Sunday Political Dish (Tuesday Edition)

With the Democratic National Convention this week I decided to save my political thoughts for a day or two. Here's my current conventional wisdom:

1. The Obama campaign made a huge deal of signing up for notification via email and/or text message to be the first to hear when Obama announced his VEEP choice. Early on I signed up to get an email, but late last week I started to get anxious that I would be away from my computer when the announcement was made, so on my way to a meeting I signed up to have the information sent to my via text message.

That was all well and good until I woke up Saturday morning to hear the news: Obama chose Biden. Damn, how did I miss the notification? As I later found out, the campaign had sent the announcement around 3 a.m., and clearly I was asleep, and no I don't sleep with my cell phone next to me. But that wasn't my annoyance. I didn't get an email until after 9 a.m. Saturday morning, and I didn't get a text message at all.

Now, I understand that there are SNAFUs in technology and all that, but come on. If you don't think you can pull it off and do it right, then don't promise that you will do it. Of course this isn't going to make me not vote for Obama-Biden, but it is a little irritating, and honestly pretty anticlimactic after all the build up.

2. How annoyed am I at all the Hillary hangers on, or PUMAs* (Party Unity My Ass) as they have been dubbed. At what point are they going to realize that they need to think about the future of the country and not their one-issue cause. Hey, I'm as disappointed as the next feminist that Hillary didn't get the nomination or the nod for VEEP, but does that mean I'd rather vote for four more years of Bush policy in the form of John McCain? Hell no! Seriously, the pro-choice issue should at least have some pull for these women. I hope Hillary pulls them together tonight.

3. I just have to give a shout out to Michelle Obama. Holy crap that woman can hold an audience. There were moments during her speech last night that I had tears in my eyes. When she said, "Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them, " I nearly jumped up and cheered. This is what I want for America.

4. A little post from the NYT Caucus Blog last night highlighted the "Rednecks for Obama" contigent. And lest we try to pigeon-hole this particular group the final quote says it all, "I don't care about his beer, I care about his intelligence." Well said my redneck friend.

As I finished reading the article to Big J he said he would rather have Obama over to the house because "McCain would leave that old person smell." Now that's a bumper sticker in the making!

*As humorous as I might think the label PUMA is, I am vaguely disturbed by it's similarity to the term cougar, a decidedly negative depiction of strong and powerful women.