PanDEMonium: Simon Carswell’s Democratic convention diary

Trump put in place over Muslim plan

The heaviest blow landed on Donald Trump this week came when the parents of Humayun Khan, a 27-year-old Muslim American, appeared on stage on Thursday night.

Khan died fighting for the US in Iraq in 2004. His father Khizr Khan, who emigrated from the United Arab Emirates when his son was two, cut Trump down to size over his plan to build walls and ban Muslims.

"Have you even read the United States constitution?" he asked the businessman before taking out a pocket edition from his jacket. "I will gladly lend you my copy."

He went further. “Have you ever been to Arlington cemetery? Go look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the United States of America. You will see all faiths, genders and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”

The crowd rose to its feet in thunderous applause.

Spotlight on Courtmac

"Cork's dream ticket," Tuesday's Evening Echo splashed on its front page. "Courtmac regular may be US vice-president," read the subhead, revealing that Virginia senator Tim Kaine, Clinton's Irish-American vice-presidential pick, holidays regularly in Courtmacsherry, west Cork.

One of Kaine's closest Cork friends travelled to Philadelphia as a guest to watch his acceptance speech. The Irish pal, who wanted to keep a low profile, told me that Kaine would be a big win for Ireland.

The senator also presented the cup in Courtmacsherry Strand Races in July 2011. "While it is a long way from the Kentucky Derby and the boys in the Curragh, it still has the same appeal," his friend said, paraphrasing the senator's remarks at the prize-giving ceremony.

The Virginia man has his own Grand National to run now.

Quote of the day

"When there's no ceilings, the sky's the limit" – Hillary Clinton with the most positive line of a deeply pessimistic US presidential election.

Number of the day

57 – The number of minutes Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech lasted on Thursday night. It was 18 minutes shorter than Trump’s last week and 15 minutes shorter than her husband’s on Tuesday.

Big Philadelphia memory

Bill Clinton likes balloons. Tim Kaine does too. While wife Hillary embraced family and friends on the stage after her speech, Bill and Kaine had fun with the thousands of red, white and blue balloons that cascaded from the roof of the convention hall, as is the tradition in this great American political pageant. They frolicked in the balloons like toddlers in a ball pit.

As the would-be 45th president left the stage, the 42nd president continued to kick and hit balloons into the crowd in a moment of polychloroprene-inflated ecstasy. Twitter was created to immortalise these moments.