Watch this space

As part of my TNR Online assignment for tomorrow, I’ll be live-blogging the convention speakers — so this post will be updated on a regular basis for the rest of the day. Here’s today’s speaker schedule — you can follow along with me. 4:20 EDT: Ah, here’s Harold Ford Jr. — my commenters are correct, he’s not quite in Obama’s league as an orator. Not a lot of passion, and I’m distracted by his startling resemblance to Derek Jeter. 4:23 EDT: This is the first time I’ve actually watched the convention this year — is it me, or did the DNC get the same announcer as the Academy Awards? With the musical cues, that’s the feel I’m getting. I keep expecting the speakers to say “the nominees for outstanding position paper by a liberal think tank are…” 4:28 EDT: Free advice to the Kerry team — having a speaker like U.S. Rep. Tom Allen (D. – Maine) repeat the phrase “John Kerry hears your voices” over and over is not comforting to the average voter. It’s too easy to confuse with the more unsettling “John Kerry hears voices.” 4:35 EDT: Steve Westly, the California State Comptroller, actually gives a good speech praising both immigration and the entrepreneurial culture of Silicon Valley. 4:46: U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D — Pennsylvania) is now speaking — I’m just impressed he got elected with that name. 4:54: Frank Lautenberg is making a staunchly pro-Israel speech, and bashing the International Court of Justice for its recent ruling on the security barrier. I can hear the occasional “boo” in the background. 5:04: Representative Ike Skelton blasts Republicans for using those serving in the military as political props. OK, I’ll grant Bush was guilty of this during his carrier landing last year — but I’m to believe that John Kerry is not engaging in something similar throughout this entire week? Consider who caught his opening pitch at Sunday’s Sox-Yankees game…. 5:15: My four-year-old son comes into room, not feeling well — wants to watch Cyberchase. Blogging suspended for a while. 7:00: Wycleaf Jean is performing. What, you might ask, would he do as president?

If I was President, I’d get elected on Friday I’d sign a peace treaty on Saturday Stop the war on Sunday Send the troops back on Monday

Oh, I feel much better. 7:54: I never thought I would say this, but Dennis Kucinich gives a pretty good speech. His delivery is better than anyone’s I’ve heard today. He started off like he was lecturing eighth-graders, and there’s hints of loopiness in the background, but it’s not ba– oh, wait, here we go: “Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction!! Homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction!! Racism is..” you get the idea. 7:55: Hmmm… Bravo is showing an old West Wing episode with Matthew Perry as a guest star…. 8:15: A satellite feed from a Colorado VFW post. “Veterans are joining the Kerry campaign in unprecedented numbers. He’s one of us, one of our band of brothers.” That Daily Show bit about talking points is beginning to gnaw at me. 8:33: The Reverend Al Sharpton says that if Bush were president in the fifties, he wouldn’t have picked a Court that ruled the right way in Brown Vs. Board of Education. This is both overreaching and amusing. The only reason Brown came out the way it did is because in between the two serts of oral arguments, Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren to replace Truman appointment Carl Vinson — who would have led to a very different ruling. EduWonk has more on this. 8:45: Al has a brilliant riff in the closing, touching on Ray Charles’ rendition of “America the Beautiful.” And then the song comes out on the loudspeaker. Gotta give props to anyone who can get the DJ to play Ray Charles. 8:53: Do you have trouble falling asleep? Insomnia? Try a Bob Graham speech!! Good Lord, the hall was louder four hours ago. This isn’t a poke at the substance of his speech — homeland security. But Lord, does he have a dull delivery. 9:27: Do I agree with Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm on economic policy? Good God, no — As I type this Granholm is stoking outsourcing fears and blathering on about “fair trade.” (alas, Michigan Republicans are just as bad on this issue). But my word, she’s a good-looking politician. 10:04: Xinhua is already running a story on John Edwards’ speech — a half hour before he delivers it. 10:30: Edwards is delivering his speech — apparently, he’s the son of a mill worker and was the first person in his family to go to college. 11:00: There was a lot of his stump speech in Edwards’ speech tonight, but he seemed to be rushing it. There were some high points — the discussion of racism, the vignette of the woman staying up in her kitchen — but the rest was a bit forced. Off to write the TNR piece.