at New York Magazine. Just one caution — it was done as a pushdown — that is, the earliest post is at the bottom.
Leaves on the Current insisted I take a look at this, and I am glad I did
There are lots of good observations.
Let me note, Sullivan still has a lot of fans, and his support of Obama in 2008 swung a number of moderate conservatives in the direction of Obama.
So even as I urge you to go read the entire thing, let me offer a selection of his posts in the live blog, with some additional commentary of my own.
First, the third and final paragraph as his post at 8 PM:
One candidate in this election is unhinged, treasonous, contemptuous of American liberties, and at war with the core interests of the Western democracies. And an entire political party is refusing to call this out. They are cowards and quislings and pathetic appeasers. Their party deserves to be eviscerated in this election. If it isn’t, if their nominee wins, it will be America that will be eviscerated.
An apt challenge to those Republicans who still refuse to reject Trump.
His 8:13 Post, in its entirety:
8:13 p.m. When they write the history of these two conventions, a huge amount of time will be devoted to the grief of mothers. One convention used that grief to demonize an opponent; the other used it to highlight the issues of gun control and racial justice. What has struck me about this week has also been the overt Christianity that these mothers have expressed, their forgiveness of murderers, their endorsement of love. There has been a Christian subtext to the DNC utterly absent from the pagan cruelty and fear of Cleveland.
Look again at that final sentence again: There has been a Christian subtext to the DNC utterly absent from the pagan cruelty and fear of Cleveland. That is a cutting line — I wonder how much that might be an effective subtext to undermine support for Trump.
At 8:44 Sullivan posted the following, which requires no additional commentary from me:
8:44 p.m. I can’t tell you how glad I am they are taking on Trump’s endorsement of war crimes, mass murder of civilians and torture. Trump is a profound threat to the U.S. military, its laws, its discipline, its future.
Two brief posts, a few minutes apart, back to back, which I have put into top down mode:
9:23 p.m. Thank God Biden is able to take it straight to the fascist buffoon, to insist that this election really is about the soul of this country, and the survival of the West.
9:26 p.m. Biden is on fire with a moral – yes a moral – repudiation of the un-American poison of Donald Trump.
“fascist buffoon” “soul of the country” “moral” “un-American poison” — That is powerful, even though I doubt Trump’s real followers would be willing to listen. Certainly those fueled by the hatred based on race, religious intolerance, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, etc really won’t care.
Three of the five posts on Bloomberg’s speech, which I think are very important:
9:37 p.m. Bloomberg is speaking to people like me. He wants “a problem-solver not a bomb-thrower.” He knows business. Trump knows very little about business. This is effective beyond this hall.
9:40 p.m. This is a crisp, smart and devastating analysis of the damage Trump would do to the economy. This election has to be about this choice: between a madman and a politician. “This is not reality television. This is reality.”
9:45 p.m. I have a feeling that Bloomberg managed to move more actual undecided votes to Clinton than any other speaker so far. A brilliant move by the DNC.
Originally, having heard about SOME of the contents of Bloomberg’s address, and knowing there was nothing about gun control in it, I was wondering why he was being included. I actually agree that Bloomberg has enough appeal to people not firmly ideological who can not only make the difference between winning and losing, but potentially the difference between a narrow win and solid thumping.
About Tim Kaine:
10:25 p.m. Kaine seems a bit of a lightweight after so many heavy-hitters, but he’s an engaging and sympathetic figure. And now that he’s taking on Trump, he’s gaining traction. Great to hear him going after the tax returns scam.
Here I think Sullivan is making the mistake of a lot of pundits. I am listening to Morning Joe as I type this, and I note that at least a few of the people there recognized that this was far more effective than some of mocking Kaine received on Twitter — his riff on Trump’s “believe me!” is going to speak to a lot of ordinary, not normally political, folks, some of the very folks upon whom Trump’s campaign is so heavily dependent.
I will only offer two, somewhat separated, posts from during Obama’s remarks:
10:54 p.m. I’ve never felt this way about a president, so I might as well admit it. Against hideously graceless opposition, in the face of extraordinary odds, facing immense crises, he stayed the course and changed this country. This election is, at its core, about not letting a bigot and a madman take that away from all of us.
11:25 p.m. This is essentially a defense of democracy against tyranny. Which is the choice in this election.
Look at the power of that first post, the directness of the expressions, and then read the second as a powerful summation of the impact of what Obama offered. Yes, the President also claimed the optimism that is characteristic of this country, and what Trump seriously misreads, even when many people are struggling. It is perhaps a sentiment that has been most clearly expressed by two African-American poets, Langston Hughes writing in the penultimate stanza of one of his most famous poems:
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!
and the line from Maya Angelou that we heard reiterated last night
Still I rise
It was a remarkable night.
I am glad Leaves insisted I read Sullivan, because there is some cogency in what he live blogged.
He also passes on some tweets of others.
Go take a look.
You will be glad you did.