I'm just going to say it - Democrats throw better parties than Republicans. While Republicans may have different country artists from which to choose, all of five semi-well known steroid-consumed actors and a host of speakers with slightly more enthusiasm and charisma than a comatose Ben Stein, Democrats have much more to work with as far as musicians, Hollywood and great orators are concerned. Granted, there were some very dull speeches last night that made me long for the day I could watch a full miniature golf tournament in slow-motion. However, both conventions have had their fair share of such speeches. But whereas, I can only recall three semi-standout speeches at the Republican National Convention (John Kasich, Ann Romney and especially Condoleeza Rice), I'm already having trouble remembering the names of all the great speeches at the Democratic National Convention and there's still another night left of it!
While I thought that the president of Planned Parenthood - Cecile Richards, Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren and one of the "nuns on the bus" - Sister Simone Campbell all gave very good and effective speeches, there were two that stood out to me where I'd like to focus my attention.
The first such speech was given by contraception activist and Rush Limbaugh rag doll, Sandra Fluke. She was denied the chance to speak to Congress with regard to her belief that contraception should be covered in women's healthcare plans. In response, among other things, Limbaugh referred to Ms. Fluke as both a "prostitute" and a "slut".
In her speech last night, Fluke carried with her a certain tone and look which no other speaker at either convention has matched. This is a woman who is a college student and has been called every demonizing name in the book over the past few months, both on national radio and national television. To many far-right Republicans, her name is now synonymous with the before-mentioned words - "prostitute" and "slut". Her name has been disparaged by well-known conservative talking heads. Last night, it showed. Last night, Fluke carried with her a particular look in her eyes and tone in her voice which projected just how rough these past few months have been for her, yet that she wasn't going to stand down for anyone. She came across as having a true fighter's mentality and while some women may not truly realize that some of their taken-for-granted rights may be in jeopardy if Mitt Romney is elected as president, Ms. Fluke does and it's very personal to her.
One of Fluke's most powerful lines, I felt, was the following: "We've also seen another future we could choose. ...an America in which our president, when he hears a young woman has been verbally attacked, thinks of his daughters - not his delegates or donors - and stands with all women."
The line that really hit a spot for me came toward the end of her speech, when she said, "And strangers stand up and lift her up. And then, instead of trying to silence her, you invite me here and you give me this microphone to amplify our voice. That's the difference."
The other stand-out speaker for me was, of course, former president, Bill Clinton. He was the keynote speaker last night and wound up speaking for 48 minutes - the third longest speech of his career. I don't know how else to put it - it may have been one of the greatest speeches I've ever heard. Some pundits felt Clinton went a little long with it, but I could have listened to the guy talk for another hour and honestly, I think he would have been up for it. Just how great was the speech?
The speech was so great that Republican strategist, Alex Castellanos said upon its conclusion, "Tonight when everybody leaves, lock the door. You don't have to come back tomorrow. The convention is done. This will be the moment that probably re-elected Barack Obama."
Castellanos may have over-shot things a little bit, but he wasn't alone in singing the former president's praises.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer made the following comment - "I've been watching this president...going back to 1992 when I was CNN's White House correspondent. This may have been the best speech I have ever heard Bill Clinton deliver over all these years."
Anderson Cooper said, "The level of detail in the speech was quite surprising...and yet there was a personability."
Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC called it an "extraordinary speech."
Chris Matthews chimed in by saying, "Bill Clinton came in and beat up the other side...he hit them hard where they were weak. I wouldn't want to be the guy fighting Bill Clinton if the issue is Barack Obama."
Even Brit Hume of Fox News was complimentary of the ex-president's speech, saying that Clinton "is the most talented politician [he's] ever covered and the most charming man [he's] ever met. No one in my view can frame an argument more effectively than he can."
So, what was so great about the speech? From the former president selling Obamacare better than anyone in the Obama Administration has done so far to fact-checking Republican talking points and Paul Ryan's, in particular, to praising some former Republican presidents before ripping the party of today to integrating a decent dose of humor and storytelling to get his points across, it made the speech one to remember - quite possibly the greatest speech I've ever heard.
In my opinion, one of the most memorable lines was this - "When Congressman [Paul] Ryan looked into that TV camera and attacked President Obama's Medicare savings as quote ' biggest coldest power play,' I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Because that 716 billion dollars is exactly, to the dollar, the same amount of Medicare savings that he has in his own budget. It takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did."
There were so many great lines from the speech, but another, which came toward the very end and stood out to me was - "As their [Romney] campaign pollster said 'we're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.' Now that is true. I couldn't have said it better myself."
Speaking of fact-checkers, Clinton provided viewers with plenty of fact-check worthy statements. Not all have been checked yet it doesn't appear, but thus far, the former president is scoring pretty nicely with the fact-checking community.
With regard to Clinton's claim about Paul Ryan's budget plan containing "the same amount of Medicare savings" as Obamacare, Politifact.com graded that as "True".
Clinton stated, "In the last 29 months, our economy has produced about 4.5 million private-sector jobs" and that was graded as "Mostly True."
The former president stated that Obama's stimulus plan "cut taxes for 95 percent of the American people" and this was graded as "Half True."
Lastly (for the time being), Clinton made the following claim - "Since 1961...our private economy has produced 66 million private-sector jobs. So what's the jobs score? Republicans 24 million, Democrats 42 (million)." Yes, that was graded as "True".
So for the time being, courtesy of Politifact.com, Clinton scored 3.25 out of 4, which would give him an 81.3% grade on the accuracy scale.
When it comes down to it, it'll be a difficult task for President Obama to outperform Clinton. Clinton was so masterful with dissecting Republican talking points, though, I think all the current president really needs to do tonight is do what he does best - inspire the crowd, viewers at home and provide optimism for the next four years if he's elected. If he's able to succeed in doing that, I have a feeling this will be looked upon by most as a very successful Democratic National Convention both for the incumbent president and the party itself.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/05/sandra-fluke-references-limbaugh-dust-up-in-dnc-speech/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/05/bill-clinton-media-reactions-dnc-speech_n_1859892.html
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/80812.html
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/sep/06/bill-clinton/clinton-says-ryan-attacked-obama-medicare-cuts-ref/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/sep/06/bill-clinton/bill-clinton-says-45-million-jobs-have-been-create/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/sep/06/bill-clinton/clinton-says-obama-cut-taxes-95-percent-people-thr/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/sep/06/bill-clinton/bill-clinton-says-democratic-presidents-top-republ/
While I thought that the president of Planned Parenthood - Cecile Richards, Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren and one of the "nuns on the bus" - Sister Simone Campbell all gave very good and effective speeches, there were two that stood out to me where I'd like to focus my attention.
The first such speech was given by contraception activist and Rush Limbaugh rag doll, Sandra Fluke. She was denied the chance to speak to Congress with regard to her belief that contraception should be covered in women's healthcare plans. In response, among other things, Limbaugh referred to Ms. Fluke as both a "prostitute" and a "slut".
In her speech last night, Fluke carried with her a certain tone and look which no other speaker at either convention has matched. This is a woman who is a college student and has been called every demonizing name in the book over the past few months, both on national radio and national television. To many far-right Republicans, her name is now synonymous with the before-mentioned words - "prostitute" and "slut". Her name has been disparaged by well-known conservative talking heads. Last night, it showed. Last night, Fluke carried with her a particular look in her eyes and tone in her voice which projected just how rough these past few months have been for her, yet that she wasn't going to stand down for anyone. She came across as having a true fighter's mentality and while some women may not truly realize that some of their taken-for-granted rights may be in jeopardy if Mitt Romney is elected as president, Ms. Fluke does and it's very personal to her.
One of Fluke's most powerful lines, I felt, was the following: "We've also seen another future we could choose. ...an America in which our president, when he hears a young woman has been verbally attacked, thinks of his daughters - not his delegates or donors - and stands with all women."
The line that really hit a spot for me came toward the end of her speech, when she said, "And strangers stand up and lift her up. And then, instead of trying to silence her, you invite me here and you give me this microphone to amplify our voice. That's the difference."
The other stand-out speaker for me was, of course, former president, Bill Clinton. He was the keynote speaker last night and wound up speaking for 48 minutes - the third longest speech of his career. I don't know how else to put it - it may have been one of the greatest speeches I've ever heard. Some pundits felt Clinton went a little long with it, but I could have listened to the guy talk for another hour and honestly, I think he would have been up for it. Just how great was the speech?
The speech was so great that Republican strategist, Alex Castellanos said upon its conclusion, "Tonight when everybody leaves, lock the door. You don't have to come back tomorrow. The convention is done. This will be the moment that probably re-elected Barack Obama."
Castellanos may have over-shot things a little bit, but he wasn't alone in singing the former president's praises.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer made the following comment - "I've been watching this president...going back to 1992 when I was CNN's White House correspondent. This may have been the best speech I have ever heard Bill Clinton deliver over all these years."
Anderson Cooper said, "The level of detail in the speech was quite surprising...and yet there was a personability."
Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC called it an "extraordinary speech."
Chris Matthews chimed in by saying, "Bill Clinton came in and beat up the other side...he hit them hard where they were weak. I wouldn't want to be the guy fighting Bill Clinton if the issue is Barack Obama."
Even Brit Hume of Fox News was complimentary of the ex-president's speech, saying that Clinton "is the most talented politician [he's] ever covered and the most charming man [he's] ever met. No one in my view can frame an argument more effectively than he can."
So, what was so great about the speech? From the former president selling Obamacare better than anyone in the Obama Administration has done so far to fact-checking Republican talking points and Paul Ryan's, in particular, to praising some former Republican presidents before ripping the party of today to integrating a decent dose of humor and storytelling to get his points across, it made the speech one to remember - quite possibly the greatest speech I've ever heard.
In my opinion, one of the most memorable lines was this - "When Congressman [Paul] Ryan looked into that TV camera and attacked President Obama's Medicare savings as quote ' biggest coldest power play,' I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Because that 716 billion dollars is exactly, to the dollar, the same amount of Medicare savings that he has in his own budget. It takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did."
There were so many great lines from the speech, but another, which came toward the very end and stood out to me was - "As their [Romney] campaign pollster said 'we're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.' Now that is true. I couldn't have said it better myself."
Speaking of fact-checkers, Clinton provided viewers with plenty of fact-check worthy statements. Not all have been checked yet it doesn't appear, but thus far, the former president is scoring pretty nicely with the fact-checking community.
With regard to Clinton's claim about Paul Ryan's budget plan containing "the same amount of Medicare savings" as Obamacare, Politifact.com graded that as "True".
Clinton stated, "In the last 29 months, our economy has produced about 4.5 million private-sector jobs" and that was graded as "Mostly True."
The former president stated that Obama's stimulus plan "cut taxes for 95 percent of the American people" and this was graded as "Half True."
Lastly (for the time being), Clinton made the following claim - "Since 1961...our private economy has produced 66 million private-sector jobs. So what's the jobs score? Republicans 24 million, Democrats 42 (million)." Yes, that was graded as "True".
So for the time being, courtesy of Politifact.com, Clinton scored 3.25 out of 4, which would give him an 81.3% grade on the accuracy scale.
When it comes down to it, it'll be a difficult task for President Obama to outperform Clinton. Clinton was so masterful with dissecting Republican talking points, though, I think all the current president really needs to do tonight is do what he does best - inspire the crowd, viewers at home and provide optimism for the next four years if he's elected. If he's able to succeed in doing that, I have a feeling this will be looked upon by most as a very successful Democratic National Convention both for the incumbent president and the party itself.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/05/sandra-fluke-references-limbaugh-dust-up-in-dnc-speech/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/05/bill-clinton-media-reactions-dnc-speech_n_1859892.html
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/80812.html
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/sep/06/bill-clinton/clinton-says-ryan-attacked-obama-medicare-cuts-ref/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/sep/06/bill-clinton/bill-clinton-says-45-million-jobs-have-been-create/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/sep/06/bill-clinton/clinton-says-obama-cut-taxes-95-percent-people-thr/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/sep/06/bill-clinton/bill-clinton-says-democratic-presidents-top-republ/
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