Tuesday, Eight fifteen Aay-EM

Tuedsay, eight AM

For some reason there’s a strong free wai fi signal at my hotel this morning. Good I don’t have to wait until nine and pay three bucks for a cup of coffee.

Last night they had the first big four speakers, two and a half presidents and a first lady. The half, of course, was former President-elect Al Gore, who gave a brilliant talk of the kind that was sorely lacking during the 2000 campaign This was inpireing, funny and at times, dramatic. The references to the fact that he actually WON the last election were humorous and poignant. Then he gave Tipper a big wet French Kiss. I guess it’s now his trademark of something….he still would have made a good prexy.

Jimmy Carter was never that good a speaker. His speech was a workmanlike affair, with a few zingers here and there, but he focused on foreign policy, a subject he had best avoided despite his Nobel Peace Prize™. He got a good reception, and apparently has been officially forgiven for screwing up the country and the world during his won pathetic term in the late ‘70s.

But the main attraction was Bubba. Yeah, there were several minor speakers such as Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Barbara Mikulsky (sic) of Maryland and they did rather well (as did Hillery’s introduction of her husband), but William Jefferson (Blythe) Clinton is the MASTER. He began with a joke, mentioning his phenominal money raising efforts in his post presidency, mockingly thanking President Dubya for HIS tax cut before bearing his fangs and letting go the sword of sarcasm with a fury rarley seen in an ex-President. It was brutal and violent and the crowd loved it. I was in the "next to, but not actually on the floor" press section, and got to see the whole thing from the side. Seeing the thing in real life is soooooooooooooo different from seeing it on the tube.

Now for free food. I’ve figured out what the deal is with getting in to the convention…waiting half an hour or more, then going through the metal detectors and being forced to turn on my machine [I guess it looks like a bomb or something], so I can go to more lunch receptions.