As I've said, this convention is being directed by a maestro -- slow and warm at first, then a big resounding call for unity, and now, on Day 3, some red meat to the crowd. Tonight should be absolutely stunning, that's all I can say, because the "build" has gone swimmingly well.

Day 3

Day 3 started off with (timed so most people would not be watching on television) the roll call vote. It actually started earlier than that, with Hillary Clinton at breakfast releasing her delegates. She didn't tell them they had to vote for Obama, but she did tell them that she was going to. Good enough.

Which set up the roll call. Now, these roll calls used to be in prime time. Back in the dim and distant past, the broadcast television networks used to cover conventions pretty much "from gavel to gavel" and they had hours to play around with. This led to state delegation leaders giving little hammy pep talks about their state before actually casting the votes. Since (unless you happen to actually be there) this gets pretty boring pretty fast, the roll call is now done early in the day when nobody's watching. It doesn't stop the state leaders from hamming it up, mind you, but the rest of us don't have to watch it.

This roll call in particular was kept out of prime time because it could have been divisive. Looking back, I think this may have been a mistake. The moment truly was the "catharsis" Hillary Clinton spoke of, and was emotional and uplifting all around.

New Hampshire had just got done "unanimously -- unanimously" giving all 30 of their votes to Barack Obama (this earned a cheer, since if Barack had initially won this state, things could have been a lot different). New Jersey had its turn, which edged Obama close to claiming the magic number to be nominated. Then New Mexico stood up and gave the standard State Tourism Board little pep talk... but abruptly ended it by yielding the floor to Illinois. Chicago's mayor (one of a long line of the Richard Daleys who run that city) gave his own little chewing-the-scenery speech (including, bizarrely, a prediction that the Cubs would be playing the White Sox in the World Series), in which he claimed Barack Obama as Chicago's own favorite son.

Now, at this point, the home state of the speaker (in a normal year) would call for a unanimous vote for their candidate, and everyone could cheer and have a good time. It's an honor reserved for the delegation of the candidate's home state, in other words.

Illinois did not do so. They instead yielded the floor to... New York!

New York's point man stood up and covered everyone within hearing range with ham. I mean, you talk about your hammy speeches, this left a three-inch thick layer of bacon on the floor of the arena. It was great! Fantastic! He must have named every Democrat holding an office in the entire state of New York. But he then yielded the microphone to... Hillary Clinton!

Hillary spoke:

"In the spirit of unity, with the goal of victory, with faith in our party and our country, let's declare in one voice, right here, right now, that Barack Obama is our candidate and that he will be our next president. Madame Secretary, I move that the convention suspend the procedural rules and suspend the further conduct of the roll-call vote, all votes cast by the delegates will be counted, and I move that Senator Barack Obama of Illinois be selected by this convention by acclamation as the nominee of the Democratic Party."

Absolute bedlam inside the arena!! Ecstasy!! Catharsis!!

Madame Secretary had been replaced by Madame Speaker, though. Nancy Pelosi, holding the highest elected office any woman has ever held in the Democratic Party (and a woman who knows a thing or two about parliamentary procedure and gavels herself), responded from the podium:

"All in favor to the motion to suspend the rules and nominate by acclamation Barack Obama as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate please say aye."

Crowd roars: AYE!!!

[Roof flies off arena, due to force of response.]

Pelosi responds, with absolutely no time whatsoever between the word "no" and "two":

"All those opposed please say no. Two-thirds of the delegates having voted in the affirmative, the motion is adopted."

BANG! Gavel comes down. Pandemonium reigns in the conventional hall! This party is UNITED!!

This column has to say that this column got a little misty-eyed, sitting on this column's couch, watching that. Yes, this column actually shed a few tears of joy. None of the speeches so far have had that effect on this column, and the whole thing was carefully agreed to and staged in advance, but man that's good political theater!

But they couldn't put it in prime time, because the schedule for the night was absolutely packed with other luminaries...

...Such as Harry Reid, the first on the screen. Now, if you actually read the text of Reid's speech, you'd think "that's a pretty good speech." But Harry, renowned for his impression of Caspar Milquetoast, showed the entire Democratic Party why he is simply not the man to be Senate Majority Leader. I hear Hillary's looking for something to do... I'm just saying...

...After they carried out the people who had literally been bored to death by Reid's speech, the party as a whole delved into military worship for a time. This is a defensive move, since for about the past three or four decades Republicans have been painting them as military-hating American-hating traitors, so it was to be expected. Spielberg even cut a video for the occasion (although it wasn't much to write home about)...

...Patrick Murphy did a much better job, as only he can do (he's the only Iraq War vet in the House of Representatives, I believe), and talked about Walter Reed and the lack of body armor for the troops under George W. Bush. He even used the word "AWOL" to describe Bush, which was impressive. Maybe tonight we'll actually get to see some Democrats using Bush as the piñata he so deserves to be here. The first two nights, they barely mentioned Bush by name, which I feel was a mistake, but the "build" of the convention has been so good, that maybe tonight's the night...

...Madeline Albright looked smashing, as she always does, and unloaded a heavy dose of feistiness on the crowd as well. In case anyone forgot how sharp she can be, and what a great speaker she is, she reminded them. All around, a very good speech...

... Evan Bayh took out a big ol' stick and whacked the Bush piñata repeatedly. "Bush will soon be gone forever!" Chunks of Democratic red meat burst forth from the stage. I've seen Bayh speak to talk shows before as an Obama surrogate (and VP top contender), and I've never seen him like this before! He pummels Bush for almost his entire speech, using terms such as "reckless incompetence." He gets a good call-and-response line going with the crowd about Bush and McCain: "That is not the change we need!" More speakers should practice this call-and-response thing, because (1) the crowd loves it, and (2) the television cameras love it. Plus, it shows oodles of unity...

...Jack Reed was kind of monotone-y, but his speech got better towards the end...

...And then it was time for the first of three excellent speeches on Day 3. Bubba himself took the stage.

Now, I have to admit, the funniest thing I've heard a commenter say during the entire convention was "and Bill Clinton will be speaking for eight minutes later tonight." Ha! What a laugh line! Bill Clinton? Give a speech that's only eight minutes long? Mister, I've got a bridge to sell you! Of course, Bill did not disappoint, taking roughly 25 minutes to have his say. That still makes me chuckle, though... Bill Clinton... eight minutes... priceless!

Ahem.

Former President William Jefferson Clinton took the stage and reminded us all that he's the same lovable guy we elected twice. Nobody... nobody... gives a better speech than this man (well, OK, maybe there's one... we'll see tonight, won't we?).

First, the crowd refused to stop cheering Bill. This went on, and on, and on. Bill's first memorable line of the night was: "Will y'all siddown? We got to get on with the show!"

When he finally did get the crowd under control, he gave a rousing -- rousing -- endorsement of Barack Obama. "Barack Obama is ready to be President of the United States." There were so many good lines in this speech, I encourage you to read it in full.

But Clinton, while absolutely knocking it out of the park, was only the first such speech to be given this night...

...Because following him was John Kerry. You may remember Kerry, he ran for president last time around. Now, I was expecting him to drone on, and thinking perhaps it was time to retire to the kitchen for a snack, when I heard Kerry open his mouth.

Wow!

What a speech!

If this man had done this four years ago, we'd be re-electing him right about now, that's all I can say.

Quotes from his speech [which you should really watch or read right now]:

In 2004, we came so close to victory. We are even closer now, and let me tell you, this time we're going to win.

. . .

Our mission is to restore America's influence and position in the world. We must use all the weapons in our arsenal, above all, our values. President Obama and Vice President Biden will shut down Guantanamo, respect the Constitution, and make clear once and for all, the United States of America does not torture, not now, not ever.

. . .

So who can we trust to keep America safe? The McCain-Bush Republicans have been wrong again and again and again. And they know they will lose on the issues. So, the candidate who once promised a "contest of ideas," now has nothing left but personal attacks. How insulting to suggest that those who question the mission, question the troops. How pathetic to suggest that those who question a failed policy doubt America itself. How desperate to tell the son of a single mother who chose community service over money and privilege that he doesn't put America first.

No one can question Barack Obama's patriotism. Like all of us, he was taught what it means to be an American by his family: his grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line in World War II, his grandfather who marched in Patton's army, and his great uncle who enlisted in the army right out of high school at the height of the war. And on a spring day in 1945, he helped liberate one of the concentration camps at Buchenwald.

Ladies and gentlemen, Barack Obama's uncle is here with us tonight. Please join me in saluting this American hero, Charlie Payne. Charlie, your nephew, Barack Obama, will end this politics of distortion and division. He will be a president who seeks not to perfect the lies of Swift boating, but to end them once and for all.

This election is a chance for America to tell the merchants of fear and division: you don't decide who loves this country; you don't decide who is a patriot; you don't decide whose service counts and whose doesn't.

But his best lines of the evening were, without a doubt the following:

I have known and been friends with John McCain for almost 22 years. But every day now I learn something new about candidate McCain. To those who still believe in the myth of a maverick instead of the reality of a politician, I say, let's compare Senator McCain to candidate McCain.

Candidate McCain now supports the wartime tax cuts that Senator McCain once denounced as immoral. Candidate McCain criticizes Senator McCain's own climate change bill. Candidate McCain says he would now vote against the immigration bill that Senator McCain wrote. Are you kidding? Talk about being for it before you're against it.

Let me tell you, before he ever debates Barack Obama, John McCain should finish the debate with himself. And what's more, Senator McCain, who once railed against the smears of Karl Rove when he was the target, has morphed into candidate McCain who is using the same "Rove" tactics and the same "Rove" staff to repeat the same old politics of fear and smear. Well, not this year, not this time. The Rove-McCain tactics are old and outworn, and America will reject them in 2008.

You just have to love that "talk about being for it before you're against it" coming from the one man who was savaged by this remark four years ago. Read or watch Kerry's whole speech, it is definitely worth your time.

It must be hard knowing you're going to be speaking right after Bill Clinton. He's a tough act to follow. Not many could have done it. Kerry did, with flying colors...

...Chet Somebody-or-Another spoke next. He was supposedly vetted for veep, at the request of Nancy Pelosi (although that might have been a rumor), and I'm sure glad he didn't get it. He was definitely not ready for prime time...

...Next we got Beau Biden (Joe's son), or more properly Captain Beau Biden, who will leave soon to serve in Iraq. Not bad. Even better was his introduction, where he said his father had the courage to tell Slobodan Milosevic he was a war criminal to his face. Beautiful! Couldn't have scripted it better myself...

...But the last great speech on Day 3 was the closer -- the official Democratic Nominee for Vice President (I can't tell you how relieved I am not to have to type "presumed" anymore when discussing either Biden or Obama) -- Joe Biden.

Joe showed us why he was chosen, right off the bat. He's feisty, he's got an incredible command of the facts, he can talk comfortably to the middle-class whites, and he is ready to rumble with John McCain and the entire Republican Party. Take the time and read his speech in full, or just check out the following excerpts:

My mother's creed is the American creed: No one is better than you. You are everyone's equal, and everyone is equal to you.

My parents taught us to live our faith, and treasure our family. We learned the dignity of work, and we were told that anyone can make it if they try.

. . .

Like millions of Americans, they're asking questions as profound as they are ordinary. Questions they never thought they would have to ask:

* Should mom move in with us now that dad is gone?

* Fifty, sixty, seventy dollars to fill up the car?

* Winter's coming. How we gonna pay the heating bills?

* Another year and no raise?

* Did you hear the company may be cutting our health care?

* Now, we owe more on the house than it's worth. How are we going to send the kids to college?

* How are we gonna be able to retire?

That's the America that George Bush has left us, and that's the future John McCain will give us. These are not isolated discussions among families down on their luck. These are common stories among middle-class people who worked hard and played by the rules on the promise that their tomorrows would be better than their yesterdays.

That promise is the bedrock of America. It defines who we are as a people. And now it's in jeopardy. I know it. You know it. But John McCain doesn't get it.

. . .

John thinks that during the Bush years "we've made great progress economically." I think it's been abysmal.

And in the Senate, John sided with President Bush 95 percent of the time. Give me a break. When John McCain proposes $200 billion in new tax breaks for corporate America, $1 billion alone for just eight of the largest companies, but no relief for 100 million American families, that's not change; that's more of the same.

Even today, as oil companies post the biggest profits in history--a half trillion dollars in the last five years--he wants to give them another $4 billion in tax breaks. But he voted time and again against incentives for renewable energy: solar, wind, biofuels. That's not change; that's more of the same.

Millions of jobs have left our shores, yet John continues to support tax breaks for corporations that send them there. That's not change; that's more of the same.

He voted 19 times against raising the minimum wage. For people who are struggling just to get to the next day, that's not change; that's more of the same.

And when he says he will continue to spend $10 billion a month in Iraq when Iraq is sitting on a surplus of nearly $80 billion, that's not change; that's more of the same.

The choice in this election is clear. These times require more than a good soldier; they require a wise leader, a leader who can deliver change--the change everybody knows we need.

. . .

John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right.

Should we trust John McCain's judgment when he rejected talking with Iran and then asked: What is there to talk about? Or Barack Obama, who said we must talk and make it clear to Iran that its conduct must change.

Now, after seven years of denial, even the Bush administration recognizes that we should talk to Iran, because that's the best way to advance our security.

Again, John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right.

Should we trust John McCain's judgment when he says there can be no timelines to draw down our troops from Iraq--that we must stay indefinitely? Or should we listen to Barack Obama, who says shift responsibility to the Iraqis and set a time to bring our combat troops home?

Now, after six long years, the Bush administration and the Iraqi government are on the verge of setting a date to bring our troops home.

John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right.

Again and again, on the most important national security issues of our time, John McCain was wrong, and Barack Obama was proven right.

. . .

These are extraordinary times. This is an extraordinary election. The American people are ready. I'm ready. Barack Obama is ready. This is his time. This is our time. This is America's time.

Beautiful! I cannot wait to hear him give this (and similar) speeches over and over again in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Virginia...

...Barack Obama then made a short surprise appearance on the stage, as well as the enormously extended family of Bidens. As one television pundit put it: "half the state of Delaware is up there on the stage with him!" Now, now...

...so that brings us up to date. I'm awaiting Barack Obama's stadium speech tonight, in front of 80,000 people. Just saw a report from Denver, and it doesn't look like rain.

It was reported that a right-wing group styling themselves "Christians" were organizing a prayer effort to make it rain tonight in Denver. Someone should tell them this is properly called "black magic," or "witchcraft." And I refuse also to draw any conclusions about another hurricane possibly hitting New Orleans on the day the Republican National Convention starts. Those people have suffered enough from Mother Nature and Republican incompetence, and I would not wish anything bad upon them even by inference. So can we all stop doing rain dances, people?

I think Obama is going to live up to the occasion tonight. I think he is going to cause an orgy of sports metaphors from the press: hitting it out of the park, splitting the ol' uprights, a slam-dunk, and all the others.

I think his speech, when we look back at it, is going to resemble more a State Of The Union speech than a convention acceptance speech. I think we're going to get a short laundry list of concrete proposals that help the middle class. I think Obama's going to bury forever the Republican talking point that "he's all style and no substance."

And I can easily picture Martin Luther King, Jr., up in heaven, making up some popcorn for the show -- and getting ready to take a metaphorical ringside seat to see Barack Obama's most important speech of his political life. He'll be cheering louder than any of us. As King predicted, he is not here with us... but the mountaintop is now within view. And within reach.

-- Chris Weigant