Interesting choice to put a uniformed county sheriff on stage at the convention to promote his department’s refusal to aggressively confront and disperse the angry crowd that confronted them in the streets during the 2020 riots. This was presented to the audience at home as a virtuous act of conflict mediation. Many viewers will be reminded of how a lot of police forces responded to crowds that would soon become violent mobs, which, unmolested by law enforcement, did billions of dollars in damage and shook the country to its foundations. Not sure they thought this one
Comedian D.L. Hughley with a good line: “Kamala Harris has been black a lot longer than Trump has been a Republican.”
Actress Kerry Washington and actor Tony Goldwyn, who starred together on the old ABC show Scandal, are reunited on stage at the United Center. I suppose if you’re a fan of that show, this is a huge deal. For the rest of us, it’s… “oh, there they are.”
The Chicks, no longer of Dixie, have just completed the National Anthem. The song comes with its own detector of who in the audience is a Baltimore Orioles fan, as several reporters — not me! — and the Maryland delegation shouted “OH!” on the lyric, “O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave.”
Regardless of the Dixie Chicks’ obnoxious politics, that was a lovely and dignified rendition of the National Anthem.
The convention organizers are filling time with a series of songs, and are now playing Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA.” Now, if Barack Obama came out singing it, waving his birth certificate around, then it would really be entertaining.
Jim – You can also add half of O’Rourke’s ability to deliver a speech to your assessment of Allred.
Colin Allred, a Texas congressman and the Democratic Senate nominee against Ted Cruz this cycle, is speaking now. He’s basically Beto O’Rourke with about 20 percent of his national media hype and maybe half of his fundraising.
Steph Curry appears via video remote, showing off his gold medal, and narrates over a brief video of Kamala Harris meeting the Team USA basketball team. (She is almost comically dwarfed by the players.) Curry urges everyone to vote. “It’s been an honor for me to represent my country, and it’s been an honor for me to support Kamala.”
The presentation by the Central Park Five at the Democratic convention is just the millionth example of how Trump creates problems for himself, and the GOP, that almost no one else would. They were exonerated in 2002/2023, when a convicted murderer confessed to the rape of the jogger. Any rational human being would say, “I was wrong, it was a rush to judgment, and I’m sorry.” But Trump never apologized and suggests they’re still guilty. And now the Democrats are shouting, loud and clear, to young black males, Donald Trump thinks you’re guilty because of who you are, and doesn’t want to hear about the exonerating evidence.