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Last week, on the second or third night of the Democratic Convention, I wrote a little bit about my skepticism about Barack Obama. I forget exactly what my point though because now it absolutely doesn’t matter. Essentially, my thoughts on Barack were basically that he a.) he kind of seemed to be drinking his own bath water b.) did not have the fortitude or political expertise to win the election. In light of the speech he gave on Thursday night, I’m no longer worried. The guy’s brilliant. I can’t say anything that hasn’t already been said on this, except that no one has ever used an acceptance speech to so thoroughly and effectively take the fight to the opposition like Barack did. It did everything it needed to do. It was heroic.

So, as if he wasn’t going to spend the remainder of the campaign responding to what Barack said on Thursday, things have gotten even worse for John McCain. No doubt he hoped his unveiling of runningmate Sarah Palin would usurp news coverage from Barack leading into the Republican convention. Palin is, after all, only the second woman to ever be on the bottom half of the top of a major party ticket in American history. But instead, attention was immediately diverted by the fact that she is completely inexperienced and unprepared to vice president (and therefore president if the 72-year-old McCain [happy birthday, by the way] croaks in office), is under investigation for corruption and has a pregnant 17-year-old daughter. Oh, and they had to rework the entire convention schedule when a massive hurricane just barely missed New Orleans. I’m sure I don’t have to explain why severe weather in or around the Big Easy doesn’t make for winning politics for the Republican Party. It’s like Friday rolled around and McCain was like, “Fuck it. I’ve had enough of being a viable contender for this thing.”

So what goes around comes around, as the saying goes. The political pendulum seems to have swung, the conservative moment passed. I’ll check back in on this when the GOP convention over and the week of nonstop footage of young prison-camp McCain has run its course, but I’m pretty sure the train has left the station on this one. If only we could fast-forward to November 4th. We would have to endure a lot less bullshit.

Greg Lutze has a shiny new blog. Be sure to check it out.

• Benjamin Franklin
• President George Washington
• Thomas Jefferson
• Malcolm X
• Abraham Lincoln
• Ernesto “Che” Guevara

The Obamas talk to Dad Jetsons-style on stage at the Democratic Convention.

Last night the Democratic National Convention kicked off in Denver, Co. last night. Everyone who has put pen to paper since has raved about Michelle Obama’s striking performance and the emotional appeals to the American Dream from a terminally ill Ted Kennedy, a guy who has been to so many Democratic conventions that it’s hard to imagine that any one could ever be his last. Both their speeches were inspiring to be sure, though the whole experience was blunted by the massive wall of cynicism that stands between me and admiration for any figure in national politics. I was slow to join the Obama bandwagon (not out of any love for Hillary Clinton, mind you) and now I’m just as reluctant to give into any idea other than we’re getting ready to send a seriously badass motherfucker to the White House.

So, mostly, what strikes me about this convention is that for the first time in a while it actually seems like a gathering of winners. All of a sudden, thanks chiefly to George W. Bush and secondarily to Obama and his star-power, the Democrats are behaving like a party that can win and a party that can govern. They know they’re the shit and they’re going to flaunt it.

I think the best moment from the convention so far that illustrates this point is the one I pulled the picture up top from. This was a moment of pure political stagecraft wherein the Michelle and the girls checked in with Barack in Kansas City via satellite, where he is, it seems, watching the convention with the common folk. Pretty nice touch and also not a bad campaign move. Barack isn’t even in attendance at the convention, which gives them all the reason they need to move it into a 70,000 seat stadium when he gets there. It also gives them this mechanism with which he can check in and out of the proceedings periodically via satellite. And it also gives him a bit of a common touch: at the gathering of party insiders, Barack Obama isn’t even there.

with Rilo Kiley all of a sudden like some kind of idiot. I remember like five years ago when they were huge I couldn’t have given two shits about this band. Now though, man, I can’t stop listening. Sooo laaaame.

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