It's 3AM

Yup - 3AM and I'm watching DVR'd coverage from the 10pm hour Wednesday night on ABC. Stephanopoulos is going on and on how Bill Clinton gave so much to Barack in his speech. Maybe I'm over-analyzing, but it seemed to me that there was a great deal of parsing.

Watching it live last night, my wife and I were startled at this section.

Everything I learned in my eight years as President and in the work I’ve done
since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is
the man for this job.

He has a remarkable ability to inspire people, to raise our hopes and rally us
to high purpose. He has the intelligence and curiosity every successful
President needs. His policies on the economy, taxes, health care and energy are
far superior to the Republican alternatives. He has shown a clear grasp of our
foreign policy and national security challenges, and a firm commitment to repair
our badly strained military. His family heritage and life experiences have given
him a unique capacity to lead our increasingly diverse nation and to restore our
leadership in an ever more interdependent world. The long, hard primary tested
and strengthened him. And in his first presidential decision, the selection of a
running mate, he hit it out of the park.

Now, on the surface, that's very nice and positive. But Bill is dancing around the question in America's mind, leaving it unanswered. Does Barack have the experience for the job? It seems to me that he went out of his way not to provide the answer from his unique perspective - that of a former President. Then, he says the words that everyone's been waiting to hear - but about Joe Biden.

With Joe Biden’s experience and wisdom, supporting Barack Obama’s proven
understanding, insight, and good instincts, America will have the national
security leadership we need.

Barack has the ability to inspire folks to higher purpose, Joe Biden has the experience and wisdom. Together, they make a single entity with the qualifications to be president.

The next paragraph seemed to dance more tantalizingly around the words that Clinton wouldn't speak.

Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the
world. Ready to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United
States. Barack Obama is ready to be President of the United States.

Ready? In what sense? He's impatient with the process, and wants to get started? Ready is different than qualified, and that's what Bill wouldn't say.

Together, we prevailed in a campaign in which the Republicans said I was too
young and too inexperienced to be Commander-in-Chief. Sound familiar? It didn’t
work in 1992, because we were on the right side of history. And it won’t work
in 2008, because Barack Obama is on the right side of history.

Ooooo, he's getting close, but he's not saying that he and Obama are equal in their qualifications, he's just saying they're getting the same reaction.

Maybe I'm nitpicking, but what I hear is that Bill Clinton agrees that Barack's not qualified, but that he's still better than those evil Republicans.

I'm watching Joe Biden speak now - 3:19am. He seems more than ready to be president - he seems experienced enough to be president.

Teddy's Speech

Kennedy Night

The major networks aren't going to convention coverage until 10pm tonight, but here it is 9:15, and Caroline is already putting the Kennedy hustle on the unsuspecting masses (who happen to be watching Fox or CNN.) I wonder why they wouldn't have waited until 10pm to lay on the Camelot.

"Now it is my honor to introduce a tribute to Senator Edward M. Kennedy."

Ted talks about the sea as a metaphor for life. Shots of family sailing with Ted at the helm. Vicki talks about how much he loves the water. Kerry talks about how much sailing means to Ted.

Then, right to the brothers and how much their legacy means to Ted.

Next, health care. Kerry talks about how many people have better lives because of Ted.

Quickly to national service. City Year.

A remarkably unemotional piece 5 minutes in, with weak testimonials from people who say they've benefited.

Kerry - A man of remarkable sensitivity. He's always beent here for the troops, for the families. Finally, some emotion.

Vicki - Ted is the pied piper of the family.

Then, a clip of a speech with Barack talking about Teddy.

Cut of Teddy - it's time to choose change. Cue the music.

Back to the sailing with the family to close.

I've never seen another, but I suspect this is the worst movie that Ken Burns has ever made.

Kennedy is introduced. He looks surprisingly good. The hair is thinning a bit maybe, from chemo, I suppose. But otherwise, you wouldn't know anything is wrong, although Vicki grabbed him and lead him to the podium when he was apparently confused about where he was.

Maria Shriver crying, but none of us watching TV. Although my wife says she got filled up a couple of times.

Teddy speaks:

Thanks to everyone, to Caroline, to democrats, to Americans. It is so wonderful to be here. Nothing is going to keep me away from this special gathering tonight.

I have come here tonight... to rise to our best ideals and to elect Barack Obama President of the United States.

As I look ahead, I am strengthened by family and friendship. So many of you have been with me in the happiest days and the hardest days.... We have never lost our belief that we are all called to a better country and a newer world.

I pledge to you that I will be there next January on the floor of the United States Senate when we begin (interrupted by applause and chants of Teddy). For me, this is a season of hope. New hope for a justice and fair prosperity for the many... not just for the few.

New hope that we will break the old gridlock... and that all Americans will have decent, quality healthcare as a fundamental right, not a privelege. We can meet these challenges with Barack Obama. Yes we can, and finally, yes we will.

BO will close the book on the old politics of race against race, gender against gender, and straight against gay.

(Teddy sounds weak - concerned he might collapse at times.)

Brings up JFK = he didn't say the moon was too far.

Yes we are all Americans. This is what we do. We reach the moon, we scale the heights.... and we can do it again.

There is a new wave of change all around us.

Not merely victory for our party, but renewal for our country.

Our country will be committed to his cause. The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on.

Teddy exists as the band plays "You're Still the One." And the singers sound like they're doing a commercial.

No convention bump from the Kennedy tribute. This was weak. An opportunity lost in terms of taking the emotional power of the Kennedy history and getting us all emotionally engaged.

David Gergen points out in analysis that there was a benefit here that the Kennedy family was reintroduced as a third force in Democratis politics, shifting from the Obama/Clinton polarity.

Horse with No Name

Eager to put the baton of Camelot into the floundering hand of Barack Obama, Democrats will parade the ailing Ted Kennedy in front of the convention two ways tonight.

DENVER - U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, a liberal icon who is battling brain cancer, was in Denver on Monday and may deliver a speech at the Democratic convention.

First, there will be the Ken Burns docu-drama, sure to tap into the deeply felt connection to Bobby and Jack.

NBC's Ann Curry confirmed that the ailing lawmaker was in the Mile High City and might make an appearance at the party gathering.

Then, lumbering on to the stage in a surprise appearance in the midst of his cancer treatments, Ted himself will appear.

On Sunday, the Boston Globe reported that the senior senator for Massachusetts was planning to be in Denver, citing a family confidant. "The whole Kennedy family will be in a special section. It should be quite (a) moment," the person said.

The importance of having Barack assume the mantel of the Kennedy's is understandably significant to Democrats, who have put their money on a horse with no name.

Kennedy's family is also convening in Denver, including sister Jean Kennedy Smith, sister-in-law Ethel, nephews Joe and Stephen Smith, and nieces Kathleen Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy, who will also address the convention.

So they are collecting to make sure that this convention, 40 years after Bobby's run, is awash in the latent emotional power that the deaths of Bobby and Jack carry.

A Kennedy speech is usually a convention highlight, and Kennedy revels in an address that elicits a regular response from the crowd.

Given Kennedy's illness, this year's speech should be especially poignant.

Hillary No.

Remember all those nice things Barack was saying about Hillary - about how she made him a better candidate, and how she'd be on anyone's short list for potential VP's? It seems he meant anybody's but his.

“She was never vetted,” a Democratic official reported. “She was not asked for a single piece of paper. She and Senator Obama have never had a single conversation about it. How would he know if she’d take it?”

Will not Barack's aloofness to the importance of ending the feud with the Clintons become symbolic of his failed candidacy when they start to answer all the "what happened" questions come November 5?

The official also said Clinton never met with Obama’s vetting team of Eric Holder and Caroline Kennedy.

Couldn't they have pretended to be interested - to have gone through the motions, if only to please Hillary devotees?

And the official said she was never asked for medical records or for any financial 2008 information about her or former President Bill Clinton. The last information the couple has disclosed about taxes and financial holdings was for 2007.

Can you say arrogant?