Live blogging Obama's acceptance speech

Obama's just about to get started, and I have goosebumps. If I live another 60 years, God willing, this really will be a night to remember.

My first thought after Obama walked out - this guy is politically courageous, without question. It takes a great deal of moxie to decided to fill a stadium full of 75,000 people. Anyway, here we go. ...

An early favorite Obama quotation: "We are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight."

Excellent decision by Obama to mention McCain's inexcusable voting record, where he has sided with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time. "I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a 10 percent chance on change," said Obama, after blasting McCain for thinking Bush has been correct 90 percent of the time. Brilliant.

A fist-pump (no, not a fist bump, Fox News, although what's wrong with that?) moment was when he tore into McCain for being associated with the thoroughly detestable Phil Gramm, the former Texas U.S. Senator who was one of the chief architects of McCain's economic policy. Gramm very publicly (and stupidly) called the recession we are in a "mental recession" and then had the temerity to call American a "nation of whiners."

Obama's mentioning and paying appropriate homage to President Clinton (actually, both Clintons) - certainly not a bad idea, especially considering the 23 million jobs that were created during his presidency.

I just heard Obama say for the second time, "I am my brother's keeper." What a concept - one that was lost on America back in the 1980s, with the advent of Reaganomics, and the greedy, selfish, survival of the fittest economic mentality.

I'm very happy to hear Obama mention that he'll cut taxes for over 90 percent of Americans. Next week, McCain will no doubt try to scare the living shit out of as many Americans as possible with tales of tax hikes for everyone.

I'm encouraged to hear Obama pay appropriate attention to America's energy problems - how Congress and Washington has "been talking about our addiction to foreign oil for 30 years." And, by the way, "McCain has been in Washington for 26 of them." A nice touch - painting his relative inexperience as an asset, not a liability, because that's exactly what it is. However, what about our infrastructure and mass transit? Still missing from Obama's campaign platform. Maybe the Amtrak-riding Biden will help him right that wrong.

10:39 - I love it that Obama just mentioned that repugnant bankruptcy law, which never should have been passed in the first place. An Obama administration will no doubt right that wrong in year one.

10:41 - Corporate tax loopholes - YES! It's about time someone not just talk about closing them, but actually do it. Put that one in the Clip & Save file.

10:42: "If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament to serve as the next commander in chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have!" That's just the right tone - not too over the top, but combative enough to let Americans know he means business.

10:43: Easily the highlight of his speech so far is talking about foreign policy and terrorism - the corporate media-generated McCain stronghold (which is a myth and a joke). My favorite: "John McCain has said he'll follow bin Laden to the gates of hell, but he won't even follow him to the cave where he lives." Take that, McSame.

10:45: Each and every tax-paying American should be outraged, and I do mean OUTRAGED, that Iraq has a $79 billion surplus, while we are swimming in red ink and debt. I can't wait to hear McCain defend that one.

Obama is clearly not going to sit back and wait for McCain to come to him - he's taking him on regarding foreign policy. "We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. Don't tell me we can't keep this country safe." Excellent, and another "it's about time."

10:47: "Patriotism has no party..." what a concept. Okay, THIS is his best line thus far. Funny, it's always Republicans and conservatives I hear questioning people's patriotism over political disagreements, not Democrats. This is an excellent word choice by Obama, who it was publicized earlier tonight wrote this speech himself. Impressive indeed.

10:50: I'm very pleased to hear Obama mention "our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters." If you're gay and you vote for McCain, kindly leave the planet, PLEASE.

10:54: "What the naysayers never understand is that this election is not about ME - it's about YOU." He's taking shots at Karl Rove's playbook, which hopefully will be on the political trash heap by November 5, but I'm not holding my breath. But I'm happy Obama's going on the offensive here.

~~~
Well, it's all over, and I came away very impressed (obviously) - it was an extraordinary performance. The critics said he couldn't do it - that he's nothing but a good talker, but he went out and kicked two legs out from under the platform of that argument.

I've been pretty derisive and harshly critical of the media coverage this week (and with good reason). However, MSNBC's Chris Matthews is doing everything but putting on an Obama campaign button. (And I'm not complaining.) Matthews is summing up his favorite lines from the speech thusly [this is Matthews talking]...

You take your opponent's best shot, and you throw it back at him. "Are we a nation of WHINERS?!?"

"If this is an ownership society, YOU OWN YOUR OWN FAILURES!"

"Was my upbringing a celebrity upbringing?!?"

And how dare you say this election is a test of patriotism, when we are all in this together? It was a great way of throwing back the other side's best shot, and saying it's full of crap! [Emphasis all by Chris Matthews]

As Olbermann pointed out, "there was no stone left unturned here," noting there were 29 specific policy proposals, and 19 different instances where Obama pointed out the inadequacies of the McCain campaign.

Next week will be a very interesting one in our political world. With the backdrop of Tropical Storm and soon-to-be Hurricane Gustav getting ready to enter the Gulf of Mexico, it gives Obama a chance to highlight Republican ineptitude in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. And of course, McCentury is having his Republican Convention, and tomorrow we get to find out who his running mate is. (Please, let it be Rudy 9iu1ian1, but I don't think even McCain could be that stupid.)

I'm not rooting for Gustav to hit the US to upstage the GOP Convention, to be sure, but another impending natural disaster raises plenty of questions about the competency of the openly anti-government GOP's ability to run a government that it's so determined to undermine, at least socially.

And, of course, when powerful hurricanes hit, it also raises important questions about global warming, which are certain to be raised again this coming week.

More to follow soon, including a recap of this past week - the good, the bad and the ugly (and there was plenty ugly about the Democratic Convention, most notably the coverage).

More McCain vs. McCain - not a repeat

These videos keep getting better and better, and it doesn't get old posting them. Last night on Countdown, Rachel Maddow (one of my favorite liberal radio talk show hosts) was filling in for Keith Olbermann, but the McCain mendacities don't take vacation. Again and again and again, McCain denies having ever admitted that he's not a whiz on the economy, when plenty of video exists out there that he had done just that, multiple times.

As Rosa Brooks of the LA Times points out, it's not an egregious sin to admit that you aren't an economics wonk, but to deny having ever having said that suggests three things (and perhaps a combination of all three): 1. He's flat-out lying, 2. He doesn't believe that people like Maddow and Olbermann (or common folk) will take the time to find out his statements to the contrary, or 3. He just doesn't remember (just what we need, another Ronald Reagan, i.e. ("I don't recall...")).

What's worse is the people who McCain is surrounding himself with for economic advice: former Senator Phil Gramm, who has more than a few ties to the mortgage crisis, as well as our energy crisis; Alan Greenspan, a brilliant man but also one who must share at least partial blame for the mortgage crisis that is crippling Middle America; and Carly Fiorina, a woman I have a lot of respect and admiration for, but also a woman who didn't exactly turn Hewlett Packard into the next Microsoft, to be kind.

To sum it all up, McCain is downright clueless on economic matters, admits it, then denies it, and who surrounds himself with people almost as clueless as he is. If McCain is a cure for the deep recession that the economy is in, then attaching leeches to an HIV patient will cure AIDS.

Maverick McCain's lobbyist ties: Unreal

Crooks & Liars has been all over John McCain's ties to lobbyists, despite his spoon-fed persona (that the media happily gobbles up) that he's a lobbyist-hating, Straight-Talking Maverick who is a champion of campaign finance reform. From C&L:

Last week we brought you this story about McCain campaign Co-Chair Phil Gramm and his lobbying efforts that put him on the wrong side of the ongoing mortgage foreclosure crisis. Now, it appears Gramm's association with the aging Republican senator's campaign is doing far more harm that previously known. UBS, a bank for which Gramm lobbied, is now under investigation for alleged use of overseas tax havens to hide assets of its wealthy clients from U.S. authorities — while in office, Gramm also supported these tax havens after 9/11, which hampered the government's ability to track Osama bin Laden's financial network before 9/11.

It gets better. Last night on Countdown, Keith Olbermann, along with The Nation's Chris Hayes, had a pretty lively discussion about what Gramm's role on McCain's campaign means for McCain's reputation as a:

Straight Talker
Maverick
Champion of Campaign Finance Reform
Vehement Anti-Lobbyist

Sheesh - could it be reasoned that pretty soon, McCain's darling media could run out of attractive labels for him? I doubt it, but it doesn't hurt to fantasize.

Here's a brief excerpt by Hayes during last night's Countdown:

"...What this reveals is actually a really profound contradiction at the heart of the Republican coalition, the conservative coalition and McCain's campaign, which is on the one hand, it's home to the most sort of, chest-beating, self righteous moralists about foreign policy - we can't talk to Ahmedenajad because he's an anti-Semite, at the same time it's a party who's agenda is run by global conglomerates that pursue dollar and profit with no regard for any kind of sense of morality..."

It doesn't get more sage than that. Well said, Mr. Hayes. Again, I wonder, will the media follow this up, or gloss over it and get on to more important stuff, like what so-and-so's pastor said in church last Sunday?

Hayes again makes the astute point (one that I made a few days ago, too) that while Bush was in front of the Knesset a few weeks ago, effectively calling Obama an appeaser for wanting to talk to Hamas and Iran, Israel was simultaneously opening up talks with Syria, a country that it's not an overreach to say it's mortal enemies with. Ooopsie, Bushie! There was very little media coverage of that, too.

I have no hope for our corporate media, save for a Democratic victory this fall. Either way, once the new Congress and administration take power, we can and we MUST demand an end to corporations' hegemony over the mass media in this country.