New York senator Hillary Clinton's speech Aug.26, 2008 at the Democratic National Convention in Denver was a classic political speech, in that she threaded the needle between those clamoring for her to support Obama, and those clamoring for her to stay true to her campaign.

I'm an Obama supporter, and I didn't feel like Hillary needed to apologize, not at all. I'm also realistic in understanding that Obama will never get a ringing endorsement from her. What he needed was for her to try and move her supporters over to Obama's column, and she did what she had to do. Will they move over? It's up to them, but she did what she had to do.

Maybe I am dead wrong, but after watching Hillary Clinton's speech last night, it brought me back to reality. It made it crystal clear the reason why I support Barack Obama.
All the hype lately and all the hoopla about the Conventions have made me lose sight of why I choose to support Obama. I am not criticizing Hillary's speech, it was a good speech, but it was a political speech, just like so many speeches that have come before.
There were those who criticized Mark Warner and his Keynote speech, but I loved it, Warner's speech was, I think, what the whole Obama campaign stands for. Yeah, we are Democrats, but we need to be post partisan, it is imperative that we all work together, not only for the future of America, but for the future of the world.

I went into an election center tonight for our primaries in Alaska.  We had three choices for our ballots:  Republican, Democratic or ADL for anyone not registered for a particular party  - which is a large part of the state.  I'm unaffiliated, so asked for the ADL ballot.

When I got into the booth, however, I was so taken aback, it took a moment to register than they had given me the wrong ballot.  I was looking at the full slate of Republican candidates for the US Senate and our single House seat, currently held by Republicans Ted Stevens and Don Young, respectively.  The Republicans pushed through a closed primary a few years ago.  I was holding a ballot forbidden to me.

Last night I watched the DNC on my computer - God bless C-Span - and though it faded out now and then, I got to watch Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama speak.  Tonight I couldn't get the internet at all, so I took the dog out to the car, and listened to Hillary on the radio.  Earlier, on the way home, I got to hear Lily Ledbetter, part of Kathleen Sebelius, and Bob Casey.  (It's a long drive.)  I'm getting used to not having TV, and feeling a little proud at making do.

I started to write a diary last night, but every time I thought about Ted Kennedy I started to cry, so I gave up.  But I have some thoughts about what I have seen and heard that I want to share.

I have had the great opportunity to be a volunteer at the convention center for the convention.  Since this is my first convention, I had no idea what to expect.

You know there was something that really bothered me about John McCain's recent evocation of his POW experience on Leno.  And it wasn't just that he went to that particular well again.  It was how he did it.  

There was a time, he said, when he only had one house and it was a prison.  Does anyone in prison think of it as their house or their home especially if they have family and loved ones waiting for them?

My dad was in Viet Nam.  If anyone had asked him where he lived he probably would have said, "Well, I'm staying in a little half tent hut but my home is in the states where my wife and kids are waiting for me."

McCain had a wife and kids waiting for him.  There was a kitchen table that his wife sat at writing letters to congresspersons and officals trying tirelessly to get him freed from captivity, a kitchen table, the kind that Michelle Obama so eloquently described,with an empty chair waiting for him.  

  I  had a great time watching the convention coverage last night.   Kennedy was glowing, everybody seemed really pumped, and 'on', I was thrilled to watch, and wished I could be there with them.
   But for me, the big moment was Michelle's speech.  She looked beautiful, and I think, soared over expectations. I watched while on the phone with a friend of mine, another black woman, who was also watching.  We had our running 'sistahgrrl' commentary throughout, "She got her perm hooked up! She got ridda dem nappy edges, and her sh*t is swingin'!..."  My husband is White, and needles to say, chuckled in wry fascination. He loves hearing us talk in 'the old way', as it's such a departure from our usual, user-friendly English.
   Anyway, after her speech, and the kids came out and melted everyone's hearts, and my friend exclaimed, "Awww, lookit the shorties, Michelle always keeps them lookin' so cute", and my "mm-hmmm" agreement, came the CNN commentary, i.e. The Piss Off.

Hello,

I got a call from an official of the Associated Press this afternoon at my work number. He or she contends that my diary yesterday, which I have deleted, is filled with fact errors.

By superficial measures, you might mistake me for a Republican.

Having put on hold 10 years ago a very successful career, I am a dedicated full-time mother with three young children who is an active community volunteer and, yes, even occasionally bakes cookies.  As a practicing Catholic, I go to church regularly, think life is sacred and work actively to instill a sense of values in my children.  Indeed, we even benefitted from the Bush tax cuts.

I could be a Republican but yet I am a true progressive Dem, bringing my children with me to political rallies, the Million Mom March, door-to-door canvassing, phone banks, and most recently the Women for Obama event in NYC.  I’m not alone—there are millions of women like me. Michelle's speech gave me hope that the Obamas get women like me.

From the lion Teddy Kennedy to the not so silent lamb Michelle Obama, that is the way to start a convention. Baltimore's favorite Californian Speaker Pelosi let the convention know that we'll get to take on John McCain, later. [Just heard the Tonight Show audience's response to Leno's question to McCain about houses and his POW answer - Carson would have thrown them out of the theatre] Back to what I was going to say. The themes they spoke about are the ideals that first brought me to the Democratic Party. First family, seating down to dinner together, helping kids with home work, helping neighbors when they need it. The other ideal, that to who much is given, much is expected. There are two views of America - one that looks at the shining city on the hill and the other stands on the shore looking out on the horizon.

Michelle Obama Is Officially, My Hero

No one , and I mean no one , knows what it is like to be an African American woman living in the United States of America in this new Millennium. There are some women of Color, who certainly have a pretty darn good idea, but to be an "African" American woman in this country and living in our current American society, no one will ever understand or know what it's like inside.

A lot of people seem to expect Barack not to be a politician; they want him to be a Martin Luther King, an Albert Einstein, JFK, an Angel of the Lord, or something like that. I don't ask that of him.

Barack isn't God. He isn't Jesus. He's not leading us to the promised land.

He's just a man.

Follow me below the fold to learn why voting for just a man is fine with me.

I just got to the house we are staying in after the night's festivities.  I'm an Obama delegate from California.  Here is my quick reaction:

Michelle Obama and Ted Kennedy ennobled the evening.  Caroline's intro to Ted was very nicely done and Ted's mere presence inspired everyone, let alone his commanding ability to galvanize and tell it like it is.  The emotional truth that it might be the last time many of us will see him alive, was not lost on the delegates.

Hello, I've never "diaried" before.  I'm not doing it now because I expect any kind of attention.  It's just I'm 26 years old and I've never ended up becoming a bawling baby for the first time in my lifetime just by following a political scene so closely.  Drove me to share.

In the late summer of 2005, my stepfather was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive and deadly form of brain cancer and the same type that Senator Kennedy is currently fighting.  He was a role model for not just me, but for my mother, my sister, his parents, and virtually all those lucky enough to meet and know him throughout his life. Throughout the long, extremely difficult treatment that took place over the many months to follow, he never complained once.  Never once.  For those who do not know, brain cancer is an incredibly debilitating disease, as I'm sure you all can imagine.  Due to the location of my stepfather's tumor, skills like walking and speaking - things we take for granted in our everyday lives - quickly diminished before our eyes.  Without rehashing the horrible details, everyone understood he was in tremendous pain.  But he never complained once.

I've got a friend over in Australia who is getting his a post graduate degree studying a variety of material involving the Third Reich. His studies have led him to be grossly and inherently distrustful of leaders with an charisma (and the utter disappointment that has been Kevin Rudd has not helped this perception). As a result, we've had a number of spirited-yet-civil discussions about both Barack Obama and John McCain. I think I've convinced him why McCain isn't the foreign policy wonk my friend thought he was . . . but it's been extremely difficult to break my friend's view of Obama as a messianic figure.

What follows is the latest of these conversations. I'm posting this because this conversation could easily be taking place with an American conservative, and so I find our debates to be extremely good practice at sharpening my rhetoric vis a vis "Obama is not evil".

Also . . . any comments or advice you might give as to how to move the conversation forward I would be happy to listen to. I'd like all of us to maybe learn from this.

Musings From The Delaware Farm!!! We Grow Corn and Soybeans and Bidens!!! And Pumpkins!!! I was born in NYC; this is all new to me here!!!

cross-posted at Bleeding Heartland

I wouldn't say my four-year-old son was following the presidential race closely last year, but he was paying enough attention to understand that his parents were voting for John Edwards. Having been in the car a few times when I delivered yard signs, he also understood that an Edwards sign in front of someone's house meant that person was also voting for Edwards.

In March of this year, my son (by then five years old) asked me whether we were still voting for John Edwards. I explained that not enough people had voted for Edwards, so he couldn't be the president. We would vote for someone else, probably Barack Obama. He found that a little confusing, but over time it clicked with him that we were supporting Obama for president.

Last night we had a baby-sitter over for a couple of hours. While she was here, I was getting the kids a snack, and my older son asked her who she was voting for. She said, "McCain."

He followed up with, "But who are you voting for for president?" She said, "McCain."

Pause. He turns to me: "Mommy, are we voting for Obama?"

"Yes, we're voting for Obama, but [baby-sitter] is voting for McCain."

"Oh." And he went back to eating pretzels.