‘When they were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours.’ Gov. Tim Walz introduced himself to the Democratic National Convention last night as Kamala Harris’ running mate.
■ See his speech here.
■ The American Prospect’s Harold Meyerson (no relation): Given a tough challenge after a night of high-powered speakers, Walz “hit all the right notes.”
■ Columnist Thom Hartman: Walz’s speech exemplified the Democrats’ “brilliant” coopting of the word freedom.
■ Public Notice: Republicans have rolled out an “unintentionally hilarious attack” on Walz.
‘Decency and respect are on the ballot.’ Oprah Winfrey returned to Chicago for a surprise address to the convention.
■ Here’s the full text of her remarks. Or watch here.
■ Also: Stevie Wonder.
■ Stephen Colbert on Wonder telling Harris the crowd “I just want to say I love you”: “In person! Usually he just calls to say that. That’s huge!”
■ Saturday Night Live’s Kenan Thompson mocked the 920-page Project 2025: “Ever seen a document that could kill a small animal and democracy at the same time?”
■ Triggered by Winfrey’s speech, Donald Trump’s campaign surfaced a letter of praise she once sent him.
■ The Bulwark quotes Trump talking to a confidant: “Hillary, Joe, Kamala. It doesn’t matter. I just hate them.”
■ Columnist Rex Huppke has scripted a social media rant for Trump: “Keep enjoying your stupid, lame convention, you hateful, cheating Democrats. I and most REAL AMERICANS will not be watching, and I definitely won’t be feeling envious and throwing ketchup at my dumb running mate JD Vance.”
■ Cartoonist/columnist (cartoonumnist?) Jack Ohman: “The stench of defeat hangs over Trump.”
■ Campaigning in North Carolina, Trump called Barack Obama “nasty.”
■ ‘A pulsating rave where the ecstasy is a vision of MAGA-free America.’ Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch: “A lot will happen this fall, but right now, I wouldn’t bet against the party that’s dancing in the aisles.”
■ Three days into the convention, historian Heather Cox Richardson sees Democrats “joyfully claiming the symbols and the principles of American democracy for their own.”
■ Political analyst Simon Rosenberg: “Democrats are giving the American people permission to love their country and their neighbors again.”
■ The Guardian’s David Smith: “If elections were decided by the party conventions, the race for the White House could have been over already” …
■ … but columnist Eric Zorn says convention organizers “ought to be doing whatever is necessary … to get the main speakers to the podium so they can finish each night’s festivities as close to 10 p.m. Chicago time as possible.”
■ Speaking tonight: Former Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who says “it will be my job, in part, to stand for genuine conservatives who once populated the Republican Party.”
‘The week’s most peaceful demonstration so far.’ That’s how the Sun-Times describes thousands of antiwar protesters’ march outside the United Center yesterday.
■ Three dozen uncommitted pro-Palestinian delegates held a sit-in just outside the security zone, demanding a Palestinian American get a slot on the convention stage.
■ The Chicago-native parents of a 23-year-old held hostage by Hamas since the attack on an Israeli music festival in October pleaded from the Democratic convention stage: “Stop the despair in Gaza.”
■ Columnist and University of Chicago teacher Eman Abdelhadi: “I tweeted Chicago protesters were ‘ready’ for Harris. Then, I got the call from the FBI.”
Fact-check dreck. Wonkette perceives a “crisis … in fact-check-land.”
■ Zeteo’s Justin Baragona: “The Washington Post’s ‘embarrassing’ fact-check shows why ‘both sides’ journalism always fails.”
■ Press watcher Dan Froomkin: Fact-checkers “want to mete out their dings … comparably. And that’s impossible to do, ethically, given that one party is constantly lying and the other is not.”
■ Columnist Robert Reich: Trump “emits lies at such volume and repetition they cannot be corrected.”
■ Here’s PolitiFact on Walz’s acceptance speech last night.
He gets around. A Wisconsin guy caught carrying a gun near the Republican convention last month was arrested in Chicago after officers caught him parked near the United Center with an unloaded Glock handgun and “multiple loaded magazines.”
■ Chicago cops and the FBI are investigating reports that someone contaminated convention delegates’ buffet breakfast with maggots—or crickets, or something.
■ A Mississippi escapee charged with attempted murder was due in a Chicago courtroom today—arrested after he hid in the ceiling of a Near West Side seafood restaurant.
‘The best vaccine is the one you get.’ Your Local Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina’s put together a guide to what, who and when to get your shots.
■ Health officials trying to contain a deadly African outbreak of mpox aim to learn from the COVID-19 experience.
Corporations behaving badly. Popular Information calls out big companies—hi, Coke, Meta (Facebook/Instagram/etc.), Mastercard, DoorDash—quietly sponsoring an “anti-woke” conference headlined by a reactionary crusader against diversity initiatives.
■ Columnist Matt Stoller: The legal fight over the merger of Mariano’s parent Kroger and Jewel parent Albertsons is “getting ugly.”
■ Led in part by Illinois, the number of states taxing groceries is shrinking.
Correction. Yesterday’s Chicago Public Square bore a bad link to Barack Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Convention.
■ Here’s a better one.
A Square advertiser
