Yesterday got off to a bad start, with BernieorBusters booing every speaker when they dared to mention Hillary Clinton’s name and even booing a prayer. During the 5 o’clock hour, I was convinced there was going to be fist fights in the stands when they booed Michelle Obama and that Trump was destined to be President. But it seems the BernieorBusters just had to throw their little temper tantrum like the children (literally) they are. After their steam was released, the convention calmed down and it was an amazing evening with three amazing speeches by Sarah Silverman, Cory Booker and Michelle Obama.
Booker’s speech will be remembered akin to Obama’s 2004 speech. Michelle Obama’s speech will be copied by a Republican in 2024, and remembered along the greatest in American history. Sarah Silverman really gave a unity speech that was better than Warren and Bernie’s, and put the less civil BernieorBusters in their place in a classic moment that will be remembered for all time. And Bernie Sanders gave a speech, like his endorsement speech weeks ago, that was better than I could have asked for.
So, the night was more than salvaged as a show of unity.
my two year old son just asked "daddy, why does the media treat moderate leftism as a threat to society but laugh off fascism on the right?"
— sean. (@SeanMcElwee) January 31, 2016
Ed Kilgore says Bernie may have finally broken the Never Hillary Movement once and for all among his own supporters:
Suppose you didn’t know about the Bernie-or-Bust bros chanting “Lock Her Up” on the streets of Philadelphia Monday morning, or some of his delegates booing him Monday afternoon for calling Hillary Clinton’s election as president urgent and mandatory. Imagine you didn’t know the chattering classes were buzzing all day about the terrible disunity that seemed to be breaking out, and the threat of terrible disturbances on the floor.
If all you paid attention to was the evening speeches, the first night of the convention was a cavalcade of progressive voices (with a few interruptions) making the case for like-minded voters to united behind Hillary Clinton – concluding, of course, with Bernie Sanders. Comedian Sarah Silverman was the only Sanders supporter who came right out and told off the Bernie-or-Bust minority that had basically terrorized the convention at its beginning. But marginalizing these people was the residual effect of the evening. In a way, the Sanders campaign (and its ideological fellow-travelers like Elizabeth Warren) may have even helped Clinton triangulate against the angry Left, without her having to lift a finger or raise her own voice – or calling on her own allies to get their hands dirty.
Would that have happened without the early unpleasantness? I don’t know. But there was a sense of catharsis when the tension of Oh my God they’re going to boo Bernie! broke that probably broke the resistance to Clinton once and for all.
It does appear that Clinton’s people had to make the concession of going along with a full roll call vote in which Sanders will get his votes, but that won’t happen in front of an audience as large as tonight’s.
Maybe then the loud, rude vast minority of Bernie supporters will finally know he lost and lost by a lot if we do a roll call.
Compare: nearly full arena tonight for Dems vs. many empty seats on Monday (for Scott Baio) at RNC pic.twitter.com/6JBKaCzBuj
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) July 26, 2016
Markos Moulitsas is happy:
The rhetoric was inspiration, soaring, inspiring, and hopeful. Corey Booker started dry, ended a powerhouse. Michelle Obama gave the best speech of her career, one full of amazing speeches. Elizabeth Warren was amazing, like always. Bernie Sanders was the constructively progressive champion so many of us hoped would transform into.
We crammed more big-time powerhouse surrogates in one day than the Republican convention managed in an entire week.
But it wasn’t just about the big names, it was about showcasing our party’s deep diversity, it was about not-famous champions, like little 11-year-old Karla Ortiz, pleading for an America in which her parents didn’t live under threat of deportation, and Anastasia Somoza, on her wheelchair, wondering how anyone could be as heartless and cruel as Donald Trump. It was Sarah Silverman, über Sanders supporter, lashing out at the boorish assholes doing Donald Trump’s work for him, inside the convention hall.
It was about a party that could stick to its theme, “Unity Together” tonight. Yes, those few assholes, reportedly from my state’s delegation (California), cast a pall on proceedings, giving the chattering class reason to talk about a “divided” party. But let them talk. A few overly privileged cranks don’t represent our party.
This is my party. This is our party. This is America’s party. We are everybody, and we were all represented in that hall tonight, and on stage. I am filled with pride and purpose. I can’t wait for what tomorrow will bring.
— Sarah McBride (@SarahEMcBride) July 26, 2016
Josh Marshall on Bernie’s speech:
It was particularly well put together in terms of giving voice to what animated his campaign while pivoting to supporting Hillary and not having either seem forced, contrived or false. That’s not the easiest thing to do. That is an understatement. What really brought it together though was that Sanders heart and head seemed very much in it. He managed to bring all the furious intensity he is capable of to this speech. It was really quite something.
Pounding thunderstorm in Philly is shutting down a Jill Stein rally. The DNC's nefarious methods know no bounds.
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) July 25, 2016
Brian Beutler says the Democrats just showed Republicans how it’s done:
Clinton’s convention lineup wasn’t designed to contrast with Trump’s brigade of C-list celebrities and agitators, though it did do that. It was instead meant to serve as a demonstration that Clinton is widely respected in the Democratic Party, which is much less divided than a handful of Sanders delegates would have you believe. Where Trump insists to the public that Republicans are unified, Clinton and her supporters showed that they are.
Perspective thanks to @pbump https://t.co/4wxZS3a5UT
— John Stoehr (@johnastoehr) July 25, 2016
There are just too many stories that I want to show you, but we don’t have enough space, so here are some more to read at your leisure from last night:
How Michelle Obama wrote Donald Trump out of the American narrative.
The Democrats’s big pitch: We’re the Party of [real] Family Values now.
Ezra Klein says the Democrat’s big message is that America is great so don’t let Trump fuck with it (my words, lol).
Matt Yglesias says that the first part of the first day may have looked like a mess, but the Democrats are more unified than it seems (and hey MSNBC, can you perhaps not fill our air with interviews with a few ignorant BernieBusters? They found 3 delegates out of 5 fucking thousand and gave them lengthy live interviews.
Dylan Matthews on the quiet radicalism of Michelle Obama’s speech.
Dylan Matthews with the 4 winners and 2 losers from last night: Winners: Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders, Sarah Silverman, and American Exceptionalism. Losers: Debbie Wasserman Schultz, TPP.
Bernie Sanders’ former press secretary: No one stole this election. Bernie lost it fair and square.