A Democratic star was born on the DNC's opening night.

I can't even.

LINK: Oh yeah, check out her dad » Meet Julian Castro

View Entire List ›

The President took in his wife's address to the DNC with his two daughters.

President Barack Obama and his daughters, Malia, left, and Sasha, watch on television as First Lady Michelle Obama takes the stage to deliver her speech at the Democratic National Convention, in the Treaty Room of the White House, Tuesday night, Sept. 4, 2012. (White House/Pete Souza)

Rep. Jared Polis asked the country to “respect my relationship with my partner, Marlon, and my role as a father to our son.” Polis talked about “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” and same-sex couples' marriages tonight.

Source: youtube.com

Out gay Rep. Jared Polis, a Democratic member of Congress from Colorado, addressed the Democratic National Convention about LGBT and other issues tonight, describing diversity as "America's strength" at a convention framed by President Obama's embrace of marriage equality.

Among other areas in which he asked for mutual respect, he asked the country to "respect my relationship with my partner, Marlon, and my role as a father to our son."

Due to Rep. Barney Frank's coming retirement from Congress and Rep. Tammy Baldwin's run at the U.S. Senate, Polis will be the most senior out LGBT representative in the House in January 2013, assuming his expected re-election in November.

Tonight, Polis took up his coming role as the LGBT "elder statesman" in the House, speaking not only as an out gay representative, but also about LGBT issues.

"My name is Jared Polis, my great-grandparents were immigrants to this country," he said. "I'm Jewish, I'm gay, I'm a father, I'm a son, I'm an entrepreneur, and I'm a congressman from the great state of Colorado. But, first and foremost, I'm an American."

"Diversity is America's strength," Polis — the first out gay parent in Congress — said, of Obama's vision for "one America."

No one is "prevented from serving the country they love because of who they love," he said of the successes for LGBT people in Obama's first term. He also noted Obama's "personal support for same-sex marriage."

Not confined to LGBT issues, however, Polis also spoke about other legislative passions — including immigration reform and religious freedom.

"Yes, together we are stronger, together we are better, together we are America."

Easy misunderstanding. You know, because there's no one else with that last name.

View Entire List ›

The Massachusetts Governor gave a fiery speech at the DNC in defense of the President.

Source: youtube.com

Despite the unfailing adoration she receives from the fashion industry, Michelle Obama's style remains surprisingly relatable, likable, and not weird.

Michelle Obama's style has made her one of the world's foremost fashion plates — even though she never looks weird or edgy in that way fashion people love. And she very well could wear things that look weird or edgy, given some of the labels she likes, like Rodarte, Alexander McQueen, or Zero Maria Cornejo. But most of the time, she manages to look stylish and ladylike and down-to-earth without being so trendy that she doesn't make sense or seems intimidating. The First Lady, who is certainly not immune to wardrobe gaffes (when so much attention is placed on one person's wardrobe, it's bound to get them into trouble from time to time), wore just this kind of outfit to deliver her speech at the Democratic Convention Tuesday night. It was, predictably, the perfect balance of stylish, ladylike, and down-to-earth.

Image by Eric Thayer / Reuters

The Tracy Reese dress came in a brocade print with a bright pink and blue/gray color scheme that is very "now" in terms of runway trends. But the a-line shape and high neckline kept the dress far from intimidatingly trendy territory. Also, it was almost as bright as Ann Romney's RNC look but dissimilar enough that you probably wouldn't think the two women dressed alike for their big moments. This was an important distinction for Obama to make for image and message purposes.

Another glaring difference between Ann's RNC look and Michelle Obama's DNC look was the jewelry. Both kept it to a minimum, but Ann accessorized her red Oscar de la Renta dress with a chunky gold bracelet on one wrist and a less chunky but still apparent gold watch on the other, which made her look just a touch spendier. Michelle's wardrobe is not anywhere near cheap or even affordable, but she works to make it seem that way, by skipping the chunky gold jewelry or wearing, as she did tonight, something by a mall brand like J. Crew (in this case, the store's $245 Everly seude pumps, which I'm sure will now sell out).

And even though Michelle usually looks like a normal dresser — which she's definitely not, given her vast array of designer things and the fashion industry's fanaticism for everything she wears and does — she still comes up with unexpected touches that make her, well, kind of cool. Tuesday night, it was the nail polish.

View Entire List ›

Rallying the base and appealing to the center. A switch when primetime hits.

Image by Jason Reed / Reuters

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Some time around 10:00 p.m. Tuesday's Democratic National Convention transformed itself abruptly: The volume came down, the soft focus came on, and the party switched its focus from one audience to the next.

The switch into prime time marked a Democratic effort to run two parallel conventions: One hard-edged pitch to the party's base; and one broad, warm appeal to swing voters. The beginnings of Tuesday's convention were marked by fiery, shouted denunciations of Mitt Romney's wealth and and by relentless warnings about Republican views on women's health and quips like former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland's: “If Mitt was Santa Claus, he’d fire the reindeer and outsource the elves." The program swerved when prime time hit and broadcast viewers arrived, however, quickly becoming conciliatory and emotionally warm, closed by Michelle Obama's personal speech.

And that split in messaging — structured around the different audiences of cable and broadcast television — reflects the Obama campaign's basic challenge: They must re-animate a party base whose interest and engagement have faded since 2008, and who they believe are watching the convention closely, whether inside the Time Warner Arena or on MSNBC or another cable news outlet; and they must answer a week-long Republican effort to court the less-engaged swing voters in Ohio and Virginia who will ultimately decide the election, and who will come across the convention, at best, for its hour of prime time.

In the first track of the convention, an unapologetic, full-throated Democratic assault on from figures like Strickland and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid showed little restraint toward Mitt Romney, who was criticized for withholding his tax returns, for his Swiss bank account, and for his trouble connecting with average Americans. It was designed to be replayed countless times on cable TV and YouTube — the home of the political junkies who devote time and money to the Obama effort. Inside the Time Warner Arena, each attack drew the crowd of party faithful to their feet, cheering or booing as the moment demanded.

"Mitt Romney says we should take his word that he paid his fair share," Reid shouted. "His word? His word? Trust comes from transparency, and Mitt Romney comes up short on both."

And it included a broad defense of some of Obama's most liberal, and least popular, policies. The beginning of the night dwelled not just on attacking Romney but on President Obama's signature progressive policy move, the 2010 health care overhaul. "I am shocked how much we are talking about ObamaCare," a Democratic operative noted.

That first convention seemed to contradict the promise last week of Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter.

"The goal of our convention is to bring the choice in this election into sharp focus,”she said last last week. “It won't be about rallying the base or leveling petty attacks.” But the easiest way to sum up the first day of the Democratic convention might be a combination of both those things.

But the blend of liberal policy and hard-edged attacks played well in the room.

"It just showed stark differences," said Cindy Trigg, a Nevada delegate. "It showed one party leadership over the other party leadership, period."

Any surprise at the intensity of Democratic appeals to the party base Tuesday, however, turned abruptly into the realization at 10:00 p.m. that the party had begun a second act. There Julian Castro, the young San Antonio mayor, spoke in broad terms about opportunity and a contrast of visions. Then second, First Lady Michelle Obama offered a heartfelt depiction of her husband’s private side.

The second convention more closely mirrored the Republican effort in Charlotte last week. There, a central goal seemed simply to rebrand the party as young, diverse, and ultimately moderate, a vision embodied by figures like former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez. Republicans will rely on Obama to rally their base, and they eschewed the shouted attacks that dominated the opening of the Democratic Convention.

Democrats, by contrast, have chosen not to choose. Battling over disillusioned Obama 2008 voters, the Republican message in Tampa was simple: In Charlotte the dual message is that Republicans are unacceptable to moderates, and that the dream of 2008 should still be alive for partisan Democrats.

Whether Democrats can pull off their messaging split, and keep the edgy early evening from spilling over into prime time, is as much a bet about how Americans consume news as about the substance of the message. And the Republican Party spent the evening trying to make Strickland, not Obama or Castro, the face of the convention. "The Democrats," complained GOP spokesman Tim Miller, "launched their convention with petty, partisan attacks."

He'd be this guy. “Barack Obama is history/And everyone is pissed at me.”

Source: youtube.com

A new ad from the Iowa-based American Future Fund, which doesn't disclose its donors. Running against Onion Joe Biden.

Source: youtube.com

UPDATE: Says an Obama campaign aide, "This is just another reminder that no one is fighting harder to take on Governor Romney's extreme agenda and ensure the President is re-elected this November. Frankly, he's getting under their skin and his message is working."

Venue change short-changes Obama supporters. They'll get a conference call with Obama tomorrow.

Image by Chris Keane / Reuters

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — President Barack Obama's acceptance speech at this week's Democratic National Convention has been moved indoors from Bank of America Stadium due to weather concerns, convention officials confirmed Wednesday morning.

The Stadium had become a focal point of criticism over its ties to Wall Street, but also a point of pride for Democrats who argued that their convention would be the first to be book-ended by events open to the public. Instead, 65,000 supporters of Obama will be locked out of the far-smaller Time Warner Cable Arena.

Convention officials and the Obama campaign have been talking up their ability to fill the more than 75,000 seats in the Stadium, even as some reports suggested they were having difficulty doing just that. They pledged to be in the stadium in rain or shine, but that didn't last.

DNCC CEO Steve Kerrigan said that Obama would address the disappointed supporters on a conference call tomorrow afternoon, and that they would attempt to get his supporters into other Obama rallies before election day.

The full statement from the DNCC:

“We have been monitoring weather forecasts closely and several reports predict thunderstorms in the area, therefore we have decided to move Thursday’s proceedings to Time Warner Cable Arena to ensure the safety and security of our delegates and convention guests,” said DNCC CEO Steve Kerrigan. The energy and enthusiasm for our convention in Charlotte has been overwhelming and we share the disappointment of over 65,000 people who signed up for community credentials to be there with the President in person. We encourage our community credential holders and Americans across the country to continue to come together with their friends and neighbors to watch and participate in history. The President will speak to these credential holders on a national conference call tomorrow afternoon, and we will work with the campaign to ensure that those unable to attend tomorrow’s event will be invited to see the President between now and election day.”

Connolly jabs “cranky malcontents of a certain complexion.” Davis: “Democrats are really struggling with their word choices.”

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Virginia Congressman Gerry Connolly said he's unconcerned by speculation that newly-Republican Artur Davis will run for his House seat, he said on Wednesday morning.

"Last time I checked, this is 2012 and I have an opponent, his name is Chris Perkins, and I’m running against him," Connolly told BuzzFeed in an interview outside the Virginia delegation breakfast at the Sheraton near the airport.

"Why would I comment on speculation about, I don't know, why stop at 2014? Who would run against me in 2020? I’ve heard names!" Connolly said. "I barely know Artur Davis. You’re not going to drag me into a quote on that subject. I have an election in 62 days, I’m focused on that election. Who knows what the future will bring?"

BuzzFeed reported in May that Davis, a former Democratic congressman from Alabama and one-time gubernatorial candidate, was considering running as a Republican in Virginia in the district represented by Connolly. Davis has since raised his profile in the Republican Party, campaigning on behalf of Mitt Romney and speaking at the Republican National Convention last week.

Connolly criticized the RNC, saying that "it was filled with cranky malcontents of a certain complexion and lacked anything remotely resembling the base of America."

"And so what they always do is drag out a handful of people they do have — you mentioned one that’s just switched parties — they’re so desperate they put him on the friggin’ platform to speak," Connolly said of Davis. "This is a guy who, you can look at his voting record — anyway, that’s how desperate they are."

"That is a serious problem for their party after this election," Connolly said. "It’s a problem for this election. But by 2016 it may be dispositive."

"If they really can’t figure out how to reverse their hostility to new arrivals, their incipient racism in a large chunk of the party, the unwelcome mat that’s in their front doorstep — I’m telling you it’s the seed of their own destruction if they don’t turn that around," Connolly said, adding that he thought the convention looked as though "they let the country club out early."

UPDATE: Davis emails: "Interesting: 'cranky malcontents of a certain complexion.' Democrats really are struggling with their word choices."

A social media-friendly campaign is launching to help marriage equality supporters' efforts in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington.

Source: youtube.com

Progressives are launching a new social media-based marriage equality campaign aimed at building national support for key state ballot initiatives across the country.

The site, TheFour2012.com, is funded in large part by Jason Goldberg, the CEO of Fab.com and targets marriage equality ballot initiatives in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington.

The effort is being organized by Andre Banks of All Out; Ryan J. Davis of Blue State Digital; Brian Ellner, who helped coordinate marriage equality efforts in New York; and Richard Socarides, the former gay and lesbian liaison for President Clinton.

Voters in Minnesota will be deciding whether to amend their state’s constitution to prohibit same-sex couples from marrying, voters in Maine will be deciding whether to grant same-sex couples the ability to marry under state law, and voters in Maryland and Washington will be voting whether to accept or reverse state legislature-passed bills that would allow same-sex couples to marry.

Obama reveals what it's like to sleep at 1600 Pennsylvania in an interview with Michael Lewis in October's Vanity Fair .

On the Truman Balcony:

On the Lincoln Bedroom:

View Entire List ›

The Springsteen super-fan isn't shy about crooning for the cameras.

Source: youtube.com

Warren's big speech to the DNC prompts a visit and video response.

Source: youtube.com

The Massachusetts Republican Party is greeting Elizabeth Warren's speech at the Democratic National Convention with a video featuring North Carolina Cherokee tribe members slamming Warren for identifying herself as Native American. The flap over this issue has proved to be tough for the Warren campaign to put to bed.

The video is set in Cherokee, N.C., on a Cherokee reservation three hours away from Charlotte. Sample quote: "Yeah, Elizabeth Warren should be ashamed of herself. It’s slapping Native Americans in the face."

The missing language: “Undivided” Jerusalem and an embassy move. Democrats under fire for a similar move.

With Democrats trying to put out a fire around the party platform's lack of specific language backing Israel that appeared in the 2008 version, a Democratic source points out that Republicans also toned down elements of their stance on Israel in the document.

A close ally of Mitt Romney, Jim Talent, beat back an attempt at the platform committee to remove a reference to the two-state solution last month.

There are also elements of the 2008 Republican platform absent from the 2012 version.

The key sentence present in 2008 and missing in 2012 is: "We support Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel and moving the American embassy to that undivided capital of Israel."

In both parties' cases, the revisions don't seem to reflect a dramatic policy shift, but rather attempts by party leadership to avoid foreign policy commitments in the non-binding political document.

The Democratic National Convention moved the President's Thursday night nomination speech indoors because of a threat of rain. The President has campaigned in the rain in the past.

October 2008 in Pennsylvania: "A little bit of rain never hurt anybody"

"A little bit of rain never hurt anybody. Although I've got to say that I saw Ed Rendell backstage and his teeth were chattering. This is an unbelievable crowd for this kind of weather. Thank you so much"

Source: youtube.com  /  via: washingtonpost.com

July 2012 in Virginia: These are some diehard political folks here, not letting a little rain chase us away.

Source: youtube.com

September 2008 in Virginia

Source: youtube.com

The outspoken economist's parent represents deep-red Abilene.” Prairie Dog Democrats.

Linda Goolsbee working on a Texas campaign.

Source: meagankfreeman.wordpress.com

CHARLOTTE, NC — When Austan Goolsbee served as the chairman of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisors, he emerged as the White House's most articulate economic spokesman, an animated Texan who had honed his talking skills as the 1987 national extemporaneous speaking champion.

Goolsbee, now back in the academy, remains a frequent Obama surrogate, with no official role. His mother Linda, however, is in Charlotte in her official capacity: She was elected a convention delegate from Abilene, a West Texas metropolis routinely ranked among America's five most conservative cities.

Goolsbee, after only mild hesitation, turned over his mother's cellphone number to a reporter, and Linda Goolsbee told BuzzFeed her son had gotten her involved in politics.

"Austan is very inspiring to have as a relative," she said. ("She's never done anything like this," Austan said.)

Mrs. Goolsbee, 70, was born in Abilene but spent much of her life in California, where her son went to high school. She worked in sales and marketing at the telephone company originally known as Pacific Bell, and retired back to Abilene with her husband.

Since her son joined the Obama campaign as an economic advisor, Linda Goolsbee has become active in the small-scale Democratic politics of West Texas, and now serves as president of the Democratic Women of the Big Country.

"There's not a lot of overt things you can do," she said. "We mobilize our small troops" for phone banks and other campaign activities.

Local Democrats are headed next week for the West Texas Fair and Rodeo, where they traditionally have a booth.

"We get people walking by and saying, 'Oh! There are Democrats in Abilene?'" she said.

Those there are, she said, are "what we call Prairie dog democrats: They stay underground, they come out occasionally to check out the landscape, then they go back underground and keep tunneling."

Linda Goolsbee said she's enjoying the convention, though she and Austan also got drenched in a rainstorm after a dinner at the home of former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles.

She's enjoyed, she said, speeches by Nancy Pelosi and others to the Women's Caucus, and thrilled to Tuesday night's program.

"Michelle just lights the moon," she said.

An “obsessive following” in Chicago, and a confidentiality agreement.

Source: charlierose.com

As the Democratic primary began to rivet public attention at the end of 2007, political junkies began to develop an obsession with a blogger under the name "poblano" on the liberal DailyKos who was analyzing and merging polling data with unusual sophistication.

The anonymous analyst dropped the occasional hint — he wasn't involved in politics, but did work with numbers — and the next summer came out as Nate Silver, a baseball statistician whose work had taken a similarly probability-focused approach to the sport as he did to politics.

Silver's work, and his lucid explanations had enormous appeal to, in particular, Barack Obama's legion of supporters, to whom he delivered the (accurate) news that the polls were on balance right, and their guy was likely to win. (Silver supported Obama but said his sympathies had no impact on his work.)

His work also, it turns out, drew the attention of the Obama campaign. Sasha Issenberg's new book on the science of politics, The Victory Lab reports that Silver's data-centric approach and skepticism of other media's — as the Obama campaign saw it — unsophisticated take on state polls won him an "obsessive following" in Obama's Chicago headquarters.

Obama's polling analysts, Issenberg writes, wanted to test their internal polls against Silver's model. And so — in an unusual step for the closely-held campaign, and for the analyst, who was then running his own website, FiveThirtyEight.com — the Obama campaign offered Silver access to thousands of its own internal polls, on the condition Silver sign a confidentiality agreement, which he did. (Silver, who now writes a widely-read blog for the New York Times declined to comment on the arrangement.)

"We wanted a little external validation that what we were seeing is what was actually going on," Michael Simon, a former Obama aide, told Issenberg.