democrats second night

A little better, a little more forceful, but still too diffuse. Warner and Clinton gave perfectly good speeches but both talked about themselves a little too much. In fairness, I was taking out the garbage for part of the Clinton speech, so it may have been better than I thought--mostpeople thought she hit the target pretty well.

Part of the problem with conventions is that they have become so scripted--so anxious to avoid any controversy--that they are beginning to lose peoples' attention. There are so many blue signs against a blue background that it looks a TV studio rather than a convention floor . . . which, in a certain sense, it is. Perhaps a staged controversy, like the old Jewish man who used to insult Milton Berle in the middle of his routines, would attract more attention.

It is nice to see Joe Biden in the spotlight at last. I have always thought of Biden as something of a windbag, and indeed I had the privilege of walking out on his commencement speech a couple of years back, albeit more because I needed a bathroom break--he spoke for hours, or at least it felt that way--than because of anything he said. But he is a hard worker and has taken a lot of unfair hits in his personal and political life over the years. And he can't have been too confident of being chosen or he would have gotten a haircut before his appearance. Maybe he could transplant some of his locks to Obama, who has a Lincolnesque physique but, like Abe himself, looks just a little young for the job. Lincoln grew a beard, in part, to make himself look older. Maybe Obama could borrow one?