President Obama delivers extraordinary speech

Was Wednesday night at the #DNCinPHL the most incredible night of the convention? That’s a rhetorical question. Of course it was.

One thing that has bothered me is that there is so much going on at this convention in Philadelphia it’s impossible to write about it all. On Tuesday the Mothers of the Movement spoke, some holding back tears, as they explained why they are with Hillary. These are mothers of people killed by gun violence and/or in police custody. the crowd greeted them with “Black Lives Matter!” chanted throughout the Wells Fargo Center.

Sybrina Fulton, the Mother of Trayvon Martin, who was killed by the man who stalked him in a Florida neighborhood and beat the charges by claiming self defense — stand your ground. Geneva Reed-Veal, mother of Sandra Bland ho died in a Texas jail cell after what Reed-Veal said was an unlawful arrest. Lucy McBath, mother of Jordan Davis, who was killed in Florida by a man who invoked the Stand Your Ground defense because he was arguing with Davis and his friend. That killer, Michael David Dunn, is now serving life in prison with no possibility of parole.

I doubt Dunn’s life sentence is much comfort to Lucy McBath; she would prefer to have her son alive. None of the women on that stage, that also included Maria Hamilton, mother of Dontre Hamilton; Annette Nance-Holt, mother of Blair Holt; Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner; Cleopatra Pendleton-Cowley, mother of Hadiya Pendleton; Wanda Johnson, mother of Oscar Grant; and Lezley McSpadden, mother of Michael Brown. Black lives do matter.

Of course people on the right criticized the women, calling them cop-haters. Like that idiot of a sheriff, David Clarke, Sheriff of Milwaukee County. He said the DNC was “embracing criminality” for having the Mothers speak at the convention. Megyn Kelly of Fox News assisted Clarke with his denunciation of these mothers.

But I missed all that in my previous post. The Mothers of the Movement were one of the most emotional moments of the convention.

One of the more interesting things I learned of, concerning this convention: after First Lady Michelle Obama gave her speech, in which she said she wakes up every morning in a house that was built by slaves, Fox News asshole Bill O’Reilly gets on his O’Reilly Factor program and defends slavery, saying , well they were well fed and had “decent lodgings.” Well I guess if you feed the slaves well and give them a nice place to sleep it’s okay to keep other human beings in bondage. “Slaves that worked there were well-fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government, which stopped hiring slave labor in 1802. However, the feds did not forbid subcontractors from using slave labor.”

No Billo, they didn’t “hire” slaves labor, they paid slave owners for the use of the humans in bondage.

After denouncing the Mothers of the Movement, Sheriff Clarke then said, Michelle Obama’s speech was filled with hate for the police? What kind of drugs does this guy smoke? I don’t remember anything like that. The good people of Milwaukee need to give David Clarke the boot.

The big news about the convention, but not at the convention, was Donald Trump’s press conference Wednesday morning in which he called on Putin’s Russia to commit espionage against the United States and hack into Hillary Clinton’s emails to find the 30,000 deleted emails.

Here’s the thing about that: besides the deleted emails there are thousands of other emails that do contain sensitive and classified information. So what that orange-haired idiot is doing is inviting Putin to look at sensitive information, all in an effort to win an election.

Conservative columnist George Will suggested Trump has not released his tax returns because they might show he is doing business with Putin and the oligarchs that control Russia.

But then Charles Krauthammer, ever the idiot, went on Fox News to say the Clinton Campaign fell into the trap! Yep, this is the latest conspiracy theory. This was a trap to somehow get Clinton to indirectly confirm there were work-related emails that were deleted. In Krauthammer’s words: “But I do think there was something about his reference to Russia which, whether planned or not, is extremely clever. I’m not the first point out that it set a trap that the Clinton campaign fell right into. In that statement that you showed from the Clinton campaign, it said, you know, you’re inviting a foreign power to invade our national security. Now, these are the e-mails that [Clinton] deleted because they were supposedly private. These there ones that were supposedly not work related. These there ones where she discusses her yoga lessons and wedding planning. So if that’s what really is in the 30,000 deleted e-mails, then there’s no national security to be involved at all.

“So the Clinton campaign ends up admitting that perhaps there really is work related, if not classified stuff, on the e-mails which she deleted, which I think would be the grounds for a charge of obstruction.”

Well once again, for the idiots on Fox News: besides the deleted emails there are work-related emails not deleted that the Russians would gain access to, if they hacked Hillary Clinton’s servers. It’s hard to believe a guy like Krauthammer could be so stupid.

Leon Panetta, Michael Bloomberg, Joe Biden, Tim Kaine and President Obama all delivered stinging rebukes of Donald Trump, none more so than President Obama. But the most damning argument against Donald Trump is of course Trump’s own words. In a press conference he held in Florida on Wednesday — in a stunt to try and grab attention away from his political opponents — Trump invited a foreign power to commit espionage against the United States. That’s the bottom line. Did Trump commit treason?

Article III of the U.S. Constitution says this: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.”

It’s debatable if Trump gave an enemy aid and comfort. Is Russia — Vladimir Putin — an enemy? He sure acts like it. In the same press conference when he asked Russia to commit espionage he also answered a question about the legitimacy of Russia occupying the Crimea. Trump’s answer: he “would be looking into that.” Really, Trump would reward Putin’s aggression.

The first question is: does Donald Trump even know what Crimea is and where it is on the map? The next is: does he understand what he is saying — does he have a clue about anything related to foreign policy?

There were a lot of speakers Wednesday, as noted earlier, but the best had to be President Obama. He stirred memories of his first convention speech in 2004, when he reminded us we are not a red and blue America, not a black and white America, that we are one America.

On Wednesday the president echoed those themes. And before he could even speak the roar of the assembled Democrats rattled the speakers in the TV, as they chanted, “Yes we can! Yes we can!” It was a powerful moment.

MSNBC political analyst, Steve Schmidt, called Obama’s speech “Extraordinary.” Schmidt was taken by the president’s authenticity and his vision of a true conservative philosophy being one of optimism.

He said, “I think it’s one of the more extraordinary political speeches given by anyone at any time. It was just extraordinary. It was a master class in American character, in American optimism. He quoted from two presidents in that speech, Ronald Reagan and Teddy Roosevelt.

“And I think the reason for that is because the president understands that, as a student of American political history, when you sever optimism from the conservative movement, from the right of center party, the right of center party never does well.”

High praise from a Republican political operative: Steve Schmidt, the former spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, Deputy Assistant to President George W. Bush and counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney. The man who managed Senator John McCain’s failed presidential bid in 2008, one of the people responsible for picking Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate.

After President Clinton spoke on Tuesday evening, Schmidt said that speech was “… a virtuoso political performance” and lamented his party, the GOP, didn’t have any powerful speakers like Bill Clinton — or Barack Obama.

I have argued at the TV with Steve Schmidt over policy, but I’ve never considered him an idiot … well maybe once — when he shoved Sarah Effin’ Palin onto the American zeitgeist. Thanks Steve, even after eight years she won’t go away.

Thursday’s agenda has begun. Congresswoman Marcia Fudge of Ohio has gaveled in the session, as she has every day of this convention. Tonight the candidate herself, Hillary Clinton, will officially accept the party’s nomination for president. This will be an historic moment in American history.

The first transgender person to address a major political convention, Sarah McBride, is now speaking. The contrast between the two major political parties can be summed up by this: diversity. The Republicans had little at their convention. The Democrats are the textbook definition of diverse.

There is no comparison.

Photos via YouTube DNC live feed, unless otherwise noted.