"Biden's comments, first reported by ABC news, attracted little notice on a day dominated by the drama surrounding his Republican counterpart, Alaska governor Sarah Palin." [Guardian]

Vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has reason to be proud of her son Track, 19 of whom she spoke at length at the Republican National Convention. Track will be deployed to Iraq on Sept. 11, Palin informed the crowd (and the press) last night, while her nephew Casey is already serving on an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. But Palin mentioned her family's military service by way of explaining her strong support for her running mate John McCain, and in so doing broke sharply with the presidential candidate and veteran's own, much-acclaimed policy on refusing to discuss, and thus benefit from, his own son's military service in Iraq. She also opened herself up to more discussion of her unwed daughter's pregnancy, heretofore characterized as off-limits because it involved Palin's children.

If you're a teen father thrust into the spotlight because your fiancée's mom is suddenly a vice-presidential candidate, how to cope with the stress? For 18-year-old Levi Johnston, the answer is to chew gum obnoxiously on the stage at the Republican National Convention, even while meeting presidential candidate John McCain. Maybe the father to Bristol Palin's baby was just trying to prove that he really is a "fuckin' redneck" as stated on his MySpace profile. Palin's mom Sarah, who had just finished a well-received speech slamming Barack Obama, would not have appreciated further insolence from the young man who has still not publicly confirmed he will, in fact, marry her daughter as the McCain campaign claims. There's always an outside chance Johnston was merely following orders, the Republicans having gambled that a little cud chewing might play well among the "bitter" working-class whites Hillary Clinton once courted. Click the video icon to watch Levi's jaw in action.

Remember how Sarah Palin wasn't going to attack Barack Obama tonight, according to a front-page Wall Street Journal article? So much for that. Palin railed (as would otherwise have been expected) against the Democratic presidential candidate as a book-writing pansy community organizer who would treat the job of the presidency as a chance for emotional growth, unlike Palin who did actual work leading a metropolis of 6,000 people, firing a chef from the governor's mansion and marrying an actual Eskimo. The applause and laughter from the convention floor sounded ginned up but the pundits approved (as we predicted); CNN was impressed and over on MSNBC Tom Brokaw, who hated liberal colleague Keith Olbermann's kind words at the Democratic convention, said Palin "could not be more commanding or engaging." Probably tomorrow or later tonight everyone will go back to talking about the bridge to nowhere, the love child, the trooper scandal and so forth, but for the moment Palin has successfully changed the subject, which is no small accomplishment. Click the video icon for two of her more effective Obama slams.

Just as Sarah Palin was preparing to speak at the Republican convention in St. Paul (more on that momentarily), word bubbled up that the National Enquirer alleged in its print edition that John McCain's running mate had an affair with a business partner to her husband. With the sensational charge, the supermarket tabloid is gambling the measure of respect it has earned from more buttoned-down media in the wake of its reporting on John Edwards's affair with a campaign staffer, which was partially admitted to be true by Edwards himself. And early signs are that it may lose that gamble: The Enquirer issued a wishy-washy statement to the Huffington Post addressing its charges only in the context of other allegations, rather than backing them head-on:

Us Weekly released its much-anticipated Sarah Palin issue, resurfacing in it a January incident in which the John McCain running mate laughed along with a shock jock who called her Republican rival a "bitch" and a "cancer" on the state. Us got fresh quotes from the woman in question, a cancer survivor who is still quite pissed about the incident despite a halfhearted apology from Palin. The celebrity weekly also questioned whether the father of Palin's forthcoming granddaughter really wants to have kids. As right-wing bloggers are bitterly noting, the coverage scandalizes John McCain's running mate before the magazine's 12 million readers, mostly the very females Palin was recruited to attract. It's not lost on any of them, either, that Us Weekly owner Jann Wenner is a big Barack Obama supporter. With coverage of Palin's various scandals — the love child, the radio thing, troopergate, etc. etc. — still everywhere, Palin's role in the campaign is being severely restricted, the Wall Street Journal reports in a page-one story today:

John McCain was likely clueless his running mate Sarah Palin had an underage daughter with a love child — or at least that's what the Times is implying this morning. Meanwhile it looks like everyone from Time magazine to the National Enquirer to the entire population of Wasilla, Alaska was hip to the scandalous pregnancy. How could McCain have been left in the dark? It seems the presumptive Republican presidential nominee settled on Palin at the last minute, after figuring out that social conservatives might use the convention to nuke his top two choices, pseudo-Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman and former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, both pro-choice. Republican operatives vetted Palin for four or five days, one of them told the Times anonymously, but it sounds like even that's a reach:

Apparently Barack Obama left Invesco Field in a Jeep, and is now just cruising the streets of downtown Denver with his new political buddies, and they're all shopping and going to Starbucks like elitist gay fashion models. It's all in the animation after the jump, which might be some kind of Republican smear on Obama being a vapid celebrity but which also is definitely mesmerizing. A tipster found it on a message board somewhere. Enjoy!

So this is what Barack meant by "it's about you." I feel so used!

It was a tricky rhetorical path before Barack Obama at the close of the Democratic National Convention Thursday and he walked it artfully. The official Democratic presidential nominee bashed John McCain hard, including rather boldly on McCain's core issue of Iraq, where the Republican opponent feels strong. The tens of thousands of hard-core Democrats at Invesco Field in Denver, all worked up into a frenzy, ate it up. Then there were The Bitters watching on their non-flat-screen TVs at home in swing states, who were reminded that McCain called them all "whiners" (so much worse than "bitter!"), that McCain wants to tax their benefits for healthcare, that Obama supports corporate welfare to teach GM how to make hybrids and that Obama's not going to coddle all these illegal Mexicans "undercutting" their wages. But the heart of the performance came toward the end.

Not all reporters are created equal at Invesco Field, where Barack Obama is about to close out the Democratic National Convention. John Koblin at the Observer printed a seating chart (left) and gave a rundown on the winners and losers. It looks like the Obama campaign continues to snub the New Yorker for its controversial parody cover, sitting the magazine's correspondents in worse seats than Jezebel/Glamour (team Megan!), the Nation and the New Republic. More delightfully, the campaign totally dissed those conssumate insiders at Vanity Fair, "which is stuck in the back row in Section J" behind basically everyone except the Gotham tabloids. Ha ha, I guess the entire free world is not actually obsessed with getting into the Waverly or your damned Oscar party, Graydon Carter! After the jump, early chatter among reporters, plus a list of seating winners.

Forget the speeches and the platform, the delegate votes and the big Barack Obama speech tonight. Political conventions are nothing if not stages on which the craziest campaign volunteers — both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have them! — can strut around in their wildest costumes. No one's been spotted with a sticker on their forehead yet, even though that's a trademark move of Clinton's crazier supporters, or wearing an Abercrombie shirt, even though that's the preferred apparel of Barack Obama's emptiest young volunteers. But the hoi polloi are coming to the big stadium event tonight, so anything is still possible. So far the DNC has seen hats and other attire in flavors vaguely gay, cowboyish, flag-desecrating, Mexican and just plain insane. There's a photo gallery after the jump, culled (mostly) by our own Richard Blakeley from the sea of convention footage.

Here's Kal Penn as captured by the LA Times at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. You may recognize Penn: He's the famous pothead "Kumar" from that famous pothead movie series, Harold & Kumar. Apparently someone asked him to be a "political whip," herding delegates while wearing a headset, and he totally went for it. "The majority of kids I've met on the road are struggling," Penn told the newspaper. Well, fine, but when the Republicans want to portray Democratic politicians as of vapid, decadent, amoral Hollywood types, they won't have to go after Paris Hilton and Britney Spears anymore. They've got Penn working the convention floor. And something tells me they won't be emphasizing his role as a physician on House. Anyway, whatever, if you try to mold your self-expression around how political extremists might twist things you'll never come up with culture gems like Harold & Kumar. Enjoy a sampling from their more terroristic oeuvre after the jump.

We told you Joe Biden was going to say something inappropriate and crazy sooner or later, and he has proven us correct, spectacularly, very quickly. In his Democratic Convention address tonight, Biden almost referred to John McCain as "George W. Bush." before catching himself halfway. Not that the two men aren't politically similar, but there's not much point in taking potshots at the one who isn't running for anything. But here's what we didn't anticipate: Biden has put his foot into his mouth so many times that he's gotten really fast at recovery. In this case, Biden only needed a split second to apologize for his "Freudian slip," which is sufficiently clever that the gaffe almost looks pre-arranged. Now he gets the press frenzy that comes with a screwup plus the message control that comes with a carefully scripted statement! Crazy like a fox, this one. Also, clean. Click the icon for the video, which includes bonus footage of Barack Obama very nearly uttering the rock-star words, "HELLO DENVER!!"

The cheering for Bill Clinton went on for about five hours at the Democratic National Convention tonight before he could finally start his speech. (OK, seriously, for 3 minutes 48 seconds.) He pretended to get a little frustrated, but you know the ex-president, who tends to feel persecuted and under-appreciated, just ate it up. Clinton was remarkably well behaved, his foreign policy address not going grotesquely beyond the alloted 10 minutes and, hey, even occasionally touching on foreign policy, in between statements on the American Dream, Hurricane Katrina, unions and corporate cronyism. Clinton laid the Obama praise on thick — he's ready! to be president! also, unique! young and "inexperienced" like Clinton was! — then got into the serious Republican bashing, which is the focus of this clip and really the best part of the convention so far. Sometimes you need Hope and inspiration, but sometimes you just want to see some well-landed punches and nice memories of the resurgent 1990s. Video of the endless applause after the jump, along with bonus footage of him actually saying things.

"Democrats Wednesday officially nominated Barack Obama to be their candidate for president, making him the first African-American to lead a major party ticket." [CNN]

"Those are the reasons I support Barack Obama. And those are the reasons you should too." [Observer]

The brain-tumor-having columnist left the hospital to blast Joe Lieberman as a running mate for John McCain. That's how awful Joe Lieberman is. [Novak via Wonkette]

Every convention needs a good catchphrase! Bill Clinton had "A place called Hope" in 1992. Michael Dukakis floated on the wings of Ann Richards' "Poor George" speech in 1988. And John Kerry to this day wakes up every morning in a cold sweat, screaming "Help is on the way!" Come to think of it, maybe memorable catchphrases aren't all that predictive of success. But this year's Democratic Convention already has two in as many days. There's "yes we can," the Obama theme that already feels like an old standby, because he's been campaigning for president for 12 years. And now there's the new one Hillary Clinton coined tonight, "No way, no how, no McCain." That one impressed everyone because Clinton's "PUMAs" are getting cozy with John McCain. The Democrats need to stop coining memorable slogans every day, or they'll end up with a library of mindless partisan sayings and talking points, and might just win the election. Click the video icon to watch Clinton try and push her supporters back into the party fold.

Tonight was going to be a sad and even tragic night for some Hillary Clinton supporters no matter what. Those who threw themselves into the presidential candidate's long and ultimately bitter campaign against Barack Obama were going to have a tough time listening to her speak anywhere on the Democratic convention schedule other than at the triumphant end. When Clinton came out, and the cameras panned to her husband Bill, it wasn't hard to imagine his regrets overwhelming any happiness in the moment. Clinton gave a well-received speech that seemed genuinely conciliatory. "Barack Obama is my candidate and he must be our president," she said. But her most ardent supporters still have to decide whether to let go of their anger and go along with this. In the clip after the jump, CNN finds a choked up Clinton delegate who is still not convinced Obama has the experience to lead. She does have enough party loyalty, though, to say (twice!) that she's not voting for John McCain. Click the video icon to watch the emotional breakdown.