The Democratic Conventio Podium, originally uploaded by Advodude.

It's clearly stressing Charlie out.

Traveling to Netroots Nation this year was a ton of fun and as always an educational experience. I'm sad to see that Gina is retiring as director, but hopefully there will be much fun next year in Pittsburgh. Things I learned at the conference:

• Being away from my kid and wife now officially is a bowl of suck.
• Joe Trippi can look un-disheveled.
• I miss my kid.
• Old friends are good to catch up with.
• I perpetually wonder if I'm missing something cool that my kid did every minute I'm away from him.
• A lot more people than just my immediately family read this blog. I had no idea that many people were interested in poop.
• I can not handle booze like I used to.
• I can beat the smartest lawyer ever at poker.
• I often miss my wife.
• The Alamo Drafthouse is everything I hoped it would be and more.
• I like not being peed on.
• I was really excited to get 5 full nights of sleep. Too bad I still only got 1.
• I can not handle booze like I used to.
• Sometimes things I think will be exciting are in fact incredibly boring.
• Sometimes things I think will be boring are in fact incredibly exciting.
• Tearing up after watching a video of my kid yawning does not make me lame...I think.
• Sometimes, there can be such a thing as too many parties.
• I really can not handle booze like I used to.
• Austin is a awesome place.
• If you sponsor an event, the chance of you hearing your company get a shout out works in direct correlation with your inability to hold you bladder. The more you leave an event to pee, the more they will say your name without you there. If you stay in the room they will conversely refrain from mentioning you at all.
• Charlie and Heather can apparently function without me. That's disconcerting as everything is supposed to be about me.
• Everybody wants an Advoshirt.
• Being away from my kid and wife now officially is a factory of suck.

Can't wait till next year.

I apologize for this tangent away from family into politics, but I just couldn't let this slide. Last night I was watching MSNBC's coverage when I saw Tweety Mathews corner a guy from Texas like so (the fun starts at 3:30 in the video) :

I was so annoyed I was basically yelling at the TV, "Tell him, dude. Tell him what Obama did. Just name one thing!" But then I thought to myself, "What a minute, I CAN'T NAME ONE THING." At 6:12 into the video Olbermann does a good job of putting Tweety back in his place, which felt good, however I was still without an answer on what Obama had done.

I have always based my support for Obama on the fact that he's inspirational enough to triple the youth vote and bring in independents, thus shellacking McCain in the general election and giving us a more successful chance of getting more congress critters in the house and senate. It was more a pragmatic decision than one based on who I thought was the more substantial candidate. So I never bothered to learn the details of what he actually did. So this morning I went back and looked on Daily Kos where they were also talking about last night. What I discovered was not only did he sponsor some legislation, he sponsored a metric tonage of legislation.

In Illinois, he sponsored over 800 bills.

On the federal level, in his short time, he passed a decent amount of legistlation, in a bi-partisan manner>. His first year in the U.S. Senate, he authored 152 bills and co-sponsored another 427. Mind you, not many passed with that idiot Republican and limpy Demcratic Senate in his way, but that's a lot of bills. The big ones are:

• the Coburn-Obama Government Transparency Act of 2006 (became law)
• The Lugar-Obama Nuclear Non-proliferation and Conventional Weapons Threat Reduction Act,(became law)
• The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, passed the Senate
• The 2007 Government Ethics Bill,(became law)
• The Protection Against Excessive Executive Compensation Bill,(In committee

More about his record can be found here, here, here, and here.

Finally, to learn details of his entire plan for the country should he become president you can go to his website. You can also download his Blueprint for Change here (WARNING: Large substantial 64 page PDF).

The Obama campaign better make sure all of his surrogates know his record from now on. The dude is substantial. Don't let the media bully America into thinking otherwise.

A lot of friends and family have been asking me what it is about Barack Obama that makes me want to vote for him. He hasn't run a policy driven campaign. He's supposedly "inexperienced" and young (for a presidential candidate anyways.) I basically argued that he's "got Elvis", that pure unadulterated charisma that could excite the electorate. Which sounds like a really vain and stupid reason to vote for someone. However, DHinMI, a front pager at Dailykos, has taken all my fancy brain thoughts and added nuance to what I am actually thinking.

This is maybe the most important difference between a ticket led by Barack Obama and one headed up by Hillary Clinton. As I said above, I think Hillary Clinton will win if she's our nominee. But I believe Barack Obama could win in a landslide.

It's Super Bowl night, so allow me a football analogy. For the last 30 years or so, we've been stuck in our own territory, and the other team has had the ball. Occasionally, like in the Clinton years, we get slightly better field position. But we've been on defense since the last days of the Carter administration. It's time we throw downfield and get in the end zone.

The American public wants change. They hate George W. Bush. They hate the political gridlock—AKA Republican obstructionism, even if they don’t realize that's the problem in Congress—and they want new leadership. They will vote for Clinton. But I believe many of them will embrace Obama. And the difference between a Clinton win at 53% and an Obama win at 58% is probably 12-15 extra members of Congress, and maybe another 3-6 Democratic Senators.

(Emphasis Mine) He goes on to explain a bunch of other reasons that are just as valid. I think this election could be a turning point. Barrack just excites the shit out of people, particularly young people. The youth vote has trippled pretty much everywhere he runs. And that is INSANE.

So, I'm going out and caucusing for Elvis on Tuesday. I ask that you do the same. Email me if you need convincing.

I've been getting a lot of emails and IMs today and I thought it would be best to offer a clarification. I am not the mascot for the DNC Convention. Despite our many similarities (being mammals, stubborness, teeth) the actual Mordecai the Donkey is not related to me in any way.

Here's a handy chart to make it more obvious.