DNC: Barack Obama and Joe Biden speeches

Just in case you missed them, here are the complete speeches of Barack Obama and Joe Biden on Thursday night.

 

 

DNC: Bill Clinton's speech

In case you couldn't stay awake, here is Bill Clinton's entire speech to the Democratic National Convention last night:

 

The Star's Daniiel Dale captured the reaction of five Democrats after Clinton's speech here

We have other speeches from last night here

Bill Clinton for Barack Obama, all the way: Wednesday recap

Former president Bill Clinton used nearly 50 minutes of keynote speech time at the Democratic National Convention to unleash a detailed dissection of Republican foibles, flaws and lies and a soaring assertion that the United States needs, nay, absolutely requires, a second-term presidency from Barack Obama.

"If you want a country of shared opportunities and shared responsibilities – a 'we're all in it together' society, you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden," Clinton told the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, NC.

Clinton, who strayed far from his prepared remarks, touched on Medicare, the national debt and student loans, sprinkling his speech with punchy one-liners and smart jabs at the GOP, even riffing on Republican president Ronald Reagan's famous "There you go again" line.

The speech should go a long way toward quelling popular speculation the former president and current POTUS don't see eye to eye (publicly, at least). Clinton, who appealed to centrist Democrats throughout his presidency, never straying as far left as Obama, told the voters "you must vote for Barack Obama."

Read more from the Star's Mitch Potter.

Women's rights activist and Rush Limbaugh target Sandra Fluke spoke at the top of the 10 p.m. primetime hour, drawing jeering, insulting reaction from Ann Coulter and the rest of the Twitterati.

 

Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts senate candidate, followed Fluke.

 

YouTube blocks DNC videos for copyright infringement

People wanting to watch Michelle Obama's speech last night couldn't do so through BarackObama.com or YouTube because it was flagged by copyright claims.

Viewers who tried to see the videos were given this message:

"The most likely culprit is YouTube’s pre-emptive content filters, which allow large media companies to upload content they claim to own and automatically block videos that an algorithm decides matches their own," says Wired.

It's not the first time a video has been blocked. Last weekend, a similar algorithim blocked the livestream of the Hugo since fiction award ceremony and an official NASA recording of a Mars landing was blocked by a "rogue DMCA complaint."

The issue has since been resolved. Michelle Obama's full speech can be watched on YouTube here.

Republican recap, day 3

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan wave from the stage on August 30, 2012 on the final day of the Republican National Convention (RNC). The RNC culminates today with the formal nomination of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan as the GOP presidential and vice-presidential candidates in the US presidential election. (STAN HONDASTAN/AFP PHOTO)

Mitt Romney accepted the Republican presidential nomination, calling for "a better future. A future where everyone who wants a job can find a job." Key sentence: "President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. I promise to help you and your family." Read exerpts here.

The RNC succeeded in making Romney appear more compassionate, thanks in large part to an elderly couple who talked about how Romney helped them when they lost their son. 

Clint Eastwood attracted a lot of attention for his rambling speech to an "Invisible Obama" — who, by the way, has a Twitter account.

 

Marco Rubio, Republican Senator from Florida, delivered an exhilarating address that, Eastwood aside, made for the best television of the evening. And Newt and Callista Gingrich delivered a joint speech that praised Ronald Reagan.

The analysis pours in. Paul Ryan's speech was well received, still his ratings were not as high as Sarah Palin's were in 2008. Robert Costa, writing for the National Review, said "at its core, Ryan’s rousing speech was a conservative rallying cry, very much in the tradition of Kemp, Ronald Reagan, and Barry Goldwater." And, of course, he's been hammered by critics who say many of his facts are false.

If you missed any of the speeches you can watch them all here.

Looking toward next week, The Economist says Obama needs to make a more convincing case to stay in the White House.

"Were he facing a more charismatic candidate than Mitt Romney or a less extremist bunch than the Republicans, Mr Obama would already be staring at defeat. The fact that the president has had to “go negative” so early and so relentlessly shows how badly he needs the election to be about Mr Romney’s weaknesses rather than his own achievements."

RNC speeches: Paul Ryan's and Condoleezza Rice's

Just in case you missed Paul Ryan's fiery speech, here it is:

 

Earlier Wednesday evening, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke:

 

 

Republican convention recap, day 2

Paul Ryan waves after speaking during the third day of the Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on August 29, 2012 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Paul Ryan accepted the vice-presidential nomination, promising "we will not duck the tough issues" and "before the math and the momentum overwhelm us all, we are going to solve this nation's economic problems."

Condoleezza Rice gave her speech, winning big cheers from the crowd for an unusually passionate address touching on foreign policy, her childhood, and education reform. The transcript is here.

Pundits analyzed the previous day's speeches. The Wall Street Journal has a roundup of the best articles on Chris Christie. The New York Times says Ann Romney is "so gifted at politics." The New Yorker says she is appealing to the "mousy majority."

Yahoo News fired their Washington news chief for making a joke about Republicans and Hurricane Isaac. David Chalian was heard saying to an unidentified guest, "feel free to say, ‘They're not concerned at all. They are happy to have a party with black people drowning'".

Two people attending the RNC were removed Tuesday after tossing peanuts at a black camera operator and saying: “This is how we feed animals.”

And Hurricane Isaac continues to pummel the Mississippi coast and has toppled Louisiana levees.

Fact-checking Tuesday's speeches, with FactCheck.org

The team at FactCheck.org, a non-partisan group that monitors erroneous claims and B.S. uttered by politicians, broke down Tuesday's speeches and found several spin-heavy falsehoods, mostly centred around comments President Barack Obama made July 13 in Roanoke, Virginia, where he said:

"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet."

Republicans have since coopted the line, "If you've got a business -- you didn't build that," to suggest Obama doesn't care about and doesn't support small businesses and private entrepreneurship. Obama's "that" was referring to "roads and bridges" and other infrastructure.

The rhetoric was in full force Tuesday, as FactCheck points out. For example, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said:

"We need a president who will say to a small businesswoman: Congratulations, we applaud your success, you did make that happen, you did build that! Big government didn’t build America: You built America! Small businesses don’t come out of Washington D.C. pre-made on flat bed trucks. That coffee shop in Henrico. That florist in Virginia Beach. That bakery in Radford. They were all built by entrepreneurial Americans with big dreams, not a big spending government with a wide open wallet full of other people’s money!"

FactCheck also roots out bogus claims surrounding Medicare ($716 billion will not be stripped from Medicare for Obamacare; that money will materialize in Medicare growth reductions over the next 10 years) and a subject near and dear to our Canadian hearts: the cross-border Keystone XL pipeline.

North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven said Obama nixed the pipeline, when, in fact, the president has decided to hold his decision until after the November election.

Ann Romney and Chris Christie speeches on Tuesday

Ann Romney took to the stage Tuesday night to speak about her husband. The Star's Mitch Potter writes about it here.

Just in case you missed the speeches, here they are:

 

And earlier Tuesday evening, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie gave a rousing speech:

 

Romney secures Republican nomination, Ann and Christie speak

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Mitt Romney secured the Republican nomination, Ann Romney gave a whopper of a speech and Chris Christie, the keynote speaker, said Romney will tell Americans "the hard truths we need to hear to end the torrent of debt that is compromising our future and burying our economy.”

Hurricane Isaac landed 150 km from New Orleans, forecasters are predicting the storm will continue to generate high seas, intense rain and serious flooding for days to come.