From John Kerry’s nomination speech, paragraph 45.

We will double our Special Forces to conduct terrorist operations, anti-terrorist operations.

This is a transcript from the actual televised speech itself and not the written preview of the speech sent to the media Thursday afternoon, I suppose.

Item #1

A state court judge in Florida ordered Thursday that the board of elections immediately release a list of nearly 50,000 suspected felons to CNN and other news organizations that last month sued the state for access to copies of the list.

Item #2

The state scrapped the database Saturday after finding it ignored thousands of Hispanic voters. (Florida Hispanic voters = Cubans.)

Item #3:

“We are not going to engage in every accusation du jour from people whose goal it is to undermine voter confidence,” DiPietre said. “The governor has every confidence in the Department of State, election supervisors and the staffers who are working to ensure a fair and seamless election, and the voter should, too.”

Item #4:

The liberal Democrats have already begun their attacks and the new electronic voting machines do not have a paper ballot to verify your vote in case of a recount. Make sure your vote counts. Order your absentee ballot today.”

My tagline at the top is an obvious lie. It doesn’t lie as much as it did previously, but it still lies. I changed it from “as though it doesn’t matter” to “as though it barely matters.”

I obviously have a dog in this fight… despite any and all grievances I express about Kerry… I view Kerry as an improvement over what the DNC offered up in 2000 (yes, that is damning him with a little feignt praise), and Bush as worse than what I thought he was in 2000. At the same time, it frequently seems like the election is analogious to an election for American Mob Boss.

Forget it though. I feel the need to steer away from the cynicism and get down to brass tasks: I shall create two lists. The first: the Case Against Bush. The second: the Case For Kerry. I jotted some items down, and it’s obvious the first list is easier than the second list — without too much thought, I have 10 items down against Bush and 5 items down for Kerry.

Suggestions and ideas are being taken.

Ron Paul, the Libertarian in Congress — albeit with the “R” Republican after his name — apparently gave a floor speech at the time of Iraqi War Resolution about the “myth” that “war makes good politics” — saying that in the long-term wars tend to destroy candidates and politicians, so if you’re voting cynically for that reason — think long and hard.

The classic example is probably Woodrow Wilson. In his case, he brought US approval into the war mostly through a sheer propaganda manipulation assualt and crushing of dissent, and not surprisingly when the costs of war became apparent to the temporily mollified public — he was given the boot. The Party didn’t bother re-nominating him. For my purposes here, saying that yes — Americans have “changed horses in mid-stream”: While it’s true that you can’t say Americans opted to “change horses” in the middle of the World War — Americans certainly rejected his post-war Reconstruction efforts on where he wanted to put America in the world.

Harry Truman was the last president not bound by the twenty-second Amendment. And, out of loyalty — particularly because of his upset victory four years earlier, he would have won the Democratic nomination. But, he knew he would be cooked against Eisenhower, so he didn’t run. Public opinion on the Korean War was souring greatly. Eisenhower went on to suspend hostilities in Korea, which matched public opinion well enough.

Lyndon Johnson saw the writing on the wall when Eugene McCarthy won some early primaries. The Vietnam War made him a public disgrace. Thus, he dropped out of the race — Bobby Kennedy followed by Hubert Humphrey filled his place. And Richard Nixon was elected — as a convuluted dove-hawk hybrid.

Besides which, if you want to put “The War on Terror” as analogious with “The Cold War”: In addition to Truman and Johnson, we changed horses mid-stream when we booted Nixon (though not at the ballot box), Ford, and Carter.

So, we change horses in mid-stream all the time. I’d like to hope that the horse we’re likely to jump onto mid-stream in 2004 is going in a different direction than the horse we’re on … I guess we shall see.

I’m thinking that the term Liebermangracious does not quite roll of the tongue.

Lieberman is speaking tonight. For some reason, the Kerry high – command boosted him from Wednesday, where he was originally speaking beside Al Sharpton and Bob Graham, to the night Kerry himself gives his acceptance speech.

Is this a sign that Kerry thinks Lieberman can actually help the undecideds in OhioPennsylvaniaFloridaWisconsin?

The Reverend Al Sharpton, evidentally speaking beyond his prepared speech:

. “They promised us 40 acres and a mule. We waited and nothing happened. The fact of the matter is, Mr. Bush, we waited around with the Republican Party through Herbert Hoover. Still didn’t get the 40 acres. Didn’t even get the mule. So we decided we’d ride this donkey as far as it would take us.”

Al Sharpton, through the primary season, was big on the donkey reference, vowing to “slap the donkey” or “whip the donkey”, etc. The mental picture of Al Sharpton “slapping the donkey” was never terribly pleasant.

(My favourite Shartponism, seemingly a jab at Lieberman, talking to Wesley Clark: “And don’t be defensive about just joining the party. Welcome to the party. It’s better to be a new Democrat that’s a real Democrat, than a lot of old Democrats up here that have been acting like Republicans all along.” )

Yesterday, Barak Obama completely revolutionized the art of political speeches. After hearing him yesterday, I had to overhaul and alter my prior definition of the word “political speech”.

A giant cataclysmic paradigm shift. It was the Day the Earth Stood Still. The world will never be the same after Obama’s keynote speech. We will have to redo the calendar, marked Before Obama’s Keynote Speech, and After.

Obama’s speech was a pinacle triumph for Human Civilization. Historians will pour over it, and talk it up in the same breath as the Invention of the Wheel, Gutenberg’s Press, and the establishment of Mosaic Law.

It was the Day the World Stood Still. Granted, the broadcast networks didn’t cover it, but imagining the impact if they did cover it blows the mind. Adding sugar to sugar!

Nay, I didn’t see it.

I will say this: it’s too bad that the Republicans aren’t able to find a replacement for Jack Ryan to run against him. (Mike Ditka declined, and Ted Nugent seems to be a no-go as well… yes, those are the names that came up to run for the US Senate: Mike Ditka and Ted Nugent!!) Because, that could be a heck of a negative campaign meme: Obama equals Osama.

In the meantime, the debate over President Mario Cuomo’s legacy rages on — what with that brilliant 1984 speech, and history will always tell how Bill Clinton’s career ended when he gave that long, meandering, and just plain bad speech back at the 1988 Democratic Convention.