Who is she? Who is the carefully groomed and scripted Debra Bartoshevich in McCain's new ad "Debra"?

Is she a lifelong Democrat, a Hillary backer who switched to McCain because Obama lacks "experience"? That is what she and her PUMA admirers claim. But the YouTube video at the top of this post, an unscripted interview with a local reporter, tells a far different story. What lifelong Democrat says, as she does repeatedly,  "Democrat party"?  And why was the McCain team already so poised to recruit her that she got a phone call from them "approximately three minutes" after Hillary Clinton's  June 5 concession speech?

Her strange journey to center stage of McCain's Democrat-switcher campaign began long before that campaign gleefully leaked to reporters their coup in persuading one of Wisconsin's Hillary Clinton delegates to pledge publicly she would vote for John McCain. Read on below the fold!

Who has been your favorite speaker so far tonight? And how do the speakers compare to last night?

Yesterday Bob Casey had one of the best lines of the night:

John McCain calls himself a maverick, but he votes with George Bush more than 90% of the time...that's not a maverick, that's a sidekick.

Tonight he is relaxing and enjoying the show.

Take the poll and use the comments to tell us how you made your choice.

From Kagro X, reporting from the Pepsi Center...convention goers watching Bill Clinton on TV. Remember, these folks are all about ten steps away from seeing it live. But rather than miss a word during the ten foot walk, they stayed glued to the screens.

In the immortal words of the Flight of the Conchords...

Who likes to rock the party? Bill likes to rock the party...

John Kerry reporting for duty ....

Before John McCain debates Barack Obama, he needs to finish the debate with John McCain.

Clinton did us proud.  I've never heard him say so much in so little time.

I'm so proud of him and I think he reclaimed the respect he deserved and he finally brought out the issue that hadn't really been said by Obama. That the last time we had a democrat in the White House things got better fast.

Nearly everyone agrees Hillary Clinton gave the speech of her political life last night, magnanimously urging her diehard supporters to back Senator Obama for president. She emphasized what all democrats know: it is in their best interests and America's to see Barack Obama elected. As her reference to the Supreme Court suggests, a McCain presidency has negative long-term ramifications and will spiral America further downward.

Last night, Clinton earned figurative pats on the back for singing harmony. This is like praising the virtue of someone who kicked you in the head but was kind enough to give you an ice pack for the headache. Had it not been for Clinton's near-Rovian performance those last months of the primary, this disunity would be a background mumble rather than a ferocious roar reverberating daily in every media outlet.

Last night, following Hillary's wonderful speech, I wrote a diary with this very same title, noting that the one element that was unfortunately missing from Hillary's otherwise perfect speech was a full on endorsement of Obama's readiness and leadership ability.

Well, folks. Bill Clinton did it. And if this doesn't reassure Democrats, then nothing will. Bill and Hillary delivered a one-two punch.  Hillary set the stage. She urged her supporters to reject John McCain and support the party. Bill followed up by showing us why Obama is the one who needs to be President.

I'm not sure to what extent this was the plan. I suspect it was all along. Hillary and Bill would work together to reunite the party. And what an incredible job they did.

I think the most interesting thing about these last to nights is how effectively the Clintons united this party. Now, I think a lot of us Obama supporters were thinking, "boy, the Clintons really need to fix what they broke."

He had me spitting nails all primary season, but his work tonight at the convention was vintage Bill. He was gracious, poignant and strategic. He hit the experience/commander in chief issue head on; he wrapped a bouquet around the perfect union of Obama and Biden; and he put another huge helping of medicine on the wound with Hillary's disaffected supporters. Great performance, great message, great for Obama

Alright I'm going to keep updating based on coverage for those of you who are watching CSPAN due to shitty pundits, but Bill just unequivocally stated that McCain blows monkey nuts, and Obama is oh so ready to be Commander in Chief. More to come. Not a Diary yet, but I wanted to get this in quickly.

This has to go up here too because it pissed me off so much:

  Update 5 or 6: Bullshit, Tom Brokaw just played McCain's POW card for    him. You have got to be kidding me.

I just watched Bill's address to the Democratic National Convention. Yeah, there were things I didn't like, but overall, he did what he needed to do. I don't doubt he didn't like some of what he did, but that's what makes him qualified for any number of jobs that I'd get fired from, just after lunch on my first day. The Big Dog's a pro.

And, of course, there were parts that I liked. "And second; I'm here to warm up the crowd for Joe Biden." Okay, so even if he's not totally happy, he can be funny. And, "the power of our example, than by the example of our power."; "Katrina and cronyism..." May G-d bless the Big Dog. "Thanks, but no thanks."

I started commenting on the glory of Bill Clinton's speech on my blog, http://heartlessandbrainless.blogspo... but I decided to share it here too. Come express your appreciation of Bills speech under the fold!

America can do better than that and Barack Obama will do better than that.

Clinton just laid some branding on the Democrats and made the Republicans own the last eight years as we saw their ideology in practice.

They want us to reward them for the failures of the last four years with four more years.

The third time is not the charm.

I'll leave the convention reporting to those enjoying the higher altitude in person this week.  There is something else exciting going on to which I can contribute a little bit.

My little sister is starting college!

Bill says that Hillary is supporting Barack Obama, that his support makes two of them, and:

Actually, that makes 18 million of us.

And that:

Barack Obama is the man for this job.

Barack Obama is ready to be President of the United States

The Big Dog is up. Prepare for media tears as Bill Clinton endorses Barack Obama. Says Bill:

I am honored to be here tonight...[crowd going nuts]...I am here, first to support Barack Obama and second I'm here to warm up the crowd for Joe Biden.