Hillary Clinton just moved to suspend the roll call vote and to make Barack Obama nominee of the party by acclimation.

I've never been as excited about a nominee in my life. I loved Bill Clinton, but as good as he was as President, I think Obama has the ability to build a durable, Democratic majority for decades to come, and to get our country, with a government broken by Republican rule, back on track.

Onwards.

Another commentator nails the stupidity of hand-wringing by Dems.

In particular, I think the advice to just stay focused and stay himself is dead-on. Barack needs to make sure people know who he is, and what the differences are between him and McCain.

If he can do that — and I fully expect he will — he should win the election handily. It's up to the rest of us to do our part — to keep our focus on McCain, his manifold character flaws that make him ill-suited for the White House, and his embrace of the worst of the Bush-Cheney agenda.

Glad to see that even mainstream media folks are recognizing John McCain is perfectly willing to tell audacious, bold-faced lies to win.

If you haven't done so already, read Maureen Dowd's column today about the self-loathing tendencies among Democrats (I also mentioned her piece in this post last night). Every Democrat-leaning blogger ought to read it. Because she nails the achilles heel of the party.

Sadly, I've seen a lot of this on the usually great and wonderful TPM, one of my favorite political sites, during the last week. And now Andrew Sullivan is getting into the act, with lame, stupid, irrelevant posts highlighting people's stupid-ass concerns about… THE STAGE SETTING AT IVESCO!!!

Good lord. 

People, this is why we lose elections. We start obsessing over our doubts about our candidate, and his campaign. And guess what, that gives license to everyone else — the media, independents, and the undecideds, to think there must be something wrong if we're all worried and upset and convinced our man is a loser. To be blunt: if you engage in this stuff, you're doing just what the Republicans want you to do, and you're their tool.

The stage will be fine. Obama will be fine. We'll attack plenty, when we need to. Focus your ire and attention and energy on McCain, and beating the tar out of him the next 60 days.

That's what Republicans do –they stifle their self doubt, and focus on winning — and that's why they win.

One last note: I continue to be impressed by the community over at Dailykos.com. They've studiously avoided this kind of BS the past few days. You can tell that crowd knows how to win. Very impressive. I like being in the political foxhole with those folks, even if they get on my nerves sometime. They know how to keep their cool and focus under fire.

UPDATE: For those of you who missed the reference to the Ivesco Field stage worries, it stems from people getting nervous, worried by the ignorant taunts of bloviating idiots like Charles Krauthammer, who mocked the Obama stage today. Well, turns out it is pretty similar to a stage used… in 2004 by George W. Bush. Take that and shove it up your derriere, Krauthammer, you dumb jackass! When Obama is nominated in January, maybe you can go back to practicing psychiatry and work your magic on some of your fellow travelers in the troglodyte neocon world.

With the pressure now on Barack Obama to deliver a stemwinder Thursday after Hillary's great speech tonight, I thought it would be interesting to look at reactions to Bill Clinton's acceptance speech in 1992.

The NY Times panned it.

Another NY Times columnist I love to hate simply nails it tonight. Here's Modo on the self-loathing tendencies of the Dems:

So that added to the weird
mood at the convention, with some Democrats nitpicking Obama’s
appearance, after Michelle’s knock-out speech and the fabulously cute
girls, with a reassuring white family in a town he couldn’t remember at
one point. They wondered why he wasn’t wearing a tie, fearing he looked
too young, and second-guessed Michelle’s green dress, wondering if it
clashed with the blue stage, and fretted that there wasn’t a speaker
Monday night attacking McCain and yelling about gas prices.

“I’m telling you, man,” said one top Democrat, “it’s something about our party, the shtetl mentality.”

If we (Democrats) are going to win this election, this has got to stop. Case in point tonight, Josh Marshall's blog (which I so totally, usually love) makes a post out of a stupid, idiotic complaint about the "More of the Same" signs from supposed "marketing expert."  Josh, why give a platform to this kind of silly, trivial, whiny crap?

The reason Republicans win so often is that they want power, and want it badly, and put aside their petty complaints and pet peeves to get the job done and stick to message. When they feel some internal disappointment, they double down on the attack.

Sadly, so often, it seems like all we Democrats can do is nominate fine candidates, and then proceed to second-guess it all because Republicans dare to attack them…

But let me end on a more positive note. I think Team Obama is, so far, playing the week masterfully, contrary to the punditry. Michelle Obama and Teddy last night — solid triple. Hillary tonight? Home run. They're drawing the contrasts with McCain, without being too strident, and introducing the Obamas to Americans as the normal, regular folk that they are.

And I expect the week to get better.

I thought I'd never forgive her the comments about Obama during the primaries. But her speech tonight gets an A+!
Hilarious to see Republicans (and the conservative-controlled media, FoxNews and Ron Fournier among them) try to spin this into something it wasn't.

more about "Hillary Clinton, Not a Dead-ender", posted with vodpod

Kos makes an interesting point this morning — that all of the blather about last night being "wasted" is coming from Carville types.

And that they Netroots — who have been relentlessly calling on Democrats to take on the Republicans — were thrilled with last night. As Kos points out, those really paying attention know that the big challenge right now is to introduce the Obamas to the American public and to clear away the distortions by the Republicans.

In fact, now that I think about it, the people who complained about last night were either (a) Republicans or right-leaning commentators like Chris Wallace, and (b) Hillary supporters. Hmmm, interesting.

James Carville says last night was a bust.

His candidate of choice — Hillary — speaks tonight. What a nice setup, to rant and rave about last night. Anyone want to take bets on Carville talking about Hillary rescuing the convention tonight?

Who do you thin would be among the most loyal, ardent supporters of the Democratic Party — and its nominee for President? You'd think near the top of the list would be the current and past Chairmen and Chairwomen of the Party, right? You'd think they, of all people, would make every human effort to be at every major speech during the convention, barring illness or a death in the family, right?

Well, I guess not all Chairmen are that way. News today that Terry McAuliffe — Chairman of the DNC under Bill Clinton, and finance chair for Hillary Clinton — can't be bothered to make Barack Obama's speech on Thursday.

Add another to the list of Clinton dead-enders.