Democratic National Convention

No big surprise at the DNC on Day 4: Obama’s acceptance speech was the story of the night (transcript).

The New York Times’ Chris Suellentrop rounds up early reactions in this aptly titled post: Well Spoken. More reax here from Andrew Sullivan, from the left and right.

Obama put energy squarely in the spotlight, as he dangled this whopper of a promise in front of Americans:

For the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.

Here’s how:

I'll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy - wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced.

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The big news at the DNC on Day 3? The Democrats formally nominated Barack Obama as their candidate for president in an historic first for America.

The National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru wraps up (scroll down) the rest:

It was the Democrats' best night so far.

Attack-dog Senator Joe Biden formally accepted the VP nomination (transcript). On energy, he declared:

Barack Obama will transform our economy by making alternative energy a genuine national priority, creating 5 million new jobs and finally freeing us from the grip of foreign oil.

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Day 2 of the DNC came to a close last night with energy issues front and center.

Hillary’s remarks hit all the right notes. TIME's headline: "Clinton Delivers for Obama." Gristmill writes: "Hillary Clinton says lots of good stuff on climate and energy."

Snippets from her speech follow (full text here, videos after the post):

We need to elect Barack Obama because we need a President…who understands that we can't solve the problems of global warming by giving windfall profits to the oil companies while ignoring opportunities to invest in new technologies that will build a green economy.

He'll transform our energy agenda by creating millions of green jobs and building a new, clean energy future.

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer gave a slashing attack on McCain’s energy policies and a rousing rallying cry for Obama in this stunner of a speech that names the "petro-dictators" as the adversary they are. That earned him rounds of applause and top mention in the Los Angeles Times and Forbes, who comments:

The 2008 Democratic National Convention kicked off yesterday with throngs of delegates descending on Denver and a firm party commitment to embrace Barack Obama’s election plank -- energy and climate policies included.

ENS parses the green details here, while the Wall Street Journal clears the air on Obama and cap-and-trade legislation: if elected, expect it to be President Obama's #1 economic priority.

As predicted, aspiring First Lady Michelle Obama and ailing Senator Ted Kennedy stole the Day 1 show with electrifying, homerun speeches, earning near-unanimous media praise. (Read the transcript of Obama's speech here and Kennedy's here. Videos of both follow the post.)

Among the other first impressions to emerge, here's one of the most prevalent: ExxonMobil, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity and the whole clean coal lie are "everywhere."