Hard News: Awesome
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many have had enough of if not are sick to death of all that confounded gravitas, looks to me like David Lange's message has finally found a genuinely understanding US ear.
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When it comes to the gravitas thing, I can only quote Andrew Sullivan's take on Biden's convention speech:
The thing that surprised me most? It was not a slash and burn attack on McCain or even Bush. Can you believe he didn't even mention Dick Cheney? The attack dog didn't get personal and didn't lay out the strongest case against the Bush administration's heir. While the McCain Republicans have launched brutal, personal and callow attacks on Obama's integrity, sincerity, and patriotism, the Obama Democrats have treated McCain with respect and deference - more respect and deference than his nasty, petty, little campaign deserves.
When it comes to the qualities you want from someone with their finger on the button, I don't think standing up at Saddleback and blustering about following Al Quaeda to "the gates of hell" screams sober and considered grown-up to me. More like he's auditioning for a film called 'The 70 Year-Old Frat Boy'.
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Craig wrote:
You mean an Obama Administration won't see the First Lady showing up to state dinners wearing nothing but an Angela Davis afro wig and a pimped out bling-bling encrusted AK-47? Bugger...
Couldn't bear to see you weep, Craig, so just for you [[http://www.flickr.com/photos/nzlemming/2807421248/|here's a glimpse]
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Or even here's a glimpse
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Can I swear on here?
Cause I gotta say - that was a fucking great speech Obama. I may not like your protectionist tendency but that was so well judged, particularly the choice the words of MLK to use. It even laid out a pretty clear (although tough to deliver) policy intent.
Impressed.
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Impressed.
The CNN pundits are falling over themselves to praise it -- and to make note that Obama took on every point the Republicans will use against him.
Like you, I could do without the economic nationalism, but the speech lived up to the OTT event production.
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Impressed.
Seconded.
GOP ghoul Alex Castellanos just now on CNN: "Whomever didn't get picked to be McCain's VP today is a lucky Republican." Heh.
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His covering off the attack bases and the lets give up the charade that "people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism" was really well played.
I chose to read the transcript first so as not to get suckered by his silver tongue =)
Watching it now and its even better in the delivery -
It's also worth noting that the Republicans are still trying to fill a venue six or seven times smaller for McCain's acceptance speech next week.
You'd have to expect that Obama's going to have a superb ground game in November.
Gallup had the convention bounce at six points (48-42) before the speech.
The CNN commentators stopped absolutely wetting their pants over the speech long enough for Blitzer to read out the Republican first response, which was entirely a personal attack on Obama. It didn't sound good.
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His covering off the attack bases and the lets give up the charade that "people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism" was really well played.
I actually clapped when he said that. It's so strong because it appeals to anyone's better nature.
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Andrew Sullivan kinda liked it:
It was a deeply substantive speech, full of policy detail, full of people other than the candidate, centered overwhelmingly on domestic economic anxiety. It was a liberal speech, more unabashedly, unashamedly liberal than any Democratic acceptance speech since the great era of American liberalism. But it made the case for that liberalism - in the context of the decline of the American dream, and the rise of cynicism and the collapse of cultural unity. His ability to portray that liberalism as a patriotic, unifying, ennobling tradition makes him the most lethal and remarkable Democratic figure since John F Kennedy.
What he didn't do was give an airy, abstract, dreamy confection of rhetoric. The McCain campaign set Obama up as a celebrity airhead, a Paris Hilton of wealth and elitism. And he let them portray him that way, and let them over-reach, and let them punch him again and again ... and then he turned around and destroyed them. If the Rove Republicans thought they were playing with a patsy, they just got a reality check.|
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I actually clapped when he said that. It's so strong because it appeals to anyone's better nature.
You would say that though, you bloody commie.
=P
At least McCain put out a decent enough "well done" ad in advance of the speech. -
Like you, I could do without the economic nationalism, but the speech lived up to the OTT event production.
Yes, but these conventions are OTT theatre (like a Kylie Minogue concert without the Gaultier hot pants) -- you're talking about an event designed with one eye on the hardest of hardcore party faithful on the floor, and the other on how it's going to play on television.
But, once more, Obama scores points of talking like a grown-up. And while it makes good chunks of the commentariat confused, I'm pleased that Obama's speech, like Biden's (more surprisingly) made clear distinctions with - and critiques of - the Reopublicans without rhetorical bomb-heaving. Unlike McCain, Obama actually walks the talk about treating his opponents with civility and respect. He's shown real strength of character -- and dare I say it Rex, gravitas -- in not responding in kind to the kind of toxic waste the Republicans would be ashamed of, if they weren't utterly beyond decent human emotions like shame.
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Could someone please point me to a link for video of the speech? Cannae find any..
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Ta Gareth...
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Fantastic speech... at least on paper. I dunno, is it just me, or was the delivery a little stiff? He flubbed a few laugh lines by churning through them at the same measured pace (e.g. "eight is enough"), and the final sentences didn't sound like an ending - I thought he'd skipped a paragraph. He just didn't have quite the same awesome, bouncy energy that he had four years ago. All those "thank yous" at the beginning, too. No ready-made quip like Bill "I love this! But we've got work to do" Clinton.
Could it be (gasp) that the poor man was nervous (huge crowd, huge event) or a little frightened (touch wood, hand on privates as Giovanni suggests, and let's just not think too hard about where all those brilliant speeches got MLK)?
Or was he just going for a rock-steady statesmanlike vibe, hence the more metronomic than usual delivery?
Tooling around the usual places on the internet I see lots of raving enthusiasm, including plenty of people who said the speech made them cry. Hmm. The only bit that brought tears to my eyes was seeing his lovely daughters up on stage at the end, in a blizzard of confetti, and framed by the pillars of what, if you sort of squinted, looked like the White House.
I liked that. A lot. The Hillary-mad crazy old ladies (and you know some of my best friends are Hillary-mad crazy old ladies) that I heard on the radio earlier today insisting they wouldn't vote for Obama because he'd stolen the nomination from their woman candidate -- maybe they could meditate on the image of two young black girls growing up in the White House, with their dad as president of the gosh-darn USA? It certainly cheers me up!
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And by "cheers me up" I mean "rocks my world."
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It didn't sound good.
Because he took those slams and turned them 180 degrees. Each time the Republicans try such from hereon in it belittles the attacker rather than the attack.
I was a great speech, the sort that McCain, even in his rare not-completely-wooden moments couldn't come within a mile of.
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attacker rather than the attack
attacked..bah!
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Oh, and WTF was that music about??
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Could it be (gasp) that the poor man was nervous
The Onion agrees.
I didn't read the speech, but I thought the delivery was excellent. Not Michelle Obama good, but then again by now we got used to his style a bit, and I think he might have consciously kept it in check to a certain degree.
The content was simply stunning. It tied into last night's biographical backgrounder, highlighting why Biden was chosen for the role; it countered and pre-empted the entire armory of Republican attacks; and was ferocious against McCain. When he barked "enough" I held my breath a little.
Or was he just going for a rock-steady statesmanlike vibe
All the journos there, seasoned campaigners that they are, were blown away. One even said that he seemed physically larger than before. Gasp!
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The Huff Post link is being ornery. Any others?
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Oh, and WTF was that music about??
Which piece exactly? The country and western finale?
I thought The Love Train last night was a strange choice.
But Stevie Wonder was superb and ditto will.i.am earlier in the evening. -
Or was he just going for a rock-steady statesmanlike vibe, hence the more metronomic than usual delivery?
Well, he didn't sound like 1) an out-of-touch elitist fawned over by his celebrity pals, 2) a slick but hollow preacherman, or 3) an Islamofascist-Marxist Manchurian Candidate. Mission accomplished!
Or he might have been nervous - and I think anyone could be forgiven for flubbing a line or two in that particular environment.
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