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Six words that describe Democrats:

Truth, Justice and the American Way.

6 Words:
Fixing...All...of...The...Worlds...Problems

This is in keeping with the spirit of the Republican 6 words: TOTALLY FRAUDULENT.

Oh, looks like WNYC added a Windows Media link - THANKS!

Six Words.
Not entirely facetiously...

"Truth. Justice, and the American Way:"

It was what Superman was fighting for...according to the intro to the TV series.

I just watched Hillary's speech and frankly is a big dissapointment. The whole thing looked as is she was the nominee, with the tribute collage of photos and Chelsea's voice describing the achievements of her mother. This DID NOT have a place in the convention, this is so called tribute should not be included, Hillary is not the nominee and frankly this makes the party less united.

I just don't get why after the second day of the convention, the democrats are not trying to win votes by highlighting ALL of the mistakes done by the present administration. The messages have been very idealistic. Give out banners with $4.00 gas prices out for the audience to hold. Make the voters want to vote for Obama.

Six words:

Getting it done for the people.

You guys seriously need to do a better job of filtering out the false flag callers. "Uh, yeah, I'm a lifelong Democrat, but I don't like Obama's policy of surrender to terror and raising taxes on middle class families..."

Not six words, but three principles:
*energy that respects the earth
*government for citizens
*health security

Only I don't believe the Democratic Party actually believes in its ideals any more. Too many in power have sold their souls to their corporate masters.

Laura from Upper West Side,
You can also hear commentary from Pacifica Radio from 7pm to Midnight which is being carried on WBAI. The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer is also providing nightly coverage. I think they're running from 8pm -11pm.

All praise and many thanks to Brian Lehrer and his staff.

It is such a marvel to have his convention broadcasts which I am supplementing with Amy Goodman's Democracy Now on WBAI radio and online, Daily Kos onlinelive blogging and commentary, C-SPAN TV..... and, using Google for reference and links to previous conventions and campaigns.

Strange and serendipitous comparisons that I found on the above websites. For example, Westinghouse and other "friendly giant" corporations were sponsoring television coverage of conventions in the 1950s. I was shocked at how undemocratic this now seems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQGNuZhLwIY

The McCain solution:
Drill more, Drill now, Buy another home.

Bob Henley's very provocative and cogent observation that “what we have here in the first part of the 20th-century is ’free speech is commercial speech that's paid for‘” elicted from Brian a rather lengthy pause followed by “...rrright" and then was completely ignored.
I hope you will revisit that issue, maybe make it the theme of a segment. Please continue to give us the oblique angle on the issues that we have come to expect from the show. We need it now more than ever

the truth...hurts

and...all the Ted Kennedy dirt you let stay. real nice.

eva
you're right but we all like the smut and dirt. it's part of the game, they do it to us we do it to them. (u did it to HRC)
but yes we should take the higher road and let the GOP who don't have the issues on their side deal in smut.

Thanks, Eva. I feel things are unfair against Obama, lots of malicious smearing etc so that makes me want to get even and go place I may normally not want to go. I will say, though,
infidelity is a personal peeve even as I accept its widespread practice and often complete unconnected-ness from public life... But it has hurt me.

You say his POW status explains it, or that at least we should not judge. That is fair enough but the implication that he is damaged by his POW status, physically and mentally, raises another BIG issue that the media won't touch with a 10-foot pole. And it goes with the temper. Will we have a man with PTSD, potentially severe, in the White House. And you can't have it both ways. Either he is damaged from this experience or not.

Eva -
How about not voting for McCain because:
He's not smart enough to be president
He's far too old to be president

I can't believe we have to have a discussion about McCain leaving his first wife - and conjecture about the reasons for that.
Most released POW's do not sensibly resettle into their old lives. Even veterans who were not POW's have issues when they return. That's the reality of war. It sucks, but to put McCain under a microscope for failing in his first marriage is outrageous. And you don't know why, exactly, he failed in this first marriage.
Vote for McCain or Obama based on the issues, but to judge McCain for leaving his first wife when he'd been a POW for five years... please. That is beneath you, Chris O. I have read your posts for a while, and I know you are better than that.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity - Not original, but there's something catchy about these words strung together

Also,
Sustainable environment, safe or healthy ecosystem

to the guy who chose this opportunity to remind everybody of something awful ted kennedy got away with forty years ago, i sure hope you're as exacting with the republican party. i agree that kennedy conducted himself abominably then, but genearally have found him to be quite creditable as a senator.
i sure find him and his actions then far less reprehensible than many of members of the current administration who are likely responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths in a pointless war in iraq. which they incidentally lied to get us into. yes, ted kennedy did something awful forty years ago. he should have been punished for it. let's hope that the liars and proxy murderers in the bush administration (guilty of far worse crimes than ted kennedy) ARE punished eventually.

6 words for democrats:
"our inalienable rights: Life, Liberty, and Happiness"

six words:
Opportunity, equality and brotherhood for all.

I got to say my words on the air: Ethical Leadership not Moral Leadership.

But I didn't get to explain them so in case you're curious: Leadership that tries to do the right thing as opposed to leadership that merely tells me what it thinks the right thing is that I should be doing.

"If people will not honor their marriage vows - vows they made in front of the co-workers, friends, family, and God - how can we trust them to honor their campaign promises in the back rooms of Washington? "

May I offer examples of people honoring their vows to their nation and constituents, while having failed to greater or lesser degrees to honor their marriage vows? I'll start with Bill Clinton, who according to Kathleen Hall Jamison honored all his campaign promises or tried mightily to do so but faced a hostile Congress. He did change on all the tax cuts he had promised, but explained that faced with huge deficits had to raise taxes on the wealthier among us. It worked well for the economy.

Then, how about FDR? JFK? MLK? Rumors about LBJ? Ike?

We don't know all the details of the Founding Fathers' personal lives, but we do know about Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson (I realize his possible fathering of Sally Hemming's children is still slightly open to argument).

I imagine there are many, many more great leaders who did break marriage vows. Just a few for consideration, Margaret @ 10:24AM.

I'd much rather have true fidelity to the Constitution and caring for people's needs than utter fidelity to one person sexually. Really.

I'm hearing and seeing a lot of policy lists (universal healthcare, etc.), a lot of abstractions, and a lot of big multisyllabic words.

This is unfortunate. We liberals always tend to talk about policies instead of values, and intellectual abstractions instead of concrete things.

I'm not anti-intellectual -- far from it -- but an intellectual case for the Democratic Party will not connect with the vast majority of non-intellectual voters.

I suggest these 6 words:

"A fair shot at the dream"

6 words that define what it means to be a Democrat:

Constitutional values, equitable economics, smart diplomacy

Democrat talking points: Are you better off now than you were. Are your family and friends better off now than they were. Do you think your children will have a better future than you. Do you want a better life for you, your family and your children.

Zak #11 - I pretty much agree with you. We all have personal foibles and failing so one's public life is what is really important. I am generally not interested in the private lives. I do raise the issue because it is down the memory hole and for contrast: Just imagine Obama had this personal baggage!

But the question is at least raised: If you can not uphold your marriage vows, why should I believe your pledge to protect and defend the Constitution? I would at least like an answer to the question.

Six words: Shared responsibility, economic fairness, social equality

I think it's unproductive to try to distill the Democratic Message into six words. The whole appeal of the Democratic party over the Republicans for me is that its message is far less reductive and lockstep- nuance is welcomed and different ideas are encouraged.

effective government, prosperity and fairness for all

Democrats: Not Just for White (or rich) People. (Sheepishly: But they are welcome.)

(6 words)
Obama should've picked Clinton for VP.

individual liberty
equal opportunity
constitutional law

Dems in basically 6 words

Effective Government, Prosperity & Fairness for All

Six words:

Social equality. Educational equality. Legal equality.

The woman who did the McCain ad Brian and Alter are discussing is a very unhappy former Clinton delegate who stated she would not vote for Obama and was stripped of her delegate status.

Disgruntled, indeed. But perhaps the WI delegate chairman or whoever should have let her go to the convention and perhaps be persuaded to vote for Obama.

But what do I know? Heavy handed thought and speech control is the New Big Thing. Just ask BushCo.

I was amazed to see she did such an ad, but I'll bet she was exceedingly angry. Blowback.

It's 7 words:
Intelligent Defense
Fair Economy
Justice for all

you are the best Brian.

six words:

progressive values
equal opportunity
smart government

Uphold constitutional values, equality justice for all

Universal health care, a good free education, protection of the environment

(only 3)

six words for dems from an ind:

"bottom up not top down economics"

Chris C, say what you will about McCain's marital problems, my problem with him is that he refuses to fight for health care for all, he has no plans to get US soldiers out of Iraq in a timely fashion, he plans to continue to promote a tax code which aides the wealthiest among us without helping those of us who are struggling to get by, he runs the risk of making a fully anti-abortion supreme court, he refuses to embrace a truly future-minded energy policy...ET AL AD INFINITUM.

The fact that Barack and Michelle to seem to truly be in love is very sweet, and the fact that McCain was a jerk to his first wife are nice little factors in reaffirming my opinions of them as men, but it has little to do with what policies they will enact. Many American voters may find this shocking, but policies matter more than personalities.

The Center for Responsive Politics is a great organization. I wish they had the clout to grab the public's attention and create a groundswell of support for reforming our corrupt system.

Which candidate is going to close down the Guantanamo prison?

In light of the gratuitous assault on the dying Ted Kennedy, who is not running for anything:
John McCain actually seems like a guy that it would be fun to have a beer with (unlike Bush who not only does not drink beer but is very arrogant and wants you to kiss up to him, he acts like the alpha male but he is not really one unlike McCain).

My problem with McCain is that he cheated on his first wife, by all accounts an extraordinary woman loved by all, for the shallowest of reasons. The former statuesque beauty queen was in a debilitating car crash where surgery saved her life but she came out disfigued, losing 5 full inches in height. He could not handle it (she was not the woman he married) and he started cavorting. When he met Cindy (who was 25, he was 42), he vigorously pursued her, and then a year later he married her, 5 weeks after his divorce went through.

No, I don't need no more Republican Family Values.

A few comments have already been removed for violating the WNYC posting policy. As we continue this discussion, please keep your comments civil and relevant to the discussion on the air. Thank you.

gaines
you can google both forms

Gotta remember to specify on air that it is fivethirtyeight spelled out in letters not numbers...

Hey Nate Silver, given polling you've analyzed, is Obama improving with Latino voters. Also, can Ryan Dempster stay this strong for the Cubs through October?

Ted Kennedy did a very bad thing. I don't think he murdered someone, though. There are people that arouse my pity and make me sad, by wanting to define a man's life by one horrible incident in a distinguished public life spanning almost 50 years. This is the Politics of Personal Destruction. WQe don't care about how you devoted your life to the public good, that you fought for the poor, the downtrodden, the working and middle class, the veterans, the victims of torture and human rights injustices: we don't care about all that! We will judge and condemn you based on one terrible drunken night.

the "Family Values" of the Obamas are important to us becuase they show how they treat the people closest to them - their spouses and children. If people will not honor their marriage vows - vows they made in front of the co-workers, friends, family, and God - how can we trust them to honor their campaign promises in the back rooms of Washington?

Ted Kennedy is a criminal and for the life of me can't understand why the democratic faithful love this guy.

The Chappaquiddick incident refers to the circumstances surrounding the 1969 death of Mary Jo Kopechne, a former staff member in Senator Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign. Edward Kennedy was driving a car with Kopechne as his passenger when the Senator drove off Dike Bridge. The Senator swam to safety, but Kopechne died in the car. Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was sentenced to two months in jail, suspended.

Judge James A. Boyle presided over the inquest.
Under Massachusetts law Boyle could have ordered Kennedy's arrest, but he chose not to do so.[20] District Attorney Dinis chose not to pursue Kennedy for manslaughter.