Kicking Castro And Taking Names

Here's some of the amazing speeches at Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday.  San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro became the first Latino to give a convention keynote address:



Michelle Obama talked about family, and the middle class in her speech praising her husband and making the kitchen table pitch for four more years:



More speeches below the jump.

Cory Booker gave a barn burner on elections and what they mean:




Lilly Ledbetter, the woman who the 2009 Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was named after when the Supreme Court determined in early 2008 that companies were under no real legal pressure to pay women the same as men, gave a short but powerful speech.



Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland gave a blistering defense of the American worker as he savaged Mitt Romney in a strong attack speech:



And Tammy Duckworth made the case that one party is clearly better when it comes to concerns about veterans and our troops.



But the speech of the night was Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, who made the case that you didn't hear anything at the RNC about Mitt Romney's days preceding Patrick as that state's governor  for a reason, and that's because Romney did a lousy job.



The transcript, in part:

In Massachusetts, we know Mitt Romney. By the time he left office, Massachusetts was 47th in the nation in job creation—during better economic times—and household income in our state was declining. He cut education deeper than anywhere else in America. Roads and bridges were crumbling. Business taxes were up, and business confidence was down. Our clean energy potential was stalled. And we had a structural budget deficit. Mitt Romney talks a lot about all the things he's fixed. I can tell you that Massachusetts wasn't one of them. He's a fine fellow and a great salesman, but as governor he was more interested in having the job than doing it.

When I came to office, we set out on a different course: investing in ourselves and our future. And today Massachusetts leads the nation in economic competitiveness, student achievement, health care coverage, life sciences and biotech, energy efficiency and veterans' services. Today, with the help of the Obama administration, we are rebuilding our roads and bridges and expanding broadband access. Today we're out of the deficit hole Mr. Romney left, and we've achieved the highest bond rating in our history. Today—with labor at the table—we've made the reforms in our pension and benefits systems, our schools, our transportation system and more that Mr. Romney only talked about. And today in Massachusetts, you can also marry whomever you love. We have much more still to do. But we are on a better track because we placed our faith not in trickle-down fantasies and divisive rhetoric but in our values and common sense.

The same choice faces the nation today. All that today's Republicans are saying is that if we just shrink government, cut taxes, crush unions and wait, all will be well. Never mind that those are the very policies that got us into recession to begin with! Never mind that not one of the governors who preached that gospel in Tampa last week has the results to show for it. But we Democrats owe America more than a strong argument for what we are against. We need to be just as strong about what we are for.

Amen to that, Governor.  Patrick clearly made the best case for "Why you should be a Democrat" that I've heard in a long time.  Here's to more of that, folks.