Upbeat Democratic National Convention

The Democratic Convention started off with a tribute to Senator Edward Kennedy. The Senator himself, made a surprise appearance at the convention, and was cheered over and over, as he gave his reasons, for believing that Senator Barack Obama was the one who could lead this nation forward to better time. He is suffering from a malignant brain tumor, and physically, he looked very good. It was a sentimental moment for all those in the center.

Michelle Obama spoke after Senator Kennedy, after being introduced by her brother. She was elegant and told the story of she and her brother, growing up, with her father and mother wanting them to get a good education, so that they could further themselves in life. Her father suffered from multiple sclerosis, and always got up an hour early so that he would be able to dress himself, in time to get to work. She and her brother received good educations because of her mother and her father, wanting them to have a part of the American dream. She met and married Barack Obama, who was persistent in wanting to date her, until she finally gave in. They were two very intelligent attorneys working in Chicago, but giving back to their community. She told of a very personal story, when she and Barack were coming home from the hospital with their baby daughter, and she was in the back seat of the car with the newborn and Barack was driving very slowly, and he kept looking in the mirror at the two of them with concern, that they were alright. It was a poignant story.

There were a lot of teary eyes after she was finished. She put a personal touch on she and her husband’s life, after mentioning all the opportunities she and the young man from Hawaii and Kansas, with a single mother and his grandparents raising him, had been given, she said emotionally that this was why she loved America so much.

The next evening Senator Hillary Clinton just about brought the house down by saying that she wanted all her delegates to vote for Barack Obama for president. We don’t want McCain, no way, no how. How the country would be getting more of the same, if we elected McCain, and not Obama. She asked them if they were in this only for her, you have to want to have health care, better wages, more jobs, and a host of other things, like ending the war in Iraq responsibly, if this is what want, Senator Clinton said, you have to vote for Obama, she is going to do everything she can to see that he is elected, he is her candidate for president. It was really, the best speech Senator Clinton has ever given. She included the line of, that’s why President Bush, and John McCain were headed to the Twin Cities, because it’s hard to tell the two of them apart.

After his wife spoke, the big man, former president William Jefferson Clinton, spoke to a cheering crowd, which gave him a standing ovation and then some. We gave a rousing speech, in he said the Republicans said the same thing about him as they are saying about Senator Obama, he’s too young, he doesn’t have enough experience. They were wrong then and they are wrong now, because he said, we were on the right side of history then and on the right side of history now. He said he, Hillary and Chelsea, along with the eighteen million people who voted for Senator Clinton, were going to do everything they could, to get Senator Barack Obama, elected as President of the United States. He intoned that Senator McCain’s policies will be more of the same for the country.

They, the Republicans want us to entrust them with four more years of the same failed policies, that have taken the country in the wrong direction. We must change things and take the country in the right direction, according to President Clinton. He left the convention in an upbeat mood.

Then on Thursday evening, before the eighty-four thousand people who had gathered in the Invesco Field Stadium, where the convention had been moved, Senator Obama, walked out to after a video had played introducing him to the audience and to thirty-eight million people watching all around the country. Senator Obama’s speech laid out his plan for various things, a ninety-five per-cent of Americans, an affordable heath care, plan, funds for young people to attend college, as long as they promise to give back to the community in some form, keeping our commitment to give health care to the veterans, ending the Iraq war in a responsible way, making sure Social Security is still in place for future benefits, helping people keep their homes, improving the economy by initiating “green jobs,” giving an addition stimulus package, finding alternative fuel sources through elimination of fossil fuel use, and a feasible energy policy. Also ending tax-credits for companies that take our country’s jobs overseas, eliminating the tax breaks for the wealthiest one-percent of individuals, to pay for an equitable tax cut for the middle class. He wants to give good teachers incentives to do a better job, by helping them to stay abreast of new technologies, and resources.

Senator Obama sounded off on Senator McCain by saying it’s not that Senator McCain doesn’t care, it’s just that he does not get it. He thinks, Obama went on, that making under five million dollars, makes you middle class (although Mr. McCain may have been joking , when he said that), and that the tax-cuts for the wealthy should be made permanent, and big oil companies should have more tax-cuts, although they are reporting profits of forty-billion dollars a quarter.

Senator McCain just does not know, and he wants to continue following the Bush polices that have gotten us to this place, ten trillion dollars in debt, paying one trillion dollars for the war, borrowing billions from China, Japan and others, which takes us deeper and deeper into debt, Senator Obama related in essence to the audience.

Senator Obama also made a point to Senator McCain, that we all are Americans and we all love our country, in other words, Senator McCain does not have a lock on patriotism. He wanted to know if Senator McCain wanted to have a debate, on whether or not Senator McCain had the judgment and temperament, to be Commander-in-Chief. This was a reference to Senator McCain, being called a “hot head” by some of his own fellow Republicans. Senator McCain has been know to have a short fuse at times. This was the first time Obama has mentioned this word, during the campaign. Senator Obama’s convention theme was “we need a change, not more of the same,” eight is enough. The convention ended with a spectacular fireworks display, dropping of confetti, streamers and everyone cheering.

According to pollsters, Senator Obama received a bounce in the polls before the convention, and a convention bounce, which together, now put him and Senator McCain, at 49% to 41%, in Obama’s favor. Senator McCain is thought to be able to have a bounce in the polls, after the Republican Convention. He has selected the Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, as his running mate, she has an approval rating in Alaska of over 90%, she is also being investigated for possibly firing the head of the State Troopers, in the state, because he refused to fire her brother-in-law, who was involved in a messy divorce with her sister.

Supposedly twenty-four telephone calls were made by the Governor’s staff and her husband, to force the firing. The Governor said she had nothing to do with the calls. The report on the findings, is supposed to be released in October this year, just before the election. We may have another history making event, unless the Republicans are able to make this go away. According to David Gergen, an adviser to many past presidents, this is one of the riskiest things he has ever seen. He stated that it appears that John McCain is going to govern, like he flew his plane in the Navy, well as I remember, he was shot down, for, figuratively flying “too close to the sun”.

The Republican Convention begins on Monday, the first of September, and hurricane Gustav has already altered the convention schedule, with the Governors of Texas, and Louisiana, deciding not to attend the convention in Minnesota, already having declared states of emergency in both their states, which are right in the path of the hurricane, which may be worse than Katrina, according to some reports.