Al Gore at the DNC

The man everyone's been waiting to see.

Al Gore was one of the two big people everyone wanted to see tonight. (I don't think any of the party faithful would be all that disappointed if he announced he was actually accepting the nomination tonight. Even Obama would probably be okay with that.) He gets off to a quick start, asking, "Will we accept this opportunity for change?" He also reminded everyone who wasn't already aware (i.e., no one) that he was robbed of the presidency in 2000, and that if he were president today, boy, would things be different. (He's right, but it's pretty much moot right now.)

Sarah Vowell gave a great characterization of Gore in one of her books, calling him the nerd to George W. Bush's jock. He's certainly showing that here - he's laying out the facts and not apologizing for them. He's arguing that if you like the conditions as they are (and he goes into depth saying why they're awful), then John McCain is your man, but if you want a change, then you'd better vote for Barack Obama. He's getting a lot of time in for his pet issue of climate change, which you'd expect. (He even mentions that climate change could affect our national security, which is an interesting connection to make.) It makes sense, too, since the Democrats have been doing all that they can to tie the Republicans to big oil. He even reminds people that Thomas Edison was a big proponent of solar energy, saying that he hoped we didn't wait until coal and oil ran out to start tapping into it.

"Big oil has a 50-year lease on the Republican party, and they're drilling it for all they're worth." I like this metaphor here - by equating the GOP with big oil, that makes the election a fight between the little guy and big business. If you're trying to go after blue collar workers, that's a pretty good way to do it.

I'm really impressed with the very factual way that Gore is going about this speech. It almost sounds like he's delivering a report for his class in school. The crowd loves it, of course, but it's very different from what we heard over the last few days.

He's speaking right to younger voters now, reminding them that they get it. Of course Obama has a commanding lead among younger voters (what 19-year old would vote for McCain?), but he's doing well to emphasize that fact. Tapping into the youth vote could turn this tight election into a blowout.

And now he's comparing Obama to Lincoln, reminding them that Lincoln only had one term in Congress and that he too reached across the aisle and was known mostly as an orator. Nice comparison. The crowd's buying into it, but we'll see if the public does.

Almost 7.00 PM, and here we have the words "inconvenient truth." We all knew it was coming.

Here we are again focusing on Obama's blue-collar roots. Remember how he was raised by a single mother who depended on food stamps? Remember how he had to fight and scrimp and save to get to college? They're trying as hard as they can to get rid of that elitist tag.

Wow, Gore can still really inspire a crowd. They're all really fired up now. One more hour until the main man comes out to accept the nomination. Stay tuned.