Day 1 from the DNC: "Hey, It's Not So Bad to Still Be Ignored, Women of America!"

If you think the Chinese were master propagandists in ignoring the obvious during the just-completed Olympic Games, then the Democatic Party last night has to be considered even more impressive.

The political spin started with four women being proclaimed masters of the convention proceedings. The underlying message to supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton is that Sen. Barack Obama and the party leadership want to show you that women still have it real good -- even if they've been denied one of their own as a potential president of the United States of America.

Would African-Americans have been satisfied with something like that if a candidate who looked like them had been denied the nomination? Of course not. So why are women considered stupid enough to accept these shenanigans?

The worst of it was Michelle Obama's speech. It was obvious that she and her strong opinions had been sweated out of her since her remarks in the primary campaign about being proud of America for the first time. The poor woman was made into a walking talking flagpole, repeatedly stating her love for America, children, puppies, apple pie, motherhood, sisterhood, neighborhoood, wifehood and anything 'hood that Republicans could not use for fodder at their convention next week.

The high monent of last night -- the tribute to the great Sen. Ted Kennedy and his subseuquent appearance and remarks -- was offset by former President Jimmy Carter's rewriting of history in the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina and the city of New Orleans.
Carter blamed the Bush administration for all the bad there. Yes, the administration has a lot of blame to take for its grossly inadequate response and the president's initial flyover like a motorist rubbernecking by an accident.

But it was Democrats who controlled New Orleans in the critical decades and years before Katrina hit in Sept. 2005. They damn well knew the levies were inadequate. Yet most of the fiscal pork they brought home went into more immediate political rewards that would ensure incumbency. One big appropriation went to a Jazz Hall of Fame.

The real problem in communication in New Orleans was between a Democratic mayor and a Democratic governor. If they couldn't get their act together nearest the disaster, then Washington was simply going to err in the quickness of its response. And it did, big time.

Carter, however, did not share this truth Monday night. While he has an impressive post-presidential record on reaching out to people of this nation and the world, he also is the man who certified Hugo Chavez's re-election as president of Venezuela despite opposition contentions of mass fraud. Yes, no one is perfect. But Carter's platform to speak on New Orleans before a world audience was not credible.

And that was real theme of the first night of Democratic National Convention: a lack of credibility. The obvious was ignored in favor of political spin. Women -- who do most of the voting in this nation -- were again treated as if they're stupid enough to fall for these shenanigans.

They're not. And the Obama campaign may well discover that truth in November.