10:08 or so, a speech from former GOP congressman Jim Leach, and really good, too--very effective, with the specifics so often lacking in spokespersons' calls for "a new direction," or refs culled straight and unsubtly from opinion polls, to "wrong direction" etc. Too bad only viewers happening on C-Span get to hear it; CNN and MSNBC apparently consider either the audience or the speech unworthy of the air time.

Leach runs down a concise and efficient list of the civic virtues that used to be ascribed to the Republican Party, and contrasts them to the track record of the current ...   more »

Dismal message being purveyed/pounded via some cable channels--David Gregory on MSNBC, hammering the already-worn topic of 'Clinton supporters'--will they vote for Obama, or not?

Easy answer: the overwhelming majority of that minority of 'Clinton supporters' that does not vote for Obama was not Democratic to start with. It is more than possible that up to 20 percent of Clinton voters in some primary states were just Repubs voting in order to spoil the Democrats. The overwhelming majority of genuine Dem voters who went for Clinton will go for the Dem nominee.

Varying from the 'Hillary' topic temporarily, Gregory also suggests, ...   more »

Live-blogging media coverage, if you call it that, of the Democratic National Convention--

C-Span is in many ways the best bet, definitely the best bet in the hours before prime time and leading into prime time. If you have that quaint view that you'd rather at least be able to see and hear proceedings at the convention--having tuned in to convention coverage--than listen to some of the innumerable panels of hired guns and other commentators, then C-Span 2 is the way to go.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar had a good anecdote about Barack Obama--elected to the Senate at the same ...   more »