The Delegates

7:08 PM: I thought that the Wave was a 70’s thing, but the Font of Truth tells us otherwise. Michael McDonald gets points for sticking to “America the Beautiful” and introducing his sideman.

7:05 PM: Michael McDonald and the Wave. What is this, 1975?

7:02 PM: Gore gets less enthusiastic applause on his departure than on his arrival. With the relatively low profile of environmental issues so far during the Convention, and McCain’s tremendous vulnerability on green issues, it’s a lost chance to make a real impact.

Or maybe everyone’s saving their rapture for Michael McDonald, up next.

6:54 PM: I take back what I said about this being a great speech from an underwhelming speaker on the level of Kerry’s triumph last night. Gore’s delivery is a bit of a snooze and he’s stepping on some of his biggest cheers.

6:51 PM: “The carbon fuels industry — big oil and coal — have a 50-year lease on the Republican Party and they are drilling it for everything it’s worth.” Point taken, but the many “clean coal” buttons I’ve seen in Denver this week are clear evidence that the same interests have an option on the Democratic Party as well. If you’re going to go all big-think on us with carbon issues, as is entirely appropriate, you can’t convincingly pin it on the GOP as such.

6:47 PM: Al Gore is introduced to the first big welcome applause of the night. Not Bill-caliber clapping, but pretty good.

So far, Gore is pulling a Kerry, giving better speeches now than he did back when he needed to do so.

6:44 PM: Our delegate Laura just got a shot on the stadium Jumbotron. Our everywheryness has rubbed off on her.

6:34 PM: Stevie Wonder is universally loved and brings a smile to every face in the room. His song, not so much. We need a vocoder, a Clavinet, and a horn section, stat.

6:30 PM: Johnny Mac chimes in with a zinger on Burkeman. You wag, you.

Don’t miss the developing tussle between tomcasey and noah, who have different definitions of what’s fair game when discussing political marriages. What does Sally have to say about it?

Stevie Wonder’s up! He loves us!

6:25 PM: Richardson’s speech is the best-received so far tonight, which isn’t saying much. At least he speaks Spanish like a human being; certainly better than I spoke French while being interviewed by Radio- Canada earlier tonight. Then again he grew up in spanishland.

When particularly vigorous cheers run through the stadium, a terrifying rumbling sound accompanies them. Opinion in Blogapore is divided between those who think it’s a sound effect and those who think it’s genuine stomping in the stands.

6:22 PM: We just got a set of excerpts from Obama’s speech labeled “embargoed for release on delivery”. That means we are not supposed to quote the words until they are spoken. Maybe these rules do not apply to the traditional press seated among us, because the New York Times and other outlets are already printing them.

6:17 PM: Richardson is making some pointed comparisons. One of them has to do with the Bush Administration’s support for Pervez Musharraf, which he refers to as “foolishness”.

That’s odd, I don’t remember Musharraf as posing an insurmountable problem to the Clinton Administration, of which Richardson was a part, when he siezed power in 1999.

Meanwhile, Musharraf is talking about moving to New Mexico.

6:14 PM: Unsolicited advice to Tim Kaine: when your words include the exhortation to “say it like you mean it”, you have to say that like you mean it.

6:12 PM: Mark Udall comes and goes unnoticed while we figure out seating here in Blogskatchewan.

Tim Kaine is up now, quoting from the Gospel of Matthew and dropping in some Spanish here and there. He’s talking about faith, which hispanophones are assumed to have much of. Maybe not the ones I know, but I move in odd circles.

Tremendously underwhelming talk about faithity faith faith faith. Obama dodged a bullet by not picking this guy, at least speechwise.

6:07 PM: Various outlets have been pointing out that everyone at MSNBC seems to hate each other. Even Eric Alterman, a thoroughly mainstream commentator who burdens one of the oldest American weeklies with his nattering, turns it into a fake-insurgent nyah-nyah at the “MSM”.

It’s all news to us; when our Matthew or Peter are on, it’s all love.

5:54 PM: Sheryl Crow is playing a song that was “inspired by the Dalai Lama”.

So long as we’re having a Guardian-heavy day (and really, when are we not?) and the UK papers just went to press, let’s review some recent favorites from our second-favorite London broadsheet:

• Melissa McEwan watches cable all day and thinks up clever things to say.
• Steve Bell’s sketchbooks, a regular feature of British party-conference season, are among my favorite little bits of the Guardian site. They make me brighten like a nerd.
• Daniel Nasaw runs the numbers of Clinton’s and Biden’s speeches. It is a thankless task of which many outlets seem enamoured, so it’s usually done sketchily. Nasaw’s summary is so comprehensive that his TiVo remote must be a smoldering wreck by now.

5:41 PM: The “Yes We Can” song just concluded. It derives most of its schlocky power from the parade of CSI supporting players and other celebrities I only half-recognize, and was an enormous dud without them.

Willhelm.von.Iammenheimer is seemingly never without that dorky hopster hat he’s always wearing in bad Black Eyed Peas videos. He’s probably got some Wyclef/Rogaine hairline thing going.

Did the band totally lost track of the words? They seemed to be only vaguely synced up with the the taped Obama speech. Was that achingly sincere York, PA resident and Scott Ian lookalike Ed Kowalczyk playing guitar on stage? I couldn’t see.