The Political Voices of Women

There has been a lot of talk about tonight’s roll call vote.  Some didn’t want it to happen at all, and others want to have it cut-off before it is even finished.  Personally, I think the Democratic party owes it to the voters to complete this roll call, but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen.  Anyway, here is what other bloggers are saying about the roll call vote.  Once the roll call vote is over, I will update this post.  In the meantime let me know what you think in comments.

From McClatchy Election 2008 Blog…

Remember the good old political convention days, when the roll call of the states was the highlight of the convention?
Good luck finding the roll call Wednesday.

A roll call is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. MDT, dinner time back east. It’s not clear how many states will participate–even delegates aren’t being told.

This much is known: At some point, a Hillary Clinton supporter will move to nominate Barack Obama, probably unanimously, and that will be it.

Just don’t ask who will do it or when. No one really knows yet.

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This race is officially Barack Obama’s to win (or lose).  Hillary Clinton’s speech was the highlight of the convention tonight, and she hit it out of the part.  I can’t imagine how she could have done it any better.  In case you missed it, I’ve included Hillary Clinton’s video introduction, and her full speech.  Also see reactions to her speech from the media and the bloggers.

Hillary Clinton’s Introductory Video…

Hillary Clinton’s speech at The Democratic National Convention…

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Here is a clip of Erin Kotecki Vest being interviewed live on CNN. GREAT JOB ERIN!

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Erin Kotecki Vest from BlogHer, did this interview earlier today, with Valerie Jarrett of the Obama campaign…

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Here is a guest post by community member Deb Della Piana from Turn Left.

[If you would like to be a guest blogger on The Political Voices of Women, just join our community, and start posting.]

The pundits are coming out of the woodwork since Obama chose Joe Biden over Hillary Clinton (or any other woman) for vice president. Some, like the generally suspect Dick Morris, have suggested that McCain pick Kay Bailey Hutchison as his running mate in order to secure votes from the angry Hillary supporters. Women, don’t let the conservatives and the pundits dumb you down and defocus you from the task at hand. You know and I know that had Obama chosen Clinton, the pundits and conservatives would have had a bigger field day. There’s no polite way for me to say this, so I’ll just say it:

John McCain is no friend to women. There is no need to discuss Kay Bailey Hutchison’s position on women’s rights because it doesn’t matter one bit. What really matters is the position of the presidential candidate. Casting your vote for McCain rather than Obama, out of some twisted sense of loyalty to Hillary Clinton, makes absolutely no sense. For the record, Hillary Clinton feels that way too. If, however, you want to set women’s rights back a few decades then pappy McCain is your man and the Republican party is your ticket.

Now, I’d be a liar if I said that this isn’t a ‘gender election.’ It has been a gender election from the beginning because of Clinton’s candidacy and the malodorous treatment she received from the male-dominated news and broadcast media. However, for women the gender issue goes far deeper than that, and the election issues go deeper than the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq or the state of the economy. That’s because the conservatives are very quietly waging a war against womens’ rights that is slithering just under the radar screen. Make no bones about it, John McCain wants it kept under the radar. He’s counting on it. However, in order for women to make an intelligent, informed decision, this is one war that must be exposed.

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Here is a guest post by Cynthia Samuels at Don’t Gel Too Soon.

[If you would like to be a guest blogger on The Political Voices of Women, just join our community, and start posting.]

This is breaking my heart. Why is it that we Democrats are incapable of NOT shooting ourselves in the foot (feet even)? In my view (and I’m hardly alone in this) this may be the most critical election of my lifetime. I’ve written (are you sick of it yet?) about the parallels to 1968 when the refusal of many anti-war voters to show up at the polls and vote for Hubert Humphrey brought us Richard Nixon and a cascade of disaster. That could and most likely will happen again if we don’t all pull ourselves together.

I heard a commentator quote — I thought Jefferson but can’t find the source — “True democracy means acceptance of defeat by one vote.” Sounds right, doesn’t it? But there is what we wish were true and there is political reality, and the reality this year is that every moment of hesitation by Senator Clinton’s supporters puts another barrier between Senator Obama and the White House. My most-respected friend PunditMom has a very smart analysis of where all this antipathy is coming from. And there’s a survey of much of the conversation in Lisa Stone’s summary at BlogHer.

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Michelle Obama Biography…

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I think Michelle Obama did a nice job with her speech. Especially, since she is not a politician, and she was following Senator Ted Kennedy. Here is a video of Michelle Obama’s full speech…



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If you ask me…This satellite cameo of Obama with the kids, is priceless. What do you think?



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So, now you’ve seen it for yourself. Here is some reaction by other bloggers…

From Women’s Voices for Change…

History met hope tonight, to borrow words from Michelle Obama’s stunning address in which she posited herself as American everywoman, a hardworking wife whose most important and cherished role is to be as good a parent to her daughters as her parents were to her. With her mother in the audience and her two young daughters beside her, she gesticulated with hands and arms as she spoke to suggest that while she is Princeton and Harvard, she possesses a common touch. To those who thought that she was somehow too exotic, too removed, and somehow threatening, to appeal to ordinary Americans, she dispelled qualms never mentioning race, and celebrating the achievement of Hillary Clinton this week when America celebrates the 88th anniversary of American women gaining the franchise.

From Reno and it’s Discontents…

I think most of us can agree that Michelle Obama gave a fabulous speech tonight. She managed to hail Hillary Clinton and talk about all women in a way that was celebratory. However, what I’m most interested in are the reactions from the Right of Center bloggers included in the National Journal Bloggers Poll with me. We were polled yesterday on whether we felt Michelle Obama would hurt or help Barack Obama’s campaign. Well, first of all, its really kind of a ridiculous question, but it does show us clearly how low our public discourse on this election has gone.

From Pamela at Democratic Daily…

I thought it was awesome. I was incredibly impressed. She’s grown a lot on the campaign trail. Tonight’s from Michelle Obama speech was honest, from the heart and very moving.

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After watching the full evening of the Democratic National Convention on C-SPAN I decided to pop over to CNN just to see what they were saying. I was amazed. I couldn’t believe that we had watched the same event.

The CNN pundits repeatedly harped on the fact that there wasn’t “enough red meat” and how the Democrats didn’t attack Bush/McCain enough.

Now lets think about this for a moment.

Here we had the opening night of a convention to nominate a candidate who promises to bring together people across party lines, a candidate who wants to prove that we are not a nation of “red states” and “blue states” and the media pundits want the opening night’s speakers to come out like attack dogs. Duh!

Apparently while millions of Americans are desperate for political change, the media wants to see the same old political games. In fact, some of them are practically salivating and dreaming of a repeat of 1980.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that the next few nights will provide the media and us with enough Bush/Cheney/McCain bashing to get our fires going. In fact, I’m hoping that someone is going to pull another Ann Richards’ speech out of the bag. And, I’m sure that more than one disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporter will be caught on camera with their “Hillary 2012″ tee.

But Monday night it was refreshing to watch an evening of ordinary people taking the stage and speaking about their encounters with Barack Obama. It was nice to see the faces of the people that the party has shied away from like former President Jimmy Carter and Senator John Kerry (D-MA).

The first night of the Democratic National Convention was for the “true believers”, “the new believers” and “the I want to be a believer(s)”.

Just seeing Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) reminded us that bridges are falling down in America. Watching the children of Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) introduce their mom reminded us of how important this election is to young people. Watching former President and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Jimmy Carter interview Hurricane Katrina survivors reminded us that we MUST care about the most vulnerable in our society. Seeing Caroline Kennedy and Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) reminded so many of us of just why we’re Democrats. ( Yes, I did shed a tear when he walked on stage.)

And, Michelle Obama… she reminded us that Dr. King’s Dream is inching a little closer and maybe, just maybe the world will begin to view African American women in a light other than some of the popular stereotypes.

So I highly recommend that if you’re planning on watching the remaining nights of the convention, watch C-SPAN first and decide what the speeches mean to you. Save the pundits for later. I’m glad that I did.

Senator Ted Kennedy gave a powerful, inspiring, and courageous speech tonight at The Democratic National Convention. And, just in case you missed it…

—Here is some of what other bloggers are saying about Ted Kennedy’s speech. What did you think?

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The Democratic National Convention begins today, and the latest poll numbers are being spun by the media as proof that Hillary supporters are not on board with Obama. How much weight do you think these polls really carry?

From where I sit…The media (not Hillary or Hillary supporters) are responsible for any real or imaginary riff in the Democratic Party. In a nutshell, it goes like this – Build her up, knock her down, and then suggest she bail-out before all the votes are counted. The trouble is, media manipulation does affect actual outcomes, and the Republicans are champions at media manipulation. A perfect example is the Bush administration, and how they learned very quickly, that the media couldn’t change lies into truth, but they could change lies into the perception of truth. Unfortunately for democracy, perception trumps truth every time. So, not surprisingly, the McCain campaign is using all the latest media hoopla to their benefit. Will it work? What do you think? Here is the latest from around the web.

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