What a show, oups, I mean political convention

So tonight was the night for Barack Obama - he is now officially the Democratic presidential candidate. I came in late - his speech was in the middle of bedtime routines California time. So the first thing I watched, using CNN's livestream, was the ending - the tons of confetti, the fireworks, the up beat music, the flags and banners and crying people. If turned on the TV, and you didn't know what was on - and if you were from somewhere else - I'm not sure you would immediately connect that this was a political convention...

They sure can make shows, these Americans. Even a politcal convention is a pretty cool event.

So after I've watched the grand finale of the convention, I listened to the speeches. In one of the after talk show interviews on CNN, one republican observer said (of course a tiny bit biased perhaps...) that Obama's speech should have an C - mostly because he looked so angry - after a convention that had been so much about hope. I watched a sound bite with the sound turned off - and maybe he looked a little angry - or maybe concerned or maybe he was just overwhelmed by the hugeness of it all? After all there might have been 85 000 people watching him live in the arena Invesco Field in Denver, Colorado... Not a very ordinary audience size for a senator...

Tomorrow we'll know who the Republican candidate McCain's running mate will be. The next few days we will probably start seeing bumper stickers, signs on people's front yards for the two different teams. Then it will all escalate the next 10 weeks until the election...