The convention so far

Wow. Before Obama came out I thought I heard the bar that got raised last night had hit the floor. None of the speakers generated excitement for me. There message was off and more negative I think then it should have been. I began to feel a dread I have not felt in weeks.

Then Obama begin, and I could feel a smile tug a the corner of my lips. This is a solid double, and for a guy giving a keynote speech without even being elected yet, that's damn good. Then he hit his stride and I thought, 'Good lord, he's legging out a triple.' He ended strong, and a big smile filled my face. Hopefully Reagan and Teresa Heinz Kerry can keep it up. And hopefully the media will focus on Obama rather than Kennedy.

Dean, to keep the baseball analogy, drew a walk. Nothing great, but a nice message. Kind of like an afterschool special. Let's see what we have left.

*UPDATE* Here's a link to the speech. Here's the part I was talking about:

Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America — there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

Ron Reagan did well. I missed the children portion of the show, but I can only assume her "time out" part was about Cheney and the "F" word. Teresa Hinez Kerry is on now, doing a nice job as well. Hopefully we're back on track for tomorrow night's show.

I have to work tomorrow and Thursday, so I won;t be here like I was the last two night. I'll have to take notes and post my thoughts when I get home. I know the both of you will wait.

*UPDATE TOO* Carl Cameron of FOX just said the Obama "absolutely rocked the house." Most of the bloggers at the convention say he hit it out of the park. For me to perceive a triple all the way at home shows how strong he was. I think the big news is clearly Barak Obama, and the others get a cursory mention, which should mean day two turns out to be a slight win. Bring on Edwards.