DNC '08: Governor Brian Schweitzer

Update: Schweitzer was definitely the breakout star last night (sorry Mark Warner). Even though he was sandwiched between keynote speaker Warner and headline speaker Hillary Clinton, many took notice of his rousing and crowd-pleasing speech which the L.A. Times called "purely partisan red meat on a pocketbook issue".

I don't know much about Schweitzer except for an appearance (video) on Bill Maher and an article written by political author/journalist and strategist David Sirota, who's known him since 2000, when he worked for Schweitzer's first run for political office.

Sirota was impressed enough with Schweitzer that he devoted a full chapter of his book on populist politics to the charismatic new governor of Montana, whose appeal kind of reminds me of Mike Huckabee, except with a master's degree in soil science.

Additional trivia via Andrew Romano: Schweitzer wrote his script at the last minute. As Romano and many others suggest, the Democrats should give him the keynote address next time.

More reactions at Memeorandum here and here.

*****

Of all the speakers tonight, the current governor of Montana looked like he really enjoyed his time up there, talking about alternative sources of energy to replace our dependence on foreign oil.

The full transcript is incomplete, but at the end of the speech, he had everyone standing and clapping, even Bill Clinton.

Excerpt:

Four billion in tax breaks for big oil?

That’s a lot of change, but it’s not the change we need...

Even leaders in the oil industry know that Senator McCain has it wrong. We simply can’t drill our way to energy independence, even if you drilled in all of John McCain’s backyards, including the ones he can’t even remember.

That single-answer proposition is a dry well, and here’s why. America consumes 25 percent of the world’s oil, but has less than 3 percent of the reserves. You don’t need a $2 calculator to figure that one out. There just isn’t enough oil in America, on land or offshore, to meet America’s full energy needs.

Barack Obama understands the most important barrel of oil is the one you don’t use. Barack Obama’s energy strategy taps all sources and all possibilities.

Full transcript here.

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