One for the ages
Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 10:49PM With the bar set ludicriously high tonight for an epic speech, Barack Obama somehow managed to exceed it by miles.
Should he win come November, this acceptence speech will be seen as the turning point in the election -- no doubt about it. It was a speech for the ages -- not necessarily for its rhetorical flourishes, but rather for its directness, clarity and persuasiveness. He put John McCain on notice tonight: I'm taking the fight to you.
He laid out the case against the Bush administration -- and by proxy John McCain -- in a way that hadn't been done at this convention, or for that matter during the campaign, and landed blow after blow with a force and blutness that had been missing from his repitoire. He even snuck in a few ad hominem attacks on McCain, questioning both his temperment and lucidness -- two tacts are are sure to come up again. In the end, a lot of it was traditional Democratic pablum, but in a year when the headwinds are solidly behind the Democrats, pablum serves well -- and it served its purpose tonight.
I suspect that the McCain people are scrapping their acceptance speech drafts and starting anew, for Obama has thrown down the gauntlet and is awaiting an answer. It will be fascinating to see how McCain responds -- if he takes Obama head on, or lets surrogates do it for him.
The speech erases what had been a lackluster convention to this point, and proves that the only surrogate that matters is the candidate himself. John McCain can't rely on others to do his bidding; he'll need to respond in kind come next week.
Reader Comments (3)
I agree that it was a fine speech, and the Dems finally got it pretty right in coordinating activities so that Obama's speech was in network prime time. I'll be curious to see what the total ratings of all stations carrying the speech will be, i.e., how many people Obama reached directly with his speech, rather than just by media synopses.
-- triton --
This guy is a socialist commie. Promises, promises, promises for things that I'm going to have to pay for. The American people are smarter than this, don't worry.
i missed an Aramis Ramirez grand slam to beathe the Phillies in order to watch Obama's speech...and it was so worth it. I was moved to tears by this speech.