Barack and the Technicolor Democrats

This is a line I stole from one of our local columnists, Matthew Tully. He was not being derogatory but I think it sums up the Democratic National Convention quite well.

I (pretty much) watched the entire thing. I will do the same for the Republican convention. I'm a news and politics junkie. Lucky for me, the cable stations rerun the coverage from prime time in the middle of the night so if I happened to miss a few hours, I caught it between 2:00 and 5:00 AM.

The Republicans have a lot to live up to for their convention. The Democrats had:

Political Royalty: Ted Kennedy's speech and the video about the Kennedy dynasty.

Spontaneity: Obama's daughters talking to him and asking, "What city are you in?"

Female Power: Nancy Pelosi, Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton all gave powerful speeches and whether I agree with their politics or not, I was impressed with how far we have come as women.

Racial Pride: When Barack Obama accepted the nomination, he made history as the first African-American. Pans of the crowd showed African-Americans openly weeping.

There's much more that grabbed me. Joe Biden's personal journey after losing his first wife and his daughter in a car accident. His two sons who make a point of correcting any reporter who refer to Jill Biden as their stepmom. They acknowledge the loss of their mother but they are quick to say about Jill, "She's my mom too."

I did not give birth to the baby. My heart still sings when I answer the phone and hear, "Hi Mom."