The first speaker I watched tonight was Elizabeth Warren, Senator of Massachusetts and former Presidential candidate. She walked on stage and the crowd went wild with adoring applause. Warren, whom I never have seen get emotional, was very touched by the long standing ovation. She had tears in her eyes, and finally had to calm the crowd down after a few minutes.

The Reverend AL Sharpton came out and gave a strong speech and then introduced four men who were four of the Central Park Five, now called The Exonerated Five. They are a group of Black and Latino men wrongly convicted of raping and assaulting a white jogger in New York City in 1989. Trump, living in New York at the time, paid for a large ad in the NY Times calling for the death penalty for the men. The man speaking below is Yusef Salaam, now a NYC Councilman for Harlem.

There were a series of speakers, and I captured those that I thought important and interesting to me. Governor Gretchen Whitmer was fun, but not a particularly rousing speech.

Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican and member of the January 6th Commission, was terrific in how he talked about his strong opinion against MAGA Republicans and urged people to vote for Kamala. He said it’s about voting for our democracy.

Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta made a powerful case for Kamala and her strength and toughness. It was perfect.

Then Vice President Kamala Harris walked on to give her speech. The crowd exploded, cheering for several minutes, giddy to see her. She was clearly moved. Rather than try to characterize what she said, I offer you a link to the full transcript.

But for me, it was one of the best speeches I have ever heard. It was compassionate and angry and tough, realistic and full of hopefullness. I want to give it more thought and perhaps write about it when I’m not tired!

Here are some drawings I did, and a few quotes that jumped out at me—there were so many. This first one was of her coming out onstage.

Her final line was so wonderful.

Kamala Harris did exactly what she needed to do with this speech, and then some. She is going to be a great president.