If we needed only one reason to support John Kerry, this might be it. For the first time since 1992, the Democratic Party Platform will not contain an endorsement of the death penalty. John Nichols writes:

Simply put, on the question of execution, John Kerry is a very different Democrat from Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Clinton and Gore, while surely aware that capital punishment is an ineffective and racially and economically biased vehicle for fighting crime, were willing to embrace it as a political tool. Clinton even rushed back to Arkansas during the 1992 campaign to oversee the execution of a mentally retarded inmate. With Clinton and Gore steering the party's policies, Democratic platforms endorsed capital punishment. But Clinton and Gore are no longer at the helm. And as of tonight, the party will no longer be on record as supporting the death penalty. Asked about the removal of the pro-capital punishment language, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who chairs the committee that drafted the document, explained that "it's a reflection of John Kerry."

As we've reported several times, including here , John Kerry is opposed to the death penalty for all but foeign terrorists--and that exception arose after 9-11. Nichols expands on his position, writing:

Kerry opposes the execution of juveniles, supports greater access to DNA testing for death row inmates, and argues that studies "reveal serious questions, racial bias, and deep disparities in the way the death penalty is applied." Kerry was a co-sponsor of the National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2001 and of the National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2003. "I know something about killing," Kerry says, referring to his service in Vietnam as a swift boat commander. "I don't like killing. That's just a personal belief I have."

Kerry is a former prosecutor. We have friends that worked as assistants when he was the DA in Boston. Rikki Klieman, the great criminal defense attorney and NBC legal analyst for one. She raves about Kerry as a prosecutor. She writes about him in her book, Fairy Tales Can Come True.

John Kerry has said he could never be a defense attorney. His heart lies with the prosecution. We don't mind that at all since he was one of those rare prosecutors that cared about doing justice more than his office's win/loss record.

Clinton ends with, Send Me. The crowd chants and cheers in response.

The crowd is electrifed. We knew Bill Clinton would be worth the wait, and he is! We're trying to type but we keep jumping up off our stool to cheer and clap for him. What a giant. How we miss him as President. He was a true leader. Bush is so junior by comparison.

Update: The transcripts of tonight's speeches are up here.

Update: Clinton also just showed us he can pronounce "nuclear."

This crowd is on its feet again. Tax cuts and jobs seem to be what they really care about. We think Edwards will be a big help to Kerry on the jobs issue. Clinton just moved to more cops on the street and assault weapons. We part company with him here. We don't want more police -- and we support an individual's right to bear arms under the Second Amendment. Nonetheless, this crowd loves what he's saying. We're out of here as soon as Clinton is done speaking. We'll catch up with you later. This crowd is screaming now.

Ok, that's our chronicle for today. We hope we conveyed the feeling and energy and resolve to win these delegates have brought with them to Boston. As to what we think of what it all means, we'll be writing about that tomorrow.

No parties for us tonight, we're beat!

Here's Hillary! Everyone is on their feet waiting for her to come out. She is radiant. She is going to introduce the country's last great President (her words)--in anticipation of the country's next great democratic president.

Hillary has become a polished speaker. She modulates her voice perfectly. Her cadence is timed just right. She's come a long way.

She mentions stem cell research and the crowd goes wild. By the way, our own Congresswoman Diana DeGette will be addressing the convention tomorrow at 4:45 ET--be sure to watch. She's one of the country's finest congresspersons.

One thing we are noticing, as the evening goes on, there really isn't a feeling of ABB (anyone but Bush) here so much as there is genuine enthusiasm for John Kerry and John Edwards. There's a big difference, and it's one we think will matter in November. While those on the far left side of the party find Kerry acceptable and preferable to Bush, but far from ideal, it's clear to us that this crowd of delegates have become attached to John Kerry and are cheering for him not just as a replacement for Bush, but someone they want as their leader.

By the way, there's not an empty seat in the house now. We have no idea where these people all camne from but they are sitting and listening with rapt attention and clapping.

The crowd is alive again, cheering the Reverend David Alston. Can you feel it through the TV? He just mentioned John Kerry and the whole hall is on their feet cheering. This group is ready to win. They can taste it, trust us.

The audience was just told to take their seats. Restlessness is setting in. Bloggers are wrapping up their cords and laptops and heading out. Everyone is pretty beat. We're going to hang in here. We want to feel the energy and commitment to win in November that the crowd exudes when Hillary and Bill speak.

Someone's rehashing 9-11 again on the podium now. We can't hear many of the speaker's name. For some reason, the big screen monitors are projecting the city of Boston instead of the woman speaking.

Now a 9/11 widow is speaking. Can't we look ahead instead of back? Do they have anything new to say we haven't heard over and over? Yes, we've all grieved with them, but now it's time to look to the future with optimism.

We disagree that everything has changed. That's what Bush wants us to believe. Our children will have innocence again. What a negative speech this is.

Nine women just took the stage, one of them is Hillary. Looking great in a yellow pantsuit. They are the nine women in the U.S. Senate.

You probably saw more of them than we did. The big monitors aren't working thaqt well for us. They keep showing the convention sign instead of what's going on at the podium or in the hall. The wi-fi is getting iffy--kicking us and everyone around us off-line for minutes at a time. Hint to the Republicans: Get your bloggers ethernet cables so they don't have to rely on wi-fi.

What's with all this 70's soul music? One or two songs would have been enough. If we're moving into the new century, how about some current tunes to take us there? Do we sound like we're getting cranky? We are a bit. The speeches have just been okay. No shining moments yet--not even Al Gore. At least, not for us.

The crowd is now doing "the wave." Why, we have no idea. Guess someone special is about to come out. We just went from dimmed lights as if a star was on their way to brightness. Now some state delegation to our left is screaming "Kerry, Kerry, Kerry" and "Edwards, Edwards, Edwards."

Ok, DNCC, time to pick up the pace here.

Finally...some energy. The hall is erupting. The crowd is clapping and cheering. The first star of the evening. He begins....We'll update as he progesses.

Al says, "Take it from me, every vote counts!" The crowd, including us, go wild.

CNN is here. They are photographing David Sifry of Technorati--for an on air segment. They have asked us all to turn our screens toward them --the idea being to catch us all while we are in typing mode. We're happy to comply. While we're waiting, here's a picture of Atrios, whose real name is Duncan.

Copyright 2004, TalkLeft.com. All rights reserved.

Now we're on the second National Anthem of the evening. Robyn was great a few hours ago and this one is a soulful version. Everyone is standing, whoops, we better too!

Update: This post and the photo have been updated to include copyright information. And yes, Atrios gave us permission for us to post the photo and his real name before we did it.

You are all probably watching at home on tv but in case you aren't, here we go. Music--finally. Some energy, it's been dead in here for the past hour. We just looked down and the hall is full--people are standing and dancing. The lights just dimmed so we are blogging by backlight. Lots of reporters up here in blogger alley still. We suspect by tomorrow we'll be old news. That's ok.

First speaker is from Florida. We can't hear him that weel, but we see him on the same big screen you do. We're so high up he looks like a action figure when we look down to the stage. Much easier to watch the big screen.

We can trade our press pass for a floor pass for an hour and go and mingle with the delegates. We're not ready for that yet, nothing's happened yet for them to react to.

We're in! Blogger Alley is for real. We're high up on the 7th floor directly above the stage. The floor is still pretty empty. We have scored a desktop and we're sitting next to David who is the CEO of Technorati who is blogging for CNN--and Steve Olson who is blogging on Stakeholder for the DCCC.

There's McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts stations downstairs if we get hungry. We've got our camera hooked up and our cell phone seems to be working.

Jesse and Ezra from Pandagon are here. They are just the cutest and most personable, we'd like to adopt them. Markos of Daily Kos just arrived. Jerome of My DD is here too. Howard Dean this morning said he came to our breakfast because of Jerome.

We run into Tom Burka of Opinions You Should Have every place we go--here is no exception. He's trying to find someone else using a Mac with Jaguar.

And the no longer anonymous Atrios is here! He is so handsome! And he's out --his real name is Duncan. We just exchanged a big hug. We haven't met Mrs. Atrios yet and hope we get to later.

More in a bit. The hall is about 20% full, it's going to be a long fun night.

Update: Jenny 8. Lee from the New York Times is here--she's great, so spirited. She's wearing orange fishnet stockings to match her escape hood. You can read her article about the bloggers in today's New York Times here.

The Washington Post covers the bloggers here--with a pretty nice picture of us.

We moved hotels out to the hinterland, took an express bus to Copley Plaza and in front of the Fairmont was a delegates bus. A policeman is searching bags. We asked if we could hitch a ride and showed our media pass and the nice officer said yes. We're on the bus now, waiting for the delegates to load and are coming to you via a t-mobile hot spot.

The Kennedys are staying at the Fairmont Copley. Caroline Kennedy was here this morning.

The buses have a special lane that go right into the Fleet Center. No wait. The parking lot is like a carnival, it's awesome