Dem Con 1

    The Democratic Convention opened with a bang last night in Charlotte, NC.  A small pantheon of star speakers swept the loyal attendees off their feet - actually, swept them on their feet, as they were often up and out of their seats, with thunderous applause.
    Former Governor Ted Strickland called Romney out for lying - he actually used the L word - about Obama, Welfare, and the work requirement.  He quoted scripture - "where thy treasure is, so too shall thy heart be there" - to poke fun at Romney's fortune, saying his money needed a passport because it summered in the Caamen Islands and wintered in the Swiss Alps.  He put it to the Republican ticket, with no holds barred.
    Deval Patrick, the current Governor of Massachusetts, set the stage and readied the crowd for the keynote speech.  He had a long list of the things Romney did and didn't do during his tenure as Governor of Mass.  Remarkably, however, like all the other speakers, Patrick kept his comments mostly positive, choosing to dwell on Obama's accomplishments rather than Romney's failures.
    The Keynote address was delivered by rising Democratic star, Julián Castro (kind of an unfortunate name for an American politician), the mayor of San Antonio, TX.  He was introduced by his twin broth, Juoaquin, who is currently running for Congress.  These two young Hispanics (in their 30s) have one of those immigrant stories that is so typical in America: grandparents struggled to get  here and struggled when they got here; mother cleaned toilets so her boys could go to Stanford and Harvard; those boys are now stand-out Americans, on the way up.  It seems like a cliché, but it truly is inspiring.  By the end of his speech, Castro had the audience screaming "Romney said no" in a direct-response, kabuki theatre exercise.  Without a doubt, this keynote address will launch Castro onto the national political scene in the same way that Obama's keynote address launched him from the 2004 convention.  It was a great speech.
    The clean-up hitter, First Lady Michelle Obama, sashayed onto the stage in a extraordinary dress (sleeveless, some coral color) which at first blush seemed completely inappropriate for the moment but was absolutely perfect for her.  She looked like looked like a million bucks, swung for the fence,  and hit the home run everyone was  hoping for.  Her long narrative, covering both her family and Barack's, matched the immigrant tale just told by Castro: poor but decent people struggling for their piece of the American dream.  She told it with grace and charm, making the comparison between her husband's story and Mitt Romney's, without ever mentioning the other guy's name, and did it all without becoming either negative or strident.  As many of the pundits said afterward, if she is interested in a political career at the end of Barack's tenure, the door just swung open.
    So far, the Democrats are managing their convention better than the GOP.  The star of day #2 will be former president Bill Clinton.  I can hardly wait.