PHILADELPHIA — Bill Clinton is a brilliant speaker, and more often than not it’s completely off-the-cuff, prepared remarks be damned. In fact, the DNC media team was unable to distribute an advanced copy of his speech, as it does for many of the speakers, because he was reportedly working on it up until he delivered it. And even then, he ad-libbed most of his remarks.
Donald Trump is an attention-hungry, inauthentic charlatan driven almost entirely by an insatiable appetite for fame and, if he can swing it, fortune. So to treat Donald Trump as if he’s trying to convey any actual message is to miss the point of him entirely. Donald Trump’s only message is that Donald Trump exists.
PHILADELPHIA — Three sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they feared professional repercussions, have told Gawker that ABC News is not allowing Fusion staffers attending the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia this week to eat the free snacks in the ABC News tent.
The first speaker of the Democratic Convention on Tuesday night was Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, who was once described by the Washington Post as “close as family” to the Clintons. His buddies did him a nice favor getting him a slot on the main stage tonight, though I can’t imagine this is how they imagine being thanked.
As I sat down in the media tent across from the Wells Fargo Center to write this post, there were 40 or so Bernie Sanders delegates and other supporters in here with me, milling around and talking to the press, and a couple hundred more just outside. They had just staged a walkout from the Democratic National Convention, when Hillary Clinton was formally named the party’s nominee, and made their way here to demonstrate. But if you’ve been following the news from the DNC, you probably don’t need me to tell you that.
PHILADELPHIA — As the prophets foretold, a generation born under the first Clinton presidency would grow to know many misfortunes: A recession, lots of Dick Cheney airtime during its formative years, and “Gilmore Girls.” This generation, the fates dictated, would rise up in pained chorus against that misfortune to be super whiny about the idea of a second Clinton presidency. When it finally came time for a woman in office, those prophets sang from the heavens that, the women of this Cursed Generation would claim they “do not even see gender.”
Larry Sanders is a Green Party politician in the UK, and a delegate with the Democrats Abroad delegation here at the DNC in Philadelphia. He’s also Bernie Sanders’s older brother. A few minutes ago, during the roll call of states, the delegation allowed him to personally deliver his vote to his little brother, which he did, after brief, emotional remarks about their parents, and how immensely proud they’d be. It was a nice moment.
Bernie-supporting delegates were out in full force during the Democratic National Convention speeches last night. Over the telecast, it was easy to hear boos and chants of “we can’t trust her” during pro-Hillary speeches. I wasn’t on the floor, but I’d heard that a small crowd of California delegates were delivering the loudest jeers. Bernie was even booed by a crowd of his own California supporters when he urged them to back Hillary. This afternoon, a few delegates from the state said they might deliver a similar protest tonight.
Last night, after Wall Street teat-sucker Cory Booker repeatedly quoted Maya Angelou in a speech that openly railed against “individualism,” Donald Trump sent out a curious tweet:
[UPDATE: The original version of this post cited the tweet as real. It’s not, it’s fake as hell.] On Monday, Demi Lovato opened the Democratic National Convention with a speech and a song. Apart from this one guy going nuts in the front row, many attendees seemed... unsure what they were listening to.
I was sitting eating a bland Panera sandwich, at the decidedly bland corner of Arch and Twelfth Streets in Center City Philadelphia, when I spotted a row of familiar red berets out the window. The Guardian Angels are in town!
PHILADELPHIA — On the second night of the Republican National Convention, actor Scott Baio took the stage. These days, the once-ubiquitous Baio may enjoy some relative anonymity, but he was still the highest-wattage star the RNC could cajole on-air, and even that was a depressing accident—Baio later told reporters he was offhandedly invited after bumping into Donald Trump at an event. The DNC, which rolled into Philly on Monday with more celebrities than it knows what do to with, does not have this problem.
PHILADELPHIA—It was hot yesterday, and across the street from the Wells Fargo Center, where hundreds of Bernie Sanders supporters had congregated to protest the Democratic National Convention happening inside, one could hear occasional horns and chanted slogans: “Bernie beats Trump,” “Bigots go home,” “Hell no, DNC/We won’t vote for Hillary.” One demonstrator’s sign depicted “Hillary Klingon, the neocon war candidate,” complete with photoshopped forehead ridges, and another had the phrase “BETRAYED US” scrawled under Sanders’s name, in reference to a speech he’d given in support of Clinton earlier in the day. We were not, in other words, in Clintonland.
PHILADELPHIA — Welcome to the first night of the Democratic National Convention, where we’ll be coming to you live from the disgusting, 200-degree little plot of land in hell that is Philly. Tonight we’re in for a special treat: Bernie Sanders will be taking the stage. And if god cares about the media at all, Bernie Sanders is going to give us a coup.
PHILADELPHIA — It’s the first night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention, and the Wells Fargo Center is about to be filled with the words of such great speakers as Senator Bernie Sanders, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Senator Elizabeth Warren. But first—Demi Lovato.
This afternoon in Philadelphia, Bernie Sanders spoke to supporters in advance of this week’s Democratic Convention. During his speech he doubled down on his Hillary Clinton endorsement, telling the gathered crowd that not only must Donald Trump be defeated, he must be defeated by voting for Clinton and her new running mate Tim Kaine.
PHILADELPHIA — Welcome to the city of brotherly love; the land of the free and the home of the swag. Here’s all the junk journalists get upon checking in to the convention.
