the Democratic Party platform and agree on policy,
or a partisan rally,
or a net-working opportunity,
or a place to raise funds,
or a way to meet other Democrats and get set-up for running for office or anything...

Remember, if you think these are people who are really Democrats except in name, who support Democratic Party policy and other Democrats down ticket, they are not even being required to reregister themselves as Democrats and apparently have already decided not to become Democrats.

(at least according to Howard Fineman) this seems entirely reasonable.

What's wrong with you?

[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

as this convention turns into a fiasco that makes 68 look like a tea party for bluehairs. i wonder: will it be a pie in his face by some rethug op, or a youtube of some important staffer with a lampshade on his head at the afterparties? perhaps some juicy gay sex video of famous national dems too stupid to grok modern tech, or perhaps some planted drugs on one of the few actually effective dems left in the party. gosh, the possibilities are endless, and i'd do all that and more if i were at the rethug convention. but of course, they'd never, ever let me in.

Methinks they are having trouble filling that 75,000 seat stadium. I mean, how would on national T.V. to see rows and rows of empty seats.

How wouldit look on national T.V.

sorry

No other explanation comes anywhere NEAR making any sense.

Think Washington Generals. Losing is their job.

"You'd better get this straight. Wise up before it's too late." -- Sister Sledge

Out of curiosity, and this may be obvious, but is this at all common for conventions? Have people had to show proof of affiliation at past conventions?

I love this job!

Obama doesn't care if you're a Democrat, Republican or Independent, because this isn't the Democratic Convention -- it's the OBAMA Convention. That's why the biggest primary vote-getter (of registered Democrats, anyway) has to "negotiate" a place at the convention instead of automatically receiving her traditional due. It's why there's an Obama logo on his campaign plane in place of an American flag.

Obama and David Axelrod have every intention of destroying the Democratic Party and raising a new one, the "O" party, from the ashes.

Wonder if BO has starting succession planning already.

I don't know why I bother anymore.

In fact, the invitation you note with such contempt is part of a community outreach meant not only to fill the stadium but to use that event to put into motion an ambitious grassroots movement to improve voter registration.

Motherlode,

I don't know how to even answer a comment as bizarre and unreal as that. Yes, for sure, David Axelrod and his puppet Barack have a plan, it's all mapped out but hidden, probably buried somewhere, to destroy the Democratic Party, the oldest living political party in the world.

If any of you bothered to pay attention to anything but your own limited opinions, and the opinions of the circle jerk that this blog is fast becoming, you might have known just a little about what you were pretending to talk about.

The four days of the convention will be attended by Democrats. It makes a certain amount of sense during a period when, after eight years of Republican rule, upwards of 70 % of Americans think that this country is headed in the wrong direction, to see if some independents, and even some Republicans might be sufficiently disgusted to want to become involved in progressive politics.

And don't take the energy, any of you, to write a comment that Democrats are no longer liberal or progressive, because it wall fall on tired ears, because I find nothing either progressive or liberal about this blog anymore.

I have a lot more to say, but right now I'm too angry and too disgusted.

I won't be leaving Corrente, not yet, not until I've had a chance to explain the exact outlines of my displeasure.

And don't bother telling me that I'm refusing to engage by not posting; I am fast becoming convinced that there is nothing worthy of engaging with here, which is what keeps me from posting, though every day since I felt well enough to sit up I've come here intending to post about one or another specific topic, but have made the mistake of reading the latest posts and comment threads, which then convinces me that no one here can hear anything I have to say.

Just ignore this comment; I wanted to correct the obvious and embarrassing mistake that the person who posted this and all the people, except Elixir, continued to ignore. When I gather my energy, I'll start posting again. If I find that I have to leave Corrente, it won't be because I threw up my hands, it will be because I finally become convinced that what is happening here is something I can no longer associate myself with.

Leah's right. Please correct.

It used to be that the venue for the nomination speech was the convention floor, and that's changed for the first time this year.

The larger point, which I take to be that it isn't really a convention for Democrats any more, isn't related to the venue, but the headline should still be right.

NOTE On the voter registration drive, this concerns me:

But it's more than that. The Vote For Change program will lay the foundation for Obama's general election get-out-the-vote efforts. Obama aides won't say much more, but I gather that the campaign is constructing an incredibly elaborate online interface to allow its more than a million donors and volunteers to directly persuade their neighbors through a variety of media. Names gathered from the voter registration effort will be merged with names gathered through Obama's primary efforts and the names off of the Democratic Party's integrated voter file as well as lists purchased from outside vendors.

First, I want to know who's going to end up owning the data. If it's the Obama Movement, and not the Democratic Party, then all my concerns about a hostile takeover of the Democratic Party are vindicated.

Second, it's one thing to register new voters. It's quite another thing to then social network everybody into a humongous database and then go door to door. I've already been screamed at by one of my "neighbors" for supporting Hillary. What happens when that neighbor comes to my house, with a clipboard, and asks if I've changed my mind? And then let me sweeten the scenario by adding that my neighbor is accompanied by, say, the local code enforcement officer? I guess I should lie. But that's hard for me.

Leah, I just don't understand why you would think that Corrente is no longer "progressive" -- particularly when so many "progressive blogs" turned out to be stained with misognyny and truthiness, which I think you would have to agree are not present here.

If it's because you think Obama's a progressive, then that's a discussion we can have, but I think the point is at a very minimum arguable.

I'm guessing, and correct me if I am wrong, that you believe that the Democratic Party is still the party of Truman, or FDR, or even LBJ, or of Fannie Lou Hamer. I don't believe it is and that is, again, a reason we're trying to figure out a way to keep blogging as progressives, away from the horrible toxicity of the conventional discourse, an effort that for whatever reason you have not joined.

Why?

[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

Guess who?

Hope you feel better soon.

Sorry for lack of clarity and mistake above, now corrected.