Nancy Pelosi is facing "tough questions" via Digg on CNN.

Check it out.

Update:  And they're done.  It was cool, though.  The Internets really work!

It's still not even primetime coverage time, but the real political junkies are tuned in and chatting away...

Discuss amongst yourselves.

They're really moving through the speakers this afternoon here in Denver. Here's the thread to keep up, if you can. And here's the schedule for the rest of the evening.

Jeff Merkley
Candidate for US Senate from the State of Oregon

Tom Allen
Candidate for the US Senate from the State of Maine

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM (LOCAL)
Remarks
The Honorable Richard M. Daley
Mayor of Chicago, Illinois

The Honorable Robert Wexler
Member of the US House of Representatives, Florida

Video - The Course of Our Nation
Brittany Washington
A student at Howard University in Washington, DC from Los Angeles, California

Women of the US House of Representatives
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the US House of Representatives
Permanent Chair, Democratic National Convention
The Honorable Rosa DeLauro
Member of the US House of Representatives, Connecticut
The Honorable Nita Lowey
Member of the US House of Representatives, New York
The Honorable Hilda Solis
Member of the US House of Representatives, California
The Honorable Louise Slaughter
Member of the US House of Representatives, New York
The Honorable Maxine Waters
Member of the US House of Representatives, California
The Honorable Kathy Castor
Member of the US House of Representatives, Florida
The Honorable Lois Capps
Member of the US House of Representatives, California

Remarks
The Honorable Elijah Cummings
Member of the US House of Representatives, Maryland

Mark Docherty
Veteran and a firefighter from Sterling Heights, Michigan

The Honorable James Clyburn
Member of the US House of Representatives, South Carolina
The Honorable Manuel Diaz
Mayor of Miami, Florida
The Honorable Jay Rockefeller
US Senator, West Virginia

Live Performance
Melissa Etheridge accompanied by Phillip Sayce (guitar)

Award-winning singer/songwriter
Video - First Time Delegates: Renewing America's Promise

6:00 PM – 7:00 PM (LOCAL)
Remarks
The Honorable Harry Reid
US Senator, Nevada
Senate Majority Leader

CSM Michele S. Jones, US Army (Ret.)
First female command sergeant major of the US Army

The Honorable Patrick Murphy
Member of the US House of Representatives, Pennsylvania
Joined by Iraq war veterans

The Honorable Madeleine Albright
Former Secretary of State

America’s  Town Hall - Economy
Moderator: The Honorable Joe Sestak
Member of the US House of Representatives, Pennsylvania
Panelists: Kathy Roth-Douquet, CSM John Estrada, Collin McMahon,
Representative Ellen Tauscher/California

Remarks
The Honorable Evan Bayh
US Senator, Indiana

Xiomara Rodriguez
Nevada delegate and retired member of the US Coast Guard

The Honorable Jack Reed
US Senator, Rhode Island

The Honorable Tom Daschle
Former US Senator and Senate Minority Leader, South Dakota

7:00 PM - 8:00 PM (LOCAL)
Remarks
The Honorable Bill Clinton
Former President of the United States

Beth Robinson
Stay-at-home mom from Hampton Roads, Virginia

The Honorable John Kerry
US Senator, Massachusetts

Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, US Army (Ret.)
First woman to achieve the rank of three star general in the US Army

Rear Admiral John Hutson (Ret.)
President, Franklin Pierce Law School in Concord, New Hampshire

The Honorable Bill Richardson
Governor of New Mexico

Video – Changing The Course of Our Nation
John Melvin
Iraq war veteran from DeWitt, Iowa

Veterans Video and Remarks
The Honorable Chet Edwards
Member of the US House of Representatives, Texas

8:00 PM – 9:00 PM (LOCAL)
Remarks
Tammy Duckworth
Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs
Helicopter pilot and wounded Iraq war veteran

Vice Presidential Nominating Speech
Quincy Lucas
Delaware woman who volunteers to work on domestic violence issues.  

Seconding the Nomination – from the floor

Introduction of the Vice Presidential Nominee
The Honorable Beau Biden
Attorney General, Delaware

Remarks
The Honorable Senator Joe Biden
Vice Presidential Nominee
US Senator, Delaware

Benediction
Sister Catherine Pinkerton
Congregation of St. Joseph’s in Cleveland, Ohio

Recess
The Honorable Leticia Van de Putte
State Senator from Texas
Co-Chair, Democratic National Convention

It's official:  Nancy Pelosi entered a motion to nominate Barack Obama by acclamation, it was seconded and carried. Discuss.

From the SF Examiner via Think Progress, this hardly needs any commentary:

On Monday, AT&T threw an exclusive party for the Blue Dogs, the House's moderate and conservative Democrats, at the historic Mile High Station in downtown Denver. Among the guests was House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who in June led Blue Dogs in crafting a compromise bill that shielded telecommunications companies from lawsuits arising from the government's terrorism-era warrantless eavesdropping.

Hoyer spokeswoman Stacey Bernards said Hoyer was not aware of any connection between the party and his work on the legislation.

"I’m sure Mr. Hoyer didn’t even know who the sponsor was," she said.

Yep. AT&T throws an "exclusive" party for the Blue Dogs after the Blue Dogs have jammed through immunity for telcos against the wishes of the rest of the party. But it's OK, because Steny Hoyer doesn't see a connection. AT&f'ingT throws the Blue Dogs parties all the time, I'm sure.

I hate politics. These people are so corrupt they don't even give a damn whether they look corrupt.

Check out the Digg Stage -- live from The Big Tent in Denver!  

Live Streaming from Ustream

Devilstower and I just went to a talk here at the DNC featuring T. Boone Pickens. Everyone was under the impression that the event would involve an actual discussion (as in, a Q & A session, like nearly all of the other Big Tent special topic sessions). We had a really energetic live blog thread going, where all of you were submitting questions.

Sorry, guys. Apparently, the whole thing was just a sales pitch.  T. Boone hightailed it out of there before anyone could even raise their hand.

The other two people at the presentation were John Podesta (President and CEO of the Center for American Progress), and Carl Pope, who is the Executive Director of the Sierra Club.

They both stayed behind to answer questions... but it's the Pickens Plan, so you'd think the guy whose name is on it would want to stick around and answer questions about the project with his name on it.

Maybe he was afraid we'd ask questions like:

In 2004, you helped pay for the Swift Boat ads, along with fellow billionaire Harold Simmons, who's funding the Ayres attack ads this cycle. If you're willing to tolerate, and even encourage, that level of dishonesty in political discourse, why should we trust you on any subject?

(From Devilstower)

I wanted to ask him:

Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma is well known for saying that global warming is the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," and is one of the most outspoken climate change science deniers around, as well as being joined at the hip with the oil companies.

In your presentation today, you specifically said that you "believe global warming is real".

However, you have heavily funded James Inhofe's campaign.  How do you reconcile your support for Inhofe with your promotion of renewable energy programs?

From an energy expert acquaintance via email:

Can you please explain why people should take your plan seriously when, for example, you do not include any energy efficiency measures within it?

If the natural-gas part of your plan does not get the support of Congress and the Obama Administration, will you still be strongly in support of windpower?

(From dailyKos user trivium, on the live blog thread.)

I'm all for building up wind electricity capacity, but I have serious reservations about the natural gas portion of your "plan" (rhetorical quotes are important - it isn't really a very origianal plan).

The natural gas used now to make electricity is used on some of the most efficient equipment ever built (60+% efficient).  What since does it make to start burning natural gas in an internal combustion engines that are at best 25-30% efficient?  This is in some ways going backward.  (It also ignores the fact that while we have some natural gas, other nations still have a lot more than us.)

It would be more efficient to power our electricity with electricity, coming from wind, natural gas, solar or other sources.  Of course cars are very good at using electricity, but trains and transit are.

(From dailyKos user jsmyers, on the live blog thread.)

There are many more great questions on the live blog thread, and I'm sure most of the other attendees at the talk had some points to discuss as well.

For those of us who are progressives, I think the overall question is:

T. Boone Pickens, why the hell should we trust you at all?

I've already written about the experience of walking into the convention hall. So what happens next?

In the New Hampshire delegation at least, people are settled in. A bag of popcorn and a pack of gum get passed around, and in addition to talking about politics, people reminisce about, say, being teenagers.

We'd seen Dana Delaney and Anne Hathaway in the security line coming in, but that was from a distance. Sitting with the delegation, Matthew Modine comes by to promote his Bicycle for a Day project.

But mostly signs are the business of the day. Orange- and yellow-vested people pass out the signs for each speaker, and the delegation's page (a teenager doing a truly impressive job) gets telephone instructions and gives the cue for exactly what line should trigger sign-waving. Wave after wave of signs comes through -- these things had better be post-consumer recycled -- and the page is in a constant struggle against people jumping the gun. This is a particular problem when Hillary speaks, because as soon as people have those signs in their hands they want to be waving them.

And as for Hillary? Yeah, they loved her. There may have been chit chat during the earlier speeches, the sense that occasionally people were listening less to the content than to intonation so they wouldn't miss an applause line (and anyone who could sit through like 6 hours of speeches at one stretch paying total attention should feel free to judge them for that). But not during her speech.

Behold, the live Ustream feed from the Digg Stage at the Big Tent.

Live Streaming from Ustream

Marc Ambinder (whose reporting has been must-read) and Mark Blumenthal offer nuggets from an on-the-record briefing by David Plouffe.

From Ambinder:

Barack Obama's margin among independent swing-voting women and sporadically voting Democrats are two of the main metrics his campaign is closely monitoring, Obama's election manager, David Plouffe, said today.

Plouffe, speaking to reporters, editors and executives of the Atlantic Media company in a throwback conference room in downtown Denver, said that Obama's internal polling suggests that McCain runs a double-digit deficit with this group runs into the double digits in some swing states. "And that's before they know about his position on choice and that he's against equal pay," Plouffe said.

Voters, he said, were treated to an "a ha!" moment last week when McCain couldn't recall the number of houses he owned and suggested that earning $5 million a year would not make a person rich.

"The development on the out of touch argument is an actually critical development of the campaign," he said, because "[s]ome of the voters images of McCain don't jibe with reality."

From Blumenthal, focusing on polling:

Plouffe also emphasized that the internal polling the campaign does is focused on those same 18 states, and that their real concern is not the horse race results but the "data underneath." Later, he added, "the top-line [polling data] doesn't tell you anything." Rather, they focus on who the "true undecideds" are, "how they are going to break," and what messages will best persuade them.

The Gallup Daily tracking poll is apparently a particular sore point. When asked whether they were unhappy that the Biden announcement had not produced a bounce in national polls, Plouffe shot back: "How would we know . . . from the Gallup Daily?" The Gallup Daily is "something we don't pay attention to," he said again.

Communications director Dan Pfieffer later put it more bluntly, expressing unhappiness with the "inordinate focus on bad polling" by the media and also in the routine misinterpretation of sampling noise in the Gallup Daily poll. "The Gallup Daily is the worst thing that's happened in journalism in 20 years," he said.

Meanwhile, the worst thing that's happened in journalism in 20 years has Obama back on top by 1.

As mentioned, interviewing by Gallup on Tuesday night showed a stronger Obama performance, which could augur the beginnings of a bounce for Obama, as is evident more often than not immediately after a candidate's convention. Gallup's official "post-convention bounce" reading on Obama's support will be based on interviewing conducted Friday through Sunday.

Atlantic Media should have more later on the briefing. For example:

"If he does pick Romney, what a duo! It's the greatest job killing machine in the history of American politics. Mitt Romney is an expert on Cayman Island tax shelters. You couldn't have a more out of touch ticket."

One of the great things about the existence of the state bloggers at the DNC this year is that in contrast to all the stupid traditional media narratives about disunity, we have reporting from people seated with the individual state delegations, giving their takes on the crowd response.

I was with the New Hampshire delegation last night, and I can say that there was not one sign of disunity there despite the primary having been so heated. The same people who were in tears as Hillary Clinton began speaking and roaring with applause constantly throughout her speech were enthusiastically waving Obama signs and chanting his name throughout the entire evening.

Here are some other reports from bloggers sitting in the middle of the crowd of delegates.

Calitics:

If there was any doubt that we would get a barnburner on unity tonight from Hillary Clinton, put that to bed. The California delegation went crazy for Clinton, waving Hillary signs that were distributed just ahead of Chelsea's introduction and even holding a few homemade signs like "18 million cracks". Obama/Hillary/Unity signs are spreading through now.

Goldy:

A stunning lack of disunity... that was my immediate reaction watching the crowd respond to Hillary Clinton’s speech tonight at the Democratic National Convention.  No doubt there are Clinton delegates who remain unconvinced, and no doubt many will cast their ballot for Clinton come roll call, but if folks were expecting any drama tonight, they’ll just have to make due with the uplifting kind.

Accustomed to watching conventions on TV I almost feel as if I’m missing the show sitting on the floor in person, so I’ve no idea how Clinton’s speech came off to the millions of Americans watching, but she was a hit here in the building.

Turn Maine Blue has pictures of the sign-waving crowd.

From TV Week:

Interest in Sen. Hillary Clinton¹s speech regarding party unity helped boost ratings during the second night of the Democratic National Convention
Tuesday.

NBC, ABC and CBS reported substantial gains over Monday's hour of coverage of Michelle Obama's speech.

In 56 metered markets, NBC brought in a 4.9 rating/8 share in preliminary households, increasing 29% from Monday. That was the largest increase and the highest rating of the night in convention coverage.

ABC took in a 3.8/6, up 31%, and CBS ended the night with a 2.7/4, moving the needle 13% from Monday.

There were 22 million watching Monday night, and for the many of you fretting over the poor media coverage (all pundit talk, no speech coverage) so far, remember Obama goes on Thursday to 30 (or more) million viewers with no filter [during the speech - before and after, well...].

In case you were distracted by Mark Warner's electrifying speech last night, there were a number of hot congressional primaries in Alaska and Florida yesterday. Here's a quick round-up of last night's action:

• AK-Sen (D): Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich won the Democratic Senate nomination with an impressive 91% of the vote, with 98% of precincts reporting.
• AK-Sen (R): Ted Stevens survived his primary against banker Dave Cuddy and Floridian beardo Vic Vickers (and several other also-rans), but only with 63.5% of the vote.
• AK-AL (D): Ethan Berkowitz won the Democratic nomination for the state's at-large House seat by a 59-41 margin over '06 candidate Diane Benson. Alaskan Independence Party candidate Don Wright received 5600 votes and will also appear on the November ballot.
• AK-AL (R): With 98% of precincts reporting and many absentee ballots still outstanding, Don Young has taken a 145-vote lead over Sean Parnell. This race is heading into "contentious recount territory" real fast.
• FL-08 (D & R): Democrat Alan Grayson upset '06 nominee Charlie Stuart by a 48-28 margin for the right to take on Ric Keller in November. Keller, meanwhile, barely survived his primary challenge from right-wing radio personality Todd Long, with only 53% of the vote to Long's 47%.
• FL-09 (D): In a bit of an upset for the DCCC, attorney Bill Mitchell beat out wealthy former Plant City Mayor John Dicks by a 38-33 margin for the nomination against frosh GOP Rep. Gus Bilirakis.
• FL-10 (D): Dunedin Mayor Bob Hackworth dispatched '06 nominee and Ron Paul acolyte Samm Simpson by a 47-29 margin for the chance to take on longtime GOP Rep. Bill Young. Max Linn, a self-funding candidate who ran for Governor in 2006 on the Reform ticket, only earned 24% of the vote.
• FL-15 (D & R): Physician Stephen Blythe crushed pilot Paul Rancatore by a 65-35 margin for the Democratic nomination for this open seat. Republicans nominated state Sen. Bill Posey with 77% of the vote, and he seems poised to run away with this race come November.
• FL-16 (R): Pittsburgh Steelers heir Ed Tom Rooney won a tight three-way race by a 37-35-28 margin for the GOP nod to face off with Democratic Rep. Tim Mahoney.
• FL-24 (D): Former state Rep. Suzanne Kosmas crushed '06 nominee Clint Curtis by a 72-28 margin. Kosmas will face ethically-challenged GOP Rep. Tom Feeney in November.

House Races

MN-03: Democrat Ashwin Madia, running for the open seat of retiring GOP Rep. Jim Ramstad, is up with his first ad. I like the production values:

PA-10: Via SSP, SurveyUSA polls the race (8/23-25, likely voters, MoE: ±4.0%):

Those are some fairly hairy numbers for Carney, who is running for his first re-election bid -- any incumbent below the 50% bubble has to be concerned. His favorability numbers are decent (40% favorable, 23% unfavorable, and 30% neutral), but clearly show that he could stand to boost his profile some more at home.

In better news, the poll continues to throw some cold water onto the NRCC's "drilling=electoral profit!!" hopes. When asked if they would vote for a candidate who favors increased offshore drilling or one who favors promoting alternative sources of energy as a way to combat the energy crisis, voters in Pennsylvania's 10th choose the candidate touting alternative energy over the driller by a 54-36 margin. This confirms similar results we've seen in the past couple of days from CO-04 and KS-02. If the GOP's drilling message can't sell in conservative red districts like these, where can it be effective?

CT-04: Because nothing spells "confidence" like crashing your opponent's press conference to make your own whiny defense, GOP Rep. Chrissy Shays does exactly that, and embarrasses himself in the process.

NY-26: Everyone's favorite nutjob, crazy Jack Davis ("D"), says that immigrants from Mexico will start a new Civil War:

Congressional candidate Jack Davis, in a speech earlier this year, warned that increasing immigration from Mexico could lead to a new civil war between northern states and Mexican-influenced Southern states that may want to secede from the United States.

"In the latter part of this century or the next, Mexicans will be a majority in many of the states and could therefore take control of the state government using the democratic process," Davis said in the speech. "They could then secede from the United States, and then we might have another civil war." [...]

"They have an allegiance to Mexico, where they were taught the U. S. fought an unjust war with Mexico and took this territory," Davis said. "They believe the territory of these states belongs to Mexico."

If this lunatic beats Jon Powers in the Democratic primary here, I think a little piece of me will die inside. (Via SSP)

Senate Races

RNCC: You know it's a rough year for Republicans when even Mike Johanns of Nebraska won't show up to their convention. In fact, the only GOP Senators up for re-election who are speaking in St. Paul are Mitch McConnell and home-state host Norm Coleman, who is slated to address the convention not once, but twice!

DNCC: Meanwhile, in Denver, Jeff Merkley, Jeanne Shaheen, Tom Allen and Tom Udall are all addressing the convention today. Don't miss it!

NC-Sen: Shorter Liddy Dole: "The DSCC sunk my battleship!"

MS-Sen-B: Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood says that the Republican Secretary of State's flirtation with pushing Mississippi's special Senate election to the bottom of the ballot flies in the face of the law. Of course, fair elections and the rule of law have not exactly been the GOP's strong suit as of late.

Blue Hampshire blogger Mike Hoefer got an important piece of PDMA (Party Disunity My Ass): Kathy Sullivan and Mary Rauh, New Hampshire state co-chairs of the Clinton and Obama campaigns, respectively, address the traditional media's insistence on pushing the myth of disunity.

My grandfather was a politician. Not a governor or member of Congress or anything like that, but it's how he made his living for most of his adult life -- he was sheriff, treasurer, probate clerk. He died before I was born, but to the end of her life my grandmother identified strongly as a political wife.

About a month ago, as I was talking to my parents about my plans for Denver, my mother said she'd always wanted her father to get to be a convention delegate, but he never had. That was in my mind last night as I walked into the hall at the Pepsi Center to find the New Hampshire delegation -- some combination of regret that he never got to be there and pride that I was, but in this new role that we're all inventing together. (Update, realizing this is a bit unclear: I'm not a delegate, but was there as a state blogger for Blue Hampshire -- so I got to be an extra part of history since this is the first time they've had this kind of blogger access to delegations.)

But I wasn't prepared for the incredible surge of awe and emotion that hit me when I stepped into the hall at the top of the stairs and looked out. It was unbelievable, looking out at the people and the signs and the lights and knowing what they, what we, were all here to do.

The history being made here in so many different ways is worth taking a few moments to appreciate in the cheesiest, most awestruck, and cliched way you can personally muster.

Plutonium Page and I are sitting front row center (until they run us off) preparing for the appearance of T. Boone Pickens.  I know we've had a lot of discussion about whether Pickens should be here at all, and believe me, if I get the chance, I'm going to ask the toughest questions I can level.

But I'll tell you one thing. Over the last three days, we've had some amazing panels in the Big Tent featuring climate change, environment, and energy experts from the Wilderness Society, Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, and a dozen other organizations. You know what the attendance for those events was like? Believe me when I say I didn't have to worry about finding a seat.

But for Pickens, this room is packed. What does that say about Pickens, and what does it say about the bloggers here for environmental and energy issues?

As we're waiting for Pickens to appear, feed us some questions.

Update [2008-8-27 14:18:29 by Devilstower]: And Pickens is here. John Podesta, the President and Chief Executive Officer of American Progress, flanking Pickens on one side. Sierra Club president Carl Pope on the other side.

Update [2008-8-27 14:18:29 by Devilstower]: Podesta talking about global warming (which makes it even more important that someone get Pickens a question on why he's maxed out to Inhofe) and the general support for changing the energy infrastructure.

Update [2008-8-27 14:18:29 by Devilstower]: T. Boone now speaking. Giving the Hallmark sorty of his life. Reports that he's given away $700 million dollars in the last five years, and will give his estate to charity, so no one should think he's doing this to make more money.

Update [2008-8-27 14:32:38 by Devilstower]: Carl Pope: if our political system was even vaguely functional, anything that John Podesta, T. Boone Pickens, and Carl Pope agree on would have happened long ago.

Update [2008-8-27 14:41:26 by Plutonium Page]::  Here's a photo.  T. Boone is on the left, Carl Pope is at the right.  Click to enlarge.

Update [2008-8-27 14:51:54 by Plutonium Page]: My laptop battery is running very low, so I've got to shut down for now.  We'll try to follow up later with a post on the Q & A session.

Update [2008-8-27 15:7:47 by Devilstower]: And T. Boone heads for the door without taking a single question. Which makes the whole presentation worth about as much as day old spit.

Governor Schweitzer is here at the Big Tent, hot off his fantastic speech from last night.  He's receiving a rock star reception as he makes the rounds.  A few moments ago, he decided to "knight" Markos with a bolo tie: