[Note: I'm not going to get into the Palin baby story, as I personally am waiting to see how it plays out. So if you're looking for that sort of thing, don't bother reading any further.]

Before I get to Sarah Palin, I just have to point something out here first. John McCain is trying to score points off his party's restraint in postponing and toning down their convention out of deference to Hurricane Gustav, but there's a big fat steaming dose of hypocrisy here that the mainstream media is refusing to point out. Here's John McCain last Sunday on Fox News -- "it wouldn't be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster." Chris Wallace asked him about the convention again, and mentioned Katrina. McCain again responded: "I think, again, we don't want to appear in any way festive when you have that kind of tragedy possibly revisiting itself on the city of New Orleans and areas around it."

Now, from the White House website itself, the picture worth 10,000 words which puts this entire "we feel your pain" lie to the ultimate test. Here are George W. Bush and John McCain -- on the exact same day Katrina hit New Orleans -- celebrating what looks to me like the "festive occasion" of John McCain's birthday. Again, this was the day that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.

Please, someone in the mainstream media, please point this out. It's called "journalism."

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I know that just about the entire blogosphere is talking about John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin (who?) for his running mate, but I, for one, refuse to let John McCain distract me from writing about Barack Obama's acceptance speech last night, given to a cheering throng of 84,000 in Denver's football stadium (I refuse to use corporate names for stadiums... stadia?... until they start paying me directly for doing so... hmmph).

Obama gave one humdinger of a speech. I fully expected him to, as everyone (even his opponents) acknowledges that this is his strongest point. So a humdinger of a speech was exactly what I expected, and Obama certainly delivered one.

What I did not expect, and what personally blew me away, was that this was one of the best speeches I've ever heard any Democrat give, because it shows that someone in the party has finally -- finally! -- learned from some typical (and chronic) Democratic mistakes from times past.

In other words, Obama showed with this speech that he does indeed "get it."

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As I've said, this convention is being directed by a maestro -- slow and warm at first, then a big resounding call for unity, and now, on Day 3, some red meat to the crowd. Tonight should be absolutely stunning, that's all I can say, because the "build" has gone swimmingly well.

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Continuing my scattered thoughts on the Democratic Convention. Day 2 was all about Hillary Clinton, and women, and the 88th anniversary of women achieving the right to vote, and women party leaders, and voting for women. And Hillary Clinton.

That might sound snide, but I assure you it's not. For all the breast-beating and garment-rending that took place over whether Barack Obama was "being pushed around" by the Clintons, or that they were "making unreasonable demands," I never doubted for a moment that the Clintons -- both of them -- would rise to the occasion and deliver a great speech. And I also have faith that Obama's campaign team, which so far has been exemplary at stage managing, would orchestrate a unified and supportive convention. If Obama had run a terrible campaign, I might have been worried a bit, but that was simply not the case.

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On second thought, maybe that should be "conventional thoughts." Hmm. Or "un-conventional thoughts" perhaps? Well, it's certainly not "conventional wisdom," no matter how you define the term.

Ahem.

Overdosing on convention coverage has meant the normal and clocklike schedule of posts here has been knocked somewhat awry. I apologize for that, but as an excuse I have to say that I don't have any overarching Big Idea things to say about the Democratic National Convention, just a bunch of somewhat-disjointed thoughts. So I guess I'd better revert to three-dot journalism to do them whatever justice they deserve...

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So... was that a speech, or was that a speech?!?

After Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's speech tonight, every single one of her supporters who could be convinced now have been convinced. Clinton gave certainly the best speech I have ever seen her give, if not the best speech she has ever given in her entire life.

Maybe, just maybe, the media will stop obsessing over a party division that does not exist any more. I watch convention coverage on PBS because they show the whole thing, and because the people they have on are not idiots. On every other channel, you get an hour, where all you hear is talking heads getting the story massively wrong. And since this convention has begun, this is what their coverage has sounded like to me:

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Today begins the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The media (or some sections of it, I should say) have been pushing for a big rousing fight on the floor of the convention in Denver -- the Hillary Clinton supporters staging some sort of scene for the cameras -- so they can continue their "look how divided the Democrats are" storyline. The "party divided" theme will be pushed hard by some, in an effort to interject a little suspense and drama into what is usually (at least in modern times) a carefully-staged and rather over-produced American political event.

This, historically speaking, is utter hogwash. Baloney. Absolute bunkum.

Allow me to take you back to a time when the Democratic Party truly was divided -- sixty years ago, in 1948. The Democratic National Convention back then did have dramatic events showing the party not just divided, but actually splintering into factions and birthing a new (but, thankfully, short-lived) third party as a result. All this from the convention floor itself.

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John McCain said something ridiculous to a reporter yesterday.

I hasten to point out that the previous sentence should have been a major media headline at least twice a week for the past three or four months. McCain has been saying downright ridiculous stuff throughout the entire campaign and the media, up until now, has largely given him a free pass on it.

But I'm certainly not looking this gift horse in the mouth. For weeks now, I have been practically begging someone -- ANYone -- to ask John McCain this exact question: "How many houses do you and your wife own?" Politico finally asked. John McCain blew the answer. Yet another gaffe from McCain, but the difference this time is that the media chose to run with it.

Politico was probably prompted to ask this question by a Big Labor effort to point out how wealthy the McCains truly are. This effort, led by the SEIU, the AFL/CIO, and Brave New Films, got the coveted Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award here just last week, I should mention. It seems their efforts have now paid off handsomely.

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One can almost picture the scene -- a high-level campaign strategy session inside Barack Obama's headquarters. "So everyone's saying Obama should fight back against McCain's smears... how should we go about doing that?" "Hey, what about... I don't know... maybe highlighting the really stupid things McCain says on the campaign trail -- almost on a daily basis?!?"

Obama's team must have come to this rather obvious conclusion, because McCain just uttered (yet again) one of his jaw-dropping gaffes -- on the record, to a reporter -- and this time Obama picked up the ball and ran with it.

When asked by Politico how many houses he owned, John McCain responded:

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It's time once again to take a look at how the electoral math is shaping up for Barack Obama and John McCain. While the news this time around isn't all that great for Obama, I wanted to take another of these snapshots of the polls -- before the running mates are announced and before the conventions happen -- in order to provide a statistical baseline to see how big a "bump" in the polls either candidate will get in the next few weeks. My analysis in short: while the news isn't dire quite yet, Obama could certainly use such a bump at this point.

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