First Door on the Left

Americans are ready, nay hungry, for change and it shows…

Obama’s speech seen by 38 million-plus viewers

NEW YORK (AP) – Barack Obama’s audience for his acceptance speech likely topped 40 million people, and the Democratic gathering that nominated him was a more popular television event than any other political convention in history.

More people watched Obama speak from a packed stadium in Denver on Thursday than watched the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, the final “American Idol” or the Academy Awards this year, Nielsen Media Research said Friday. (Four playoff football games, including the Super Bowl between the Giants and Patriots, were seen by more than 40 million people.)

His TV audience nearly doubled the amount of people who watched John Kerry accept the Democratic nomination to run against President Bush four years ago. Kerry’s speech was seen by a little more than 20 million people; Bush’s acceptance speech to GOP delegates had 27.6 million viewers.

Through four days, the Democratic convention was seen in an average of 22.5 million households. No other convention – Republican or Democratic – had been seen in as many homes since Nielsen began keeping these records for the Kennedy-Nixon campaign in 1960. There weren’t enough television sets in American homes to have possibly beaten this record in years before that.

The convention that comes closest in interest was the 1976 Republican gathering, which averaged 21.9 million homes. That was the year President Gerald Ford fought off a challenge for the nomination from future President Ronald Reagan. For Democrats, the closest came during the 1980 convention where Sen. Edward Kennedy challenged President Jimmy Carter for the nomination.[..]

Nielsen said that 38.4 million people watched Obama’s speech as it was carried live by 10 commercial networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, BET, TV One, Univision and Telemundo.

PBS also televised the speech, but didn’t pay Nielsen for a count of its national viewership. Based on a sample of several large cities, PBS estimated that an additional 4 million people saw the speech on its network. C-SPAN, which also televised the speech, has no estimate of its audience.

Anyone care to venture a guess as to how many people will tune in to the Republican Slumber Party next week?

It has been quite a week. The Democratic National Convention was off the hook. Our next president is now officially the nominee of his party, so we have that little formality taken care of. And Johnny McCain chose a girl to be on the Republican ticket with him. So it must be time for Friday night cartoons. Remember, your mileage may vary. Click and enjoy…

As always, our thanks go to the talented and observant cartoonists who, each week, help us smile through the pain.

Weekend updates:

It seems that Johnny McCain has picked his running mate. He went with youth. And sex. He chose the first-term female governor of tiny Alaska, just one and half years into her first term as governor. Talk about experience! But, she does have youth going for her. Johnny is 72 years old; Ms. Palin is only 44. And, did I mention she’s a girl? (A rather obvious reach for the so-called Hillary vote, don’t you think? Johnny McCain thinks so little of Hillary’s supporters that he thinks they are all going to flock to him just because he’s putting a woman on his ticket, regardless of whether she’s qualified or not.)

McCain picks Palin as running mate

Sarah Palin

WASHINGTON – Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has chosen Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, making her the first woman ever to serve on a Republican presidential ticket.

McCain’s decision was revealed just hours before he was set to appear with his newly-minted running mate at a rally in swing-state Ohio.

Palin, the first Alaskan to appear on a national ticket, was elected Alaska’s first woman governor in 2006. The state’s voters had grown weary of career politician Gov. Frank Murkowski, whom she defeated in the GOP primary.[..]

Palin’s selection was a stunning surprise, as McCain passed over many other better-known prospects, some of whom had been the subject of intense speculation for weeks or months.

At 44, she is a generation younger than Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, who is Barack Obama’s running mate on the Democratic ticket.

She is three years Obama’s junior, as well, and McCain has made much in recent weeks of Obama’s relative lack of experience in foreign policy and defense matters.[..]

Born in Idaho, Palin moved to Alaska with her parents in 1964, when they went there to teach school.

She received a degree in communications and journalism from the University of Idaho in 1987.

I don’t know what to say. I really am at a loss for words. I had my suspicions that Johnny McCain was not serious about this election, that he was just going through the motions. Now I’m sure of it.

Considering Johnny McCain’s advanced age and questionable health, it was of vital importance that he select a running mate who is ready to be Commander-in-Chief. Sarah Palin definitely is not ready. No way, no how.

Johnny’s first “presidential” decision, and he blew it. Big time.

Update: Via Borowitz Report…

“The Presidency of the United States of America is the toughest job on the planet,” Sen. McCain said. “And my friends, the best testing ground for that job is being the mayor of a 5,000-person town in Alaska.”

Update #2: From the editorial board of The Washington Post…

But the most important question Mr. McCain should have asked himself about Ms. Palin was not whether she could help him win the presidency. It was whether she is qualified and prepared to serve as president should anything prevent him from doing so. This would have been true for any presidential nominee, and it was especially crucial that Mr. McCain — who turns 72 today — get this choice right. If he is elected, he will be the oldest man ever to serve a first term in the White House.

In this regard, count us among the puzzled and the skeptical. Not long ago, no less a Republican strategist than Karl Rove belittled Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine as a potential running mate for Barack Obama, noting that picking him would appear “intensely political” because Mr. Kaine’s experience consisted of only three years as governor preceded by the mayoralty of Richmond, which Mr. Rove called “not a big town.”

Using Mr. Rove’s criteria, Ms. Palin would not fare well. Her executive experience consists of less than two years as governor of her sparsely populated state, plus six years as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (pop. 8,471). Absorbed in Alaska’s unique energy and natural resource issues, she has barely been heard from in the broader national debates over economic policy and health care. Above all, she has no record on foreign policy and national security — including terrorism, which Mr. McCain posits as the top challenge facing America and the world. Once the buzz over Ms. Palin’s nomination dies down, the hard questions about her will begin. The answers will reflect on her qualifications — and on Mr. McCain’s judgment as well.

Your humble host could not agree more. Johnny McCain proved today that he is not ready to be President of the United States. His vice presidential running mate definitely is not either.

Update #3: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd report that Johnny did not even know Sarah Palin before selecting her as his running mate. This choice is a political gimmick through and through…

If it were possible to win the election in August, Barack Obama would have won it last evening. In the event that you missed his history making speech, or would just like to experience it again, here it is:

We finally have a future to which to look forward.

Text of the speech after the jump…

Continue Reading »

Let us be among the first to wish Johnny McCain a happy birthday. He’s 72 years old today. 72. Wow.

John Sidney McCain III

He’s supposed to appear in Dayton, Ohio later today with his newly announced vice presidential running made. My money is still on 61-year-old flip-flopper Mitt Romney because he’s rich, even though he is a little short in the experience department. We shall see.

(The picture above shows John McCain and his BFF George W. Bush on Johnny’s birthday three years ago. That is what they were doing while New Orleans drowned.)