the two convention speeches you must watch

the best speeches often happen out of prime time. even though i line up pretty well idealogically with dennis kucinich, i’m too practical to delude myself into thinking that someone like this could ultimately get elected. that’s a sad indictment of my crappy attitude and pessimism, but that’s how i feel.

but man what a speech. this should have been in primetime. certainly would have been better and vastly more effective than boring ass old mark warner. good god am i glad that he turned obama down for the vice-presidential slot.

the other speech was in primetime, but i’m betting that all the network talking heads just talked over it. i know that abc did. it was brian schweitzer. i guess he was up for veep but didn’t get it. i know that the guy at fivethirtyeight.com was constantly flogging him as the best choice. after i watched this speech, i could see why. i really knew nothing about him, but he’s marvelous. he has a great way of taking substantive policy and making it accessible, entertaining, and informative. who knew a discussion of energy policy could be so much fun? he’s the sam kinison of politicians, calmed down a bit and wearing a bolo tie.

i’m happy with joe biden, but in a less close election this guy would have been a perfect veep choice.