In One Night, DNC Rallies More Enthuse Than RNC Could In Three

What a difference a week makes. Watching the opening night of the Democratic National Convention Tuesday, with Michelle Obama as keynoter and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro as her warm-up, a profound difference became apparent over the RNC last week: The Democrats gracefully defended the sitting President's heart & soul... with references to his "I've been there like you" struggle as a young middle-class working man... while Republicans Ann Romney and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie spent the entire evening ripping President Barrack Obama to shreds—instead of building positive momentum for their candidate Mitt Romney.

Is it that obvious that Romney stands for next to nothing, has no solutions in his kitty to rebuild the tattered economy... Does his own party recognize he is merely a puppet standing in for a real leader, with few discernible ideas to move the nation forward? That's certainly how things came across.

For her part, Michelle Obama was one powerful speaker, compassionate and emotive, and she made a strong case for her husband as a man of conviction. The line of the night: "I have seen first-hand that being President doesn’t change who you are, it reveals who you are."

Likewise, the energy in the hall... what a difference. While Republicans maintained a low roar of distraction among themselves, the Democrats were riveted by the speakers at the podium: fired up that Obama's reelection is anything but a certainty. It's as if the G.O.P. was there to party, while the Democrats have a point to prove: four more years, please, so we don't reverse this nation into the Bush years... or worse.

I watched all three nights of the Republican convention with my life-long conservative parents in Virginia—and bit my lip over and again as misleading statements were uttered time after time... as if saying a lie enough times might somehow make it true. Come on, America—I pray to god—just isn't that stupid.

With night one of the DNC—as I read in one news story—the fact checkers were able to take the night off. No lies and fairy tales, no Republican bashing... just a glowing portrait of the man, the President, who needs four more years to carry out his mission. And how.

Mind you, the Democrats have a long way to go in defending the fact that the nation remains in shambles, unemployment has remained in the shitter for the past four years, and for sure, despite cheers and powerful words, Obama has done a pretty poor job of building the country's economy. But let's face it: Much of the blame falls on Republicans, who, behaving like spoiled babies, were damned determined to block Obama's every potential solution, simply because seeing the President fail meant more than protecting the lives of the voters who put these asswipes in office in the first place. I sure as hell hope that message comes across during the next three nights.

On the floor of the convention, Sandra Fluke—the Georgetown Law student that created a deserved scandal for dumbass Rush Limbaugh—spoke to an MSNBC correspondent, and stressed that social issues are not a sideline of the economy. Instead, they are part of the overall mission of America, and mesh together to build a strong nation. For sure, this is where Obama has demonstrated his mettle: protecting a woman's right to make choices about her body and... miraculously, not only backing gay marriage, but making it a black & white mandate of the party's written platform, which was even audaciously referred to several times Tuesday evening.

In any case, the race remains wickedly tight. I hope that Obama and his minions are able to make clear in the next three nights that even with so much more work to be done, the alternative—a Romney White House that will take America back some 30+ years—is more than just another dark age for the country. It's downright dangerous. *