The Democratic Convention started off with a tribute to Senator Edward Kennedy. The Senator himself, made a surprise appearance at the convention, and was cheered over and over, as he gave his reasons, for believing that Senator Barack Obama was the one who could lead this nation forward to better time. He is suffering from a malignant brain tumor, and physically, he looked very good. It was a sentimental moment for all those in the center.
Michelle Obama spoke after Senator Kennedy, after being introduced by her brother. She was elegant and told the story of she and her brother, growing up, with her father and mother wanting them to get a good education, so that they could further themselves in life. Her father suffered from multiple sclerosis, and always got up an hour early so that he would be able to dress himself, in time to get to work. She and her brother received good educations because of her mother and her father, wanting them to have a part of the American dream. She met and married Barack Obama, who was persistent in wanting to date her, until she finally gave in. They were two very intelligent attorneys working in Chicago, but giving back to their community. She told of a very personal story, when she and Barack were coming home from the hospital with their baby daughter, and she was in the back seat of the car with the newborn and Barack was driving very slowly, and he kept looking in the mirror at the two of them with concern, that they were alright. It was a poignant story.
There were a lot of teary eyes after she was finished. She put a personal touch on she and her husband's life, after mentioning all the opportunities she and the young man from Hawaii and Kansas, with a single mother and his grandparents raising him, had been given, she said emotionally that this was why she loved America so much.
The next evening Senator Hillary Clinton just about brought the house down by saying that she wanted all her delegates to vote for Barack Obama for president. We don't want McCain, no way, no how. How the country would be getting more of the same, if we elected McCain, and not Obama. She asked them if they were in this only for her, you have to want to have health care, better wages, more jobs, and a host of other things, like ending the war in Iraq responsibly, if this is what want, Senator Clinton said, you have to vote for Obama, she is going to do everything she can to see that he is elected, he is her candidate for president. It was really, the best speech Senator Clinton has ever given. She included the line of, that's why President Bush, and John McCain were headed to the Twin Cities, because it's hard to tell the two of them apart.
After his wife spoke, the big man, former president William Jefferson Clinton, spoke to a cheering crowd, which gave him a standing ovation and then some. We gave a rousing speech, in he said the Republicans said the same thing about him as they are saying about Senator Obama, he's too young, he doesn't have enough experience. They were wrong then and they are wrong now, because he said, we were on the right side of history then and on the right side of history now. He said he, Hillary and Chelsea, along with the eighteen million people who voted for Senator Clinton, were going to do everything they could, to get Senator Barack Obama, elected as President of the United States. He intoned that Senator McCain's policies will be more of the same for the country.
They, the Republicans want us to entrust them with four more years of the same failed policies, that have taken the country in the wrong direction. We must change things and take the country in the right direction, according to President Clinton. He left the convention in an upbeat mood.
Then on Thursday evening, before the eighty-four thousand people who had gathered in the Invesco Field Stadium, where the convention had been moved, Senator Obama, walked out to after a video had played introducing him to the audience and to thirty-eight million people watching all around the country. Senator Obama's speech laid out his plan for various things, a ninety-five per-cent of Americans, an affordable heath care, plan, funds for young people to attend college, as long as they promise to give back to the community in some form, keeping our commitment to give health care to the veterans, ending the Iraq war in a responsible way, making sure Social Security is still in place for future benefits, helping people keep their homes, improving the economy by initiating “green jobs,” giving an addition stimulus package, finding alternative fuel sources through elimination of fossil fuel use, and a feasible energy policy. Also ending tax-credits for companies that take our country's jobs overseas, eliminating the tax breaks for the wealthiest one-percent of individuals, to pay for an equitable tax cut for the middle class. He wants to give good teachers incentives to do a better job, by helping them to stay abreast of new technologies, and resources.
