Iain is supposed to be some kind of “political analyst” yet today wrote the following about Obama:

Isn’t this an amazing demonstration of what passes for political commentary in this wretched age of big mouth, misinformation, talk-a-lot-but-say-nothing commentators?

The other big moment of the night.  Michelle Obama's speech.  Sitting in front of me in the Big Tent are three Chicago natives whooping it up at her entrance.  And Markos (Daily Kos) is tapping away at his computer a few metres away, helping to keep the awesome live blogging of the convention on that site going.

Big cheers here when Michelle mentioned (and praised) Hillary.  Someone pipped up "that'll be the only story tonight ... she mentioned Hillary".  Cue lots of laughs.  Getting quite buzzy here; the speech is going down very well.  Or maybe its just the free beers kicking in.

There are maybe one to two hundred people typing into their computers (live blogging is the in thing), watching the screens around the room, exchanging wise words or jokes, or just soaking in this occasion. 

And wow with a crescendo of phrases that echo her husband's soaring rhetoric and campaign messages she ends her speech ... and the screams and applause continue here for a quite a while.

Update: the humanising of Barack, projecting him as an ordinary guy for those people who still see him as elitist and out-of-touch, has just gone into absolute overdrive. Immediately after Michelle's speech you had a live video link up with Barack.  Michelle and the kids on stage, Barack on the screen.  Sasha and Malia talking to their dad, we all went "ahh, that is so sweet" and laughed and cooed and cheered. It seemed so natural, so happy families, so cheesy, apple-pie 'American'.  It was a winner here in the Tent.  It seems to be a winner on the blogs. And I reckon it is likely a vote winner more widely; a step towards that goal of the Obama's becoming the First family. 

The crowd in the Big Tent is applauding and shouting.  The crowd in the Convention Hall (on screen sadly) has just gone wild.  Senator Edward Kennedy is making a personal live appearance on the podium. The atmosphere is amazing. Wow, this is powerful stuff, full of poignancy and meaning.  He's just promised he'll be on the Senate floor come January. He really is in superb form in his speech. Anybody out there still up in the UK, make sure you are watching.

A copy of 'America goes to the polls - a report (pdf) on voter turnout in the 2008 Presidential Primary' has just landed in my inbox.  As might be expected, there are some real wow stats:

1) More than one in four of all eligible voters participated in a primary or caucus. This is a rate not seen since 1972, when the voting age was lowered to 18.

2) Voter participation in Democratic primaries was up 112% and caucuses by 223% compared to 2004 - ie.the turnout in Democratic primaries doubled and tripled in the caucuses.

3) Youth participation rose at a faster rate than any other age group. Turnout by voters ages 18-29 went up for the third consecutive national election year (2004 and 2006).

But alongside these startling facts, there is a salient message: besides competitive elections (which are very important) or the date of the primary (weekday / weekend), a number of factors influenced voter turnout. Election Day Registration and Early Voting most likely contributed to higher turnout in many states.

This is a theme I intend to explore over the coming months. It's about how to expand the electoral map; about how to build up the party base and win down-ticket races; about how to encourage more people to turn out to vote and be convinced that they have a stake in the political system.  Its about all of those things and more. 

In the American context, the 50 State strategy / campaign was first raised by Howard Dean and is now taken on by Obama, who has just promised to open up campaign offices in every single state.  As Kos explains: