The eyes of the nation were on Barack Obama last night, wondering whether he had the strength, knowledge, and conviction to lead us.

By the end, he left no doubt in anyone's mind: he's ready.

Ready to lead the United States at a very difficult time.

And ready to beat John McCain and the vicious Republican Party.

Best parts of Obama's speech:

Last night the Democratic Party made history by nominating the first major-party African-American candidate for President, Barack Obama.

Tonight, Barack Obama will accept our nomination. It is fitting that a 20,000 seat arena isn't remotely large enough to mark this moment. Even a 75,000 seat stadium will be too small and many will be turned away.

Rightwingers will mock the white columns. Everyone else in America and the world will marvel at the black man who stands before them.

What an incredible introduction by Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden!

Joe Biden excerpts:

As we gather here tonight, our country is less secure and more isolated than at any time in recent history.  The Bush-McCain foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole, with very few friends to help us climb out.

Should we trust John McCain's judgment when he says there can be no timelines to drawdown our troops from Iraq - that we must stay indefinitely?

Or should we listen to Barack Obama, who says shift responsibility to the Iraqis - and set a time to bring our combat troops home?

Now, after six long years, the Bush administration and the Iraqi government are on the verge of setting a date to bring our troops home.

John McCain was wrong. Barack Obama was right.

 John Amato speaks for me:

Right wing TV Pundits destroy every segment on Democratic Convention 

Every time I turn on the TV and watch CNN and FOX (my hotel doesn’t get MSNBC) every Republican operative controls the dialog and direction of the panel discussion and it’s disgusting. Just one example—Hillary Clinton gave a brilliant speech last night, but every Amy Holmes-type talking head throws as much cold water on the speech as he or she can. The result is that the Dem talkers spend the rest of the time disputing the outrageous claims made and thus the GOP controls the entire framing and the entire segment. It’s shameful that the networks are allowing this to happen. I saw Jeffrey Toobin tell Amy that she was out of her mind with some of her comments and the discussion continues to that end. Soledad O’Brien comes back and says “well, that was a lively discussion.” Oh, no it was not. It’s a calculated ratf&@k. This is going on all day and all night.

Why is the Democratic Convention being ruined by these creeps? And why do all the networks allow it to happen? Why do we need them on in force to counter what is supposed to be our event?

I’m in Denver and it’s a completely different atmosphere. Party unison abounds, but you’d never know it from watching TV. Karl Rove acts like the biggest troll known to man—making sure to point out every little detail he dislikes. Well, his mission is to get McCain in the White House. But he’s the expert that Chris Wallace goes to for his “unbiased” take.

Will the Democratic talkers be allowed to do the same to the Republican Convention? I think not. It will be viewed as being an incredible event.

Update 1: After Bill Clinton spoke, it took Chuck Todd exactly 1 minute to attack Obama using a bulls**t Republican talking point that Obama is "borrowing" Biden's experience.

For weeks, we've heard endless lying pundits insist Hillary Clinton would undermine Barack Obama. Of course Clinton proved them wrong in June when she graciously ended her race and enthusiastically endorsed Obama. And she proved them wrong again tonight.

Hillary introduced the widow of Arkansas Democratic Chair Bill Gwatney, who was recently murdered in his office. And she introduced the son of Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who recently died of an aneurysm. The two survivors sat next to Bill Clinton. What a classy family!

Then she turned to policy issues and ripped the Bush Administration to shreds while praising Obama to the rafters. The convention is loving every second.

You go, Hillary Clinton!

By Dave Lindorff

We’ve come a long way towards imperial government in the US—towards
a view of the relationship between the federal government, and
especially the administration, and the citizenry that has more of a
ruler-subjects than a democratic feel to it.

Now I know it is easy to gloss over the way things were, and since I
spent a few days in federal prison for protesting the Indochina War at
the Pentagon in 1967, after being beaten by federal marshals for doing
nothing more than exercising my constitional right to protest on public
ground, I am well aware that 40 years ago we were also often treated
like serfs. But that said, there was something different back then—a
sense that you could deal with powerful officials as an equal.

By Dave Lindorff

One of the sorrier legacies of eight years of Bush and Cheney in the White House has been the conflation of the terms “National Security” and “Foreign Policy” by both Republicans and Democrats.

Granted that the history of US foreign policy in the world has been heavily larded with wars, many of them at America’s instigation. It is nonetheless true that foreign policy is much bigger and more far reaching than just what has come to be known as “national security” issues.

In Bush-speak, national security come to mean having big guns, lots of heavily armed troops, cruise missiles, nuclear weapons, naval armadas and a bully’s willingness to use these weapons on a whim, with no thought of consequences.

No one knew if he would make it into the eagerly expectant house, but he did.

After a warm introduction by Caroline Schlossberg Kennedy and a loving film tribute, Senator Ted Kennedy strode onto the stage and greeted the convention with an incredibly strong voice, struggling but somehow managing to overcome the obvious effects of his brain tumor.

Kennedy promised to be present at Obama's inauguration in January, and promised to fight for health care for all. He praised Obama's message of hope, and reminded us that his brother John never said the moon was too far away, and we shouldn't bother to go.

Good bless Ted Kennedy, and let us pray for a full recovery of his mind, which is a national treasure.

Some random notes in no particular order:

John Nichols reminds us how utterly amazing our convention is:

This week, after a century of progressive activism on behalf of civil rights, an African American will be nominated for president. And he got that nomination after a remarkable nominating contest that saw more than 18 million Americans vote for a woman.

Paul Rosenberg reports that 51% of Americans are now Democrats - a majority! - while only 38% are Republicans. The biggest gains for Democrats have come from voters under 30 (now 55D/33R) and middle-income voters (now 53D/39R). Go Democrats!

A Short Instructions Manual
By David Swanson

1. Virtually nobody votes in primaries (or caucuses) compared to general elections. Therefore, each individual primary vote is worth many times what it is in the general election. And, it's more likely to be counted, since there's typically less fraud and abuse of the system in primaries. So, if you vote in general elections, you pretty much have to vote in primaries in order to not be an idiot. Bring a few friends to vote too, and you're practically a genius.