DNC Convention Day 3 – Kaine Accepts VP Nomination

Day 3 of the Democratic Convention was a very strong line up of speakers, including President Obama, peppered with celebrities, including a rendition of “love sweet love” by about 40 celebrities and a decent  performance by Lenny Kravitz.

In an early speech, former CIA director Leon Panetta was heckled with the chant “no more drones.” They were shining their cellphone lights at Panetta, perhaps a “shine the light on this” metaphor? I didn’t realize there was a group opposed to drones, but I do in fact agree with their position. His speech was otherwise not memorable.

Vice President Joe Biden was introduced by his wife, after which was shown an intro video. As I watched the video, I would swear this was designed as a presidential campaign video. From the crowds response, Joe is the candidate they wished they had.

It was a very well rehearsed political speech with all of the tricks and gimics one can learn over a 40 year political career. He praised hillary to a certain extent but the speech was not about her. He did spend a lot of time trashing Trump. At one point he said “let me tell you something that has nothing to do with politics” and then he proceeded to trash Trump again. Nice trick.  Not as good as Bill’s speech last night, but OK.

Yes, I do believe Joe is being tested as the candidate, if for some reason Hillary implodes. He would be their only option at this point.

Michael Bloomberg  wanted to “explain why I believe it is imperative to elect Hillary Clinton”.  He’s a boring speaker, his content was boring, more anti-Trump than pro-Hillary. He would have made a terrible third party candidate.

Tim Kaine accepted the Democratic nomination for Vice President. He started with the same speech as last week, then made fun of Donald Trump’s phrase “believe me” which didn’t play well in my opinion. The rest was very predictable, I was expecting better. His cheers were not as good as Biden’s.

President Obama’s intro video was very well done, could be considered the highlight of today’s events (in the absence of better speeches).  His speech was pretty standard.  Was heckled by a lone heckler, but speech was well received.

The audience had “Thank you” signs, and near the end it turned into a goodbye speech. The highlight was when he said Hillary was “the most qualified ever and that includes me and Bill – sorry Bill, I’m just telling the truth” Bill was seated nearby and broke out in laughter.