( – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

For some unknown reason, Sunday’s New York Time begins a puff piece on Steve Schmidt with this anecdote:

ST. PAUL – It was what aides to Senator John McCain describe as probably the worst night of his campaign. As Senator Barack Obama claimed the Democratic nomination before a cheering sea of faces on national television, Mr. McCain countered with a lackluster speech in a half-empty hall, posed in front of a pea-green screen that became fodder for late-night comedy.

Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to Mr. McCain who worked on President Bush’s campaign in 2004, could barely hide his fury in the coming days, as he announced – to anyone who would listen – that he would personally make certain the McCain campaign would never again embarrass Mr. McCain.

“Fun Steve is dead,” Mr. Schmidt said.

Unbeknown to NYT scribes Adam Nagourney and Jim Rutenberg, fun lived on, in fact in far funnier terms just last Thursday as the McCain campaign embarrassed McCain even better — during the largest audience of his career. Fun Steve made many laugh. According to Politicker CA the, “Democratic side of the California political blogosphere exploded with delight Friday afternoon as word of an embarrassing gaffe in Sen. John McCain’s acceptance speech Thursday at the Republican National Convention spread.”

Hell, even the NYT Times headlined (Friday), “McCain and the Green Screen” while The Oregonian headlined, “GOP oops?: McCain’s rematch with the green screen”, and CNN went with, “Seeing Green during McCain’s speech”. It was also picked up from The LA Times to Contra Costa Times to Hartford Courant to Boston Globe to friggin Agence France-Presse. Ouch all around.

Last night, in one of the most shocking bits of incompetence in Republican National Convention history, John McCain spoke to America in front of what convention organizers must have thought was the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, but was actually Walter Reed MIDDLE SCHOOL in North Hollywood.  TPM has been all over this story today, and now they report that the CDP is stepping up on it.

One other interesting development: The California Democratic Party is actually holding a press conference in front of the school within minutes, where Dems will hit McCain for not knowing the difference between the school and Walter Reed Medical Center, which is believed to be the backdrop the McCain campaign really wanted.

Though multiple news organizations are asking for clarification, the McCain campaign is still refusing to comment on questions about whether it had hoped to use the medical center as a backdrop and accidentally used the school instead. Hard to blame them…

Good for the CDP for calling attention to this embarrassment.  Aren’t the Republicans supposed to be the ones who are good at stagecraft?  Hopefully Matt or someone will give us an update.

• Today we’ll see just how infatuated John McCain is with the policies of our nation’s worst president ever, George W. Bush. If you want to learn more about the man of so many flip-flops and political lives, I’d recommend you check out NYT reporter David Kirpatrick’s interview on Fresh Air this morning. It’s a bit long at 43 minutes, but quite interesting. Get ready to hear Mr. Third Term try to distance himself from Bush, while trying to reassure the Republicans that he’ll be Bush redux.

• I really like Alyson Huber. She’s a great candidate in a district (AD-10) that’s trending our way. And now she’s got a new website.  Sweet!

• Mayor Gavin Newsom put the available to all ID card program on hold pending legal review.  The legislative proponent of the cards, soon to be Asm. Tom Ammiano, says they will still be issued in November.

• Capitol Weekly has their wrap of bills that were passed.

• Despite the fact that T. Boone Pickens sponsored the Big Tent, I still find him an abhorrent person for his Swift Boat attacks against John Kerry. The man has no principles, is a liar and Democrats who get chummy with him should remember that.  That includes you Sen. Obama. And oh yeah, NO on Prop 10! It’s just a scheme to make Pickens even more wealthy and poor public policy. The Consumer Federation has more info on Prop 10.  Vote NO!

• Anything else on your mind? McCain or otherwise?

I proudly work for the Courage Campaign

Last night, the country was officially introduced to John McCain’s Vice Presidential pick, Governor Sarah Palin. She gave a speech full of vitriol, condescension and outright lies, but perhaps nothing was more shocking than her belittling insult of community organizers. Trying to minimize the work of Barack Obama, she said “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”

Shocking. Just a quick sampling of community organizers would include Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Founding Fathers of the United States, and Jesus. Much, much further down that list would be organizations like the Courage Campaign, which exists expressly to empower online and offline grassroots activism. Because we know, like so many others, that concerted community effort is what it takes to bring about meaningful change in this country- something we could really use after eight years of Bush/McCain policy.

Well last night Sarah Palin laid out how the McCain/Palin ticket intend to run this country: With scorn and belligerence for anyone who tries to bring their communities together to make things better. The Courage Campaign has spent years trying to empower exactly the sort of grassroots initiative that’s vital to bringing about meaningful change. If we’re ever going to address the fundamental failings of our government, we need a new presidential administration that doesn’t try to squash the little guy.

And in a speech that neglected to mention education, health care, comprehensive economic reforms, or choice, we heard in Palin’s silence exactly her trouble with community organizing: An organized community is an empowered community. And an empowered community expects better. A fragmented community is more easily undercut by Republican fear mongering, more susceptible to being turned against itself by divisive, antagonistic rhetoric.  The condescending language from the McCain camp, even filtered through Sarah Palin (remember the speech was written before she was selected to recite it), reeks of a multi-millionaire’s elitist fear of a society willing to stand up for itself.

Last night, John McCain used Sarah Palin to spit in the face of everyone in this country who’s ever tried to bring people together to make the world a better place. Anyone who’s ever been in a union or professional organization. Anyone who was ever a member of the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, fraternities or sororities. Anyone who’s ever participated in a Christmas toy drive at their church. Anyone who’s ever supported the Salvation Army or the Red Cross. Everyone who’s ever volunteered to mentor children or serve at a soup kitchen. Everyone who’s ever registered voters, or wrote a letter to the editor. Anyone who’s participated in groups like Kiwanis or Knights of Columbus. Everyone who’s ever been a member of the VFW or other veteran groups. Anyone who’s ever volunteered for their local neighborhood watch or- much to Governor Palin’s chagrin- the PTA.

Those people don’t count in the world of John McCain. Not only that, McCain opts to heap scorn rather than praise on those people who put in the effort to make this country stronger. Which really tells you all you need to know about John McCain: His greatest derision is reserved for the people working the hardest to improve America.

We have an opportunity to throw this back in John McCain’s face at every level. Because the people who care about this country are already involved in all the organizations above and more. Community organizers are the ones who run community political messaging. They’re the ones who run GOTV operations. And they’re the ones who can deliver on election day.

On so many levels, this is a rich statement by the RNC Convention’s Parliamentarian:

California Rep. David Dreier said Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy demonstrates her connection to other families who have similar issues.

Ah, empathy from an unmarried congressman who is trying to connect with voters instead of answer the questions about McCain’s vetting process for who he thinks should have their finger on the trigger if his cancer catches up with him.

But it isn’t about the daughter of Palin (who will probably join the Harriet Miers club faster than you can say “troopergate”). It is about McCain’s reckless recklessness. Here he goes again, the polls showed that if he put Joementum on the ticket he’d be hated by everyone but Joe Klein so instead he over-reacted to his advisers and put on somebody with literally no qualifications and obviously zero vetting as troopergate is more than enough for her to look less mentally unbalanced than Eagleton.

But here in California, once again we have David Dreier working against the facts. Nobody thinks an abstinence-only/creationism debate is going to help the GOP, yet David Dreier sticks out his credibility once again to be a Rubber Stamp for the Bush Administration. This time, the Third Bush Administration.

Nancy Pelosi officially goes through the motions of nominating Joe Biden, followed by a video montage focusing on Biden’s working class roots in Scranton as a stuttering young man, through his dedicated family life, and finally turning on his experience and accomplishments as a legislator.

Bo Biden, Joe’s son and Attorney General of Delaware, introduces his father (I didn’t catch much of it, as I was distracted shaking hands with Scott Kleeb…)

Biden thanks the crowd, thanks the crowd.  Says how proud he is of his son, and how his wife leaves him both “breathless and speechless.”  Proud to be on the same stage with Bill Clinton, and proud of Hillary Clinton, “a woman who has made history and will continue to make history.”

Honored to live in a country with the bravest warriors in the world, and honored to represent his state of Delaware.

Accepts the nomination.

“For every american trying to do the right thing…no longer will you hear the eight most dreaded words in the English language: The Vice-President’s Office is on the phone.”

Biden brings up how he and Obama come from different backgrounds.  Calls out his father (whose advice for young Joe was “when you get knocked down, son, get up.  Get up.”), then calls out his mother.  Failure at some point is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.  When I stuttered, she said, “Joey, it’s because you’re so brilliant you can’t get your thoughts out quickly enough.”  And when I got knocked down by guys bigger than me, she said “Bloody their nose so you can walk down the street the next day.”  And after the accident, she told me, “God doesn’t send you a cross you can’t bear.”

Talks about the dignity of work and the America’s promise, the American Dream that anyone can make it if you try hard enough.  “Today that American Dream feels like it’s slowly slipping away.”  “I’ve never seen a time when Washington watched so many people get knocked down, without doing anything to help them get back up.”

Millions of Americans are asking themselves questions they never thought they’d ask themselves: should mom move in with us now?  Did you hear they may be cutting out healthcare company?  We owe more on the house than we can pay.  How are we going to send our kids to college?  How are we going to retire?

That’s the America George Bush has left us.  And that will be the America we will have if George–sorry, John McCain is elected president.”  Hilarious Freudian Slip from Joe–or was it?

“John McCain doesn’t seem to get it.  Barack Obama gets it, though…I believe the measure of a man is not the road he travels, but the choices he makes along that road.  Barack Obama could have done anything after he graduated from college…He chose to go to the South Side of Chicago…He made their lives the work of his life.  That’s what you do when you’re raised by a single mom who worked two jobs and raised a family…It’s about whether you can look your child in the eye and say We’re Going to Be All Right.”

Talks about how Barack Obama got people off welfare, got more healthcare for children,   helped control nuclear proliferation, and helped wounded veterans.

“We don’t have to accept a situation we cannot bear.  We have the power to change it.  And change it is exactly what Barack Obama will do.  That’s what he’ll do for this country.”

Now here it comes.  The attack on McCain.  Obligatory respect for McCain’s service.  “But I profoundly disagree with the direction John wants to take this country.  John says we’ve made great economic progress.  I think it’s been abysmal.  McCain has voted with the Bush Administration 95% of the time.  That’s hard to believe!”  Hits the More of the Same line.

Key line repeated throughout the speech:

That’s not change.  That’s more of the same.

Hits McCain on minimum wage, tax cuts for the wealthy, oil company and pharmaceutical tax breaks, Iraq, energy policy and more.

“These times require more than a good soldier.  They require a wise leader.”  Lots of great quotes throughout this speech.

Now Biden brings up the contrasts with specific Obama policies, including on energy possible, better education, accessible healthcare for every American, more cops on the street, security back in social security, equal pay for women.  “That’s the change we need.”

Calls Afghanistan the “real central front of the War on Terror.”

Ugh.  Throws red meat on the Georgia/Russia business.  Biden should know better–but hell, it probably polls well.

Biden throws McCain’s lack of judgment on Afghanistan compared with Obama’s foresight.  “John McCain was wrong, and Barack Obama was right.”

On talking with Iran, even the Bush Administration recognizes that we have to talk to Iran.  John McCain has been wrong, and Obama has been right.  Same thing for timelines in Iraq–the Administration and the Iraqi government are setting timelines: McCain was wrong and Obama was right.

“Again and again, on the most important national and economic security issues, John McCain has been wrong and Barack Obama has been proven right.”

Finally, he brings it home to his Scranton roots.  This is the time America gets back up.  This is our time.  This is Barack Obama’s time.  This is America’s time.”

All in all, a fantastic speech.  I could have wished that Biden had started hitting McCain a little earlier in the speech before people had the chance to tune out–but that’s just a nit to pick.  Awesome job.  

OBAMA: “I was everyone to understand why I’m so proud to have Joe Biden and Bo Biden and Mama Biden here to help me take America back.  I think the convention’s gone pretty well so far, what do you think?  Michelle Obama kicked it off pretty well, don’t you think?  If I’m not mistaken, Hillary clinton rocked the house last night!  (nice shot of Bill and Hill, obviously smiling).  I think President Bill Clinton reminded us what it’s like when you actually put people first.  Thank you President Clinton!  We’ll be movign to mile High stadium tomorrow.  At the beginning of this campaign, we had a very simple idea, that change dosn’t come from the top down but from the bottom up.  Change comes from ordinary people doing extraordinary things…We’re going to have a great night tomorrow night, and see you there.  Thank you and God Bless America!”