Coverage of Obama's Acceptance Speech at the DNC.

I'm watching this time-shifted so I can skip the commercials, but I'm starting at the beginning as Will-I-Am is singing "Yes we can." It's beautiful and makes me tear up (1 hankie). It's amazing that an artist can make a moving song using a campaign speech. Says something about the campaigner, if you ask me.

I'm watching MSNBC's coverage, so there's lots of skipping around to avoid Chris Matthews and Pat Buchannan commentaries... (this isn't the "angry-yelling-at-the-TV-diary") I'm catching as much Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow as I can.

Hee hee... I wonder if Rachel Maddow knows that they're broadcasting her, Nora O'Donnell and Eugene Robinson dancing to Stevie Wonder? For all of her brilliance, she seems kind of shy and self-conscious.

Al Gore is beginning to speak. Just thinking about what the country would be like now if he'd been allowed to take his rightful office back in 2000... Good lord, this man should have been running this country. 1 hankie

Tom Brokaw of all people is making weird comments about the setting being "empirical." The other MSNBC commentators are sort of taking him to task for it.

Joe Biden is speaking. This is the first speech I've heard by him. Not bad...

This is crazy. MSNBC has a transcript of Obama's speech before he makes it, and Olbermann is reading parts of it? Don't spoil it for me! Holy crap!

MSNBC has got to be kicking themselves for putting their set outside. Earlier there was a guy with a bullhorn behind "Race for the Whitehouse" who was drowning out the pundits by screaming "911 was an inside job!" over and over, and now as Rachel Maddow and the others are trying to discuss the upcoming speech, the crowd noise - even without bullhorns - is making it hard to understand them.

That stadium is crammed full of people...

Dick Durban is taking the stage to introduce Obama.

I have to say, I've been hearing a lot of good speeches in the last few days, and very few speakers can move me the way Obama can. The man is a brilliant orator.

They're showing a video about Obama's biography. I have to say, he was not the prettiest of babies...

This video is very touching. Now he's talking about his mother's passing. 1 hankie

"One person's struggle is all of our struggles. We recognize ourselves in each other." 2 hankies

Is it just a trick of fate? The fact that I was born in '74 and Nixon and his successors are all I have to compare with? Barack Obama strikes me as potentially the most amazing leader our country has ever seen. Is it just because I was born so late in our country's history and don't remember anything better? Or is it the stark comparison of 8 disastrous years of Bush? This man seems so amazing to me. I want him to lead this country. 2 hankies

He's coming onstage, now, and people are weeping. 1 hankie

He accepts the nomination! 4 hankies

"Enough!" 4 hankies

"We love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight." 4 hankies

"They work hard, and they give back, and they keep going without complaint. These are the Americans I know." 3 hankies

"It's time for them to own their faliure." 3 angry hankies

"These are my heroes." 3 hankies

"I will restore our moral standing so that America is once again that last best hope for all that are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future." 2 hankies

"This election has never been about me. It's about you." 3 hankies

"...to hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dreams..." 2 hankies

Biden and his wife walking on stage to join the Obamas and embracing them really struck me, somehow. 3 hankies

Biden was a young widower, as well. Knowing that draws me to him all the more. Bringing a family through that trauma is difficult and he seems to done it exceptionally well.

"They're going to criticize me for saying that he inspires me, and to hell with my critics." Chris Matthews. That took me by surprise...

Well, they've left the stage. I guess that's a good enough place to stop. What an amazing speech.

Hillary Clinton Moves to Nominate Barack Obama by Acclimation

I just watched the roll-call vote of the Democratic National Convention, and I watched as Senator Hillary Clinton moved to suspend the roll-call and in a show of unity move to nominate Barack Obama as the Democratic Nominee.

I have to tell you, this was a very emotional moment for me. Tears were pouring out as I watched the Democratic Party come together and nominate their candidate. I wasn't the only one, either. There were a lot of tear-streaked faces in that crowd. 4 hankies

Barack Obama at the Annual NCLR Conference

at 3:58:

"Maybe the system is not designed for people like us."

It was a comment about education, but it reflects a broader feeling that so many people share; that the system just isn't working for them. And they're right - it's not.

The system isn't working when a child in a crumbling school graduates without learning to read, or doesn't graduate at all.

The system's not working when a young person at the top of her class, a young person with so much to offer this country can't attend a public college or university

The system isn't working when hispanics are losing their jobs faster than almost anybody else are working jobs that pay less and come with fewer benefits than almost anybody else.

The system isn't working when twelve million people living in hiding and hundreds of thousands are crossing our borders illegally each year.

When companies hire undocumented immigrants instead of legal citizens because they want to avoid paying overtime or avoid unionization or exploiting those workers,

When communities are terrorized by ICE Immigration Raids,
When nursing mothers are torn from their babies,
When children come home from school to find their parents missing,
When people are detained without access to legal council,

When all that is happening, the system just isn't working and we need to change it.

This is a nation of immigrants. It's sad that many of us quickly forget that and make the modern immigrant experience such a harrowing one. 2 hankies

Barack Obama Addresses A.M.E. Church General Conference

I'm not religious in the sense that I don't believe in the supernatural, but I do respond to a good sermon because I am culturally Christian and my Liberal values do coincide with the Christian values that drove the major social movements in the U.S.: Abolitionists, Suffragettes, Civil Rights activists, etc. This was a good sermon. I know that a lot of my fellow Liberals are uncomfortable with Obama's religious rhetoric, but I'm not worried. He's re-building the wall between Church and State in his overhaul of Bush's corrupt faith-based initiative and he speaks in universal language in the public sphere and religious language when he's in the religious sphere. He does a good job of not mixing the two.

This speech was powerful and comforting. There were quite a few places that I got weepy, especially when he invoked the image of those same faith-based civil rights pioneers I mentioned above - anti slavery, pro-feminist, pro-labor and civil rights activists. And when he talked about the problems we have and the solutions we can find. 3 hankies

Obama Victory Speech - June 3, 2008

I'm finally getting a chance to watch the whole Obama speech. I know this is going to be rough for me because it's been so long coming, and so important. Blogging it as I watch it.

He's thanking his wife and kids. 1 hankie.

He's thanking his grandma who helped raise him. "Tonight is for her." 2 hankies.

"I will be the Democratic Nominee..." 1 hankie - again! I caught this, earlier, when I flipped over from 30 Days. Still chokes me up.

People are holding up "Unify!" signs. 1 hankie.

They're cheering him to the rafters. 1 hankie.

"I respect his many accomplishments, even if he chooses to deny mine." The crowd cheers him to the rafters, again. 1 hankie.

"...give our veterans the care and the benefits they deserve when they come home." 1 hankie.

"...that is the legacy of Roosevelt, and Kennedy, and Truman..." 2 hankies.

"...cities in Michigan, and Ohio, and right here in Minnesota, He'd understand the kind of change people are looking for." 1 hankie.

"or where he spoke tonight in New Orleans..." 1 hankie.

"That's why I'm running for President of the United States." 2 hankies.

The crowd is chanting "Yes, we can!" 3 hankies.

"...That uses religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon." 1 hankie.

"We are always Americans first!" 2 hankies.

"So it was for that band of patriots in Philadelphia..." The tears are just flowing, now. 4 hankies.

"That this was the moment..."

"so that it may always reflect our very best selves..."

...


That was almost cathartic. I cry a lot (as I've documented in this blog), but I haven't cried that much at one time in quite awhile. Pride and hope and joy mingled with a bit of sadness at the current sad state of this great nation. We're going to fix it, though. We're going to elect this man President and have a strongly Democratic House and Senate and we're going to save America again.

Barack Obama Clinches the Nomination

I just saw Barack Obama announce that he will be the Democratic nominee for President. I'm crying with joy and pride and even, yes, relief. We need this man to lead us out of the hole that the Bush Administration has dug over the last 8 years. 3 hankies