Scenes from Election Night in Atlanta, GA 200

I’d have shot more, but I got tired of schlepping gear around so I went home early.

UPDATE: Shelby Highsmith has THE winning moment from Manuel’s Tavern here.

Twittering Obama

I Twittered throughout Obama’s nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last night from a very crowded Manuel’s. So did @jenbrock, @rustytanton, @amberlrhea, @francesk. @shelbinator streamed live on his cell. Some of that is here. Tweets read from last to first:

Heck. He was just getting warmed up. It’s over? Bummer.

Preach it Brother. Now’s the moment!

My Twitter finger is toast.

Obama’s gives good Happy Talk!

Osama bin Laden first. Clayton County school board next!

Big applause from all young people with no kids on parenting stuff.

Folks pounding tables now. Free money for all!

Oh boy. Here comes the Santa Claus part.

A lobbyist once rescued my kid when I accidentally locked her outta the house. One for Wal-Mart no less. I hugged a lobbyist then.

Where’s Doug Teper?

When are we gonna get around to the “stick it to the Repugs” part of all this?

Man, I had a serious portfolio and 401K and bennies all through the 90’s. Ain’t got jack now except a DSL connection and a mortgage.

I got laid off in ’03. Doh.

I whined when I got laid off in ’93. (Didn’t cry though!)

A nation of whiners, eh? I wouldn’t know anything about that.

On November 4th, I am soooo not coming to Manuel’s. Fire Dept. might though.

Bigger applause for “when major American city drowns.”

Big applause here on “failed policies of George W. Bush.”

Nice big round ‘o applause for vid. Even bigger for Barack. And that’s good for America. But what’s with the Irish walk out music?

Did Rielle Hunter shoot some of this stuff?

All these youthi-people watching in awe.

Huge Manuel crowd very quiet to hear this video. Obviously @scobleizer not the producer.

I hear Candy Crowley is a tighty righty.

America obviously needs to party more often together.

Jeezus H. It’s like General Election night in here!

Video from Shelby’s live stream. I’m in the pink, @BBC: http://qik.com/video/243131

It is now getting seriously crowded in Manuel’s. When is this thing gonna start?

Ok, seriously underage kiddies, as in 12 or 10, just walked in. GA law is gonna have a cow. There are smokers in here. Oh the sin.

Why are all these young people here at Manuel’s?

@APNews. David Duchovny could’ve gotten a fix with me before checking in to rehab. Pity.

How are the King kids supposed to get on stage together when they’re in the middle of suing the crap outta each other? Awkward indeed.

Well that was particularly uninspiring.

No one can hear from Barack until I get my Kyte.tv channel working again. So just keep ’em busy up there, Joe.

Rev. Joseph Lowery on the 2008 Presidential Election

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The Unity Express Departs Manuel’s Parking Lot For Denver – Like Real Soon!!!

Come wave the gang off on their journey to Denver for the Democratic National Convention. Sunday the 17th at 11am-12pm. TODAY!!!! Soon!!! More info here.

Live Blogging Tonight’s Senate Race Dems Runoff Debate

Most excellent reporter/blogger from OnlineAthens, Blake Aued, will be live-blogging the U.S. Senate Dems runoff debate tonight at 7pm here. Aued promises snark with his blogging sandwich. I am there.

About Last Night’s Dems-For-Senate Debate

I took the camera with me last night to the GPB Atlanta Press Club U.S. (D) Senate debate over on 14th Street, but neglected to bring my bat light, so my video interviews with Snuggles and Dale “Fox Mulder” Cardwell were too dark and murky to bother packaging. Besides, the country-a** yokels (on PP) would just p*ss all over my efforts anyway, so you’ll get my quickie, text-only wrap around instead:

Josh Lanier is a quick-witted, worldly, southern gent. Responding to that eager-beaver zeal dispensed by the idealistic, youthtful Rand Knight, the elder statesman-esque Lanier cracked the live audience up with, “Rand, you’ve got the fire. I’ve got the belly.” Meaning together, those two, no matter who won the (D) primary, would go tackle ‘em some Saxby Chambliss (R) red bear come real soon.

Vernon, aka Snuggles Jones, has got to be the phoniest politician on the planet. No one believes a word out of his mouth, particularly when he says stuff to the camera, true or not, such as “I’m really just a country boy.” Yeah sure… and I’m Daisy Duke. Fire up that tractor, Snuggles. Vroom, vroom.

Snuggles showed his feisty side when I asked him, after the debate, whether he’d “had his feelings hurt” when Obama dissed him so bad last week on the side-by-side flyer controversy. For my efforts on bringing-up that unfortunate little incident, I was called the dreaded LM (”you people in the liberal media”) as Vernon clung to the notion that he and Obama are just two peas in a ‘lil ‘ole pod.

Again, Rand Knight was well-spoken, intense, earnest, enlightening, and quite telegenic. Interesting even. I’m not sure red Georgia can go immediately as green as he’d like us to go, but young people love that kinda talk about creating jobs by green initiatives right here at home, the kinda stuff that Rand is so good at talking about, given that he’s a PhD in eco-something. Now if those zippy youngsters would just go vote in the primary tomorrow. Imagining that happening is about like imagining Georgia with no off-shore drilling rigs come 2016 or thereabouts. Ain’t gonna happen.

Could Rand handle the Saxby-Repug political machine come November? Hmmmm. Hard to say. But heck, Dale Cardwell sure could! The way he stabs right at the heart of the matter, everyone’s a blood-thirsty, money-crazed, craven crook. And they all should be thrown in jail – STAT. I actually like Cardwell’s message best of all… All Washington Politicians are Just Paid Monkeys For Evil International Conglomerate Corporate Swine, Particularly Saxby Chambliss.

I still can’t quite figure out if Cardwell was somehow trying to implicate, carrying on as a TV jury and judge, Snuggles in the murder of Derwin Brown, but let’s just say that Cardwell did manage to bring that unfortunate little DeKalb County murder incident up as sharply and as meanie-like as he, Agent Cardwell, possibly could.

As for Jim Martin, the alleged front runner, and most likely to make it to a runoff, he (Martin) was notable only for his blazing un-remarkableness. Martin is a studiously bland campaigner and completely forgettable overall, running on a record that is apparently quite forgettable too, other than Dale Cardwell sticking a knife to his gut during the debate over Martin’s tenure at DFCS including deaths of children in state or foster care. That was just pure uncomfortable I must say. But Martin barely reacted to Cardwell’s ugliness, continuing a tradition of appearing to be almost in a trance while on camera.

If you want to see the re-play of last night’s Dems For Georgia Senator debate, you can scroll around here to find it. Happy voting tomorrow!

Media Wrestling With John Lewis’ Confusion

Reports of District 5 Rep. John Lewis’ defection to the Obama camp are premature, or “inaccurate,” or just plain darn being “wrestled with.” But the NYT says it reported only what Lewis told one of them… that Lewis was itching to catch some of that red-hot Obama Fever; thus he was taking his superdelegate action figure with him to the convention, and throwing it like it was a pair of panties at a Tom Jones concert to Obama. Talking to a reporter is one thing though, and we all know how ridiculous that whole game can get, so just keep in mind that as of yesterday, from the AJC:

“I have not spoken to Congressman Lewis,” Obama told reporters in Wisconsin on Friday, according to a transcript provided by the campaign. “I put in a call to him after the report to find out what he was thinking, but I have not received word from him yet.”

The Clinton campaign said she had not talked to Lewis, either.

So there. Take your Super Delegate Hero and let it twist around in the wind over the weekend. Southern Political Report lays all the confusion-blame on internal maneuverings of a few meddlesome, unnamed, Georgia Dems. That story here.

UPDATE: After speaking Saturday the 16th to one of those “in-the-knows,” in-the-know dude says Lewis isn’t necessarily shifting support to Obama; rather, since Lewis’ constituency overwhelmingly voted for and obviously adores Obama, then he, Lewis, feels he should give his Super Delegate vote/action figure/panty-toss to Obama, not Clinton now.

Wave That Media Banner High. No, Higher.

Here we go again… the national media handing things to folk on that media-rich silver platter of theirs. First it was giving W the war he so desperately wanted, complete with a true zealot’s feverish delivery of red, white and blue graphics, soaring over-produced packages, “Mission Accomplished” signs  riding high on every TV channel from here to Mozambique, no tough questions asked… all the bells and whistles a real-true-genuine patriotic America could muster up at a moment’s notice.

Now the media returns to their tried and true ways by doing whatever they seemingly will NOT do – to anoint Obama the Dem nominee. Obama swept through the Potomac states like Washington crossing the Deleware, without so much as a whisper of a negative thought crossing the estatic minds of a barely neutral press. We only need turn on our TV at any hour of any given day to hear peels of I’ve never seen such excitement from the people about a political campaign!!!! flowing from every pundit’s and reporter’s facial orifice from here to Tripoli. If they start throwing stuff at his feet come Palm Sunday, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least. Seems somebody, more than a few, needs to take a deep breath and calm the hell down.

I’m not saying Obama’s not a good candidate. He very well may be a great one. And it doesn’t matter what you think about Hillary Clinton, one way or the other. The reality is that she’s been vetted in the mainstream media time and time and yet another time again – whether with the Rose Law Firm billing issue, marriage woes, hairdos, a few tears along the way, yet more marriage woes, manners, style, substance, Senatorial capability, bodies in parks, that wicked witch “sense of entitlement” (whatever the f that really is; some code for “I just don’t like her so there”), her personal and intimate college correspondence, philandering spouse, motherhood capability, corruption, theft, graft, greed, anger, water weight gain, lipstick color, and shoe size. Have I left anything out?

As for Obama, in the media, let’s see… he’s had to deal with some icky Internet spam. And oh yeah, that one loose-lipped Clinton campaigner. Maybe that HUGE moment where he turned his back inadvertently to a fellow Senator at SOU. Oh, the trying, exhausting burden of it all.

That Hillary Clinton, the Britney Spears of politics, can endure decades under the brutal and vicious klieg lights of public glare and scrutiny and NOT end up on a psyche ward in a Los Angeles hospital is a testament to her strength and endurance and perseverance, if nothing else. Kinda like those male Presidential qualitites we so anxiously seek in “our” candidate, eh?

Which makes me kinda wonder, how well do we really know Obama at this point? Not in any possible way like we know Senator Clinton. Every single one of us, despite our many and varied personal opinions, knows just how deeply hard Hillary has been tested, vetted, sliced and diced, poked, prodded, ridiculed, slapped around, beaten up, attacked, assaulted, chewed up and spit out in the media.

Who’s looking a lot like the cream puff now?