It's official:  Nanacy Pelosi entered a motion to nominate Barack Obama by acclamation, it was seconded and carried. Discuss.

From the SF Examiner via Think Progress, this hardly needs any commentary:

On Monday, AT&T threw an exclusive party for the Blue Dogs, the House's moderate and conservative Democrats, at the historic Mile High Station in downtown Denver. Among the guests was House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who in June led Blue Dogs in crafting a compromise bill that shielded telecommunications companies from lawsuits arising from the government's terrorism-era warrantless eavesdropping.

Hoyer spokeswoman Stacey Bernards said Hoyer was not aware of any connection between the party and his work on the legislation.

"I’m sure Mr. Hoyer didn’t even know who the sponsor was," she said.

Yep. AT&T throws an "exclusive" party for the Blue Dogs after the Blue Dogs have jammed through immunity for telcos against the wishes of the rest of the party. But it's OK, because Steny Hoyer doesn't see a connection. AT&f'ingT throws the Blue Dogs parties all the time, I'm sure.

I hate politics. These people are so corrupt they don't even give a damn whether they look corrupt.

Check out the Digg Stage -- live from The Big Tent in Denver!  

Live Streaming from Ustream

Devilstower and I just went to a talk here at the DNC featuring T. Boone Pickens. Everyone was under the impression that the event would involve an actual discussion (as in, a Q & A session, like nearly all of the other Big Tent special topic sessions). We had a really energetic live blog thread going, where all of you were submitting questions.

Sorry, guys. Apparently, the whole thing was just a sales pitch.  T. Boone hightailed it out of there before anyone could even raise their hand.

The other two people at the presentation were John Podesta (President and CEO of the Center for American Progress), and Carl Pope, who is the Executive Director of the Sierra Club.

They both stayed behind to answer questions... but it's the Pickens Plan, so you'd think the guy whose name is on it would want to stick around and answer questions about the project with his name on it.

Maybe he was afraid we'd ask questions like:

In 2004, you helped pay for the Swift Boat ads, along with fellow billionaire Harold Simmons, who's funding the Ayres attack ads this cycle. If you're willing to tolerate, and even encourage, that level of dishonesty in political discourse, why should we trust you on any subject?

(From Devilstower)

I wanted to ask him:

Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma is well known for saying that global warming is the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," and is one of the most outspoken climate change science deniers around, as well as being joined at the hip with the oil companies.

In your presentation today, you specifically said that you "believe global warming is real".

However, you have heavily funded James Inhofe's campaign.  How do you reconcile your support for Inhofe with your promotion of renewable energy programs?

From an energy expert acquaintance via email:

Can you please explain why people should take your plan seriously when, for example, you do not include any energy efficiency measures within it?

If the natural-gas part of your plan does not get the support of Congress and the Obama Administration, will you still be strongly in support of windpower?

(From dailyKos user trivium, on the live blog thread.)

I'm all for building up wind electricity capacity, but I have serious reservations about the natural gas portion of your "plan" (rhetorical quotes are important - it isn't really a very origianal plan).

The natural gas used now to make electricity is used on some of the most efficient equipment ever built (60+% efficient).  What since does it make to start burning natural gas in an internal combustion engines that are at best 25-30% efficient?  This is in some ways going backward.  (It also ignores the fact that while we have some natural gas, other nations still have a lot more than us.)

It would be more efficient to power our electricity with electricity, coming from wind, natural gas, solar or other sources.  Of course cars are very good at using electricity, but trains and transit are.

(From dailyKos user jsmyers, on the live blog thread.)

There are many more great questions on the live blog thread, and I'm sure most of the other attendees at the talk had some points to discuss as well.

For those of us who are progressives, I think the overall question is:

T. Boone Pickens, why the hell should we trust you at all?

I've already written about the experience of walking into the convention hall. So what happens next?

In the New Hampshire delegation at least, people are settled in. A bag of popcorn and a pack of gum get passed around, and in addition to talking about politics, people reminisce about, say, being teenagers.

We'd seen Dana Delaney and Anne Hathaway in the security line coming in, but that was from a distance. Sitting with the delegation, Matthew Modine comes by to promote his Bicycle for a Day project.

But mostly signs are the business of the day. Orange- and yellow-vested people pass out the signs for each speaker, and the delegation's page (a teenager doing a truly impressive job) gets telephone instructions and gives the cue for exactly what line should trigger sign-waving. Wave after wave of signs comes through -- these things had better be post-consumer recycled -- and the page is in a constant struggle against people jumping the gun. This is a particular problem when Hillary speaks, because as soon as people have those signs in their hands they want to be waving them.

And as for Hillary? Yeah, they loved her. There may have been chit chat during the earlier speeches, the sense that occasionally people were listening less to the content than to intonation so they wouldn't miss an applause line (and anyone who could sit through like 6 hours of speeches at one stretch paying total attention should feel free to judge them for that). But not during her speech.

Behold, the live Ustream feed from the Digg Stage at the Big Tent.

Live Streaming from Ustream

Marc Ambinder (whose reporting has been must-read) and Mark Blumenthal offer nuggets from an on-the-record briefing by David Plouffe.

From Ambinder:

Barack Obama's margin among independent swing-voting women and sporadically voting Democrats are two of the main metrics his campaign is closely monitoring, Obama's election manager, David Plouffe, said today.

Plouffe, speaking to reporters, editors and executives of the Atlantic Media company in a throwback conference room in downtown Denver, said that Obama's internal polling suggests that McCain runs a double-digit deficit with this group runs into the double digits in some swing states. "And that's before they know about his position on choice and that he's against equal pay," Plouffe said.

Voters, he said, were treated to an "a ha!" moment last week when McCain couldn't recall the number of houses he owned and suggested that earning $5 million a year would not make a person rich.

"The development on the out of touch argument is an actually critical development of the campaign," he said, because "[s]ome of the voters images of McCain don't jibe with reality."

From Blumenthal, focusing on polling:

Plouffe also emphasized that the internal polling the campaign does is focused on those same 18 states, and that their real concern is not the horse race results but the "data underneath." Later, he added, "the top-line [polling data] doesn't tell you anything." Rather, they focus on who the "true undecideds" are, "how they are going to break," and what messages will best persuade them.

The Gallup Daily tracking poll is apparently a particular sore point. When asked whether they were unhappy that the Biden announcement had not produced a bounce in national polls, Plouffe shot back: "How would we know . . . from the Gallup Daily?" The Gallup Daily is "something we don't pay attention to," he said again.

Communications director Dan Pfieffer later put it more bluntly, expressing unhappiness with the "inordinate focus on bad polling" by the media and also in the routine misinterpretation of sampling noise in the Gallup Daily poll. "The Gallup Daily is the worst thing that's happened in journalism in 20 years," he said.

Meanwhile, the worst thing that's happened in journalism in 20 years has Obama back on top by 1.

As mentioned, interviewing by Gallup on Tuesday night showed a stronger Obama performance, which could augur the beginnings of a bounce for Obama, as is evident more often than not immediately after a candidate's convention. Gallup's official "post-convention bounce" reading on Obama's support will be based on interviewing conducted Friday through Sunday.

Atlantic Media should have more later on the briefing. For example:

"If he does pick Romney, what a duo! It's the greatest job killing machine in the history of American politics. Mitt Romney is an expert on Cayman Island tax shelters. You couldn't have a more out of touch ticket."

One of the great things about the existence of the state bloggers at the DNC this year is that in contrast to all the stupid traditional media narratives about disunity, we have reporting from people seated with the individual state delegations, giving their takes on the crowd response.

I was with the New Hampshire delegation last night, and I can say that there was not one sign of disunity there despite the primary having been so heated. The same people who were in tears as Hillary Clinton began speaking and roaring with applause constantly throughout her speech were enthusiastically waving Obama signs and chanting his name throughout the entire evening.

Here are some other reports from bloggers sitting in the middle of the crowd of delegates.

Calitics:

If there was any doubt that we would get a barnburner on unity tonight from Hillary Clinton, put that to bed. The California delegation went crazy for Clinton, waving Hillary signs that were distributed just ahead of Chelsea's introduction and even holding a few homemade signs like "18 million cracks". Obama/Hillary/Unity signs are spreading through now.

Goldy:

A stunning lack of disunity... that was my immediate reaction watching the crowd respond to Hillary Clinton’s speech tonight at the Democratic National Convention.  No doubt there are Clinton delegates who remain unconvinced, and no doubt many will cast their ballot for Clinton come roll call, but if folks were expecting any drama tonight, they’ll just have to make due with the uplifting kind.

Accustomed to watching conventions on TV I almost feel as if I’m missing the show sitting on the floor in person, so I’ve no idea how Clinton’s speech came off to the millions of Americans watching, but she was a hit here in the building.

Turn Maine Blue has pictures of the sign-waving crowd.

From TV Week:

Interest in Sen. Hillary Clinton¹s speech regarding party unity helped boost ratings during the second night of the Democratic National Convention
Tuesday.

NBC, ABC and CBS reported substantial gains over Monday's hour of coverage of Michelle Obama's speech.

In 56 metered markets, NBC brought in a 4.9 rating/8 share in preliminary households, increasing 29% from Monday. That was the largest increase and the highest rating of the night in convention coverage.

ABC took in a 3.8/6, up 31%, and CBS ended the night with a 2.7/4, moving the needle 13% from Monday.

There were 22 million watching Monday night, and for the many of you fretting over the poor media coverage (all pundit talk, no speech coverage) so far, remember Obama goes on Thursday to 30 (or more) million viewers with no filter [during the speech - before and after, well...].

In case you were distracted by Mark Warner's electrifying speech last night, there were a number of hot congressional primaries in Alaska and Florida yesterday. Here's a quick round-up of last night's action:

• AK-Sen (D): Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich won the Democratic Senate nomination with an impressive 91% of the vote, with 98% of precincts reporting.
• AK-Sen (R): Ted Stevens survived his primary against banker Dave Cuddy and Floridian beardo Vic Vickers (and several other also-rans), but only with 63.5% of the vote.
• AK-AL (D): Ethan Berkowitz won the Democratic nomination for the state's at-large House seat by a 59-41 margin over '06 candidate Diane Benson. Alaskan Independence Party candidate Don Wright received 5600 votes and will also appear on the November ballot.
• AK-AL (R): With 98% of precincts reporting and many absentee ballots still outstanding, Don Young has taken a 145-vote lead over Sean Parnell. This race is heading into "contentious recount territory" real fast.
• FL-08 (D & R): Democrat Alan Grayson upset '06 nominee Charlie Stuart by a 48-28 margin for the right to take on Ric Keller in November. Keller, meanwhile, barely survived his primary challenge from right-wing radio personality Todd Long, with only 53% of the vote to Long's 47%.
• FL-09 (D): In a bit of an upset for the DCCC, attorney Bill Mitchell beat out wealthy former Plant City Mayor John Dicks by a 38-33 margin for the nomination against frosh GOP Rep. Gus Bilirakis.
• FL-10 (D): Dunedin Mayor Bob Hackworth dispatched '06 nominee and Ron Paul acolyte Samm Simpson by a 47-29 margin for the chance to take on longtime GOP Rep. Bill Young. Max Linn, a self-funding candidate who ran for Governor in 2006 on the Reform ticket, only earned 24% of the vote.
• FL-15 (D & R): Physician Stephen Blythe crushed pilot Paul Rancatore by a 65-35 margin for the Democratic nomination for this open seat. Republicans nominated state Sen. Bill Posey with 77% of the vote, and he seems poised to run away with this race come November.
• FL-16 (R): Pittsburgh Steelers heir Ed Tom Rooney won a tight three-way race by a 37-35-28 margin for the GOP nod to face off with Democratic Rep. Tim Mahoney.
• FL-24 (D): Former state Rep. Suzanne Kosmas crushed '06 nominee Clint Curtis by a 72-28 margin. Kosmas will face ethically-challenged GOP Rep. Tom Feeney in November.

House Races

MN-03: Democrat Ashwin Madia, running for the open seat of retiring GOP Rep. Jim Ramstad, is up with his first ad. I like the production values:

PA-10: Via SSP, SurveyUSA polls the race (8/23-25, likely voters, MoE: ±4.0%):

Those are some fairly hairy numbers for Carney, who is running for his first re-election bid -- any incumbent below the 50% bubble has to be concerned. His favorability numbers are decent (40% favorable, 23% unfavorable, and 30% neutral), but clearly show that he could stand to boost his profile some more at home.

In better news, the poll continues to throw some cold water onto the NRCC's "drilling=electoral profit!!" hopes. When asked if they would vote for a candidate who favors increased offshore drilling or one who favors promoting alternative sources of energy as a way to combat the energy crisis, voters in Pennsylvania's 10th choose the candidate touting alternative energy over the driller by a 54-36 margin. This confirms similar results we've seen in the past couple of days from CO-04 and KS-02. If the GOP's drilling message can't sell in conservative red districts like these, where can it be effective?

CT-04: Because nothing spells "confidence" like crashing your opponent's press conference to make your own whiny defense, GOP Rep. Chrissy Shays does exactly that, and embarrasses himself in the process.

NY-26: Everyone's favorite nutjob, crazy Jack Davis ("D"), says that immigrants from Mexico will start a new Civil War:

Congressional candidate Jack Davis, in a speech earlier this year, warned that increasing immigration from Mexico could lead to a new civil war between northern states and Mexican-influenced Southern states that may want to secede from the United States.

"In the latter part of this century or the next, Mexicans will be a majority in many of the states and could therefore take control of the state government using the democratic process," Davis said in the speech. "They could then secede from the United States, and then we might have another civil war." [...]

"They have an allegiance to Mexico, where they were taught the U. S. fought an unjust war with Mexico and took this territory," Davis said. "They believe the territory of these states belongs to Mexico."

If this lunatic beats Jon Powers in the Democratic primary here, I think a little piece of me will die inside. (Via SSP)

Senate Races

RNCC: You know it's a rough year for Republicans when even Mike Johanns of Nebraska won't show up to their convention. In fact, the only GOP Senators up for re-election who are speaking in St. Paul are Mitch McConnell and home-state host Norm Coleman, who is slated to address the convention not once, but twice!

DNCC: Meanwhile, in Denver, Jeff Merkley, Jeanne Shaheen, Tom Allen and Tom Udall are all addressing the convention today. Don't miss it!

NC-Sen: Shorter Liddy Dole: "The DSCC sunk my battleship!"

MS-Sen-B: Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood says that the Republican Secretary of State's flirtation with pushing Mississippi's special Senate election to the bottom of the ballot flies in the face of the law. Of course, fair elections and the rule of law have not exactly been the GOP's strong suit as of late.

Blue Hampshire blogger Mike Hoefer got an important piece of PDMA (Party Disunity My Ass): Kathy Sullivan and Mary Rauh, New Hampshire state co-chairs of the Clinton and Obama campaigns, respectively, address the traditional media's insistence on pushing the myth of disunity.

My grandfather was a politician. Not a governor or member of Congress or anything like that, but it's how he made his living for most of his adult life -- he was sheriff, treasurer, probate clerk. He died before I was born, but to the end of her life my grandmother identified strongly as a political wife.

About a month ago, as I was talking to my parents about my plans for Denver, my mother said she'd always wanted her father to get to be a convention delegate, but he never had. That was in my mind last night as I walked into the hall at the Pepsi Center to find the New Hampshire delegation -- some combination of regret that he never got to be there and pride that I was, but in this new role that we're all inventing together. (Update, realizing this is a bit unclear: I'm not a delegate, but was there as a state blogger for Blue Hampshire -- so I got to be an extra part of history since this is the first time they've had this kind of blogger access to delegations.)

But I wasn't prepared for the incredible surge of awe and emotion that hit me when I stepped into the hall at the top of the stairs and looked out. It was unbelievable, looking out at the people and the signs and the lights and knowing what they, what we, were all here to do.

The history being made here in so many different ways is worth taking a few moments to appreciate in the cheesiest, most awestruck, and cliched way you can personally muster.

Plutonium Page and I are sitting front row center (until they run us off) preparing for the appearance of T. Boone Pickens.  I know we've had a lot of discussion about whether Pickens should be here at all, and believe me, if I get the chance, I'm going to ask the toughest questions I can level.

But I'll tell you one thing. Over the last three days, we've had some amazing panels in the Big Tent featuring climate change, environment, and energy experts from the Wilderness Society, Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, and a dozen other organizations. You know what the attendance for those events was like? Believe me when I say I didn't have to worry about finding a seat.

But for Pickens, this room is packed. What does that say about Pickens, and what does it say about the bloggers here for environmental and energy issues?

As we're waiting for Pickens to appear, feed us some questions.

Update [2008-8-27 14:18:29 by Devilstower]: And Pickens is here. John Podesta, the President and Chief Executive Officer of American Progress, flanking Pickens on one side. Sierra Club president Carl Pope on the other side.

Update [2008-8-27 14:18:29 by Devilstower]: Podesta talking about global warming (which makes it even more important that someone get Pickens a question on why he's maxed out to Inhofe) and the general support for changing the energy infrastructure.

Update [2008-8-27 14:18:29 by Devilstower]: T. Boone now speaking. Giving the Hallmark sorty of his life. Reports that he's given away $700 million dollars in the last five years, and will give his estate to charity, so no one should think he's doing this to make more money.

Update [2008-8-27 14:32:38 by Devilstower]: Carl Pope: if our political system was even vaguely functional, anything that John Podesta, T. Boone Pickens, and Carl Pope agree on would have happened long ago.

Update [2008-8-27 14:41:26 by Plutonium Page]::  Here's a photo.  T. Boone is on the left, Carl Pope is at the right.  Click to enlarge.

Update [2008-8-27 14:51:54 by Plutonium Page]: My laptop battery is running very low, so I've got to shut down for now.  We'll try to follow up later with a post on the Q & A session.

Update [2008-8-27 15:7:47 by Devilstower]: And T. Boone heads for the door without taking a single question. Which makes the whole presentation worth about as much as day old spit.

Governor Schweitzer is here at the Big Tent, hot off his fantastic speech from last night.  He's receiving a rock star reception as he makes the rounds.  A few moments ago, he decided to "knight" Markos with a bolo tie:

A big tip of the hat to aspiring VP (and real estate expert) Mitt Romney for pitching in yesterday to help prolong the national discussion about John McCain's four seven eight ten superabundance of homes. Showing the kind of political acumen that made him stand out on the campaign trail this year, Mittens brought his insight about the houses flap straight to reporters.

Speaking to reporters at a lunch sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, Romney said that while McCain deserved his houses because of the "hard work" of himself and his family, "Barack Obama got a special deal from a convicted felon."

Nearly all the dozen or so homes were bought by Cindy McCain, who inherited her fortune. Obama by contrast bought his one house from what he earned from the books he wrote; he got a "special deal" on his house from nobody, felon or otherwise.

"I think it was a strange thing for Barack Obama to seize upon," Romney said. "If homes is going to be the topic of discussion that Barack Obama is going to end up on the short end of that one."

It's been working out so poorly for Obama that McCain went on Leno the previous day to explain why he can't remember how many homes he owns (hint: it involves the fact he was once a POW).

"The truth is the first casualty of the new politics practiced by the Obama campaign," Romney added.

No, Mitt, your vice presidential hopes are.

In the aftermath of Hillary Clinton's stunning speech yesterday night, the talking heads are all atwitter over how the speech--soaring in its rhetoric, piercing in its logic, and stirring in its message--may not have "been enough" to win over disaffected Hillary Clinton voters.

From the media's coverage of the convention, you would think that Denver is the gathering ground for such voters, that you can find a PUMA behind every bush and around ever tree.

The reality on the ground is that the vast majority of Clinton supporters here will be voting for Obama in the fall, many of them enthusiastically. You can observe throughout Denver Democrats wearing Hillary shirts with Obama pins, or vice versa.

And yet, we are treated this morning by punditry and articles about how "many Clinton supporter say speech didn't heal divisions."

It is one of the favorite tactics of the traditional media to build coverage upon false equivalency in order to portray friction or controversy in a given situation. A global warming expert--representing the opinion of 99% of scientists--is put up against a fringe climate change denier and is presented as being on equal footing. There's no reason I suppose why coverage of the convention should be any different.

The press loves its PUMA hunting, stalking through the streets of Denver, seeking out anyone who fits the supposed profile of a "Disaffected Hillary Voter"--a 40-something woman decked out in HillaryGear whose Obama pin is glaring absent, or a visitor wearing an anti-Obama shirt. I myself witnessed such a hunt on numerous occasions (including at the Denver airport, where the reporter literally stopped interviewing a group of Democrats to go chase a lone guy in an "18 million cracks" t-shirt).

PUMAs though are a rare breed. To put things into perspective, a rally for Clinton here yesterday reportedly drew about 1,000 people. Keep in mind there are about 50,000 here for the convention.

Yes, they do exist, but in small, clustered numbers, and by all measures, they are an endangered species of voter. A March 2008 Gallup poll showed that 28% of Clinton voters would vote for McCain in the fall. Now, that same poll shows that number standing at just 16%. Other polls have the number in closer to 20%.

The shrinking population of stubborn "Hillary or Bust" voters makes sense. Democrats had a bruising and bitter primary, and wounds from that fight are understandably slow to heal. But for most, they do heal. After Hillary Clinton's moving call to unity yesterday, and after the convention, expect to see the number of such voters continue to dwindle, until all that is left is a tiny cluster of Republicans and so-called "Democrats" who voted for Hillary in the primaries and are eager to vote against their best interests in the fall. That's their prerogative, but if they think--and if the media believes--that this election will hinge on these fringe voters--well, that dog just won't hunt.

Comedy. After spending the first two days of convention coverage obsessing over the non-existent PUMA onslaught and Party disunity that doesn't exist, the media now tell us that:

Democrats to Shift Focus From Clinton to Economy

On Monday, I tried to get some writing done, but it was impossible -- between media interviews, saying "hello" to cool bloggers and citizen media mavens from all over the country, doing panels, greeting visiting dignitaries, and catching up with people from progressive groups, it was impossible to get much work done.

So I was a bit frustrated.

Today I was in a better frame of mind: there was no way I was going to write during the day, so why pretend? I did more of that stuff above, and actually enjoyed it this time. I decided it wasn't going to take away from my work, but it would be my work. And when everyone cut out to the parties, I would instead head back to the hotel and do the other part of my job -- writing.

Since I don't have a twitter account, I'll collect some random thoughts in this post:

• The tradmed crawling around the Big Tent are asking the same stupid questions they asked in 2004. You'd think they would learned a thing or two the last four years and updated their list of questions. It was depressing that some of the best questions I've gotten have come from foreign reporters.
• The tradmed may be obnoxious, but lots of cool people trotting around inexpensive video gear to put up on their vlogs. Cheap technology and YouTube are wonderful, wonderful things.
• Free all-you-can-drink New Belgium beer at the Big Tent rocks. On Monday, I was all over the Fat Tire. Today I went with the Sunshine Wheat. Damn I love wheat beers, a result of living in German three years. Yum.
• Atrios is right: for all the bitching news media do about the lack of news at conventions, they all still insist on showing up. Is it the parties? Probably. Because they're not really needed.
• If it wasn't for the news media at the convention, bloggers would have far less to write about.
• It has been surprising, on the other hand, seeing how many print journalists are now trotting out video cameras for their papers' websites. We truly are headed to a world were the distinction between "print" and "broadcast" will erase.
• I did a panel today organized by the Hispanic Institute and The Common Good. On the panel, moderated by MSNBC's Dan Abrams, was me, Gov. Bill Richardson, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Harold Ford, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY), Tucker Carlson, DeeDee Myers, Faye Wattleton, and Newsweek's Richard Wolffe.
• I was wearing jeans, t-shirt, and sports jacket. I wore a button-down shirt on Monday, but it's too freakin' hot for those. So Tuesday I went with the more casual look. When I arrived, the other panelists were dressed professionally, as is usually the case. I get a kick being the most comfortably dressed person at these kinds of events. It reminds me how lucky I am to do what I do for a living.

  Harold Ford shows up right before the start of the convention, and he's wearing jeans (though with a button down shirt). I'm surprised. He always dresses super smart, tailored suits and all. So I point to the jeans as Abrams opens up the panel and whisper, "what's with those, I'm usually the only one with jeans." He whispers back, "I learned this look from you." I laugh politely. He looks at me seriously, "No, I really got this look from you." I wish I was as persuasive with my politics...

• Bill Richardson answered the first question, then disappeared. I get that some of these VIPs are busy people, but that seemed a bit weird.
• Don't tell my wife, but I've got a crush on Amy Klobuchar. I suddenly want to move to Minnesota. She also stuck around the whole time.
• Tucker Carlson did the typical "concern troll" thing, claiming that Obama would win if only he made eliminating affirmative action a top item on his agenda and campaigned on it. We all laughed at him.

  When I was addressed by Abrams a few questions later, I prefaced the answer to that question with a quick aside: Never trust Republicans bearing advice to Democrats, because they don't have our best interests in mind. The crowd was appreciative and cheered. Carlson fumed: "how open minded", as if being "open minded" meant taking electoral advice from the guys trying to defeat us in an election. What a tool.

• Klobuchar followed up with a suggestion that the panel vote Tucker off the panel, just like he had been voted off Dancing with the Stars. Did I mention I have a crush on her?
• An audience member asked why the media was obsessed about the Hillary/Obama supposed conflict. Dan Abrams fielded the question and said it was legitimate issue, and that they stood by it, and that since McCain was running ads on it, they couldn't offer good political coverage and ignore it.

  I jumped in (paraphrasing), "McCain has three ads on the theme, you've featured them all, yet their campaign is only actually airing one of them. You are doing the campaign's dirty work, and doing it for free!" The crowd approved.

  Abrams, suddenly under siege, admitted that was a valid critique.

• The crowd also liked the pin I was wearing. Printed up on Monday by Netroots Nation's Nolan Treadway (with help from others?) it says: "Ask me how many houses I own". (Christy took a picture of it.)
• So someone then asked me how many houses I owned. I think I calculated it at three percent of a house. The bank owns the other 97 percent.
• After the event, I was interviewed by a couple of adorable high school students. They asked me what the top three issues for kids should be. I answered 1) cost of higher education, 2) lack of jobs for graduates, 3) McCain talking about a draft, and 4) national service for all high school grads. Yeah, that's four, and yeah, I know some people don't like the idea of mandatory national service.

  I also told them that kids today are better able to integrate their politics into their lives thanks to social networking tools. That makes them more socially aware, more engaged, more tolerant, and more progressive than perhaps any generation before them. I dig the millennials.

• Back at the Big Tent, got to say "hello" to Ned Lamont and Rep. John Hall. Sen. Salazar passed through, pleased as heck that the convention was happening in his home state. Clay Johnson Aikens (not the American Idol guy) of the Sunlight Foundation and I lobbied him on electronic filing for Senate fundraising reports (which presidential and House candidates must do, but the Senate is oddly exempt), and promised to sign on as a co-sponsor to the relevant legislation. I can't believe that legislation is even controversial, but Republican John Ensign has been trying to kill it with a poison pill amendment.
• I wouldn't say Warner did terrible, but it's not good for anyone to come before or after Brian Schweitzer. I'm quite pleased his national profile is rising. He's the face of the Democratic resurgence in the Mountain West.
• But rising to the occasion, Hillary Clinton was perfect. I'm quite convinced she would've been our nominee had she voted against Bush war in Iraq, and she would've been a great nominee. .
• A stole a glimpse at the Cubs-Pirates score. Cubs won! But uh oh, Zambrano got hammered again. Like a good Cubs fan, I'm starting to panic. See? There's little difference between Cubs fans and Democrats. Neither of us are used to winning. And one bad poll/bad outing by your star pitcher, and we start assuming the worst.
• Back to Clinton, did you notice that she wore a Daily Kos-orange outfit? A signal to the PUMAs that their gig was up? Well, she could beat them with a 2x4 and they still wouldn't get the message because it ceased being about Clinton a long time ago...

  I am jealous that women politicians get to be creative in their outfits and use color. I love color. I loved Pelosi's minty green outfit at Netroots Nation. Guys, on the other hand, don't have such flexibility. My own readers panned me when I wore an orange tie on Meet the Press (they didn't like the brown sports jacket either). I cried for days. Either that or I said "Fuck all of you!" I can't remember which it was.

• I hadn't had a chance until late last night to peruse the chatter in the comment threads, and I'm surprised at how many whiners there are about the convention. I think it's been great. Monday night was awesome. Tuesday night was also awesome. I can't predict if Wednesday and Thursday will be awesome, but I'll go out on a limb and predict that yes, they'll be awesome too. (Sadly, that last sentence is better than 98 percent of the political "analysis" offered on television.)
• I could be in better spirits because I don't have to hear the yakkity yaks blabbing away incessantly, talking over speeches like Brian Schweitzer. Damn they love the sound of their own voices. Could they please shut the fuck up and let people digest the proceedings on their own? Do they have so little regard for their audience that they think people need DC- and NYC-based blowhards to tell them what to think?

  And yes, the simple answer is "yes".  

• I listened in briefly to a cop and some convention goers having a nice chat as we tried to get a cab to the hotel. He was saying how uneventful the convention had been, how well-behaved protesters had been, and how everything appeared to be going nice and smooth. Knock on wood, I suppose. I don't know how the TV blowhards have been portraying that stuff, but from my vantage point, it's been quite civil and -- dare I say it? -- even tame.

Maybe I should get a Twitter account, huh?