Best Lines from Night 3 of the DNC

...and a few random thoughts you won't hear elsewhere

The theme was FREEDOM, and the producers did a great job of showing that “freedom” means many things. The early presenters (you only see them if you watch at the convention site, no one else shows them) were emceed by Cory-Booker-Super-Hero, who started off by saying we’d be spending some time talking about “Project 1865, no wait, Project 1925, oh, no, they call it Project 2025.”

There were civilians who spoke on reproductive freedom, LGBTQ families and rights, a nice montage of ex-Republicans, and then, Congressman Tom Suozzi (D-NY), who won convicted felon George Santos’ (NOT HIS REAL NAME) district by running on an immigration-solution platform. He was able to articulate a solid Democratic position to the electorate, and he was eloquent last night.

Governor Jared Polis (CO) came onto the stage with an oversized bound version of Project 2025, and cited page numbers that specifically banned abortion, birth control, required the reporting of miscarriages to the Federal government and the page that said the only REAL family was led by a male husband, female wife, and only the man worked.

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) said “Don’t let them do to America what they did to Florida.”

Keith Ellison (AG -MN) walked a fine line. After lauding both Governor Walz and Vice President Harris for their calls and support after the murder of George Floyd, he segued to Gaza. This could have been disruptive, but instead he spoke of the need to bring back the hostages and get a ceasefire.

Then was a nice montage of then-Senator Kamala Harris making mincemeat of people who came before her when she was on Judiciary. Especially fun, her take down of Bill Barr (fake AG).

And then, Dana Nessel (AG-MI) danced out to the podium and spoke about voting rights and her work as AG, and how she was mentored by Vice President Harris. She had a message for the GOP and SCOTUS. She raised her left hand and said, “You can pry this wedding band from my cold, dead, gay hand.”

Poignantly, Rachel Goldberg and John Polin, parents of Hamas kidnapping victim Hersch Goldberg-Polin, wore hand-lettered “320” tape on their shirts. They spoke of their son, how he came to be in Israel last October 7th - because he loved music, maps, travel, and music festivals. They know his left arm was blown off by a grenade, before he was loaded onto a vehicle and removed to Gaza: 320 days earlier. They spoke of the remaining 109 hostages, ranging in age from 1 year to 86 years old. They recited the numbers of those killed that day, all told from 23 countries. While the convention hall is normally bustling, as they spoke, a silence fell. The cameras panned the audience, and many were crying. It truly was gut-wrenching.

I was shocked to see President Bill “Bubba the Big Dog” Clinton. The rule was that all speeches needed to be on the teleprompter. But he carried out his speech in a folder. If you know President Clinton, you know this was because he didn’t finalize his speech in time for it to be loaded. And if you know him, you know he would go WAAAAY over time. In fact, when he made his keynote address at the DNC in 1988, the teleprompter was changed to say “STOP TALKING”.

Anyway.

I’m a fan of his. Worked my heart out for his campaigns in 1992 and 1996. Loved when he was late (by a day) to make an address at Netroots Nation in 2009 because he’d been in North Korea rescuing two young women. President Clinton has not aged well. His voice was halting, and low energy. He has developed a bit of a hand palsy. His heart was in everything he said, and he got off some zingers. Like when he said once Kamala Harris was in the White House, it would be the first time that we have a president who has spent more time at McDonalds than he had. I have read that he very much wants to be deployed for the campaign, but it’s obvious his role will be limited. Do any of you remember that he was referred to as “our first black president”?

In the runup to Governor Walz’ remarks, both Governor Wes Moore (MD) and Secretary Pete Buttigieg made the case that WE, the Democrats, are patriots for our military service. I loved that Buttigieg opened with “I never thought I’d say this, but some of you may know me from Fox News.” He does do a great skewering of Fox hosts whenever he’s on.

And then, the Coach. Introduced by a former student, eventually flanked by the state champion football team. Ben Ingman had been both a student, and on a 7th grade track team coached by Governor Walz. I hadn’t known that he got that part time job because he needed a part-time job because the Tim and Gwen Walz wanted to pay off the lunch bill for a high school student and needed more income.

Coach Walz speech was spectacular. I’m sure you saw it. Want to see it again?

The one problem was that he didn’t take the stage until after 11 pm ET. Meaning that the local stations (who only broadcast conventions from 10 - 11) had already signed off. Remember, in CT, they do the evening news at 10 not 11, so they signed off, too.

Which begs the question. Tonight, will the convention planners start an hour earlier? Will they cut speakers? Because we REALLY need Vice President to speak in the 10 pm ET hour. Yeah, we’re Democrats and we’re often late (as a party, not individuals) and a lot of our speakers (albeit not the civilians) like to talk overtime. But still…