John Cole, lapsed Republican, has the best summary of tonight I’ve found:

The best thing about the night- as the press is dissecting Obama’s masterful performance, I flipped to a panel on PBS about the speech. Dolores Kearns Goodwin was talking at length, in the shadow of the Obama speech, that McCain needs to show he can use a teleprompter.

They are so well and truly f****d, and they deserve it.

Seriously, I was thinking about this while watching Obama. If McCain can make it through his speech without 5 awkward grins, I’ll be impressed. And that’s a pretty damn low bar after watching Obama, Kerry, Gore, and (unbelievably good) Clinton.

The second observation: I mentioned to Heidi that Obama still wasn’t quite as good as Bill Clinton yet. The thing is, I don’t remember Clinton being as good as Obama is now at the start of his first term. Does anyone remember his convention speech? I don’t think I watched it, being a Republican back then…

Update: Who is this man and what have you done with Pat Buchanan:

Um, wow and wtf.

I don’t think I really appreciated how much Barack Obama’s candidacy as a simple matter of history would matter to me personally today. At some point on Monday, seeing Michelle Obama speaking up there on that stage at the Pepsi Center, it hit me what was happening. In my lifetime, we might actually see an African American president. We just might elect a man whose family emigrated from somewhere that wasn’t Europe, who has grown up in an ethnically and racially diverse family.

My story is different, but only in the details. I’m not sure I really felt that until Monday night when I saw her up there.

I also thought about what it must be like to be black in this country and to see Michelle Obama on stage that night. And I realized that when Obama speaks about hope, he and his family will provide that to so many people just by being there on that stage.

But tonight, I was reminded about why I started supporting this candidate in the spring after Chris Dodd dropped out. Even as Dodd was failing to make up ground against the rest of the field, my friends and family kept dropping little tidbits in my ear. Look at his advisors, they’re experts with unique and creative perspectives. I’d say something like, “I wish there was a candidate who’d consider X and try this out” and someone would point out, “Well it’s funny you should say that. Obama has a plan like that.”

These were not Obama supporters from the beginning, but people who looked at names like Samantha Power and the work she’s done understanding genocide, or Cass Sunstein and Laurence Tribe, and realized that this guy might actually be walking the walk of changing Washington.

Then, there were the posts by Lessig (1,2) and the big one by Marc Andreessen both pretty much pushing me in the Obama column for good.

The theme from all of these posts and tidbits of information was that this was a candidate that took policy seriously. It wasn’t entirely a political or ideological game to him, but one in which actually solving problems was an interesting challenge.

The Andreessen post, in particular, reminded me of a college economics course I had with someone who was an economic advisor for George H. W. Bush (not junior) and Clinton. He related his experiences talking to both and said that while he didn’t agree with everything Clinton wanted to do, he came away impressed with Clinton’s grasp of policy and his adept understanding of complex issues. Compared to the elder Bush, Clinton wowed this economist. Clinton was engaged, curious, and asked good questions.

And that made me think about why Clinton was such a good President. It wasn’t ideology or partisanship, but the fact that even when he tried to score political points with bills, he didn’t create policies that damaged the country. That competence came from an interest in getting things right, in a concern for his legacy, and in an understanding of the downstream effects of his policies in the White House.

His administration was frustrating at times, and I disagreed with it regularly, but he was always at least competent. Even Andrew Sullivan, conservative author and scholar (and harsh critic of the Clintons), wrote this week of Clinton’s “smart record in office.”

Andreessen captured what I want in the next President. Here’s a bit from his blog post:

Early in 2007, a friend of mine who is active in both high-tech and politics called me up and said, let’s go see this first-term Senator, Barack Obama, who’s ramping up to run for President.

And so we did — my friend, my wife Laura, and me — and we were able to meet privately with Senator Obama for an hour and a half.

…

First, this is a normal guy.

I’ve spent time with a lot of politicians in the last 15 years. Most of them talk at you. Listening is not their strong suit — in fact, many of them aren’t even very good at faking it.

Senator Obama, in contrast, comes across as a normal human being, with a normal interaction style, and a normal level of interest in the people he’s with and the world around him.

We were able to have an actual, honest-to-God conversation, back and forth, on a number of topics. In particular, the Senator was personally interested in the rise of social networking, Facebook, Youtube, and user-generated content, and casually but persistently grilled us on what we thought the next generation of social media would be and how social networking might affect politics — with no staff present, no prepared materials, no notes. He already knew a fair amount about the topic but was very curious to actually learn more. We also talked about a pretty wide range of other issues, including Silicon Valley and various political topics.

With most politicians, their curiosity ends once they find out how much money you can raise for them. Not so with Senator Obama — this is a normal guy.

Second, this is a smart guy.

I bring this up for two reasons. One, Senator Obama’s political opponents tend to try to paint him as some kind of lightweight, which he most definitely is not. Two, I think he’s at or near the top of the scale of intelligence of anyone in political life today.

You can see how smart he is in his background — for example, lecturer in constitutional law at University of Chicago; before that, president of the Harvard Law Review.

But it’s also apparent when you interact with him that you’re dealing with one of the intellectually smartest national politicians in recent times, at least since Bill Clinton. He’s crisp, lucid, analytical, and clearly assimilates and synthesizes a very large amount of information — smart.

That post, along with Lessig, plus the significant amount of little details that were piling up in the back of my head, put me firmly in this camp, made me believe that this candidate will be the best hope, yes, hope, for a better course for this country. A course that is outcome oriented rather than ideologically driven and one that considers the real effects of policy rather than adhering to the dictates of the Club for Growth or the laughable Laffer curve.

So, yes, his background, his race, and his personal story resonate with me. But it started with, and continues to be, the belief I have in his judgement, his sound policy choices, and that pragmatism. That’s what brought me to support him, and that’s why I’m still here.

Which brings me to why I wrote this post tonight. While watching him up there on that stage, realizing how historic a moment this was and how historic it might become on November 4th, I realized something else.

I’m actually going to get to vote for someone this time. I realized that this is a regular guy, who started with no privileged position, whose family built their successes on the backs of sound American policies like the GI Bill and student loans and home ownership. His story stands as a testament to what we can do when government provides people with opportunities and hope. His candidacy is about more than race, it’s about everything that makes this country work. And that, folks, makes me proud to be an American.

The fact that his story and the historic nature of his candidacy are secondary, though, makes me even prouder to vote for him.

The right candidate at the right time for the right reasons. Awesome.

One last note: in all honesty, while I don’t have an Andreessen-like post about Hillary Clinton, what I said above could’ve equally applied to her as well. I’ve been pretty harsh on her campaign, and I’ve been thinking about what Kim said in the comment thread a few posts back. The bottom line here is that there were two phenomenal candidates on the Democratic side. She also stands as an example of what good can come from ordinary people, and is a smart Senator and a good policy thinker in her own right.

Today’s speech and it’s emotional power help me understand a bit more why so many women identified so strongly with her candidacy. It’s again a testament to the nation and to this party for being able to field two strong candidates from traditionally power-starved groups. I hope that I’ll be able to witness the first female President in the U.S. soon too. Wouldn’t that be a great goal for a lifetime?

Update: I’ve been rereading this now and again and cleaning up the grammar and poor writing. I like this post, and though it’s not particularly well written, it feels “right” to me, for me, and about what I’m thinking. I’m surprised I was able to get 1100 words (not including that long block quote) out so fast.

Considering the Palin announcement today (8/29), what I wrote is even more important to me. Obama isn’t just “a first.” He’s a first with the right characteristics to be a great President.

One of the things I love about Coolspotters is that it’s pretty easy to quickly create pages for people or products that give people a quick background on a celebrity’s tastes and personal story. In one way, it’s a research tool where you can record the things you read about people in the public eye so that someone else can benefit from that too.

I’m also a political news nut on top of being a music and TV geek (or at least, music and TV geek wanna be). With the political conventions upon us, I know we’re going to see a lot of people in the news that I want to know more about. I’m sure I’m not alone. For example, I didn’t know much about Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama’s brother, so I started filling his profile out. (I didn’t know how much her brother has accomplished, by the way.)

If you see anything interesting about the convention speakers, including video, photos, or links (we call this “media” for simplicity), I’d appreciate it if you could add them to the 2008 Democratic National Convention profile on Coolspotters. Add the people, sponsors, etc. as spots to that profile. I’m a fan of the 2008 DNC profile, so I’ll see any spots or any media you add in my news feed. If you become a fan of that profile, too, you’ll see any media I or others add in your feed.

Keep in mind that this is Coolspotters and not a news site, so I’m interested in the personal stories of these folks, not the straight news. If you read anything interesting, like their musical tastes, any sports they played in high school or college, or any charities they work with, for example, add them as spots. Anything you find cool, add it.

Just go to the 2008 DNC page at Coolspotters and start adding spots to the profile. If we don’t have a page for the folks, sponsors, or other things you’re entering, the site will guide you through a simple process to create a page for them.

Adding media to profiles is also really easy. You can find a link on the left of every profile page that says “Add” (see the image below):

Click the word “Add” and it will walk you through adding web pages, videos, or photos to the profiles. That link is on Spot pages as well, though on the right as blue link.

We’ll be doing the same thing for the 2008 Republican National Convention speakers too, so feel free to add those. The same idea applies to any other celebrity or product you love. That’s the essence of the Coolspotters community, after all. We’re trying to create a place where people share info about the celebrities, products, and things they love.

If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message.

Thanks for helping out!

(crossposted at the Coolspotters blog)

This is a behind-the-scenes clip and message from Michelle Obama. She’s speaking tonight at 10:30 PM ET from the convention. I’m looking forward to this speech.

By the way, if the talking heads on the news networks are bugging you as much as they bug me, I strongly recommend watching the convention via the online stream. You can get to it at the Democratic Convention site. It’s worth installing the plugins. The technology used here is Move Networks’ very cool streaming video solution. It’s used by ABC for their online episode viewer. While at ESPN, I got a look a rundown of how it works from the EVP in charge of ABC’s online and technology businesses. This stuff is cool, clever, amazing. When the bandwidth is there, it’s been as clear as the HDTV downstairs even running full screen.