DNC Day 3: Bubba and Biden

This post will be extremely short because I want to get to Obama's speech and McCain's VP pick and have not posted in a while because I got stuck at work at the end of the week. In short, I thought Bill did better than Hillary, but still not up to what I though was needed to completely unify the party and convince viewers that bygones were, in fact, bygones. Like I said, better than Hillary and a decent speech, but after seeing Biden's and Obama's speech, I thought Bill could have done better.

One thing about Clinton's speech that made me pause was his entrance. He came out to this music (I forget what it was - I know I heard Springsteen at some point during the night). I wondered to myself - who picks the music? Is it like baseball where the player gets to pick his own music to come out to? If so, I hope they would have some kind of editer so the DNC doesn't have a Manny Ramirez moment.

Which brings me to Biden. I thought Biden's was a great speech and he did a good job laying out the case against McCain. Another question came up during his speech that was akin to my question for Clinton: is the audience participation planned or is it spontaneous? My thoughts are this is politics and it has to be planned; spontaneity is dangerous in politics because it leads to politically damaging moments (like calling your wife a cunt). But then again the people at these conventions are certifiably insane.

Whether the audience participation was staged or not, Biden's speech was still great. The examples of when Obama was right and McCain was wrong were striking and certainly should have, in Kucinich's words, woken some Americans up. It also was refreshing to see Biden point to his friendship with McCain and McCain's brave service to this country and to pay respect to it. Through all of this we must remember that McCain has done a lot for this country in terms of personal sacrifice and to forget that would be insulting. No one on the Democratic side of things is painting McCain as evil - just the opposite. As Obama said recently, it's not that McCain wishes to do this country harm, he is just out of touch and not as in tune with America's standing at home and abroad. So while McCain was a great soldier, and Biden did a great job of pointing this out, that is not the only qualification for president and this country needs someone who will take this nation in a new direction. In my opinion, painting McCain as someone who loves his country and means well but simply misfires was the best aspect of Biden's speech. Peace.

Photos - Bill Clinton at the DNC (iMedia Press), Biden at the DNC (CBS News)