Skip the Networks, Watch C-SPAN

After watching the full evening of the Democratic National Convention on C-SPAN I decided to pop over to CNN just to see what they were saying. I was amazed. I couldn't believe that we had watched the same event.

The CNN pundits repeatedly harped on the fact that there wasn't "enough red meat" and how the Democrats didn't attack Bush/McCain enough.

Now lets think about this for a moment.

Here we had the opening night of a convention to nominate a candidate who promises to bring together people across party lines, a candidate who wants to prove that we are not a nation of "red states" and "blue states" and the media pundits want the opening night's speakers to come out like attack dogs. Duh!

Apparently while millions of Americans are desperate for political change, the media wants to see the same old political games. In fact, some of them are practically salivating and dreaming of a repeat of 1980.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that the next few nights will provide the media and us with enough Bush/Cheney/McCain bashing to get our fires going. In fact, I'm hoping that someone is going to pull another Ann Richards' speech out of the bag. And, I'm sure that more than one disgruntled Hillary Clinton supporter will be caught on camera with their "Hillary 2012" tee.

But Monday night it was refreshing to watch an evening of ordinary people taking the stage and speaking about their encounters with Barack Obama. It was nice to see the faces of the people that the party has shied away from like former President Jimmy Carter and Senator John Kerry (D-MA).

The first night of the Democratic National Convention was for the "true believers", "the new believers" and "the I want to be a believer(s)".

Just seeing Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) reminded us that bridges are falling down in America. Watching the children of Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) introduce their mom reminded us of how important this election is to young people. Watching former President and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Jimmy Carter interview Hurricane Katrina survivors reminded us that we MUST care about the most vulnerable in our society. Seeing Caroline Kennedy and Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) reminded so many of us of just why we're Democrats. ( Yes, I did shed a tear when he walked on stage.)

And, Michelle Obama... she reminded us that Dr. King's Dream is inching a little closer and maybe, just maybe the world will begin to view African American women in a light other than some of the popular stereotypes.

So I highly recommend that if you're planning on watching the remaining nights of the convention, watch C-SPAN first and decide what the speeches mean to you. Save the pundits for later. I'm glad that I did.

cross-posted at Political Voices of Women