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I missed this last night.  More pressing matters.  But apparantly Bill Clinton showed up and did his thing, which is be a politician.  Perhaps the most skilled politician at connecting with people we have ever witnessed.  I always loved the story of how Clinton would never forget a name or some tiny detail about a person, his memory so great he could recall that tiny detail and your name several years after making your acquaintance for but the briefest moment.

A politician and a wonk.

From the WaPo:

Only a day earlier, when there was some unease among Clinton’s associates about whether he was being straitjacketed in what he could say in his speech, Obama tried to defuse the situation by saying Clinton could say whatever he wanted. Good call, as it turned out. Perhaps not even Obama himself could have conjured up an oration so powerful on his behalf. Not only did Clinton utter the words “Barack Obama” 15 times, they came in his first sentence and his last, and there were long riffs about the candidate in between.

At the start of the speech, Clinton joked that it seemed unfair that he had to follow the previous night’s address by his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who many believed had delivered the most flowing and soulful speech of her failed campaign. Fat chance. Clinton is always competitive, even in some ways with his wife, and the praise she received seemed almost to prod him to find ways to top her.

Why isn’t there video of this?  C’mon people with cellphone cameras and Flip Video Recorders?  When P. Diddy goes bowling does he drink PBRs like everyone else in Wisconsin or does he drink Crystal?

How about those speaches last night though?  Shit, Hillary was good and Mark Warner was okay as the keynote and Brian Schweitzer brought a certain yee-haw rowdiness to the Democratic party (god he sounds exactly like a happy Lewis Black).  Though the best zingers of the night belonged to Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-PA) and Ohio Governor Ted Strickland.

Casey, and I’m paraphrasing here, said “McCain calls himself a maverick but he’s voted with President Bush over 95% of the time.  That’s not a maverick, that’s a sidekick.”

And Strickland, who seemed nervous and not a polished speaker, stumbled through his speech only to deliver this bon mot: “It was said the first President Bush was born on third base and he thought hit a triple.  Well after the prosperity of the Clinton administration, the second President Bush started his presidency on third base and ended up stealing second.”

What’s funny is you can tell which Democrat Governors come from predominantly Republican states in the way they speak.  Strickland spoke using baseball metaphors, which while seeming hokey certainly resonated not only with me, a baseball nutso, but I’m also guessing a large portion of people.  Yeah Obama’s a great orator, but he comes off as unrelatable (don’t shoot me!) at times.  You would never hear him use a good zinger to deliver a point or baseball metaphors while speaking.

I’m curious what Bill Clinton and Joe Biden do tonight, but from the speeches last night it’s clear there are three themes that are getting lobbed to Obama for the alley oop: we can’t afford four more years of the same policies, challenging the American people to rise up and meet the problems of the country and McCain is not a maverick.

But seriously, Pete Wentz and P. Diddy are bowling partners.  What do you think their bowling team name is?

There was a harmless anti-war protest Sunday afternoon in Denver.  The protesters named themselves Recreate 68, you know, except without all the violence and stuff.  So this time around they were marching around and Fox News sent in their most inept correspondent.  No one would grant him an interview, which means that the protesters are against freedom and specifically Freedom of Speech.

Then the protesters exercised their freedom of speech by chanting “F*ck Fox News!”  I wasn’t a twinkle in my parent’s eye back in 1968, but I sort of miss it already.  Anyway, I never understood why lefties would protest at the Democratic Convention.  Wouldn’t it make more sense to cause some mucky muck in St. Paul for the Republicans?  Can someone explain this to me?  Seriously, I’m perplexed why the Green Party, and anti-war people would protest the Democrats. [Politico via Gawker]