Not Disappointed

My final note on the third night of the 2008 Democratic Convention: it did not disappoint,

• from the class act of Hillary Clinton's calling for a stop to the roll call in order to nominate Barack Obama as presidential candidate for the Democratic party,
• to the speeches of military men and women,
• to Bill Clinton's smart and convincing support of Barack Obama (comparing Obama's experience to that of his own experience campaigning for president),
• to Beau Biden's heart-felt introduction of his father,
• to Joe Biden's stories of his mother, including the one in which, when Biden was picked on by other kids, his mother told him to return and bloody their noses so that he could walk the streets (a quick camera pan to the elder Mrs. Biden caught her mouthing the words "that's true"),
• to Joe Biden's bloodying McCain's nose in his litany of McCain's misjudgments: "John McCain was wrong; Barack Obama was right,"
• to Barack Obama's appearance at the end and his hat tip to Hillary.

Yes, this was pageantry and politics, but it was also poetry and patriotism.

Of course, I was watching PBS, which included coverage of the entire speeches of most of the participants in the evening and less coverage of talking heads pontificating--though there was some of that, too.