The Hollywood Liberal

C-2
The New York Times has a great behind-the-scenes look at how Sen. Joe Biden was selected as Sen. Barack Obama’s running mate. To keep the secret, Biden was never referred to by name; instead the few aides who knew called him by his codename, C-2.

However, even the two aides that made all the preparations for the unveiling of Biden didn’t know Obama’s pick until just before the rest of us.

Reactions to Clinton’s Speech
Sen. Hillary Clinton’s speech at the Democratic National Convention put to rest the idea that her party is not unified in support of Sen. Barack Obama for president. While disunity has been a constant theme of the cable news channels, it’s barely noticeable among delegates. Clinton nailed her speech and put Democrats in the mood to enthusiastically nominate Obama on Thursday night.

Other reactions:

Ben Smith: “Hillary’s speech — a success in the hall — was a study in the virtue of low expectations.”

Nick Gillespie: “I’d say that Sen. Clinton has had the best performance so far, by a wide margin, both in terms of attacking John McCain and the Republicans head-on and defining a nauseatingly comprehensive set of plans for raising taxes, getting mad at companies for ’shipping job overseas,’ and pushing universal health care (or more accurately, even more expensive and less effective health care).”

Andrew Sullivan: “She started out a little dull and a little self-obsessed. But then she rallied — a little. ‘No Way. No How. No McCain’ was a good line. And the Twin Cities analogy was a great little riff on Bush and McCain. But I have to say her speaking style, although much improved over even a year ago, is still a little flat. When she’s passionate, she has little inflection. When she’s quieter, she’s a little drony. The ‘keep going’ theme, moreover, was a little unnerving. A thinly veiled threat?”

Craig Crawford: “Stunning. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s convention speech on Tuesday was so NOT what Barack Obama needed.”

Fourniercation Under Contrived Keyboarding
If only there were an appropriate acronym for that title?

Not regretting the breezy nature of his bias

Well, not terribly surprisingly — unless you were a paid television pundit — Hillary Clinton gave a full-throated speech endorsing Barack Obama. Not some tepid declaration, but a whole-hearted sincere endorsement of Obama and a ringing denunciation of the Maverick Sidekick.

What’s a not very well-hidden McCain campaign operative to do about this?

Ron Fournier knows…

For one evening, their political world was perfect. Or so it seemed.

Standing before thousands of delegates, almost half of them her backers, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton declared it time “to unite as a single party with a single purpose” and urged her followers to help elect once-bitter rival Barack Obama. “We are on the same team,” she said, after allowing the applause to build to a crescendo and linger, longer than usual ??? much like the Democratic primary race itself.

“Barack Obama is my candidate,” she said. “And he must be our president.”

But did she mean it?

Of course, not long ago Ron Fournier kissed Karl Rove’s ample behind while the latter blatantly lied about the death of Pat Tillman and Fournier attempted to land a job with the McCain campaign, a campaign he has YET to write one critical piece about (his only negative GOP piece this year was a piece criticizing Romney so as to praise McCain). I’m sure Fournier would claim this is not reflected in how he operates as an alleged “journalist”. Watch his pieces on the Republican Convention closely next week…and feel the love and the sprinkles.

And we know he doesn’t mean it.

So keep up the protests of Fournier’s partisan hackery. It is starting to be noticed. And there are signs, the AP is paying the price.

(pic from TPM Muckraker)

What Digby Said
This has been another edition of What Digby Said.

Expectations
CNN is informing that Hillary Clinton has to do 15 things simultaneously with her speech, and wise Soledad finally remarked that some of these things may be contradictory.

Our discourse is so stupid.

Hillary Electrifies: “Nothing Less Than the Fate of Our Nation … Hangs in the Balance”
In a speech to a roaring crowd at the DNC, Hillary Clinton gave full support to Barack Obama, promising to fight for health care and the environment.

Climate Reality Eludes the Business Press
For the Wall Street Journal’s editors, fear of a bigger government outweighs the fear of a warmer planet.

Age Matters
I’ve never thought Sen. John McCain was mentally ill, not even after George W. Bush tried to discredit his intelligence and wit in 2000. But now I worry about the obvious deterioration of his health. Look back at clips from…

Scheunemann Lobbied Against Bill to Keep Guns From Terrorists
We knew Randy Scheunemann, John McCain’s top foreign policy adviser, was into guns. After all, in 1997 he was arrested for having a shotgun and several rounds of ammunition in his car on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. And…

Convention Blogging, Streaming, Twittering

(bumped)

Dem Convention Live Stream: The feed will be on whenever and wherever possible. IM me at “billscher” if you have any questions for any interviewees (or myself) throughout the convention.

Streaming Video by Ustream.TV

More convention blogging from me at OurFuture.org and HuffingtonPost.com (including coverage of Take Back America)

Kucinich: ‘Wake up, America!’
Kucinich: ‘Wake up, America!’

Gay media mogul withdraws support from Obama
Gay media mogul withdraws support from Obama