I watched a few more speeches and wasn't too impressed. Yet another of the things that has made political conventions boring is the idea that everyone must stay "on message" and hew to the current campaign strategy. Apart from the personal references, 90% of the speakers up there could have given each others' speeches…and in some ways, did. Wesley Clark's, which drew raves from some bloggers, didn't impress me at all. It occurs to me that the Democrats trotting out all these military guys is a lot like the Republicans strategically placing minority delegates to counter the party image.

Leno had Michael Moore on last night for one of the least-interesting interviews either of them has ever done. I did laugh out loud when Moore said that if he wins an Oscar for Fahrenheit 9/11, he's not going to make a controversial acceptance speech. He said, "I'll just thank my wardrobe people and sit down." Other than that, there was nothing quotable. Leno was playing it too down-the-middle and Moore was trying too hard not to come across as a bomb-hurler.

I don't have a feel for who I think is going to win this election. I still think it's going to turn on events that have not yet occurred, issues that have not yet been raised. About all I'm sure of is that it's going to get a lot dirtier and that by November, people on all sides are going to think that the future of mankind hinges on the victory of Their Guy. And they'll have an increasingly difficult time convincing themselves that he's as good as they want him to be.

Forgot to post this yesterday: Happy 90th birthday to "Professor" Irwin Corey who's currently appearing on Broadway in the revival of Larry Gelbart's Sly Fox and everyone who's seen it tells me he's the funniest thing on the stage. This is easy to believe about one of the funniest comedians around…a man who has raised the bar for incoherent muttering and elevated rambling to a high art. How this man didn't wind up in politics, I'll never know. Years ago on the old Steve Allen Show, the Professor often managed to bring utter chaos to the festivities…you could tell Steve didn't know where things were going and neither did Corey.

That and his age probably disqualify Irwin Corey from gracing the guest chair next to any of the current talk show hosts…but I sure wish one of them would go against current trends and book the guy.

I thought it was pretty good. Liked the first part more than the end, and I'm sorry he felt he had to load it with so many promises to not fulfill the Republican stereotype of a Democrat (soft on religion and national defense, big on taxes). But he looked presidential and passionate, and I don't think he could have made a much stronger appeal to swing voters…that is, if any of them were watching.

As a couple of my friends have not noticed, I have not shown much enthusiasm here for Mr. Kerry. I have such a history of feeling disappointed by politicians that I'm reticent to make that emotional commitment. It's easier to deal with them letting you down if you never thought they were that wonderful to begin with. I'm sure Kerry has the capacity to turn into Michael Dukakis or worse on us…but so far, so good.

One hopes someone will tell Kerry, "Fine, we all know you were in Vietnam. You can stop mentioning it." I understand why it's up front and center. If Bush had Kerry's history and vice-versa, Republicans would be arguing that the guy with the medals was inarguably the better human being than the guy with the massive hole in his National Guard record. But I think it would be classier, and show that there's a better argument for Kerry than what he did several decades ago, if he reduced it to an aside.

I'm just watching the end of the C-Span coverage right now. A chaplain is trying to deliver the closing benediction with confetti and late-arriving balloons still cascading down from the rafters. A lot of what he's saying ("Send me…") sounds like replays of campaign-type speeches we've heard the last few days. I like my politics with as little religion as possible but I guess, when you're running for office these days, you need to cover your butt on such matters.

Here are two photos of the late Jackson Beck in roles he played on radio. At left, he has the title role in Philo Vance, Detective, which ran from 1948 through 1950.  At right, he's The Cisco Kid from the radio show of the same name, which aired from 1942 through 1945. (Two years later, it came back with a different cast.) Mr. Beck was about as Hispanic as Miracle Whip but in those days, no one gave much thought to such matters.  The few hundred episodes he recorded for these two shows represent a tiny fraction of all that Beck did in radio. And his radio work represents a tiny fraction of all that he did before microphones. [Thanks to his pal Anthony Tollin for the Cisco photo.]

Here's a short film/political ad starring Will Ferrell as George W. Bush.

Here's an odd article by Tom Junod that makes a case for George W. Bush. It's kind of a weird, not-entirely-flattering case, but it's a different way of looking at Bush that is worth perusing.

If you are repulsed at the sight and/or sound of Michael Moore, skip this item. But if, like me, you enjoy some of what he does, you may enjoy a 43-minute speech which is currently up on the C-Span page. It's an address he made in the last day or three to some delegates at the convention and it's very passionate and at some points, very funny. Defenders of George W. Bush are fond of saying that even if what Bush says is erroneous, he can be forgiven because he truly believes what he says and has only honorable intentions. I don't really buy that and if a Democratic president got caught saying something that turned out to be untrue, I don't think they'd cut him any slack. Nor should they, especially if the inaccuracy relates to something as serious as sending this nation into war.

I am a tad more positive about Moore since I realized how silly it is to fault an op-ed filmmaker for skewing facts when we're going to let the Commander-in-Chief get away with telling us "We found the weapons of mass destruction" and other statements his own administration no longer stands behind. In the best of all public discourses, of course, everyone is accurate and they retract when it turns out they aren't. In terms of distorting reality to make one's case, Bush and Moore may have a lot more in common than either of them would ever recognize…and Moore, since he isn't an elected official sending soldiers into battle, has more excuse for his excesses. He's certainly single-minded and passionate, even when he's been misled as to the facts.

As I said, the Moore speech is 43 minutes and it's up on the C-Span website in Real Player format, at least for a few days. It's difficult to link directly to a clip on that site. This link might do it for some browsers but most of you will have to go to the site and look around to find it. I don't vouch for all the factual claims in it (there aren't very many…it's mostly opinion) but I think it shows Moore at his best and goes a long way to explaining why he's come so far.

Here's the first online newspaper obit I've found for Jackson Beck. I've corrected a few minor errors in what I posted earlier about him.

Watching the roll call of the states casting their votes. Wonder who will win.

Al Sharpton used to be a publicity-seeking scam artist of questionable integrity and zero experience in government, and there are a hundred self-proclaimed candidates I'd vote for before I put an "X" next to his name. A hundred and one if you count Alfred E. Neuman.

That said, he's also a helluva speaker. I hope someday we see some of that from someone who belongs in elected office.

One of the "most-heard" voices in the world, Jackson Beck, passed away this morning, five days after his 92nd birthday. Beck's list of credits was staggering. In the Golden Age of Radio, he was heard on dozens of shows including Easy Aces, The March of Time, Mark Trail, Grand Central Station and dozens more, but he was most identified in the title roles on The Cisco Kid and Philo Vance and as the narrator on The Adventures of Superman. In the world of animation, he was not the first voice of Popeye's arch-nemesis Bluto but he voiced more cartoons in that role than anyone else, continuing on through the years when Bluto morphed into Brutus (as explained here).

He was also the voice of Buzzy the Crow and of King Leonardo and his arch-nemesis, Biggy Rat among many other animation jobs and he appeared in many non-animated films. Woody Allen, for instance, used him as the narrator of his first feature, Take the Money and Run, and in key roles in other films. (In Radio Days, he dubbed the voice of the radio newsman reporting on the little girl who'd fallen down a well.) Mostly though, he did commercials — thousands of them, including long associations with Brawny paper towels, Thompson's Water Seal and Little Caesar's Pizza — in one of the longest, most prolific careers any announcer has ever had. Many who met him at Old Time Radio conventions (where he often participated in re-creations of classic shows) knew him as a friendly, affable gentleman. Many more just knew the sound of him. Want to hear that sound? Here's an audio sample of Mr. Beck doing the opening for a 1966 Saturday morning series. It's a voice we'll all miss.

They're saying that as soon as the Democratic Convention is over, the White House will announce that this year's federal deficit will top $420 billion…a new record. The buzz is that (a) they're waiting to announce this so that Kerry cannot use that statistic in his speech and (b) that this will be spun as encouraging news since they had once forecast a hundred billion more.

The first point puzzles me a bit. How difficult would it be for Kerry to say, "The White House has so mismanaged this economy that they will soon have to announce the highest deficit in the history of this country"? Does he need a precise number to hammer them on this point?

I don't think the "not as bad as we feared" defense will get very far, except with folks who are already determined to support Bush no matter what and need something to say. I think it was Barry Goldwater who once said that you can't leave your supporters without a way to defend you. If the news is bad, you have to give them the "spin" (he didn't use that word) so they don't look too foolish for standing with you. One of the main things that eroded Nixon's support during the Watergate mess was that people who yearned to believe and promote "his side" of it often did not know what it was and were left speechless when his critics attacked. I sure get the feeling that a lot of Bush defenders aren't happy with the excuses they've been given to make for the deficit, the sloppy pre-war intelligence, the claims of torture, etc…

If you want to know why Teresa Heinz Kerry told that reporter to "shove it," you'll want to read Joe Conason.

C-Span has a video of the Barack Obama speech up on their website. There's a slightly better copy and the text on the Chicago Tribune website, though you have to register (it's free) to access it. This link will take most browsers directly to the speech, assuming they have Real Player installed. This link will take you to the page with the text and a link to the video.

To all those who wrote to tell me that Barack Obama was a great speaker and that I should watch him: You were right. I'll post a link to it when there is one.