The DNC, Night 3: Bubba, Biden...and Barack?

Sure, I’ll have another. Why not?

7:05pm: The news has broken while America wrapped up the work day, commuted home, and ate dinner. Barack Obama has been officially nominated by this convention, with the roll call of states being cut short by Hillary Clinton’s call for a unanimous affirmation. This was probably another necessary step towards reconciliation, but it does continue the unfortunate trend of making the Clintons the stars of this show. And we haven’t even heard from Bill yet.

Meanwhile in the Bronx: Jason Bay doubles, scoring Dustin Pedroia and Big Papi. Red Sox lead 2-0 in the top of the 1st.

7:19: Senator Chuck Schumer of New York is on the convention floor with Andrea Miller. People don’t give Hillary enough credit, says Chuck, because she always does the right thing. Some people would have pouted and gone halfway, but not her. Speaking of pouting, replies Mitchell, what about Bill? And no, Senator, I have no interest in buying the Brooklyn Bridge. (OK, I made that last part up.)

7:22: Keith Olbermann reports that the former President Clinton, not to be confused with the former candidate Clinton, has been allotted ten minutes to speak. The bulk of his remarks, according to aides, are about the readiness of Barack Obama to lead this nation. We shall see.

7:26: Montana Senator Jon Tester has been traveling with Obama and arrived in Denver only today. Montana, for the first time in almost anyone’s memory, may actually be in play this time around. Both Bob Barr and Ron Paul will be on the ballot there, and that is bad news for John McCain. Three electoral votes don’t sound like much, but when you start playing with the electoral math they can swing the election one way or the other. McCain needs to hold onto states like Montana, just as Barack needs to repeat John Kerry’s feat of winning New Hampshire. The Electoral College…its FANtastic!

Meanwhile in the Bronx: Johnny Damon leads off for the Yankees and promptly strikes out. He is unhappy with that strike three call (to say the least) and the replay shows he may have had a point. Too bad, so sad. Next up is Derek Jeter who is robbed on a shot to right by a diving Jacoby Ellsbury. Already this doesn’t look like the Yankees night.

I’m so torn about what to watch. Knowing it would be tough, with hard decisions to be made, I opted to set up shop in my bedroom rather than the living room. This makes it much easier to flip around, sometimes even when the right moment doesn’t quite feel right at first. Case in point:

7:31: Norah! Hi baby. She makes the case that even Republicans are feeling pride in their country this day after having watched a black man become the nominee of a major political party. Pat Buchanan reports that this has been the most exciting campaign of his lifetime, and he heaps praise on Hillary. Buchanan throughout has been adamant that the roll call not be cut short, and now that is has he lashes out at the powers of both parties who feel they need to hide legitimate divisions within their ranks. Then we get a glimpse of why I’ve grown to love Pat:

“In 1996, a young delegate from Michigan told me that she had warned not to vote for me during the roll call, and warned that she would be thrown out of the convention and the party if she did. I said, listen, don’t ruin your life over this. She began to cry, I felt like crying…and later on I watched as she voted for me anyway. And you know what? They threw her out! It was wrong then and it is wrong now, in both parties. People’s voices should be heard.” Well said, even though I feel many of those voices we are talking about this time around are crazy.

7:53: Final Jeopardy: I wander through the house just in time to catch Final Jeopardy. We’ve added an extra level of fun to the game. Instead of just trying to come up with the answer, we try to come up with the answer during the break after Alex reads the category and before we see the clue. When you can do that then you know you are a trivia pro. Or just quite lucky. One of the two.

Tonight’s category is “U.S. Presidents”. I think about it for a moment, look at my roommate Nikki and say, “Teddy Roosevelt.” Alex appears again and reads the following:

“At aged 50, he was the youngest President to leave office.”

Bing, Bang, BOOM! I am a golden god.

Meanwhile in the Bronx: Kevin Youkilis hits into a double-play to end the top of the 3rd. Boston leads 2-1.

8:00pm: Jimmy Carter joins Chris and Keith, proclaiming himself “the world’s foremost expert on divided parties.” The conversation starts with his humble beginnings in a rural area of Georgia where the Carters were the only white family. We segue to this election, to racial tensions, and does Carter think the party can come together? (Yes.) Then it is on to FEMA, which Carter created (who knew?) and the prospects of Gustav becoming another Katrina. Says the former president, “Brownie is gone, and Bush’s other cronies are gone, so things should be better.” Let us hope.

Meanwhile in the Bronx: We’re tied at 2 in the bottom of the 4th inning. The Yankees have men on first and third, with two outs, and newly acquired “Pudge” Rodriguez at the plate. Pudge isn’t quite living up to that nickname since steroid testing came in. I wonder if the two are connected. Sox starter Paul Byrd gets him to pop out to end the inning.

8:27: Sirens erupt on the street behind MSNBC’s outdoor broadcast position just as the network cuts away to a clip of Melissa Etheridge covering Born in the USA. The sirens continue over the music, and the effect is quite surreal.

8:45: Hillary, Chelsea, and my drinking buddy Terry McAuliffe take their positions in the royal box. The drama is building for Bill.

Meanwhile in the Bronx: 4-2 Boston in the middle of the 5th. Paul Byrd has apparently complained to the umpires twice between innings about something going on behind home plate. Security has been alerted and Sox’ color man Jerry Remy surmises that someone might have a laser pointer. Ah, New York. Classy till the very end.

8:52: Rachel Maddow appears to argue that the unity issue was settled last night. Bill Clinton’s job tonight is to boost Obama and hit the GOP hard.

Everyone laughs at the idea that this speech will be limited to ten minutes. He may not even be warmed up by then.

8:59: The camera finds Jennifer Garner and Jessica Alba sitting side by side in the crowd. Mmm…Alias and the Dark Angel. The Republicans cannot compete with that kind of talent, Bo Derek or no Bo Derek.

9:00pm: And there is Bill.

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.

Yesterday’s gone.

Yesterday’s gone.

Remember when that song represented a fresh start after 12 years of Reagan and Bush? Now it signifies a final end to 16 years of the Clintons. Yesterday really is gone, Bill, and it ain’t coming back.

I’d be hard-pressed to give you another example of someone who has so completely shattered my perception of them in such a short period of time. I LOVED Bill Clinton at this same time a year ago. Now I cringe when he comes on screen.

The applause is both thunderous and endless. The crowd just will not stop. He loves it at first, but that slowly morphs into annoyance. “Y’all sit down; we gotta get on with the show here.”

Finally he does get going and delivers what I freely admit was a fucking awesome speech.

His trademark line, “My fellow Americans”, has been replaced by “My fellow Democrats.”

“I am here first to support Barack Obama, and second to warm up the crowd for Joe Biden.” He loves Joe Biden.

Onto the campaign, and while his candidate didn’t win, he is still so very proud of her. We get a shot of Hillary grinning from the royal box. Then we get a shot of Michelle Obama again being forced to put on a happy face while the Clintons celebrate themselves. Michelle really is the MVP thus far of this convention.

But then, to my shock, Bill reels it in and goes 110% for Barack Obama. “Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she will do everything she can to help Barack Obama. That makes two of us. Actually, that makes 18 million of us.” The room erupts.

Bill has been all over the world, been a governor, a president, and a father, and through all that he has learned one thing: Barack Obama is the right man for this job. Wow, even I want to stand and cheer. We get another shot of Michelle, and this time the smile is genuine.

On Bush’s bumbling of Iraq and Afghanistan: “The world has always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.” Goddamn this man can give a speech.

He lists off some of the GOP’s recent crimes and then closes with, “My fellow Democrats, America can do better than that, and Barack Obama will do better than that.”

Yep, that is why I loved the guy for all those years. Great job. I really didn’t think he had that kind of speech still in him, and even if he did, I never believed for a second in his desire to give it. I was wrong. Take your bow, Mr. President, you deserve it.

9:28: Tom Brokaw: “Elvis was back in the building tonight.”

Meanwhile in the Bronx: The Red Sox still lead 4-2 in the bottom of the 7th.

9:36: Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts is at the podium…and we go to commercial. What a difference four years makes.

Meanwhile in the Bronx: We’re now in the 8th inning with the score still 4-2. I just noticed that fat Bobby Bacala from The Sopranos is sitting behind home plate. Could that be what Byrd was pointing at? Probably not.

Jason Bay hits a ball to right field that Bobby Abreu plays into a triple. You really do have to love this Yankees team, especially if you are a Bostonian. Kevin Youkilis scores on the play to make it 5-2.

9:43: Drudge is reporting (or, more accurately, linking to somebody else’s report) that John McCain has settled on his VP selection, that he will notify that person tomorrow, and that the public announcement will come Friday at 11am. Mitt Romney seems to be the odds on favorite, but Tim Pawlenty, Governor of Minnesota, and Joe Lieberman, Jackass of Connecticut, are in the mix as well. The wild card seems to be Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas. At this point she almost seems likely. What better way to woo the PUMA crowd than with a woman?

Meanwhile in the Bronx: We’re still in the 8th, but the Red Sox now lead 7-2. The bases are loaded with one out and Dustin Pedroia at the plate. The crowd in Yankee Stadium, most of whom paid big bucks for tickets, is completely deflated. The rush to beat the traffic is going to start any minute.

GRAND SLAM! 11-2 Boston leads. You really could almost sense that coming. And there goes the crowd. Thanks for coming!

10:05: I flip back just in time to catch Mike Murphy, former Republican strategist and one of the token right-wingers at MSNBC, taunting the crowd by announcing that he is sure both Bill and Hillary are going to quietly vote for John McCain. He may or may not be correct, but it really is just salt in the wound at this point anyway. The crowd is pissed, Murphy is giddy, and it leads to this:

Matthews: “Mike, where in sane America would you find an audience to agree with you?”

Keith (clearly agitated): “Wrap him up already!”

Next week in St. Paul is going to be great TV.

Meanwhile in the Bronx: Somehow the Yankees got out of the inning, but A-Rod grounds out again for out number three and the Sox are coming back up.

10:14: Norah O’Donnell is talking up John Kerry’s speech. Andrew Sullivan is doing the same online. Wish I’d seen it.

10:17: We cut back to the podium because Beau Biden is about to introduce his father, but unless Beau is a large black woman then something is wrong. Nope, her name is Quincy Lucas and she is placing Biden’s name into nomination for Vice President. Nancy Pelosi appears to call for the vote, and she again adds nothing to the proceedings. But the deed is done, and Joe Biden is the nominee.

Video Tribute! You know, in its own way, the story of Joe Biden is every bit as compelling as the story of Barack Obama. I think what we’ve learned tonight is that both Bill Clinton and Jim Viall love Joe Biden.

Meanwhile in the Bronx: Sox win! 11-3 is your final score.

10:23: There is Beau Biden. Did you know he is the Attorney General of Delaware? Neither did I, but come to think of it, why would we?

After the accident that took his mother and sister and injured him and his brother, his father refused to go to Washington to be sworn in. “Delaware can get another senator, but my children cannot get another father.” OK, it’s getting a little dusty in here again.

10:28: Joe! He is still fighting back tears, just like last night. I’m getting the sense that is just his way, and it makes me like the guy even more.

BREAKING NEWS: The Obama motorcade just drove by the MSNBC broadcast location heading in the general direction of the Pepsi Center. You could clearly see him waving to the crowd through the window. OK, that was awesome.

Is the nominee about to make an unscheduled appearance?

Joe Biden is thanking the crowd—AND John Kerry. Shit, what did I miss? Should I be watching CNN?

“Since I have never been called a man of few words, let me say it as simply as I can: Yes. Yes, I accept your nomination to be Vice President.”

He reminisces about his dad and points to his mom up in the balcony. Things are getting dustier and dustier. She used to tell him to bloody the bully’s nose so that he could walk down the street with his head held high. We see mom saying, “That’s true” to the person beside her. Classic.

And then we hear about the long train ride back to Delaware that Joe Biden takes every night. The houses pass by the window and he can imagine the conversations inside. The war, the price of gas, the price of heating oil, the price of food. These are the real concerns of Americans. And Barack Obama can help.

Great line: “The future that George…I mean John McCain will give us is more of the same.”

Biden is not nearly as smooth a speaker as Bill Clinton, but every word he says comes across as completely heartfelt and honest. That is his strength.

His is joined onstage by wife Jill, who announces that she has a surprise for him.

The equation is simple: Barack Obama = Bedlam. The crowd goes absolutely crazy. This is great to see after three straight nights of the Clinton show.

“Now you know why I am so proud to have Joe Biden, and Jill Biden, and Beau Biden, and Mama Biden, and the whole Biden clan on my side.”

He praises Michelle, and thanks both Bill and Hillary. Now it is the Clintons’ turn to wear phony smiles. This was not part of the plan, and you can see it on Hillary’s face. Bill, of course, hides it better.

This was a brilliant move on the part of the Obama campaign. By appearing the way he did, unannounced and without warning, he took back this convention from the Clintons. Barack Obama reminded everyone who is the true star of this show—and who truly won that primary fight. The Clintons may or may not be planning for 2012, but the Democratic Party is planning for November.

Back tomorrow, when this show moves outside.