Barack Obama, Dennis Kucinich, and Al Sharpton have been the stars of the Democratic Party National Convention. Their eloquent and passion filled speeches have made be proud that I'm voting Democrat this year. Without their speeches, the Convention would more or less be a complete waste of time.

Obama is the future start of the party. As long as he's around (barring any stupid screw-ups), his name is going to be one of those names that you hear a lot of in the coming years. I really look forward to seeing what kind of senator he becomes. Although I hope and pray that Kerry/Edwards win this year, if they don't, expect Obama's name to be circulating around the big ticket in 2012 and beyond. 2008 would be too soon for him (probably) but I think we'd better get used to hearing about Obama.

His speech was brilliant. It reminded me what is good about politics, and why sometimes politics can go beyond boring mundane details. His speech had me every step of the way. Seriously, if he was running for national office, I'd take off as much time as was needed to help out his campaign. He seems like the type of guy that I'd love to work for. It's rare these days that a speech can inspire me. His did.

I of course was also thrilled to see Dennis Kucinich speaking. He's another one of those politicians who made me proud to be a Democrat. Dennis Kucinich, Howard Dean, Michael Moore, Al Sharpton, and a few others are pretty much responsible for the Democratic party coming back to it's roots and having a little back bone. I think it's a damn shame that people didn't give Kucinich the time of day. In today's political atmosphere that's dominated by appearances, it's a damn shame that someone like Dennis Kucinich was discredited because he looked like a creature from the Lord of the Rings movies. Oh well. I did what I could. He got my vote. It was good to see that he got some delegates last night at the Delegate Roll Call.

Al Sharpton laid the smack down on the Republicans and GWBush. With so much of this convention being a scripted ballyhoo tightrope walk, it was good to see someone go off the cuff a little bit and do some fire juggling. His line about "riding the donkey for as long as possible" is just a fantastic line. As was his remark about Clarence Thomas not even going to college if not for affirmative action. But the best part, was when he did a roll call of all the great legistlation and Supreme Court decisions that came under Democratic leadership. Man, know one works a crowd like the Reverend Al Sharpton.

Good stuff.

more to come later.

matt out