For the past two days, I have been watching the Democratic National Convention with great interest. The excitement is so much different from watching UMNO’s convention back in Malaysia.

On the first day, Bill Clinton was up. I think the thing best remembered about his yesterday speech is this:

On the other hand, the Republicans in Washington believe that America should be run by the "right" people -- their people -- in a world in which America acts unilaterally when we can and cooperates when we have to.

I like it when he said Republicans want America to be run by the right people - their people. And somehow, it rings true for Malaysia if the words American, Washington and and Republicans are switched to appropriate words like UMNO and such.

And:

During the Vietnam War, many young men, including the current president, the vice president and me, could have gone to Vietnam and didn't. John Kerry came from a privileged background. He could have avoided going, too. But instead he said, "Send me."

Al Gore was great too. He, as expected talked about the environment and I think he almost mentioned eco-terrorism.

All in all, I would say that the environment received sufficient attention.

Today, it was more about medicare.

But the spotlight, in my opinion was on Barack Obama, the one person stood up on the podium not by reputation but by charisma. He is currently a senatorial candidate for the state of Illinois.

Barack Obama is oratorically great; his speech was simply inspiring. Unlike all the other speakers so far, he was probably the only one that is not widely known unlike Bill Clinton or Al Gore. Despite that, he managed to rouse the crowd in a way Howard Dean did once. Though Howard Dean, which gave his own speech today, stirred the crowd in the crudest but effective way many months ago, Obama excited the delegates with his coolness in expressing his words.

I bet tomorrow papers are going to talk about Obama a lot. If it were up to me, I would declare Obama as the best speaker so far for the past two days.