The fact that the Democratic Party, the party of slavery and civil war, has nominated an African-American is great news.
The fact that the American people will seriously consider electing this bright man with his awesome family is even better news. This is a great moment for America.
Sadly, the candidate and his speech did not rise to the moment, though he had the talent to do so.
In part he was betrayed by the setting. The “stadium stunt” might have looked good for one evening, but this was a moment for history and it was far too rock concert for a history making moment. Somebody stripped their candidate of dignity by surrounding him in the program with losing presidential candidates and aging rock stars.
Obama is a dignified man, but this was a speech in a football stadium.
Technology makes this the era of the repeat viewing and this speech is not worth playing and replaying. It was built for one night and for one night it might work well, but it was too airy and too angry to last.
The text is full of proposals without details. Obama is a conventional liberal, the kind that usually lose in the United States, though he tried to be more appealing by offering positions that, as formulated, could offend few. Obama is for guns, but not for bad guns. He wants better education and higher standards. He loved his mother and America. There was no mention about his feelings regarding apple pie.
This speech was dominated by promises nobody could keep with only the hope that the Olympian Obama could do the impossible by the force of saying it can be so.
The most substance and passion was in the attacks on McCain. There is less hope and change in the text, which was necessary, but the dark picture of last eight years is disproportionate to the reality.
In the end, I think this speech will end up leaving a bad aftertaste for many people the way the Star Wars sequels felt the morning after viewing. Like the films, it was loud, up to date, and fun, but it also suffered from hack writers, weird supporting characters (Biden!), and too great a sense of its own importance.
However much fun you had in the theater that night, soon, all too soon in most cases, you felt manipulated and worried that there was not more there there. This Obama speech will turn on most viewers the same way. Fireworks. Hooplah. Whatever.
McCain made Obama the “celebrity candidate” and Obama got angry. He lashed back tonight, a major mistake. The vice-president attacks, but the presidential candidate is above it all. Compare the kind advert that McCain played tonight praising Obama for making history with the red-meat rhetoric Obama used on McCain.
It was beneath Senator Obama and did not elevate him or effectively tear down McCain. I predict that McCain will save his tough rhetoric for terrorists and dismiss Obama gently. Obama should have treated McCain with kindness like a father a bit past his time.
Will Obama win?
He should because it is a Democratic year, but this speech and this convention will have been of little help in doing so.