Tuesday's Highlights from the Democratic National Convention

The media was all over last night's convention speeches for not attacking Bush and McCain enough. Tonight, that's is not the case...

Janet Napolitano, Governor of Arizona (YouTube video)...

Barry Goldwater ran for president, and he lost. Mo Udall ran for president, and he lost. Bruce Babbit ran for president, and he lost. For this next election, that's one Arizona political tradition I'd like to see continue.

Kathleen Sebelius, Governor of Kansas...

John McCain's version: There's no place like home...or a home...or a home...or a home...or a home...

Sen. Bob Casey, Pennsylvania (YouTube video)...

John McCain calls himself a maverick, but he votes with George Bush more than 90% of the time...that's not a maverick, that's a sidekick.

and...

The Bush-McCain Republicans inherited the strongest economy in history and drove it into a ditch. They cut taxes on the wealthiest of us and passed on the pain to the least of us. They ran up the debt, gave huge subsidies to big oil companies, and now they’re asking for four more years.

How about four more months?

Mark Warner, former Governor of Virginia and Senate candidate...

People always ask me, "What's your biggest criticism of President Bush?" I'm sure you all have your own. Here's mine: It's not just the policy differences. It's the fact that this president never tapped into our greatest resources - the character and resolve of the American people. He never asked us to step up.

Think about it: After September 11, if there was a call from the President to get us off foreign oil, to stop funding the very terrorists who had just attacked us, every American would have said, "How can I do my part?" This administration failed to believe in what we can achieve as a nation, when all of us work together.

and Warner does a great summing up what this election is about...

This election isn't about liberal versus conservative. It's not about left versus right. It's about the future versus the past.

Ted Strickland, Governor of Ohio, made a great baseball analogy...

You know, it was once said of the first George Bush that he was born on third base and thought he'd hit a triple. Well, with the 22 million new jobs and the budget surplus Bill Clinton left behind, George W. Bush came into office on third base--and then he stole second. And John McCain cheered him every step of the way.

Brian Schweitzer, Governor of Montana, is really hitting McCain hard on being in the pocket of Big Oil and against renewable energy (and having a great time while is at it)...

After eight years of a White House waiting hand and foot on big oil, John McCain offers more of the same. At a time of skyrocketing fuel prices, when American families are struggling to keep their gas tanks full, John McCain voted 25 times against renewable and alternative energy. Against clean biofuels. Against solar power. Against wind energy.

This not only hurts America's energy independence, it could cost American families more than a hundred thousand jobs. At a time when America should be working harder than ever to develop new, clean sources, John McCain wants more of the same and has taken more than a million dollars in campaign donations from the oil and gas industry. Now he wants to give the oil companies another 4 billion dollars in tax breaks. Four billion in tax breaks for big oil?

That's a lot of change, but it's not the change we need.

In Montana, we're investing in wind farms and we're drilling in the Bakken formation, one of the most promising oil fields in America. We're pursuing coal gasification with carbon sequestration and we're promoting greater energy efficiency in homes and offices.

Even leaders in the oil industry know that Senator McCain has it wrong. We simply can't drill our way to energy independence, even if you drilled in all of John McCain's backyards, including the ones he can't even remember.

Hillary Clinton caps off a fantastic night with a fantastic speech that stressed the need to elect Barack Obama. She nailed McCain with this line...

It makes a lot of sense that next week John McCain and George Bush will be together in the Twin Cities, because these days they're awfully hard to tell apart.