Did you wake up this morning still feeling it? The happiness the hope and the change that we are making happen? I know I did. I don't have to tell you how historic last night was. What I do want to tell you is that It was, and still is, an honor and a privilege to be able to share it with all of you.

We have a chance this time to not just move away from the failures of the past 8 years, but to be a part of great change in this country. I for one am so happy that I am here to be a part of it. 58 years ago, Rosa Parks was sent to jail for not taking her seat in the back of a bus. Over the past year, Hillary Clinton puts 19 million cracks in a ceiling. Last night, this is what we saw:
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281 comments (Latest Comment: 08/30/2008 12:33:24 by trojanrabbit)

Last night was the big night for Hillary's speech. Concerns abounded as to whether she would be able to convince the PUMAs to get behind their party's presumptive nominee. The results were as good as could be expected. There were other speeches earlier in the evening that were also quite good, sadly missed by anyone watching anything other than PBS or C-SPAN.

Hillary spent close to half of her speech talking about her own campaign. Perhaps that was a last bit of meat to toss to her supporters. She wrapped that up by saying that both she & Obama supported the same things and that the only way to get that was by voting Democrat in Nov.
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280 comments (Latest Comment: 08/28/2008 06:48:52 by livingonli)

Today it begins. The Democratic Party National Convention opens in Denver. It looks to be 4 days of celebrating a new beginning, a Party party for flushing away the past 8 years of fear, incompetence, selfishness and self-righteousness (okay - maybe we'll still have a little of that last one). It will be 4 days of amazing speakers and music.

Last night was a celebratory concert. It included performers and speakers Dave Matthews (with Tim Reynolds), Sheryl Crow, Sugarland, Laurie David, Van Jones, Bill McDonough, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Bruce Springsteen will be playing the last night after Barack's speech. It's almost like LiveAid. Meanwhile, the Republican convention is more like Rolaid. :P
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261 comments (Latest Comment: 08/26/2008 04:08:34 by m-hadley)

With apologies to Bob Ryan, from whom I steal this idea from time to time..


Anyway, I checked my phone this morning, and the first words out of my mouth were "that bastard!" I don't know about anyone else, but my message was received at 3:20 EDT (am!) here on the East Coast. Curiously, our own Raine made this call yesterday:



Dude, can you say "anti-climactic?"

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96 comments (Latest Comment: 08/24/2008 05:55:34 by livingonli)

Joint statement from Obama and McCain:
The Barack Obama and John McCain campaigns have agreed to hold three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate in September and October sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. The campaigns have come to the earliest agreement on presidential debates reached in any general election in recent history. This announcement reflects the presidential campaigns' agreement on dates, locations, and the formats for the fall debates. Campaign-appointed debate negotiators House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said they were pleased to have reached an early agreement to provide the American people with the opportunity to see and hear the candidates debate the critical issues facing the country. The two campaigns have accepted sponsorship of the debates by the Commission on Presidential Debates, subject to the debates being conducted under the terms of their agreement.

Summary of McCain-Obama Debate Agreement
The two campaigns agreed today on a framework for four General Election debates, to be sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Key elements of the agreement are:

First Presidential Debate:
Date: September 26
Site: University of Mississippi
Topic: Foreign Policy & National Security
Moderator: Jim Lehrer
Staging: Podium debate
Answer Format: The debate will be broken into nine, 9-minute segments. The moderator will introduce a topic and allow each candidate 2 minutes to comment. After these initial answers, the moderator will facilitate an open discussion of the topic for the remaining 5 minutes, ensuring that both candidates receive an equal amount of time to comment

Vice Presidential Debate
Date: October 2nd
Site: Washington University (St. Louis)
Moderator: Gwen Ifill
Staging/Answer Format: To be resolved after both parties’ Vice Presidential nominees are selected.

Second Presidential Debate
Date: October 7
Site: Belmont University
Moderator: Tom Brokaw
Staging: Town Hall debate
Format: The moderator will call on members of the audience (and draw questions from the internet). Each candidate will have 2 minutes to respond to each question. Following those initial answers, the moderator will invite the candidates to respond to the previous answers, for a total of 1 minute, ensuring that both candidates receive an equal amount of time to comment. In the spirit of the Town Hall, all questions will come from the audience (or internet), and not the moderator.

Third Presidential Debate
Date: October 15
Site: Hofstra University
Topic: Domestic and Economic policy
Moderator: Bob Schieffer
Staging: Candidates will be seated at a table
Answer Format: Same as First Presidential Debate
Closing Statements: At the end of this debate (only) each candidate shall have the opportunity for a 90 second closing statement.

All four debates will begin at 9pm ET, and last for 90 minutes. Both campaigns also agreed to accept the CPD’s participation rules for third-party candidate participation.

:peace: and :heart:
Raine
 
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