Maybe we can.

From start to finish, the massive production of last night's Invesco Field extravaganza was as close to perfect as it could get. You could sense electricity in the air from the moment of arrival. By the time Sen. Obama arrived, Mile High stadium was packed to the rafters and it exploded with an outpouring of emotion and enthusiasm when he took the stage.

The easiest way to register to vote is to print the online form, fill it out and mail it in.

Link...

The link tells you how to register and how to find the address of your election office.

These forms work anywhere in the USA.

Send this along to everyone and lets have a viral voter registration drive.

Greg Mackay
Adminisrator of Elections
Knox County, Tennessee

Tank was elected Chair of the Commission this morning.

How 'bout that!

We start today trying to carry the Fort for the Obama/Tuke/Armstrong/Bryant Democratic ticket.

Joe,Tank & Sam

Great Democrats & helluve of bunch folks to run with!

An Alaska Blogger dishes up the dirt she says you need to know.

Of course the main event was last night, but we've got a backlog of other reports, including the great speakers at yesterday's Tennessee Delegation breakfast.

Citing several recent elections in Shelby County, Congressman Steve Cohen says that voters are voting on issues, not race, and says this will happen all across America in November. He says it was "post racial" politics, but it's also "post Republican Party politics," because Democrats swept every election.

Regarding Bill Clinton's speech, Rep. Cohen said that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are the two best politicians he's know (other than Bill Owen) because of their ability to put issues in terms people can understand.

Commenting on the anniversary of Women's Suffrage, Rep. Cohen gave a little history lesson noting that ratification of the Constitutional amendment occurred in the state of Tennessee.

Former Senator Jim Sasser spoke about the importance of state legislative races. He said if Democrats lose the Tennessee House they could lose Congress because Republicans are planning to redistrict Bart Gordon and Lincoln Davis into the same Congressional district which would eliminate one of two seats currently held by Democrats.

Senator Chris Dodd began his remarks by joking that it was great having Connecticut and Tennessee staying in the same hotel and now it would really be something if we could get Pat Summit and Geno Auriemma together, calling the UT v. UConn rivalry one of the great things in sports.

He mentioned the moving tribute to Ted Kennedy, and spoke admiringly about Al Gore. He noted that in 2000 Gore also chose a senator as his running mate, one from Connecticut, but "he chose the wrong Senator from Connecticut -- I was available in those days."

Speaking of his candidacy, he said that he has a three year old daughter and a six year old daughter, and he was the only candidate who got mail from AARP and diaper services.

Commenting on the primaries, Sen. Dodd said there weren't many substantive differences among the candidates, unlike past Democratic primaries when there were "huge divisions in the party" that made it difficult to win elections. He said, though, that campaigns aren't about the candidates and the party they are affiliated with, they are about the people who "count on us to get things right for them."

He said that's what politics is always about, the "people not in the room, people not out there in that hall last night." He said it's about people worried about their jobs and energy costs and providing health care for their families and their retirement. He said the issues are the same all over America, and people want to know if anyone gets this and understands it, and what they want in a politician is someone who will go to work for the American working people and their families.

On the election, he noted that the decision will be made in less than 65 days and one issue that's not being discussed is Supreme Court appointments, noting that over the next four years there may be as many as four replacements, and he "doesn't have to tell you what it means not for the next eight years but the next thirty years if we get nominees like Anton Scalia."

See our previous report on other remarks by some Tennessee delegates. Also, Vicky Harwell of the Tennessee Federation of Democratic Women spoke and recognized all the members present (pictured above). Vicky noted that it was appropriate they were last in the program, because "when you call on Democratic women, we're the first ones to get there and roll up our sleeves to work and we're the last ones you see leave."

Here are Sen. Dodd's remarks:

Here are excerpts of remarks by Rep. Cohen and Sen. Sasser:

Link...

YEEEHAWWW!!
Very good news.
Link...

"1. There goes McCain's best argument.
He cannot say Obama is not ready but she is. Obama started organizing his campaign for president the same month she was sworn in to lead the third-smallest state's government.
2. She has no base of support.
Obama won his senate seat with 3,597,456 votes, that's more than five times the population of Alaska. He has won more than 18 million votes in a long, tough primary that tested him and prepared him. How has she been tested? She lost her first bid for statewide office, then won the governor's office with 114,697 votes, not a majority, but enough to take office. And apparently, enough to set her up for the Oval Office.
3. The "woman card" will backfire.
She's no Hillary Clinton. And this is such an obvious ploy. It would be different if she were known to anyone or qualified or something.
4. Alaska, a corrupt hinterland.
Yes, she is a hard-nosed, tough reformer. But the McCain campaign will have to deal with the fact that Alaska seems like a foreign land as corrupt as Louisiana. It's longtime senator will stand trial smack dab in the middle of this campaign season, and McCain may have to vote to remove him from office. Yes, they can spin it that she is someone cleaning up the mess up there, but what Americans realize is that they don't know much about what goes on up there. Will they be comfortable with her?
5. Was this McCain's choice?
It seems clear that McCain wanted to go with Lieberman but was talked out of it by the right wing of his party. Rove admits calling Lieberman to ask him to pull his name out. Bush lost his way because he never stood up to Rove et. al. McCain is headed down the same path."

This is straight from a draft Palin for Veep site! Not much to recommend even there.

"We know the vice-presidential candidate's main job is to parrot the party line laid out by the presidential candidate. But, she's at least had her own opinion up to now ...

Energy Policies
Wants to convince the rest of the nation to open up ANWAR

War in Iraq/Terrorism
Has no public stance as yet, but her oldest child (and only son) joined the Army in Fall 2007.

Immigration
No recorded stance as yet. Not exactly the biggest issue in Alaska.

Economy
Again, not much to figure out here yet.

Health Care
Opposes more federal funding for health care; is for more flexibility in federal regulations to allow for more competition.

Gay Rights and Abortion
(Normally, I wouldn't include these as - despite being a Christian - I think they have no place in a political platform. But people think they do.)
Strongly pro-life, in fact, she's a member of Feminists for life. Also against gay marriage.

http://www.squidoo.com/sarah-palin

From Carole Borges Blog: Link...

Two reasons:
1.)The Obama campaign is bringing in tons of motivated volunteers, young and old, who are revitalizing our local Dem organization.
2) One way this is done is with the house parties that are organized in such a more democratic (small D) and inspiring way than the usual local Dem meet-ups that I have been to.

Allow me to elaborate on the first point.

I went to the event last night at Grotto, which was very well attended. Three moments there made me appreciate how Obama has energized young people.

1. Early on in the evening I was helping my mom, who organized it, set up. Two women walked in wanting to know where they could get voter registration information-they wanted to register voters at their place of work. I was kind of sure it was the Knox Co. Election Commission, but not entirely sure, having never picked up the forms myself. Then this bright eyed young Obama volunteer, a UT student, piped up- "Yeah, its Knox Co Election Commissions, which is in the old courthouse. Go there, and ask for the forms. You don't need to tell them who your with."
- Wow, I thought, these kids are on the ball.

2. Then I was looking around for an Obama t-shirt to buy. Talked to a few volunteers. Nope. No T-shirts. Nobody wanted to deal with the money. Then I look across the room, and another perky UT student for Obama has a box full of big orange "volunteers for Obama shirts"- 10$ each. Awesome! Pretty soon about half the room was wearing one of these shirts.

3. I had heard that Sunday in World's Fair Park there will be a voter registration drive, aiming at UT students. I went up to one of the now SEVEN UT student Obama volunteers, just to make sure they were on top of it. "You Kidding? We'll be there all day."

DAYUM!!! You gotta love a candidate who inspires young people like that.
I know, a lot of these kids will get back to partying after the election, and only a few will stay in Knox Co. But they are helping register voters, and build a more vital local organization.

Now, allow me to elaborate on my second point about the house parties.

Energizing young people is only part of the highly effective grass roots appeal of the Obama campaign. Ever been to one of those Obama house party's? They are ten thousand times more inspiring than any local Dem meet-up I have ever been to, which usually features some local dem leader monopolizing the floor and going on and on about something....and half the room with its eyes glazed over. Or worse yet, no one takes the floor at all and the event completely looses focus.
Compare that to the average Obama house party-EVERYONE GETS A TURN. And you talk about why YOU are inspired. Hopefully this will catch on with local Dems. It is so much more inspiring to hear regular people talk about what inspires them, than to hear from some local politico drone on.

I strongly recommend we integrate these grass-roots tactics from the Obama campaign into our local Dem organization. We've got a lot to learn.

Fluffy at the KnoxBlab.

Fluffy: "

as i was surfing channels, i came across CBN news, saw they were covering it too and thought, "ok, now were talkin! lets see what the christian conservatives think of it". if anyone was going to be critical, it would be CBN. oddly enough though, for the most part they liked it. they talked about the number of times he said "america", how his comments about faith sounded genuinely sincere, etc. they were obviously impressed.

and i have to say, it was at that point that i thought obama might realistically win the election."

It's tough to add anything more than that, but H/T to fluffy for cruising around, finding what Democrats would consider an alternative view and then paying attention.

Too exhausted to write anything, so here's a video of Sen. Obama taking the stage and accepting the nomination as viewed from the Tennessee delegation.

Here's State Rep. Joe Armstrong:

(Joe says Hi! to Bill Young)

Here's Congressman Steve Cohen:

And here are a bunch of photos, slideshow or gallery.

According to a source close to the McCain Campaign John McCain will announce that Knox County Tennessee Republican Mayor Mike Ragsdale will join him on the national GOP ticket for November. The anonymous source claims McCain feels Ragsdale shares his values and will offer a true representation of the kind of leadership McCain wants to bring to the White House.

Many of McCain's top aides were unhappy with the choice do to Ragsdale's scandal filled tenure as Knox Co. Mayor. Despite their misgivings McCain was adamant and reportedly shouted down all objections at top-level campaign meeting about the vice-presidential choice held at his newest mansion in Arizona. In fact McCain was so upset he climbed the oil rig in the back yard and refused to come down, shouting at the worried campaign aides gathered below, "You kids get off my lawn!" Ragsdale was unavailable for comment, but a spokesman for the Mayor released the following statement on the Mayor's recent travel schedule:

"Mayor Ragsdale will be campaigning in Dayton, Ohio with Senator McCain on Friday, but it is most definatly not to avoid prosecution in Knoxville."

Checking in from INVESCO Field. The place is filling up and it is rocking and the excitement is building. Just saw Sheryl Crow. Waiting for Al Gore.

Barack Obama has the temerity to accept the nomination on a set with Greek columns. The usual suspects are in a total froth over this one. Let's see: Barack Obama emulates the architectural style of the entire capital of this nation, doing exactly the same thing as Bush, and this is a scandal? Conservative, please. You are the folks on whose watch the architectural tragedy that is the World War Two Memorial was foisted on Washington, DC*, and you all are going to split hairs over a a set at a convention in which you technically do not have a fight? Stupid.

In honor of your stupidity and your desire to not tear down walls, but columns, I offer you a tribute to Ray Harryhausen.

*It is easily the most demeaning, in the true sense of the word, memorial in the capital. It has had all meaning stripped from it.

Featured speakers at INVESCO Field tonight include Al Gore and of course Democratic nominee for President Barack Obama. Full lineup after the jump...

Ode to a Summer Garden
Quilt by Georgia Bailey

“Legacy: The Quilts of Georgia Bailey” closes today at the Emporium Center in downtown Knoxville. Visit the Emporium page and Art Museum Touring.com (Link...). Bailey died in February 2008, leaving 116 quilts. Over the years, Bailey’'s work showed at the Candy Factory as part of the Knoxville Arts Council and Art Market Gallery (including two solo exhibits), the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, the Oak Ridge Art Center, the Oak Ridge Playhouse, Pellissippi State, the Knoxville Mayor’s office, Lawson McGhee Library, Market Square Mall, the 1982 World’s Fair, Emory Valley School, Regency Hyatt House, the Burke County Arts Council Jailhouse Gallery (NC), and more.

Support your local galleries and museums! They are economic engines for your community.

Sherrie

This morning's delegate breakfast featured two outstanding speakers, Rep. Steve Cohen and special surprise guest Sen. Chris Dodd. They both delivered inspiring speeches, and I'll have more on that later.

One of the best moments, though, came at the end. Gray Sasser, saying organized labor is the backbone of the Democratic Party and that every time he asks them for anything they say "Where do you want us, when do you want us, and what can we do?", invited TN AFL-CIO president Jerry Lee to the podium.

Mr. Lee invited all the union people up on stage, and they introduced themselves and a few had some remarks. Harold Woods, husband of Knox Dem Chair Sylvia Woods, was one. Another was, I believe, Sydney Chism of Memphis. Some brief excerpts of their remarks in this video:

In other news, there is excitement in the air as Democrats in Denver prepare for tonight's event at INVESCO Field. Logistics will be a nightmare, though, so wish us luck...

In case you missed the photo above, the final Tennessee tally was Obama 51 v. Clinton 32. If I'm not mistaken, this means two delegates did not vote. Also if I'm not mistaken, Clinton came out of the primary with 40 pledged district delegates. This means only eight delegates changed their vote.

Every Clinton delegate I spoke to said they would vote for Clinton because that's what voters in their district elected them to do, but they would support Obama in the general election.

There have been reports in the Knoxville paper that there is some kind of state law requiring pledged delegates to vote for their pledged candidates. There is no such DNC party rule, and TNDP Chair Gray Sasser said all delegates were free to vote for whoever they wanted. I asked around about the alleged state law, and nobody seems to know anything about it.

At any rate, it would seem odd to me that the Tennessee Legislature can dictate party business at that level. But maybe they do -- it's not like I sit around studying case law on party nominations. (UPDATE: See comments, there is apparently a state law.)

The bottom line is that Obama won the nomination with an overwhelming majority. It was 61% to 39% in Tennessee (as compared to 59% to 41% for Clinton coming out of the primary), and I'm sure the overall margin will be wider than that once the final "votes" are released.

The Knoxville paper seems to be creating controversy about some kind of "huge divide" in the party over the nomination. All I have seen are some disappointed Clinton supporters who have moved on and a delegation nearly 100% committed to electing Obama. People this involved at this level in the process are hard core Democrats. They are going to vote for the Democrat.

Feelings among the general population of voters may, of course, vary. The media seems to do a fine job of finding the few dissenters and making it all about the controversy.

Wow, what a night. I'm sure you all saw the awesome Bill Clinton speech, and John Kerry, and of course Joe Biden's acceptance speech, and the grand finale when Barack Obama joined his running mate on stage.

Hopefully you were watching C-SPAN, in which case you had the same seats as me, because I made the mistake of leaving the Tennessee delegation to go to the blogger lounge for a break and get some AC power to process some photos and videos and stuff. By the time I went back up the fire marshal was locking the place down and nobody was allowed in the arena due to the overwhelming turnout for Bill Clinton's speech. All the seats were full, all the aisles were full, and there wasn't even standing room. So I ended up watching on monitors out in the concourse with thousands of others.

Anyway, by far the most amazing and inspiring part of the evening was the historic nomination of Barack Obama for President of the United States. There appeared to be quite a bit of negotiation and minute-by-minute planning going on with regard to how the first ballot would proceed.

The names of Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton were both put in nomination, and there were nominating and seconding speeches. Then it was announced there would be a roll call vote, which would proceed until there were enough votes for the nomination.

Gray Sasser and Kim McMillan were verifying the votes and entering them in to the DNC vote collection PC around 3PM.

Leading up to the roll call there was a flurry of communications with the delegations regarding who would yield and what would happen. It went from a roll call of every state, to having Hillary Clinton move to nominate Obama by acclamation. This seemed to go back and forth a couple of times, and you now how it ended up. One has to wonder if it finally came down to the overwhelming majority of votes Obama was racking up.

The roll call was originally scheduled for 7PM, and Governor Bredesen was to deliver the Tennessee delegation's votes. Somewhere along the way it got moved up to 4PM and Gov. Bredesen was not available, so Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Gray Sasser was on deck to deliver the votes. He was on pins and needles, going over his handwritten remarks, waiting to see if the roll call would make it down to the "T's" . (I believe he also got a call from the Governor's office regarding some specific points the Governor wanted to mention.) Somewhere along the way his father, former U.S. Senator Jim Sasser, showed up and provided moral support.

Then word came down that New York would have Sen. Clinton move for suspension of the rules and nomination of Obama by acclamation.

It was a dramatic moment, and a bit surreal to be there witnessing history in the making. Here's a low-q YouTube video that condenses about an hour of drama into ten minutes of history that hopefully gives a sense of what it was like to be there experiencing it with the Tennessee delegation...

Barack Obama wins the nomination by acclamation.

Some pics from the Tennessee delegation...

Congratulations to Sen. Obama!

Get ready. The job has just begun.

How's the crowd, Randy?

"Who does the poll affects the results. Some. These are called "house effects" because they are systematic effects due to survey "house" or polling organization....

"The largest pro-Obama house effect is that of Harris Interactive, at just over 4 points. The poll most favorable to McCain is Rasmussen's Tracking poll at just less than -3 points. Everyone else falls between these extremes....

"The impact of house effects isn't always so small. Looking back along the trend we see that the red and blue lines diverged by as much as 1 point in late June, an effect due significantly to the large number of Rasmussen and Gallup tracking polls during that time and few polls with positive house effects in that period."

Link...

I'm here at the Pepsi Center, getting set up for the 3:00 nominations. All (or most) of the Tennessee delegation votes have been cast. The votes will be entered into the computer at 3PM, and the roll call is scheduled to commence at 4PM. Tennessee Democratic Party Chair Gray Sasser will cast Tennessee's votes.

We spoke briefly with delegates Brenda Ables from Fayett and Angelia Cannon of Nashville, both Clinton delegates. Brenda said that their instructions were to vote for whoever they wanted, and they had until 3PM to change their mind, or they could wait until 3PM to vote. There was no pressure for anyone to change their vote.

Brenda said that she voted for Clinton because that's what voters in her district sent her to do, but she will support Obama. She said there was "lively discussion" at this morning's Tennessee Clinton caucus meeting, and that Clinton whip Betsy Reid announced that she was voting for Obama.

Angelia Cannon noted that this is a historic nomination either way, with our first woman and our first African-American as serious candidates, and that Democrats had good choices and either will make history. Angelia expressed frustration that when Hillary Clinton was First Lady the conservative media was all over her for being too strong and too tough, and when she ran for President they said she would be too weak and turn everything over to Bill.

Anyway, state delegations, or at least the Tennessee delegation, have not been advised on how the nominations and roll call will proceed, or even if every state will be called.

Stay tuned....

In totally unrelated news, we are told Doug Horne is here and may be running for Governor.

Tonight's program (Wednesday) features Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton being placed in nomination and the historic vote. Details are apparently still being negotiated about who will vote in what order.

There are lots of distinguished speakers, including Bill Clinton and John Kerry among others. Finally, Joe Biden will be nominated for VP and will close tonight's program with his remarks. Full schedule after the jump...

Unedited video clips taken by the Mrs. from the Convention Floor last night give you an idea of what it's like being there among all the chaos and excitement...

(Use the "watch in high quality" option if you see it.)

Attending the convention last night, the excitement was felt throughout the Pepsi Center. Anticipation grew as the great speakers fed the crowd's need for hope and change. In walking through the center, from the Tennessee delegation down to Florida, over to New Mexico and New York, everyone appeared to be ready to work together to win the presidency in 2008.

The Pepsi Center was packed. For most of the delegations, there were limited seats and the overflow sat in the nosebleed sections. The sound of 15,000-20,000 people with a common political interest was exhilarating. Notes to attendees, arrive early to avoid long lines for entry and don't leave the main arena area after 8 PM, you may not get back in.

As time got closer for Hillary Rodham Clinton to speak, the people on the convention floor were closer together than people on a New York subway at rush hour. I'm not sure those on the floor vying for a close spot cared, they just wanted to be near the action. I felt the same way until it got so close it felt like cattle going to slaughter. Time to head back to the Tennessee delegation.

Some of the Tennessee delegates were gracious enough to give me a few minutes. I just happened to find a group from East Tennessee. Dan Lawson, from Maryville, was there as a delegate from the 8th district. He had also attended the 2000 convention for Al Gore. Sylvia Woods and her husband, Harold, were there in their Hillary Clinton regalia. Both are hard working Democrats and members of the AFL-CIO. Sylvia is the recently elected Chair of the Knox County Democratic Party. Harold has been a leader in the AFL-CIO for 25 years. They have been married 47 years and still a very happy couple. Their advice, "A family that sticks together can get things done." Mrs. Woods also attended the last Democratic Convention in Chicago and Mr. Woods attended the last Democratic Convention in San Francisco. They worked and campaigned really hard to attend this convention together. I also spoke briefly with a delegate from Pulaski (Middle TN). He and his wife were both there as TN delegates. The Mrs. is a Super Delegate and a big HRC supporter. She traveled throughout the country with the HRC campaign. All of the delegates I spoke with said it was hard work campaigning for a delegate spot.

The Tennessee delegation seats aren't too bad. Only a couple of delegations back from the floor and there was a decent view of the box seats for Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, and other political dignitaries.

The speakers leading up to HRC were great. I especially enjoyed Mark Warner (Governor of Virginia) and Brian Schweitzer (Governor of Montana). Word is Lilly Ledbetter's address to the convention was great. I somehow missed it trying to break from the crowd.

What more can be said? Hillary Rodham Clinton was awesome. Standing between the Tennessee and Texas delegations, you could tell there were still a lot of people wishing she were the nominee. Ms. Clinton is willing to step aside for Unity. She obviously still has an agenda, as many of us expect. She wants to work together to achieve the goals to turn around our great country, to bring us back to prosperity, to make us all equal, to provide healthcare for all, and more. Many thanks to Hillary Rodham Clinton. She is a true inspiration. Now lets get our candidate, Barack Obama, elected President of these great United States.

More photos in this Tuesday slideshow

Speakers for the GOP convention have been announced. Interesting. Pawlenty, Crist, are announced for Thurs nite. VP nominee speaks Wed nite. Romney speaks before the VP slot. Who does that leave?

I think even Hillary's detractors would have to agree that her speech rocked the DNC tonight and was exactly what the Democrats needed: a great message and a masterful speech, delivered by a pro.

John Kerry sat the Repub convention out last time but I noticed McCain is not sitting ours out. I thought that was the tradition. I think W sat ours out last time too.

Recently received my digital TV converter box. Ordered a $40 coupon from the Feds which took several weeks to receive. Then ordered the box from Radio Shack which cost me $25 additional and took a week to receive by mail. The setup was very easy. The rabbit ears plug into the box, then the box plugs into the tv through a video cable (yellow, red, white). The box does a channel search and automatically sets up an array of stations it can pull in. Everything works well (except channels 39.1 and 39.2) and the picture is gorgeous, about the quality of a DVD image. The tv automatically formats for what is being broadcast (standard format, 16:9 or 14:9). I'm now getting channels 6, 8.1, 8.2 (jewelry), 10.1, 10.2 (weather), 15.1, 15.2 (PBS), 43.1 and 43.2 (blank, for the moment). And it all comes across the airwaves, as it should. Free, almost.