Continuing my scattered thoughts on the Democratic Convention. Day 2 was all about Hillary Clinton, and women, and the 88th anniversary of women achieving the right to vote, and women party leaders, and voting for women. And Hillary Clinton.

That might sound snide, but I assure you it's not. For all the breast-beating and garment-rending that took place over whether Barack Obama was "being pushed around" by the Clintons, or that they were "making unreasonable demands," I never doubted for a moment that the Clintons -- both of them -- would rise to the occasion and deliver a great speech. And I also have faith that Obama's campaign team, which so far has been exemplary at stage managing, would orchestrate a unified and supportive convention. If Obama had run a terrible campaign, I might have been worried a bit, but that was simply not the case.

Day 2

The one thing that could have gone wrong on Day 2 just didn't happen. This was supposed to be the day when angry women took to the streets and demanded the crown for Hillary Clinton. If thousands and thousands of women were streaming through the streets of Denver, yelling and causing a ruckus, it certainly would have justified the enormous amount of time the "journalists" have wasted in building up the "look how divided the Democrats are" theme. Instead, a small group of women marched, and an even smaller group were ranting and raving in the streets. From reports I read, most of the marchers were out there to celebrate women's rights and the vote for women, and very few of them were militant Clintonistas. The few there were got their 15 minutes of fame on Chris Matthews, and the consensus of the media seemed to be "these women are just not facing reality."

Whew. That could have gone an entirely different direction, and I am thankful it did not. Most of Hillary Clinton's voters, I strongly suspect, were very happy to vote for her and very sad that she didn't win, but in the long run don't want to be associated with the sore-loser element and truly want to concentrate on beating John McCain this fall. They were skeptical about Obama, but are coming back into the Democratic fold in droves, which will increase in the next few weeks. We'll just have to wait and see if I'm right or not...

...But inside the convention hall, unity reigned. Despite network news types trolling the floor for angry Hillary supporters, what they got instead were thoughtful and level-headed women. Many expressed dismay that Hillary wasn't the candidate, but every single one I saw seemed to have an open mind about Obama (this was before Hillary spoke... after she spoke, they were even more inclined to get behind Obama). So, once again, the media gets a major story completely wrong...

...Steny Hoyer was the first speaker I saw, and he gave an impressive speech. Now, Hoyer isn't always my favorite Democrat due to his actions as a party leader in the House, but I have to say the man gave a better speech than I've ever seen him give before. He used his voice, and his emotions, to strongly present his case, and even though he spoke early enough that the audience wasn't that big (or paying that much attention). So, like I say, although I have differences with Hoyer, I have to say he gave a good speech, and even included the line "country-club economics" when talking about John McCain...

...There were two Union speakers, one who didn't make eye contact with the audience or the cameras during her whole speech, and one who was a little more PR-savvy. But both of them read solid speeches, reminding Democrats that the Unions used to be the strongest part of the party. This is necessary for all the newcomers, and is indeed expected at such a big Democratic event...

...The Governor of Arizona Janet Napolitano showed us all what it looks like when someone actually has a lot of fun giving her speech. Her litany of Arizonans who have previously run for president... and lost... was fantastic, and she tied it all back into John McCain very nicely. I've never heard her speak before, and now I understand why she was considered for Obama's veep. She (like Senator Claire McCaskill the previous day) seems destined for bigger and better things in the future...

...Kathleen Sebelius... yawn... had good material, but put it (and everyone else) to sleep by her delivery... she even had a few good jokes... and somehow made them snore...

...Bob Casey brought forth the first spontaneous chant from the audience. He got off a good line about McCain not being a maverick, but a "sidekick" to Bush, and then went on to say (paraphrased) "And they want us to give them four more years? How about four more months!" The crowd loved it. A huge chant of "four more months! Four more months! FOUR MORE MONTHS!!!" broke out. Now, technically, it's around five more months, but this was the first time I'd seen the crowd really get excited by one of the minor speakers, so others may want to take note...

..."keynote" speaker Mark Warner was OK. That's about it. He did a good job comparing the future to the past. He warned the press beforehand that there would be no fireworks in his speech, and he delivered on his promise...

...I missed Ted Strickland speak but he reportedly got off a good line: "You know, it was once said of the first George Bush that he was born on third base and thought he'd hit a triple. Well, with the 22 million new jobs and the budget surplus Bill Clinton left behind, George W. Bush came into office on third base, and then he stole second." Best joke of the entire convention (so far)...

...I also didn't get to see much of Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, but what little I did see impressed the hell out of me. This is a man who knows what to do with a friendly crowd. He spoke right before Hillary Clinton, and as a warm-up man, he blew the roof off. And as of now, he also was the frontrunner for the "having way too much fun up there" award. Let's see more of this guy in the future, please...

...I already wrote about what a barn-burner of a speech Hillary Clinton gave, in a piece earlier this week titled "PUMA -- Endangered Species" so go read it if you missed it. Summary: great speech, Hill! You go, girl!!...

...I have to say that the credit for the presentation of the convention has to be split between the Clintons and Barack's campaign team. Each has proven what a great job of defying the media expectations Democrats can (at times) manage to do. For the first two days, the media kept beating the "Hillary people are going to show a divided party" drum, and it never happened. What was the overwhelming image out of the convention so far? Party unity. This would only increase on the next night, but I'm separating these into separate posts, so I'll get to that in a little bit here. For now, I had to give credit to one talking head (I forget who it was, it may have been Bob Schieffer on CBS) who, obviously speaking without a script, said immediately after Hillary's speech something along the lines of: "Well, we've all be telling the story of how divided the Democrats are, but we were wrong. They are united." I didn't write down the exact words, but to me it was a stunning admission of journalistic failure -- for almost everyone in the media. They really, really wanted a fight. They didn't get one. Too bad. One would like to hope that now their media narrative will pivot on a dime into "It's astonishing how united the Democratic Party has become," but (as always when expecting things from the media) I'm not going to hold my breath or anything.

[...Because I have been slacking off, we've got a lot to cover today. There will be multiple posts, so be sure to check back to see all of them...]

-- Chris Weigant