I didn't catch any of the Dem Convention until the overnight replay on C-Span. I saw the Gore, Carter, Hillary and Bill Clinton speeches. Just my short, lame takes since I was half awake...

Gore: he was actually good! Touched humorously several times on the election 2000 fiasco, and he wasn't robotic (for Gore). He really stirred up the crowd.

Carter: Just an aside -- my he's aged. He was actually the most pointed about Bush's failures, especially in the areas of international policy. He brought up Bush's neglect of the Middle East peace process and the creation of even more hatred of our country with his misguided Iraq invasion.

Hillary: Boring, shrill, unlikeable. God, she needs work if she ever wants to run for prez. And I'm the first to be a booster of women in office, but she's just awful.

Bill: Damn, he was good, the horndog. Better than I ever remember him being while in office. Then again, as an active politician, he wouldn't dare say the kinds of things he said last night. The really earth-shattering moments were when he boosted Kerry's war record by blasting himself as a draft dodger (along with Bush). For someone with an ego as large as his, he didn't let it get in the way of masterful political gamesmanship. The other was when he used the motif of having become rich since retirement and how Bush was protecting Clinton's tax break -- at the expense of our troops, our economy, etc.

Maybe more on this later.