got people warmed up, Mark Warner got people pepped up, and Brian Schweitzer got people absolutely riled up. What a barn burner! Schweitzer might not be a familiar face to a lot of people, but his ability to bring progressive ideas (specifically on energy) to a red state has made him a rising star in the party. I think after tonight that star is going to get a little higher.

That brings us to Hillary Clinton. Truth be told, I was fully prepared to roll my eyes through her tribute video. I've been so disgusted with the PUMAS, and though it's harsh, have gotten to the point where I pretty much agree with those crazy kids at 23/6 about the situation. So I was a bit surprised when I actually found the video pretty inspiring. (and a rockin soundtrack to boot!) The speech was just as good. No, it was better. She was gracious, she threw her support to Obama, and pounded on McCain.

It was a great moment for her and for the entire convention. Now, if only her supporters will follow her lead. The interview Suzanne Malveaux had with the very emotional delegate following Clinton's speech was interesting to watch. I don't understand her feelings, but I was able to sympathize instead of just be angry she couldn't so easily jump on the Obama train. And I have to admit, I might have grinned when she called Suzanne out on the inevitable future analysis. I didn't feel bad for Suzanne either, seeing as though she asked the delegate the same obvious questions twice. I don't know about everyone else, but I heard the answer the first time.

Now let's have a little fun with some behind-the-scenes goodies, shall we? Rachel Sklar is political vlogging with her buddies Glynnis MacNicol (Fishbowl NY) and Ana Marie Cox (Radar) again and this time they're in bed. Blogger slumber party! Will Obama girl join them for a political pillow fight tomorrow? Thousands of men can only hope.

When not playing the role of one-third of a Canadian sandwich, Ms. Sklar bides her time eating the most important meal of the day at the CNN Grill and rubbing elbows (almost literally!) with one Mr. Anderson Cooper, "he of silver hair and eyes of blue." During their short confab, Anderson notes a personal space violation (any penalty being totally worth it) and shows us his inner Jew. Oy Vey!

It seems our silver surfer spent his afternoon taping something for The Daily Show. This blurb shows some exercise going on with Rob Riggle. Will our anchor's guns be on display? One can only hope. Perhaps the extra pick-me-up he got today will help get him in the exercising mood. According to Anderson's blog post, he's been doing some oxygen hits. Dude, that's my thing. If you like that Anderson, you can come to my place. I have a whole machine that makes oxygen. It's totally what brings the boys running.

Finally, do you Twitter? If you have no idea what I've just asked you, well, sadly, you are not one of the cool kids. Because apparently Twitter is all the rage with some of these media types. The aforementioned Rachel Sklar and Glynnis MacNicol are doing it, and bringing us all those convention tidbits you ain't going to find on CNN. Speaking of CNN, it seems Rachel cornered CNN president Jon Klein and got him to sign up for a Twitter account. And judging by his quantity of tweets (that's what the kids call it), he's totally into it! Or, you know, not.

But it seems there are a couple of CNNers that are down with the twittering. Miles O'Brien lets us know what he's up to (psst, Miles, that Bill Clinton you're following? So not the real Bill Clinton) and Rick Sanchez is a twittering fool! He's actually much easier to take online. My favorite tweet from him, "want irony? my direct tv signal just gave out, only one news channel coming in... FOX. true dat!" True dat, indeed. Oh, and in case you're wondering, yes, a certain primetime anchor is signed up. But judging by the tweets, I'm guessing if you were to try to talk to him about his twittering, he would look at you blankly and nervously back away.

Oh my. That's enough from me tonight. The party continues tomorrow.

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