WTF Is It Now?!?

"[A] veritable combination of Elvis, the Beatles, James Brown and Bruce Springsteen put together. There he was, huger than life:  Bill Clinton, who after his introduction by his wife raced breathlessly through what seemed a 40-minute speech crammed into about 25 and got the 2004 presidential race roaringly underway. He was just plain magnificent."

- Tom Shales, in the WaPo.


"[S]ince most Americans aren't that far to the right, our friends have to portray us Democrats as simply unacceptable, lacking in strength and values. In other words, they need a divided America.

"But we don't."

- President Bill Clinton, speaking before the Democratic National Convention, 7/26/04.


"[I]n the world at large, we cannot lead if our leaders mislead.

"You can't be a war president one day and claim to be a peace president the next, depending on the latest political polls."

- President Jimmy Carter.


"I want to say to all Americans this evening that whether it is the threat to the global environment or the erosion of America's leadership in the world, whether it is the challenge to our economy from new competitors or the challenge to our security from new enemies, I believe that we need new leadership that is both strong and wise."

- VP Al Gore.


"Strength and wisdom are not opposing values."

- Bill Clinton.


No Bush-bashing at the DNC, huh?! My God, it was beautiful. Though never calling him by name, Al Gore, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton let that fascistic little liar and his lying powermad misadministration have it, right between the eyes.

Back down on the stage, another moving moment of peaceful contemplation: 16-year-old violinist Gabe Lefkowitz playing "Amazing Grace" in memoriam [of those who died on 9/11].

People in the crowded hall held up lights or candles or matches. This all made a mockery of Fox anchor Neal Cavuto's imbecilic statement earlier in the day, as he sat in the foreground of the hall, that "there's a lot of hatred in this room behind me." He said the convention would be "predictably partisan." Gosh! Does that mean the Democrats wouldn't give equal time to Republicans? Heaven help us if the November elections are partisan, too.

"Some of the prime-time lineup appears to be very partisan," CNN pretty-boy Bill Hemmer told commentator Jeff Greenfield on the network's morning show. Insights like these are so dazzling you really have to step back from the set to avoid having your eyebrows singed.

-Tom Shales.