by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Ok, I think some people may have some random things to say and no thread to say them in as we wait for the CA polls to close.

I will start.  Good lord McCain put up a stinker today.  The advance job was terrible.  The old white man candidates, spoke roboticly to a lackluster all white crowd waving all white signs.

And yes we finally have a nominee.  Let the healing and unifying begin.

by Bob Brigham [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Just took the stage.

"Well, we did it!"

Huge crowd, big win.

"So, believe it or not, tomorrow morning we're all getting on a plane and going to Washington, DC."

Great speech. She's going off.  

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Hillary Clinton closed with her town hall, which was pretty similar to the previous one. It was a friendly crowd with friendly questions, and Hillary did a pretty good job of staying on message. I'm not sure if they are going to archive it on the website, but it's quite a long broadcast. So, perhaps we'll see some clips on youtube coming up soon.

Barack Obama has produced a 2 minute long ad that will be airing across the states in play tomorrow. I've posted that over the flip. Tomorrow, I'll be banning the "boiler room" for election protection in the Austin Obama Headquarters. I'll try to get some info posted tomorrow during the slow times.

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

For fifteen years San Diego has had firefighters participating in the gay pride parade without incident.  This year four firefighters have lodged a formal complaint with the state and in order to be able to sue the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department for being ordered to participate and being subjected to harassment from the crowd.  There was nothing particularly out of the ordinary, when it came to the activities of the crowd at pride.  There were cat calls, requests for them to "show their hose" and gasp.... Christian protesters heaping scorn on them for their attendance.  SignonSanDiego:

In statements filed with the state, the men said that along the parade route, they were subjected to offensive and lewd comments such as, "You can put out my fire," and saw men blowing kisses at them. Then, they said, they had to endure protesters who yelled at them that homosexuality was a sin. Some comments were too graphic to print.

These firefighters in their complaint are clearly homophobic and religiously conservative.  The question is did the supervisors have a reason to believe that they would be subject to this type of behavior at Pride?  The law says according to the complaint (pdf) that:

by Sheri Divers [courtesy of Blog for America]

If you missed the Howard Dean keynote this evening, or you just want to watch it again you can courtesy of Ustream.tv. Dean had a great keynote and was cheered on by a huge energized crowd in Chicago on the opening night of YearlyKos 2007. Watch the video below:

http://www.yearlykosconvention.org/node/724

by Lucas O'Connor [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Last night Michael Wray, Democratic candidate in CA-50, came out to introduce himself to the Rancho North Coast Democratic Club. This was his first "official" foray as a candidate into the Busby-Bilbray battleground district, and the response he got from the crowd was enthusiastic. Attendance was much higher than usual for the club, packing the room with veteran Democrats and Busby volunteers from campaigns past- a crowd that definitely knows the district inside and out. They kept him on his toes all night, asking questions about his personal story, Iraq, health care, Bilbray's record, immigration and disloyal democrats. Eventually he was called back up by popular demand to field more questions as the club members really got into it with him. On the flip, my clumsy recounting of what he delivered much better.

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

The whirlwind weekend is now over and its time to reflect back on the overall performance of the presidential contenders. Here is my performance assessment of the candidates at the CDP Convention.

Mike Gravel was the only candidate to speak on Friday and had the smallest crowd of any candidate. It was outside and more delegates were interested in the free food and chatting than listening to him out on the patio. He was not nearly as passionate as he was on Thursday's debate. This appearance did not do much for his campaign.

Hillary Clinton did what she needed to do. She humanized herself to a crowd who had demonized her over the years. Clinton was never going to wow the delegates like Obama, but she earned the respect of the delegates. Her speech was not tailored enough to a Californian audience. She did much better addressing Californian issues like the environment in her press availability, whereas she talked about 9/11 in her speech.

Barack Obama was on fire. He lived up to his reputation as a master orator, but his speech was devoid of a lot of substance. It sounded great and was inspirational, but let delegates wondering where he stood on the issues. He was the only candidate not to take reporter's questions after his speech.