Partying Like it's 192004

Early speech highlights

"We are here to become a oneness symphony."
-- Maureen White, national finance chair of the Democratic National Committee

"I am pleased, so pleased to announce that every delegation is here in the hall as we mediate the greatest convention in nineteen two-thousand and four, where we will elect the next president of the United States."
-- ibid

"Let me speak from my heart about this great undertaking to election John Kerry as our next President of the United States."
-- Rep. Robert Menendez (okay, he didn't say "undertaking to election John Kerry," but that's how the "embargoed" pre-speech transcript has it.

As is usual during the not-ready-for-prime-time speeches, the focus is almost entirely on everything but foreign policy, the topic which (I believe) is far and away the most important for the majority of voters, especially those few who haven?t made up their minds already. Instead of that discussion, there has already been plenty of bon mots about making college "more affordable for middle class families," "fighting to provide seniors with the Medicare prescription drug coverage they deserve," complaining about "the export of our jobs," "saving our wilderness and beaches," "invest[ing] our wealth to create opportunity for all," and "invest[ing] in the green wave of new energy technology, breaking the chokehold of foreign oil."

Which should make the prime-time performances tonight interesting. Is the modern Democratic Party embracing Jimmy Carter-style negotiate-as-long-as-possibilism, Bill Clinton's aggressive second-term internationalism (and even unilateralism), or Gorified flip-floppery?