Winter's Picks
The Greek Temple theme upon which Barack Obama will give his acceptance speech is beginning to make some leading Democrats a little nervous.
The whole rock star/celebrity stereotype Obama has tried to downplay won't be helped by the venue at Invesco Field.
According to Politico: From the elaborate stagecraft to the teeming crowd of 80,000 cheering partisans, the vagaries of the weather to the unpredictable audience reaction, the optics surrounding the stadium event have heightened worries that the Obama campaign is engaging in a high-risk endeavor in an uncontrollable environment.
A common concern: that the stadium appearance plays against Obama’s convention goal of lowering his star wattage and connecting with average Americans and that it gives Republicans a chance to drive home their message that the Democratic nominee is a narcissistic celebrity candidate.
Although you'll see it tonight, here's a pre-speech shot of the temple.
There's roughly 15,000 journalists in Denver right now, covering the Democratic National Convention.
And with that many - from bloggers to print reporters to TV anchors to talking heads to whatever - there's actually less breaking news.
Quote: “I don’t like events where there are a gazillion reporters,” (Adam Nagourney of the New York Times) said. “If you come here and David Axelrod came walking down the aisle over there, there’d be 500 people around him, and you’d be getting the most boilerplate quotes. So what’s the point?”
What is the point?
“I feel like this is the dumb state of reporting in a presidential campaign,” said Michael Scherer, a writer for Time magazine. “Everyone is spending time and millions of dollars to break something six hours before it’s announced.”
But feel free to take a look at what all those reporters are up to.
And the Columbia Journalism Review offers up its take as well.
Quote: Only a small number of reporters actually have a reason to be here. The rest are conventioneering—seeing old friends, eating Democratic-themed menu items (“Barack Obama’s Turkey Chili”) in pandering local restaurants, brandishing their press passes at all comers, looking for free things, and spending about 14 percent of their time trying to rustle up enough stories to justify their presence to their editors. These reporters are the ones mostly writing about themselves, or their friends, or their experiences exploring Denver with their friends
Overall, pundits see the selection of Joe Biden as Barack Obama's running mate as a perfect choice. Biden brings years of exerience and is considered an expert on foreign affairs, two areas sorely lacking in Obama's resume.
And so the tea readers turn to John McCain's pick and how he'll counter Biden. Politico takes another look at the contenders, both the pro and con.
It's supposed to be the Democratic National Convention, but that hasn't stopped Repubicans, including former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, from crashing the party.
Romney, considered on the short list to be John McCain's running mate, was all over Denver preaching the McCain and Republican message. The Boston Globe said it pretty much looked like a dress rehearsal as the party's vice presidential nominee.
Quote: "Barack Obama is a charming and fine person with a lovely family, but he's not ready to be president," said Romney, asserting an Obama presidency would "make America a weaker nation" with "less prosperity and less security."
According to a new USA Today/Gallup Poll, fewer than half of Hillary Clinton's supporters say they'll vote for Barack Obama.
Quote: In the survey, taken Thursday through Saturday, 47% of Clinton supporters say they are solidly behind Obama, and 23% say they support him but may change their minds before the election.
Thirty percent say they will vote for Republican John McCain, someone else or no one at all.
