Conservatives Find Selves Shocked to Realize They Liked Obama’s Speech

On Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, President Obama made a case for national optimism. In quintessential Obama fashion, the speech was realistic about the problems (economic, racial, political) that the United States faces but gung-ho about the country's capacity to make collective progress in spite of them. It was a reassurance, in troubled times, that most of our fellow citizens actually do share our beliefs on things like honesty, tolerance, not taking shortcuts, and not being ill-informed and insane. It was uplifting, and not particularly partisan. And a lot of conservative pundits who have not exactly been happy with the past eight years found, especially when compared to the kind of things the ostensibly conservative candidate in this election has been saying, that they liked it.

Blogger Erick Erickson:

Jill Stein crashed the Democratic convention. Some Bernie delegates weren't too thrilled.

PHILADELPHIA — "Look, the division here really is not a problem," former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle was telling me — right as Green Party candidate Jill Stein marched past him with a group of about 50 Bernie Sanders supporters.

Stein had somehow made her way into the Democratic National Convention and led dozens of angry Sanders delegates in a walkout after Hillary Clinton officially became the nominee early Tuesday evening.

Not all of Sanders's supporters were having it. Ray McKinnon, 35, a Sanders delegate from North Carolina, began yelling at Stein when he saw her, telling her to "get out" and arguing that she had no place within the convention hall.

"For her to come in here, it’s just ridiculous; I can’t stand it," McKinnon told me afterward. "It was the height of disrespect."

But other Sanders delegates were pleased to see Stein. "Bernie has gotten Stockholm syndrome — he’s become a victim to his captors," said delegate David Bright, 68, of Dixon, Maine. "If Clinton can’t hold her own against Stein, that’s her problem."

This was the internal divide that’s been endlessly discussed in Philadelphia: There’s a sharp split between Sanders allies who are ready to follow him into the Democratic Party and a small but vocal minority who view a party led by Clinton as not worth supporting at all.

Different breeds of convention Democrats ask: Whose party is this, anyway?

Democrats have become accustomed to having the best speech at their quadrennial convention given by someone named Obama. This year, that person might also be named Michelle.

Hers was not the keynote, nor the most anticipated, nor the longest speech of the night. But it mesmerized and subdued the raucous and rebellious crowd, focusing the enormous energy of Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Arena just where convention organizers had hoped — on Hillary Clinton.

The current first lady’s highly personal remarks included a moving reflection on raising two African-American daughters in a White House “built by slaves.” Her voice broke with emotion when she added that these two children of the first black president could now see the prospect of the first female president.

For the record, her time on stage proved to be the least-interrupted interval in a night of remarkable rudeness toward speakers on the podium and toward the name of Hillary Clinton.

Convention officials, congressional leaders and even the icons of the party’s progressive wing — keynoter Elizabeth Warren and candidate Bernie Sanders — were subjected to jeers, catcalls and chants from an element of the audience.

Zakaria: What American Decline? 7-24-2016

Nate Silver's Bias Exposed