"Send me" -- GOP desperately wishing it were 1988

If this is the best these guys can do, it's going to be a great week!

"You can say these things with a smile on your face, sound like you have a positive message," said Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams, adding that statements distorting Bush's record are "still a falsehood."

I know I was waiting nervously to see where the Texas Railroad Commissioner stood.

Republicans say Clinton's successful Monday night speech will make things harder for Kerry on Thursday when he accepts the nomination.

"It's going to be difficult for Kerry to wrest control of these folks from the thrall of Bill Clinton," said veteran GOP strategist Rich Galen.

The white slaves that are the Democratic Party go forth, zombie-like, repeating Bill Clinton's name.

But it is wonderful that even the Republicans were wowed by Clinton's speech. And wouldn't you know it that Bill Clinton would come up with the phrase we've been looking for in quickly explaining why John Kerry is simply the better man in this race.

Now, let me tell you what I know about John Kerry. I've been seeing all the Republican ads about him. Let me tell you what I know about him. During the Vietnam War, many young men - including the current president, the vice president and me - could have gone to Vietnam and didn't. John Kerry came from a privileged background. He could have avoided it too. But instead he said, send me.

When they sent those Swift boats up the river in Vietnam, and they told them their job was to draw hostile fire - to wave the American flag and bait the enemy to come out and fight - John Kerry said, send me.

And then, on my watch, when it was time to heal the wounds of war and normalize relations with Vietnam - and to demand an accounting of the POW's and MIA's we lost there - John Kerry said, send me.

Then when we needed someone to push the cause of inner-city children struggling to avoid a life of crime, or to bring the benefits of high technology to ordinary Americans, or to clean the environment in a way that created new jobs, or to give small businesses a better chance to make it, John Kerry said, send me.

So tonight my friends, I ask you to join me for the next 100 days in telling John Kerry's story and promoting his ideas: let every person in this hall and like-minded people all across America say to him what he has always said to America: send me.

Yeah, we're in thrall to Bill Clinton, all right. And to Al Gore too ("I know from my own experience that America’s a land of opportunity, where every little boy and girl has a chance to grow up and win the popular vote.").

We're in thrall all the way to the polls on November 2.

All in all, last night was great. Played well on TV. Although what few television media outlets covered it at all and did all they could to not show what was going down on the floor, when you did catch a glimpse of the delegates it was so obviously clear that the Democratic party represents the true diversity of this nation, not the stage-managed diversity of the 2000 (and surely 2004) GOP convention.

The speeches put the knife in to Bush, but did so with a smile and with a sense of inclusiveness -- if you voted for Bush, or even Nader, last time, that's all right. But take a look at what the last four years have gotten you. Do you really want another four of the same?

And tonight should be exciting as well, with Barak Obama getting the national spotlight for the first time.