Today, lots of people are saying that John Kerry’s speech last night was the best of the evening. I missed it, and here it is in case you missed it too.

What did y’all think? I think he did the job.

Update: Here’s the nominee. I thought it was bad luck for the nominee to show up in the convention hall before his nomination speech.

“Barack Obama is the man for this job.” That’s unequivocal.

I missed Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s speech last night, and it’s great. Send this video to anyone you know who’s even thinking of voting for McCain.

Money line: “We simply can’t drill our way to energy independence. If you drilled everywhere, if you drilled in all of John McCain’s backyards, even the ones he doesn’t know he has, that single proposition is a dry well.”

It’s going over well, but my brain is fried. What do you think?

Michelle Obama’s speech last night is being nearly universally praised as a smashing success. Even some righties admit it. The only exception I’ve found so far is Byron York, who creates an appearance of inconsistency through creative quoting. Well, that’s what they pay him to do.

The Right keeps trying to spin Michelle Obama into Angela Davis ca. 1970. I’ve thought all along that if the American public could just get an unfiltered look at her, most of them would like her just fine. Especially compared to the genuinely disturbing Cindy McCain.

Spouse speeches at these conventions usually are fairly forgettable. I’ve been trying to remember some from the past. The only presidential candidate wife whose convention appearance I remember is Pat Nixon in 1972, for some reason. And I don’t remember if she actually spoke. I just remember that when she appeared on the stage she got huge applause, which I took to be in sympathy. Wow, Pat, you put up with that creep. How do you do it?

I also remember one veep spouse speech — Marilyn Quayle, 1972 1992. She was so hateful, so arrogant, so smug, she was nearly unbearable. I remember the reactions of co-workers, mostly women, the next day — usually a finger down the throat, to suggest gagging. I think that she and Pat Buchanan’s declaration of culture war helped Bill Clinton win the election.

Michael Tomasky thinks Michelle Obama should have been schmaltzier. He also said that last night wasn’t nearly negative enough. I want to see John McBush thoroughly skewered the remainder of the convention, but I don’t necessarily think it was a mistake to keep the first night positive and uplifting, especially since it was Kennedy night.

With all the sturm und drang over the Clintons, it was such a delight to forget them and remember the Kennedys. Back in the Kennedy era, Democrats were Democrats, dammit. No triangulation; no wussy DLC accommodations to the Right. Now there’s just Ted, and his time is almost up. I love the symbolism of Caroline and Ted passing the torch to Obama.

So, Day 1 was about This is who we are. This is our vision. The rest of the convention needs to be, Now, let’s go kick some right-wing ass.

I’m watching the convention on MSNBC. At one point, MSNBC cut to the beginning of Nancy Pelosi’s speech, and there was no sound. So I flipped to CNN — no Nancy Pelosi; CNN was on a commercial break. I turned to Faux (briefly) — Nancy was in a corner of the screen, and the bobbleheads were talking over her. Finally I went back to MSNBC. The audio link was fixed, and they showed the speech without interruption.

From what I can see through the television screen, stories about Clintonistas causing chaos at the convention are highly exaggerated. The loud die-hards out on the streets in their tin foil hats are not serious about politics; they are trying to draw attention to themselves. Chuck Todd made a good point when he said they were the Dem equivalent of Ron Paul supporters. There will be unity in the hall.

There is speculation that Senator Kennedy will address the convention. If he can do it, that would be amazing.

Update: Well, there he is. This could be really important for the party.

Update 2: I’m listening to Michelle Obama’s speech. She’s very good.

More update — this was a very good speech, well delivered. And she looks gorgeous. Oh, and there are the little girls.

Keith Olbermann is saying “case closed.” Wait until the reaction from the Right. They’ll find something to pick apart so they can hate her.

BTW, Little Lulu is reporting that there are riots going on outside the hall. She’s got a streaming video of the “riot,” which consists of people meandering around. Somebody buy the girl a dictionary.

Do we want to review what went on in New York City during the 2004 GOP convention, Michelle?

There are rumors that Obama’s veep pick could be announced this afternoon. If not today, then probably tomorrow.

I started to title this post “hope springs eternal,” because there is feverish anticipation that Hillary Clinton will be the veep candidate, even though I would have thought that notion had been put to rest weeks ago. An editorial in the New York Daily News says,

Barack Obama is on the verge of his first major choice as would-be President of the United States. As early as today, he will announce his running mate, with all signs indicating that he’ll bypass the class of the field:

Hillary Clinton.

If so, Obama will chalk up a huge missed opportunity to boost the Democratic Party’s chances of victory and to add a major asset to his White House in the event he is elected.

I still think Hillary Clinton would be one of the least helpful veep candidates on the “possible” list. As Alec MacGillis wrote,

Lost in this analysis, though, is a crucial fact: many of Clinton’s primary-season supporters are not necessarily loyal Democratic presidential election voters.

Indeed, many of the states and counties where Clinton racked up her biggest numbers in the primaries are places where voters remain Democrats in name only (think Kentucky). Such voters may have turned out to participate in an exciting 2008 Democratic primary, but they have not voted for Democrats in recent presidential elections, and can hardly be considered part of the Democratic base.

Take Beaver County in western Pennsylvania, where the New York Times today found strong resistance to Obama among Clinton supporters and Obama lost to Clinton by a whopping 40 percentage points during the primary. If Obama does not win all those voters back, he will hardly be the first: Democrats outnumber Republicans in the county 68,000 to 35,000, yet Kerry won the county by only 2.7 percentage points. And despite losing so many of the county’s Democrats to George W. Bush, Kerry nonetheless carried Pennsylvania.

She will bring over the die-hards among her supporters, but my guts tell me that putting Hillary Clinton on the ticket would cost Obama at least as many votes as he might gain. She might bring him Arkansas, although it’s been a long time since she’s lived there, and I wouldn’t count on it. He’s already got New York.

And as soon as she’s on the ticket, the entire election will be about the Clintons. That’s the last thing Obama needs, IMO.

There isn’t anyone I can’t think of who is without liability. I’m ambivalent about Joe Biden, but I prefer him to Bayh, Kaine, and Sibelius, who in total have less charisma than my gym socks. Wes Clark or Jim Webb would be exciting, if riskier, choices.

We’ll see.