Random thoughts about Thursday night at the Democratic convention:
• Barack Obama did okay with his speech. I had built this up in my mind to be another "I Have A Dream" speech that would ring in our ears for decades. Or did I just buy into the media drum beat that it was 45 years to the day that Martin Luther King Jr. delivered that historic speech. Obama didn't make history although he was perfectly adequate and didn't make any gaffes. The speech felt like a State of the Union to me and I've read accounts that other people felt the same way.
• Nearly 40 million people watched on television! More than the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies and the American Idol finale. Around 20 million tuned in to watch John Kerry's speech four years ago and George W. Bush drew 27.6 million.
• I just couldn't get over the wide shots of the stadium. I heard there were lots of folks that showed up and couldn't get in so it wasn't a fluke the place was packed.
• Let's hope the folks that attended will go out and turn Colorado blue in November.
• I was impressed with the "ordinary" folks that came out and told their personal stories. These people were talking in front of 84,000 people...I get nervous standing in front of 10!
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Still More Thoughts On The Convention
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Here's my take: no matter what Obama said that night, he made history. He is the first African American to accept the presidential nomination from a major political party. Period. He had to be careful about delivering another "I have a Dream" like speech. He was already being criticized for the venue and the "temple" like setting, to presume to be another MLK would have been too much. Instead he used the speech to answer his critics on every point and address McCain on his shortcomings, which I think he did in spades. An "I have a Dream" speech would have fed into the criticism that Obama is all soaring rhetoric and no substance. Instead he delivered a lot of "red meat" as the pundits call it that the electorate was hungry for.
Post a Comment