AddieStan

Grace FOR ARCHIVES ON POPE JOHN PAUL II, AMERICAN CATHOLICS AND RELIGION IN AMERICA, CLICK HERE. BOSTON--I sure hope that John Kerry understands that he owes Hillary Clinton big for the extraordinary grace with which she performed a task that rated as a diss* : the introduction of her husband, the keynote speaker. It's said there were worries that, given the full-fledged, prime-time speech she rightfully deserved, she would have, once again, proved too polarizing a figure. Yeah, right. Worries were that she might prove presidential. I don't mean to suggest that the junior senator from New York is not a controversial personality; indeed, women of her own generation are not always comfortable with all they see in her iconic qualities. She's made the compromises that so many brilliant women have had to make, only to come through with real power. But younger women are nuts about Hillary, perhaps because she offers a glimmer of hope for their own actualization. The Lifetime

Mr. Ex-President BOSTON--If I make it to 81, I should look so good--my first thought upon seeing the man who made the ex-presidency a career of on its own. We're talking Jimmy Carter, of course. Now, he may not be the most scintillating speaker, but he sure serves up a mighty platter of gravitas, and loveable gravitas, at that. (As opposed to, say, the f-u grumpiness of our current vice president, a trait too often mistaken for gravitas.) And Carter's speech had some dashes of poetry, even if they seemed a bit derivative of the Book of Revelations. The phrase I've been chewing on: "with...the Middle East ablaze..." Trouble is, this ain't hyperbole.

Thrown out of the best places BOSTON--After all that, I cannot vouch for the accuracy upon delivery of Mr. Gore's quotes, since I missed his speech while busy being thrown out of the blogger stand in the convention hall. You see, your blogstress is here in what might be termed an "extralegal" manner, and her press tags are apparently the wrong color for entry into the elite, but otherwise delightful, group that occupies the stand. So, like you, dear reader, I shall cool my heels in front of a television set, and report on Mr. Carter's speech shortly.

Gore to Nader Voters: Don't Do It! Asks crowd to remember anger & disappointment of 2000 outcome; patches up with Clinton BOSTON--We've just received the advance copies of Gore's imminent speech to the convention. In the running for the most interesting moment of the speech is his direct appeal to those who voted for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader in the last presidential election--votes that were said to have cost Gore victory in the 2000 election. "I...ask tonight for the help of those who supported a third party candidate in 2000. I urge you to ask yourselves this question: do you still believe that there was no difference betweeen the candidates? Are you troubled by the erosion of some of America's most basic civil liberties? Are you worried that our environmental laws are being weakened and dismanteld to allow vast increases in pollution that are contributing to a global climate crisis? No matter how you voted in the last election, these are profou