7:36PM EDT
Watching Pat Buchanan sincerely admit that today is an historic day. And then he pivots into a negative attack on the choreography of the roll call vote — complaining that they should’ve had Obama winning by 100 delegates after going through all the states. He’s such a saboteur — begging for disunity by making it seem like a positive thing.
7:45PM
Leave it to Scarborough to bring up Affirmative Action. To be fair, it “sounded” like a postive context — but any time a Republican mentions Affirmative Action in any context, it’s meant to be divisive.
7:51PM
Senator Clinton’s statement ending the roll call:
With eyes firmly fixed on the future, and in the spirit of unity with the goal of victory with faith in our party and our country, let’s declare together with one voice right here, right now that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president.
Liveblogging continued after the jump…
7:53PMIt didn’t take long for CNN’s Suzanne Malveau to track down a disappointed PUMA on the floor. In the same shot, I saw my state senator, Mike O’Pake in the background.7:57PMSwitched over to FOX News and they were in the middle of showing the trailer for that “O’Reilly in a port-o-potty slapping Chris Farley’s unfunny brother” movie American Carol.8:03PMPresident Carter on MSNBC with Keith and Matthews.8:12PMRichard Wolffe: The Obama campaign only saw President Clinton’s speech “and hour ago.” Apparently Clinton wrote it himself. Related story: President Bush just learned what a shwa is.8:19PMThe flesh-colored microphones have to go. They seriously do look like giant fleshy moles.8:21PMGovernor Schweitzer on CNN. Man, this guy is a political superstar. He’ll give Senator Clinton a run for her money eight years from now. Yep. I made a prediction about 2016.8:22PMJeffrey Toobin mentioning that today is LBJ’s 100th birthday. Today’s historic events were an outstanding way to celebrate the birthday of the American who was responsible for the Civil Rights Act.8:37PMCreepy Republican strategist and former McCain staffer Mike Murphy looks like John Lithgow’s weird, stumpy brother. He just gave the Bush administration a “C” grade. Olbermann reacts: “You gave him a C???!!”8:41PMWhile I’m doling out shallow “looks like” observations… Evan Bayh has the same haircut as the Pringles guy.8:48PMWill cable news ever report that Madeleine Albright totally ripped McCain on foreign policy? NO! Because McCain is ‘Super Awesome Warmonger Go’.8:52PMJust eight years ago, thousands of African-Americans in Florida were disenfranchised by the Republican Party. And today, the Democratic Party nominated an African-American for president. The awe-inspiring history of this day is staggering to me.9:02PMHere comes President Clinton.9:03PMMy first presidential vote was for Bill Clinton in 1992. I’ll never forget that election season. Fleetwood Mac until we plotzed.9:07PMOn Senator Clintons support for Obama: “That makes two of us.” Finally. “Actually,” he said, “That makes 18 million of us.”9:09PMPresident Clinton ripping into the Bush record. YEEEAAARRR!9:11PM“The work I’ve done across the globe has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job.” President Clinton complimenting Senator Obama all down the line. All of his qualifications.9:13PM“Barack Obama is ready to lead America and ready to restore leadership around the world.” Wow. President Clinton is seriously giving a HUGE ‘fuck off, wingnuts!’ to the Pat Buchanans and Bill Kristols of the cable world. Bite it, bastards.9:17PMAnd now he’s going to lay into the Republican record. GO GO GO!9:18PMBOOM! A Great Depression reference — “since the 1920s.” And now… Katrina and cronyism! “American can do better than that. And Barack Obama WILL do better than that!” Chants of “yes we can.”9:20PMI hope Scarborough and Buchanan and Brit ‘Melty Cheese Face’ Hume are choking on this.9:25PMGoddamn goddamn. That was awesome. I can admire the Clintons again.9:30PM
“They actually want us to reward them for the last eight years by giving them four more. Let’s send them a message that will echo from the Rockies all across America: Thanks, but no thanks. In this case, the third time is not the charm.”
Full text of the speech here.9:33PMTom Brokaw is cranky tonight. Maybe he’s worried because “Pawlenty” is on McCain’s short list.9:37PMGo John Kerry! He’s hitting McCain on a laundry list of flip-flops. “Talk about being for it before you’re against it! Before he debates with Barack Obama, maybe John McCain should finish the debate with himself!”9:41PMI really wish the networks were airing Senator Kerry’s speech. Jesus Hussein Christ — he’s beating the living shit out of Bush and McCain.9:47PMWhere was that John Kerry four years ago? Thanks, Bob Shrum.9:59PMI just saw my state senator Mike O’Pake again — this time behind Wolf Blitzer. He’s Gump-like in his ubiquity.10:22PMMike Murphy just insinuated that “Bad” Bill Clinton sabotaged Senator Clinton’s campaign, and now “Good” Bill Clinton shows up to help Barack Obama. Mike Murphy is a doof. With or without his mullet. Either way, enough with the Clinton-Obama crapola. Why is MSNBC bleeding this topic? Why isn’t anyone putting a stop to this?10:06PMOlbermann re: Murphy… “Let’s wrap him up!” Matthews to Murphy: “What sane American would agree with you?”10:08PMWow. Matthews doesn’t like Mike Murphy. “Breaking news for FOX and CNN… Miike Murphy is giving Bush a ‘C’!”10:11PMTo Jane in the comments… Yes, I was very very wrong about Senator Clinton taking her campaign to the convention. I was seriously caught up in the madness of the primaries, however there are some criticisms of the Clintons which I won’t apologize for (by forhcoming book lists a few). But I was wrong about the convention prediction.10:16PMBuchanan just asked, “Has anyone mentioned Guantanamo?!!” Yes. John Kerry did. 20 minutes ago, ya’ old corpse.10:19PMIt’s now clear that this convention is playing out like an Obama address. The rising cadence as the narrative plays out. The modulation. I’m sentimental about politics, but this convention is shaping up to be a great work of political prose.10:28PMThat Biden video was a tear jerker. Shot of Michelle Obama wiping away tears.10:29PMHere comes Joe!10:30PMObama cameo coming up, says Olbermann. Hilarious shot of the motorcade passing the MSNBC set.10:36PMSenator Biden’s Mom is adorable.10:39PM“If George — er, excuse me, John McCain is elected.” YEEAAARRR!10:54PMSenator Biden isn’t the greatest speechmaker — but wow, he’s got a lot of heart.10:55PMHere’s Senator Obama.11:02PMI love the Biden family. I want to have cookies at their house.11:10PMRachel Maddow hit on something here. Senators Obama and Biden feel like a “team.” It all makes perfect sense. And I love Senator Biden’s exuberance. I never really gave the guy a chance until now, and I regret that.11:12PMAnd yeah, Matthews was choked up talking about his Mom. But it was refreshing to see, coming from a guy who often embraces the sport of politics over the real world implications. Seeing all of the pundits and analysts lined up in a row this week, I’ll take Matthews over 99 percent of the rest of them. At this point, we only really have Olbermann, Maddow and maybe — who else? — I don’t know. Toobin, maybe? But Matthews has been close enough this week, despite some of his more frustrating jags. Plus, Keith is right there to keep an eye on things.11:16PMThat Matt Damon ad is starting to freak me the hell out.11:28PMWhenever I hear Brokaw speak, I’m reminded why his job was to read words on a teleprompter — and not much else.11:33PMThanks, JM. Added to the list of friendlies: Jack Cafferty. Also, Colmes. I guess.11:36PMWorking on Senator Kerry’s speech for a Midnight Awesome post.11:46PMJohn King on CNN just used his magic-marker fingers to draw what appeared to be an angry/frowny face on the great state of Missouri.11:57PMThat’s all for me tonight. 208 comments is a record for this blog, and I’m eternally grateful to you for hanging out with me. Let’s top it tomorrow! Also, I might be liveblogging all next week at Huffington Post. Not confirmed yet, but it’s being discussed. If that’s the case, I’ll be sure to open up commenter-only liveblog threads here each night. And I’ll pop in as often as I can.And on that note, I want to fight Pat Buchanan. Fight Club style. Good night.MIDNIGHTThe Kerry speech is posted on the main page. Go watch.
