The word "historic" has been a near mantra when describing Barack Obama's candidacy. Yesterday, his nomination as the first black candidate for a major political party caused delegates, political commentators and viewers alike to tear up at the grand significance of that moment.

A new Washington Post poll provides a snapshot of how Obama's candidacy has stirred hopes in the hearts of black voters:

Nearly two-thirds of black voters in the new poll said they could see one of their children becoming president, up 11 percentage points from the fall of 1992. At 47 percent, whites are about where they were back then on the question.

As an aside, the poll also reveals this interesting tidbit:

For white voters, the pride issue helps to predict their preference in the voting booth. Obama is the choice of 59 percent of those whites who said he has made them more proud, while Sen. John McCain, his Republican opponent, is favored by 57 percent of those who said Obama's being the first African American nominee has no effect on their level of pride.

A Republican talking head was just on MSNBC with Chuck Todd saying that they are having "fun with the Doric columns".

For those of you who do not have an architectural education under your belt and may not understand why so many government buildings in this country - federal, state and local - have these Doric Columns in various iterations, I'm here to give you the simple answer.

First let's just be clear on what a Doric column is.  

Here is a picture of a Doric column:

http://www.bobvila.com/...

http://en.wikipedia.org/...

For comparison here is what is known as a Corinthian colum:

http://en.wikipedia.org/...

Tonight, Barack Obama accepts the Democratic Party's nomination for President.  His is a singular achievement for which he deserves much personal credit.  He earned it.  

I'd like to pay tribute to some of the African Americans who struggled and sacrificed in the attempts for freedom and equality in the history leading to this day.  

The first enslaved Africans arrived in Colonial Jamestown, Virginia in 1619:

In August 1619, 20 black men were purchased from a passing [Dutch] slave ship bound from Luanda, Angola, to Vera Cruz, Mexico. However, these may not have been the first; 32 Africans were noted five months earlier in a Virginia census of 1619.

Come around after the fold for a little history of how we got to this day and the many who struggled for freedom and equality in the almost 400 years since the first enslaved Africans set foot in what later became the United States.

The power of words has taken center stage at this convention.  Speeches from Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, and many others who have spoken over the last three days have brought cheering crowds to their feet and have brought tears of joy to the eyes of many.  Here are some word clouds from the convention (click image to enlarge):

Joe Biden:

Bill Clinton:

Hillary Clinton:

To try out your own hand at illustrating the convention's speeches, head on over to Wordle.

Schweitzer was the hit of the conventioneers Tuesday night, and he made a pretty good impression at the Big Tent yesterday. Goldy asked a few questions and caught his Q&A session here.

Biden, yesterday, on John McCain's service:

"These times require more than a good soldier. They require a wise leader."

And the McCain camp's weak tea response:

The McCain campaign immediately struck back at Biden last night, saying, "Joe Biden is right. We need more than a good soldier, we need a leader with the experience and judgment to serve as commander in chief from day one. That leader is John McCain."

Something's missing from this response...something doesn't read quite right...oh, that's right. No mention of McCain as prisoner of war.  

I guess when you're told that being in a prison for five and a half years does not qualify you to be president, you can't really reach out and play the POW card without looking, well, silly. Bravo to Biden for disarming McCain of his ubiquitous "POW defense."  Day 1 on the VP candidate job, and Biden is already demonstrating that Obama made a wise choice.

Tonight, at, before or about the time Obama is to speak at Mile High Stadium, John McCain: POW, will reveal his EXCITING new ad. responding to Obama's convention highlights.
Hacks and shills agree that it will draw all of Obama's audience to catch this EXCITING campaign ad featuring their new "GodWarrior" Republican logo:
 
....um..... yea.... thanks for the warning... I'll be sure and tune in to C-SPAN. No commercials there.
Now back to your regularly scheduled bobble head hit jobs....

I just heard this on the local Denver radio  - The stage at Invesco that is being ripped by the GOP is to recreate the Lincoln Memorial where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous speech on this day 45 years ago.  It is not to make Obama a god, but to honor those who paved the way.  This is the only mention of this and I fervently hope it is true...

SPREAD THE WORD

trying to find link (was an oldies station)

JUST HAD A GOP FRIEND TELL ME IT DID NOT MATTER CAUSE LINCOLN AND MLK WERE REPUBLICANS

Dear Corporate Media,

I fully understand that controvery is your life's blood. I know you must feed this beast 24 hours a day with innuendo, gossip, speculation and drama.  I sympathize; I really do.

How dejected you must be that the manufactured luscious the-Clintons-are-not-on-board narrative has played itself out.  (Although to your credit, you milked it for every drop of airtime you could.)

Now, it's the hours before Senator Obama's acceptance speech.  What will you talk about? 

It's being reported that Senator John McCain refuses to run an honorable campaign by allowing the Democratic Party to have their convention week to themselves in exchange for the same curiosity to the Republican Party's convention in September.  He’s apparently a bit afraid to wait till Saturday or Sunday.

Senator McCain is reportedly planning on announcing his VP selection the day after Senator Barack Obama accepts the Democratic Party's nomination tonight.  Stealing away any possible attention/bump the Party might get from their convention.

Well, perhaps the Obama campaign should do the same honors to the Republican Party immediately after John McCain's acceptance speech at the end of their convention.

While some of you have been wringing your hands over the media memes about "columns" and "red meat", I have been greatly amused over the fact that the media has totally missed the point.

Briefly, on Morning Joke this morning someone touched on it, but that correct insight was covered up quickly with more of the "concern" that the Democratic event has failed to do the job.

I say: Seriously? Let me tell you what the Convention did. It gave a face to the people McCain and his Rovian thugs will be going after. Teflon John has been protected fom attacks by his POW/Maverick/War Hero brand. But we have seen nothing of that hero in his actions regarding the issues Americans care about.

Well, now that America, and especially American women, have seen and heard Michelle Obama and heard those two precious little girls greet their Daddy, how receptive do you think they will be to GOP tactics portraying Obama as "scary"?

Money must grow on trees. Somewhere, in some tucked away valley in some remote corner of this world, there must be an entire orchard of Money Trees, where hundred dollar bills hang oh-so-delicately from dainty branches in the summer, and where cool winds cause gold coins to crisply jingle to the ground in the fall. That's the only way I can explain how The Hill and others can justify paying Dick Morris to opine on politics.

In case you missed it, convention week has shown us a new side of Dick Morris, Morris the Prophet.  This isn't your typical concern trolling, folks. No, with his columns this week, Morris transcends all levels of reality, peers past pesky things like facts and logic and stares straight into the future of our Democratic Party.  

First, Morris gave us a preview of Hillary's speech this week, writing in a Hill column entitled "The better Hillary does, the worse for Obama" that:

By not putting Hillary on his ticket and then giving her a primetime speech at the convention on Tuesday, Obama has the worst of both possible worlds. The better Hillary’s speech, the more people ask why she was passed over for vice president. This column is written before Mrs. Clinton spoke on Tuesday night, but she will not blow this opportunity to shine in front of a larger national audience than she has ever had. She will crisply articulate her programs and proposals and will come across as forceful, committed and energetic.

How very Ms. Cleo of Mr. Morris to divine that Hillary Clinton would focus on her agenda. Of course, Hillary's speech focused on the Democratic Party agenda as a whole, because, after all, this is the Democratic National Convention, not the Clinton National Convention (although Morris's mistake may be understandable, given the media's coverage of the event).

But wait! Morris isn't done flexing his mental abilities. Not only was he able to see into the future this week and tell us what Clinton would say, but he also turned his omnipotent mind's eye on the fairer sex and predicted this:

Women from coast to coast will watch her and wonder why she isn’t on the ticket [...] Obama has a huge problem with female voters [...] He didn’t help himself with these women by not choosing Hillary. Now, when Hillary spends all of Tuesday night showing what a grievous omission leaving her off the ticket really was, the electoral consequences for Obama are likely to be horrific.

Dick Morris: Taking the pulse of the female electorate by telepathically groping women, one voter at a time. By pulling a Mel Gibson and telling us What Women Want, Morris foresees "horrific" consequences for Obama, presumably because women "from coast to coast" will be so furious that Obama didn't pick a woman for VP that they will flock to a decidedly anti-woman candidate, or just stay at home altogether. And clearly, true prophecy springs forth from the mouth of Morris, as these numbers foretell:

Obama's lead among women is currently between 10 and 15 points, with McCain running 10 points behind George W. Bush in 2004 and 5 points behind Bush in 2000.

Horrific! Quick! Get me a flyswatter! I think I hear locusts coming!

It is not enough that Morris warns us of the coming cataclysms for our party, but today, in a column entitled "What's Up With Bill," he also pens a piece on Bill Clinton, disclosing exactly how the the former president will conduct himself in the months to come:

Bill Clinton’s strategy is to take refuge in his carefully cultivated reputation for being undisciplined and borderline-eccentric to drop bombs on Obama in such a way that Hillary can escape blame. [...]

Enter Bill. All through the primaries, he played the role of a negative Greek chorus, dropping attacks on Obama in opaque and eccentric language whose very vagueness permitted him to dance away from the blame for going negative when it suited him. [...]

Bill’s antics are the harbinger of how he will act throughout the whole campaign. In public he will support Obama while delivering remarks that, somehow, are always misunderstood!

A revelation so stunning, it merits an exclamation point!  

Perhaps Morris should adapt his prescient columns into a quatrain format, to be published in leather-bound volumes and preserved for posterity.  That way, one day, future generations can sit below a grove of Money Trees and read page after page of talent as real as the hundred-dollar bills providing shade above them.

On local PBS last night, it was a joy to hear someone tell a brain-dead anchorperson to shut up. Debbie Elliot, one of the more formulaic of the PBS anchors, was interviewing WNYC reporter Bob Henley (pretty sure it was him) after Biden's speech.  She recalled Bill Clinton's speech earlier in the evening and grabbed the usual cliche.  "Bob," she asked, full of faux seriousness, "do you think that Bill Clinton's speech finally puts the Clinton problem behind the Democrats?"  "Not if we keep talking about it, Debbie," Henley responded quietly.

It is surely a joy when, ever so rarely, someone speaks the truth to the mindless talking-heads whom the media inflict upon us.    

This diary may break the rules and if people get too upset, I'll delete it.  But I am heading off to Invesco right now.  Unfortunately, I won't be in audience. :(  I will however be at the 100 Biltz Burger booth.  I am working their for charity.  Stop by and say hi!  (and trade some pins with me!).  I know this is an open thread comment, but there isn't any right now.  See ya there!

I have been a passionate civil libertarian and an independent voter my entire life.  At one point I entertained the possibility of voting for John McCain in the upcoming presidential election.

Michael Jordan couldn't stay away from the game of Basketball.
Brett Farve couldn't stay away from the football field.
Barry Bonds wants to come back and round the bases once more.

The thrill of existing in the competitive arena in which a person elevates himself to the status of legends is hard to walk away from.

Today, another legendary figure is reported to have returned to their legendary perch for another round. The Sultan of Slander, The Grand Poobah of Puppetry, the man that showed us that treason is not a crime, it's a hobby; Karl Rove is back.

John McCain is a war hero. John McCain is an honorable man. John McCain is a friend of mine.

That, my fellow Liberals (thats right, I called you Liberals, OWN IT mfers!)is killing the cause. Its been said by a few people in diaries on Dkos and by people like Cenk  of the young Turks and many others im sure, but it bears repeating over and over and over until democrats get it through their heads that their hurting themselves.

Forty-five years ago, a man stood in front of the nation and dreamed of a day when all would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Forty-five years ago, that seemed a distant dream.

Five years ago, could we have imagined this day?