It was the good kind of history last night, as Hillary Clinton became the first woman in American history to accept a major party's presidential nomination.
But damn it's tough following back-to-back nights of speechifying by the Obamas. In contrast, Clinton's 55-minute remarks on her background, qualifications, policies—and also the hard truths of Donald Trump's unfitness for the position—got praise, but much of it was tepid praise. Money line:“A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man you can trust with nuclear weapons."
Nice, NY Post.
How Hillary blew her big moment: https://t.co/6D0f5pMjzwpic.twitter.com/ptSyp1ZCbj
— New York Post (@nypost) July 29, 2016
And though the roaring crowd at the Wells Fargo Center appeared much more in agreement than it did in the earlier days of the DNC, don't for a moment suspect that all Bernie Sanders delegates are on board. Oregon delegates walked out again last night. Here's one of them explaining why.
Bernie delegate who walked out of Clinton's speech struggles to answer: "is there a point where you let this go?"pic.twitter.com/RO5Wp1tc8m
— Emily Atkin (@emorwee) July 29, 2016
Other side of the aisle: Never mind press credentials, the Trump/Pence campaign is now refusing to allow Washington Post reporters to be even in the public seating area of rallies.
Also: Guaranteeing a President Trump will kill Roe v Wade.
LOCAL STUFF: In case you missed it, the state says that Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith owes it nearly $37,000 in back taxes and fines, leading to garnishments of her paycheck. Smith tells the Mercury the state has made an error, and had been sending notices to an old address.
More than a month after we reported the city was planning to put homeless campers on a plot of land containing contaminated soil, other outlets are on the story. Welcome, y'all. The latest is that the Mayor's office is now planning to pay $55,000 to clear that nasty dirt off the Kalbrenner Property, adjacent to the Springwater Corridor. Up to 100 people could stay there.
The O's got an interesting finding: This could be the first time in more than a century that all five of Portland's city council members live on the west side of the Willamette. That's after Commissioner Nick Fish recently sold his Grant Park home and moved to Goose Hollow. Fish says the move doesn't matter. "I lived on the eastside for 20 years, and I'm an eastside person."
Lastly, a series of "ugly threats of physical violence and death" in the wake of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation have the governor's office on high alert. Gov. Kate Brown has stepped up her security detail as a result.
Get thee to a river. It's gonna be hotttt.
